Americus coffee company celebrates 20 years

AMERICUS — Cafe Campesino, an organic and fair trade coffee company, will celebrate 20 years of business on Friday and Saturday. The event is open to the public following registration on the company’s website.

The weekend celebration will feature music, food, drinks and especially coffee. Interested persons can also register for a tour of Koinonia Farm, and Cafe Campesino is hosting a “reunion” for Habitat for Humanity volunteers.

Events include a panel discussion with coffee producers, coffee tastings and a latte art class. Evening guests will enjoy live music and local food. The music and food events on Friday and Saturday are free and open to the public, but registration is required. Farm tour tickets are $25 a person, and the Habitat for Humanity reunion will cost $50 per person or $20 for children. All events must be registered for separately at www.cafecampesino20.com.

Cafe Campesino serves specialty coffee in a shrinking market. The company utilized relationships with farmer-owned cooperatives around the world and a collaborative approach to business to make Cafe Campesino “a model for what international business can and should be.”

“We work to create win-wins across the supply chain,” Cafe Campesino CEO Tripp Pomeroy said. “You don’t have to take advantage of people in order to be successful. We would not be able to sustain our business model if our producer partners and customers didn’t also believe in their ability to do good in the world. We want to celebrate that this weekend.”

The Friday festivities will begin at 5 p.m. at Cafe Campesino’s Coffee House, located at 134 W. Lamar St. in Americus. Music will be provided by Athens-based band Pickled Holler, and guests can enjoy food and drink samples.

From 9:30-11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Cafe Campesino’s education coordinator Hannah Mercer will lead a class in latte art at the company’s Specialty Coffee Association Premier Training Center at 725 Millard Fuller Blvd. The class will cost $20. Also on Saturday will be the Koinonia farm tour and lunch and the Habitat for Humanity reunion. The farm tour will be from 11 a.m-2 p.m. The Habitat reunion will be from noon-2:30 p.m. More information for each event is available on the company’s website.

Evening events on Saturday will be held at the Cafe Campesino roasting facility, located at 725 Millard Fuller Blvd. An assortment of local musicians, food, and drink purveyors will lead the Saturday celebration that will take place from 5-10 p.m.

Founded in 1998 after a meeting with a coffee farmer during a Habitat for Humanity trip to Guatemala, Cafe Campesino is a certified BCorp. that sources 100 percent of its coffees from farmer-owned cooperatives. All of Cafe Campesino’s coffees are fair trade, shade-grown and certified organic.

More information about Cafe Campesino can be found at www.cafecampesino.com.

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