Your Coffee, Curbside! ?❤️

We are OPEN for take-out orders, and now – to serve you better – we’re offering our coffee, curbside! ?

For curbside delivery…

Step 1: Give us a ring at (734) 929-6060.
Step 2: Tell us your order; we’ll let you know when it’ll be ready.
Step 3: Call us when you arrive with a description of your vehicle, and we’ll be out in a jiffy!
Step 4: Enjoy your daily cup o’ joe!

 

We are so grateful for your ongoing support, and look forward to serving you in our cozy cafe in the near future. ❤️

We are Open and Prepared: A Letter to Our Guests from Zingerman’s Coffee Company

Updated 6/5/2020

A Note About COVID-19

 

As you may already know, Governor Whitmer is allowing restaurants to reopen to the public starting Monday, June 8.  Our highest priority is your safety and our staff’s safety. To that end, we have a few guidelines for enjoying our cafe space starting on Monday June 8th: 

• We welcome parties no larger than 4 folks to dine-in.
• If you anticipate your stay exceeding 30 minutes, please enjoy your coffee (and our WiFi!) from our patio or your vehicle.
• Please continue to wear a mask while in line (we have one for you if you’re without!), and maintain social distance in line (we’ll have markers to help with that) and at our tables.
• Please don’t move tables or chairs – they are set up intentionally!

• In observance of the state order, our dining area is at 50% capacity; tables and chairs are distanced accordingly
• Our staff sanitizes surfaces every hour
• Bathrooms are inspected and sanitized every hour
• To-go cups and containers are continuing to be used in place of dish ware or silverware
• Our staff will continue to wear masks and gloves while serving you

THANK YOU in advance for helping uskeep a good thing goin’, safely. ❤️ Not ready to chill in our cafe? No worries! We are still offering curbside delivery, contact-free pick-up, and home delivery!

Peruvian Coffee From Café Femenino

Female farmers cooperative offers up superb coffee
Ari Weinzweig, CEO & Co-Founder of Zingerman’s 

 

Back in 2004, Isabel Uriarte Latorre co-founded Café Femenino, an organization dedicated to empowering women on the front lines of the coffee industry. Very much like the folks at Ziba in Afghanistan that I wrote about earlier this year, she’s built the business to support women—financially, spiritually, and socially—in the work world. The folks at Café Femenino share that,

Women in remote and rural coffee communities face a host of challenges that keep them trapped in poverty. Many of these isolated women live in male-dominated societies and have very little financial control or decision-making power. Four-hundred-sixty-four women farmers in northern Peru decided to change this dynamic by separating their coffee production from the men’s. At that moment, for the first time, this group of women created their own product and income . . . to support social justice and empowerment for women coffee producers worldwide. 

Erlita’s farm is near the village of Nueva York, a small coffee community in the Amazonas region of northern Peru, east of the Andes Mountains. (Intriguingly, there’s also a town Peru, New York, in the far northeast corner of New York state.) The Amazonas is a high-elevation area, typically 5,700 to 6,500 feet above sea level—ideal for high-quality Arabica coffee trees.

Does the work of Café Femenino make a difference? Steve Mangigian, managing partner at the Coffee Company made the trip down to Peru last summer. He quickly offered that, “the dynamic is completely different than traditional male-run farms.” Every article I’ve read about them details outstanding results: increased local recognition of the work the women are doing, both in the fields and on the home front; a reduction in abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual); an increase in income; more men participating in child care and housework, and upswing in school attendance among local girls. It’s hard to argue against any of that! In addition, because the female coffee producers in the area now have the potential to get a better price for their coffee, many men are signing the deeds of their land over to their wives so their coffee will be eligible for Cafe Femenino designation.

Of course, the key question is, how does the coffee taste? Steve Mangigian is particularly high on Erlita’s beans: “This coffee has so many delicious layers! On first sip, it has a deep fruitiness that reminds us of plum. It also has a rich, toffee-like sweetness and a full, creamy body.” I say, it’s pretty darned tasty! Darker than last month’s Peruvian Peaberry. Smooth, a bit of dark chocolate, maybe even like a piece of toasted Country Miche bread from the Bakehouse. The coffee has a surprisingly clean finish and modestly full mouthfeel. All the brew methods have been good, but I’m stuck on the smoothest flavor of the bunch, which I found to be Chemex.

Sip some of this great new coffee and nibble on a Bakehouse cookie—as of this month all of them are even better than ever because they’re made with freshly milled whole grain from Ferris Organic Farms in Eaton Rapids at the Bakehouse. Erlita’s Lot is available at the Coffee Company, Next Door Café, and at the Roadhouse.

Excerpt from Ari’s weekly Top 5 E-Newsletter. To stay in-the-know about things that Ari is excited about in the Zingerman’s family, sign up here!