Muggswigz Employees Make Charitable Donation to Local Organization

This 2021 year marks yet another year for Muggswigz with its Employee Charitable Donation Program. Throughout the year, our participatin baristas donate to our Charitable Donation Program. It is here that an amount of their choice is pooled into a sum that will be donated to a charity at the year's end. This year, our baristas donated $5,000 to a local organization, En-rich-ment. 

     En-richment was started in 2012, and since then, has provided free education in art, music, gardening, drumline, theatre, voice, etc. to underserved urban youth. Classes are also providing education in wellness and healthy lifestyle as well as performances in community events. This is the fourth year in a row that Muggswigz employees have participated in  their Charitable Donation Program. Last year, they donated $3,750 to 'Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation', a foundation helping to fight childhood cancer. Participating employees contribute their choice of dollar amount every pay period and the company contributes a little more than 10% match. To learn more about En-rich-ment, or make your own contribution, follow the link  www.en-rich-ment.org 

 

Ethiopia Natural Abera Ddole (organic)

We have a new coffee arrival to hit our stores, the Ethiopia Natural Abera Ddole (organic). This coffee is roasted more medium  to bring out notes of strawberry with pecan and kiwi. This coffee hails from Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia,  which is known  for a wide variety of heirloom varieties. A lot of the harvesting is done from small garden plots from the backyards of residents and also wild grown forest coffee. There are about 6,000 to 10,000 varieties of coffee that grow in the highlands of Ethiopia, also known as the birthplace of coffee. This arabica coffee in particular, is a natural processed coffee, having been dried on raised beds.

It can be difficult to trace the coffee in Ethiopia exactly, as most Ethiopian coffees are only traceable to the washing level station. Here, farmers, whose farms are on average, small, ranging from 1/5 to 1/8 of an acre, bring their cherries by weight and are paid at a market rate. Following this, the coffees continue on to be processed without record of which lot or whose harvest they were from. 

 

Costa Rica Coffee Coasts to Canton

We have recently unveiled a new Coffee from our roaster to the retail shelves and coffee cups of Canton, Costa Rica Finca San Callentano. The Coffee was discovered by Alex Haas, Muggswigz President, on a trip to Costa Rica.  He visited many farms in Costa Rica, but the one that stood out was a farm owned and run by Diego Arbarca. Arbarca got the land from his father in Tarrazu. Arbarca farmed the land, producing coffee plants.  As his crops increase, he has begun to experiment with his coffee as well as continue quality control.  While he usually processes his coffee using the washed method, this coffee that Muggswigz has secured is 100% Red Cataui Arabica and naturally processed, giving the coffee more fruity and edgy flavors, including notes of cacao nibs, strawberry, and lime.

Zero Waste Initiative

     As a company, we have put our efforts in making our guests happy with professional and skillful service, specialty coffee drinks, and baked goods and syrups made from scratch with natural ingredients. We have also included the earth in our aim to please. Last year we launched our 'Zero Waste Initiative'  on Earth Day 2020, where we donated all of our sales towards our effort to go green. We aim to be economically aware of our impact on the Earth and strive to reduce our waste as we run our business. This past year, we made more strides in that direction. We began using uncooked linguine noodles in place of wooden stirrers for guest use. We also have long metal spoons available for stirrers with accompanying 'clean' and 'used' containers to place the spoons so as not to contaminate the utensils. We purchased large pails for our baked goods that are not past their best by dates as opposed to throwing them in the trash. We are composting our spent/used coffee grounds and using them in our Wildflower Garden across the street from our Downtown Canton location, creating a lovely green space in Canton. We have increased our use of tongs instead of wax paper and disposable gloves when serving baked goods. When available we have continued to recycle our milk jugs , plastics, and cardboard materials. 

 

 

Colombia La Suiza

     In Huila Columbia, a Finca, or farm, is owned  by a man named Hector Arcadio Zuniga, who lives there with his wife, two sons, and daughter. He has been producing coffee for 25 years, as he is a second generation coffee farmer.  Hector and  his workers not only grow the coffee on their 44 hectare farm, but also process it on their own land, instead of sending the crop to a processing site. Hector processes his crop using the patio and solar machines,, so he uses the sun and mechanical drying (when the sun is unavailable). Each year, hector's farm produces 2,100 bags from his harvest. He says, "All of us are always working toward the same goal which is to offer you all the best cup. Just taste it."

 

     This coffee is washed process coffee, grown in an altitude of 1630-1670 masl. The plant species is Arabica with varietals of Columbia and Castilo. The tasting notes are cornbread with fruit cocktail and lime.