Kabum Coffee comes to town

If compassion were a flavor, it might taste something like Kabum Coffee. Sisters residents can now enjoy this new, high-grade, east African coffee-with-a-cause at Sisters Coffee Company, knowing that their own community had a hand in bringing it to market.

"We are really, really excited about Kabum," Justin Durham, marketing manager for Sisters Coffee Company, told The Nugget this week. "It was always a really compelling story, and we're pleased and excited about the quality of this first crop."

The Kabum story dates back to eight years ago when a series of volunteer teams, led by Pastor Tim Kizziar, began building a relationship with the villagers of Kapchorwa. Teams drilled a well to provide clean water and addressed medical needs. Sisters residents continue to sponsor the feeding and education of hundreds of Kapchorwan children.

Kabum was a way to offer an economical hand up by putting an end to the exploitation of area coffee farmers. And it just so happened that the region's elevation and climate yield the ideal growing conditions for quality Arabica beans.

"They're grown at between 1,500 and 1,900 meters up the western slopes of Mt. Elgon," said Durham. "The higher beans are grown, the slower they are to mature. The slower they are to mature, the more bean density you get. They're not only really resistant to disease and weather variables; they're also very very consistent in flavor."

Durham describes Kabum's flavor as having vibrant acidity with chocolate and nut tones and an easy, clean finish. "It's distinct from a lot of our other coffees, typical of east African."

Kabum created their own criteria to supersede "Direct Trade," "Fair Trade," and "Farmer Co-op" designations. The mission of their "True Trade" distinction is to return the vast majority of profits back to individual growers. They also administer micro-loans, so individual farmers can own their own land and equipment, further reducing their exploitation.

Of Kabum's mission and back-story, Durham said, "It's everything. It's what cultivates our passion to go out and get this coffee in everyone's hands."

Under the Sisters Coffee label, the freshly roasted beans are making their way onto shelves in select Whole Foods stores, Roth's Fresh Markets in Salem, and nationwide through the Sisters Coffee website.

A desire to cultivate a few unique, long-lasting, sustainable relationships with farmers led Sisters Coffee to partner with a small family estate in Guatemala first. That farmer is expected to visit Sisters later this summer.

Kabum is special, said Durham, because "our customers and our friends have been the ones to bring this coffee to us."

The Pearl District store in Portland saw its busiest day recently when it celebrated the release of Kabum with a performance by the band "Elliott." Janet Storton displayed Ugandan quilts from her Sisters of the Heart ministry.

Plans for a "Kabum Night" celebration at the Sisters store will be announced soon.

More information about Kabum is available online at http://www.kabum.org.