Mariposa Coffee Roastery

We’re pleased to announce that all of our coffee is packaged in fully compostable bags!

In the past, we used biodegradable bags for custom orders but had difficulty finding ones with one-way degassing valves (for keeping coffee fresh). Our search ended when we stumbled across biotre film bags that possess the one-way degassing valves. Apparently, it took PBi over two years to develop these bags and they just debuted them at the SCAA this in April. You can read more about them, here.

[photo credit: PBi]

Social justice and sustainability are important to us as individuals, so when we hear of these bags, we didn’t hesitate at the thought of switching to this method of packaging. As it stands, Mariposa is the only roastery in Oklahoma that packages their coffee in biodegradable packaging and we are really glad that we are different in that regards, but we do hope to have other coffee roasteries join us in our fight for environmental sustainability! Anyway, when you purchase our coffee you can rest assured that your purchase is going toward many wholesome causes!

One of Mariposa’s passions is building relationships with others in the coffee industry and we’re debuting our very first post about another cafe, Birch Coffee. We had the opportunity to help some friends move up to NYC a couple weeks ago and went on a mini-tour-de-cafe! While many of the coffee houses and local roasteries were wonderful, we were particularly impressed with Birch Coffee’s Iced Coffee!

photo credit: K.E.W

Iced coffees are often served with cream and sugar, but we always like ours black so we can get a better grasp of a particular bean’s taste. Anyway,  Birch’s iced coffee (without any additions) was a smooth-creamy blend that leaves a super sweet finish on the palate!

We spoke with Jeremy of Birch and discovered that they’ve created a special blend for their iced coffees and we think that may be what has achieved such a stellar taste profile.  If you’re headed to the Big Apple, take some time and pay them a visit.

If you’re in the NYC area, they sell their iced coffee by the jug and deliver them!!!

photo credit: birch coffee website

Many studies from leading institutions such as, Harvard School of Public Health, American Association for Cancer Research,  and MAYO clinic suggest that coffee can actually GOOD for you.

Yep– you read that right, there are many positive associations that have been linked to moderate coffee consumption. In the latest edition of Coffee Talk, Rachel Rogers summarizes the top 10 reasons and gives supporting studies for each reason. We thought this would be interesting information to pass along…

Top 10 Reasons Why Coffee is Good for You (by: Rachel Rogers)
Myths about food and health are end­less, includ­ing those about cof­fee. “There is cer­tainly much more good news than bad news, in terms of cof­fee and health,” stated nutri­tion and epi­demi­ol­ogy pro­fes­sor, Frank Hu, from the Harvard School of Public Health. Coffee expert, Forrest Graves, of JumpinGoat Coffee Roasters elab­o­rates on the sub­ject of cof­fee and health, “I see a very small per­cent­age of peo­ple that have neg­a­tive con­cerns, but some­times I do hear con­cerns over caf­feine, calo­ries or acid­ity. The good news is that each of those con­cerns is eas­ily mit­i­gated. Few peo­ple real­ize that a 6 oz. cup of cof­fee with­out sugar or cream con­tains only 7 calo­ries. There are also cof­fees that are nat­u­rally low in acid­ity and non-chlorinated decaf cof­fees which can be approx­i­mately 98% decaf­feinated with absolutely no notice­able dif­fer­ence in taste.” Certainly, the biggest myth of all con­tin­ues to be that cof­fee has no health ben­e­fits what­so­ever. Check out the ‘Top 10 Reasons’ below to debunk this colos­sal myth.

Top Ten Reasons why cof­fee is GOOD for you

1. Lowers risk for skin and breast can­cer. According to Robert J. Davis, PhD, author of Coffee is Good for You, fla­vanoids in caf­feine have been found to inhibit the for­ma­tion of UVB-induced tumors. Furthermore, the American Association for Cancer Research ref­er­enced stud­ies which exam­ined the risks of basal cell car­ci­noma, squa­mous cell car­ci­noma and melanoma in con­nec­tion with cof­fee con­sump­tion and dis­cov­ered cof­fee con­sump­tion decreased the risk for basal cell car­ci­noma. Even bet­ter, using cof­fee top­i­cally is being touted as a new method to “fix” the UV dam­age already done to your skin. Dr. Leslie Baumann sites recent stud­ies where the top­i­cal appli­ca­tion of cof­fee offers promis­ing results at fix­ing dam­age done by the sun.
2. Lowers risk of depres­sion. Health Watch aired find­ings where cer­tain chem­i­cals in cof­fee lower the risk of depres­sion. Studies indi­cate the more cof­fee you drink, the less likely you are to be depressed. According to research results by Alberto Ascherio, MD, DrPH and team at the Harvard School of Public Health, women who reg­u­larly drink four or more cups of cof­fee a day have a 20 per­cent lower risk for devel­op­ing depres­sion than those who rarely or never drink coffee.
3. Reduces dia­betes by 50%. Several stud­ies indi­cate that cer­tain ele­ments of cof­fee block the chem­i­cal process which leads to type II dia­betes. Researchers at UCLA have dis­cov­ered a rela­tion­ship between cof­fee con­sump­tion and a pro­tein called SHBG, thought to play a role in the devel­op­ment of type II dia­betes. Once again, research indi­cates the more cof­fee you drink, the bet­ter pro­tected you are against type II diabetes.
4. Reduces inflam­ma­tion. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition con­cluded con­sump­tion of cof­fee had ben­e­fi­cial effects on sub­clin­i­cal inflam­ma­tion and HDL cho­les­terol. Other sources sup­port these find­ings by indi­cat­ing that the anti-oxidants in cof­fee will neu­tral­ize cer­tain free rad­i­cals in the body which cause inflammation.
5. Increased fiber intake. The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry expressed results exhibit­ing sig­nif­i­cantly higher amounts of sol­u­ble dietary fiber in cof­fee than other com­mon bev­er­ages. The Mayo Clinic rec­og­nizes the impor­tance of fiber in dietary nutri­tion for main­tain­ing bowel integrity and health, reduc­ing blood cho­les­terol lev­els and con­trol­ling blood sugar levels.
6. Lowers risk of Alzheimer’s. Results link­ing caf­feine to low­ered risk of Alzheimer’s and enhanced brain func­tion can be found in the European Journal of Neurology. Additionally, the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease states that the low­est risk (65% decreased) was found in peo­ple who drank 3–5 cups of cof­fee per day. They fur­ther sug­gest that con­sum­ing cof­fee at midlife is asso­ci­ated with decreased risk of demen­tia and AD later in life.
7. Human hair growth. The International Journal of Dermatology found that caf­feine alone led to a sig­nif­i­cant stim­u­la­tion of hair fol­li­cle growth in in-vitro stud­ies. Clinical research in Berlin implies a top­i­cal appli­ca­tion of caffeine-infused sham­poo or oint­ment will pen­e­trate the hair fol­li­cle faster, lend­ing cre­dence to the pos­si­bil­ity of an effec­tive treat­ment for andro­ge­netic alope­cia (bald­ness) or other rea­sons of pre­ma­ture hair loss.
8. Acne pre­ven­tion and skin health. Barista Bath and Body per­formed exten­sive research related to the effects of top­i­cal cof­fee creams and scrubs. The slightly acidic pH of cof­fee con­stricts pores, cre­at­ing a pro­tec­tive layer and pro­vid­ing the appear­ance of younger look­ing skin and aid­ing in the pre­ven­tion of acne. The exfo­li­at­ing and anti-oxidant prop­er­ties of a cof­fee facial pol­ish are com­pa­ra­ble to (if not bet­ter than) other beauty and skin prod­ucts cur­rently on the mar­ket. Founder of the University of Miami Cosmetic Medicine and Research Institute also rec­og­nizes the abil­ity of caf­feine to quickly and effec­tively con­strict blood ves­sels, mak­ing it a par­tic­u­larly val­ued asset and poten­tial treat­ment for suf­fers of rosacea.
9. Lowers risk of Parkinson’s. PloS Genetics reports research results con­sis­tent across stud­ies cor­rob­o­rat­ing the robust­ness of inter­ac­tion between con­sump­tion of coffee/caffeine and the gene GRIN2A. Caffeine has already been proven to be neu­ro­pro­tec­tive, but researchers indi­cate other ingre­di­ents in caf­feinated cof­fee may also affect the devel­op­ment of Parkinson’s disease.
10. Protection against cir­rho­sis of the liver. As noted by the Journal of the American Medical Association, research con­cluded that there is an ingre­di­ent in cof­fee which pro­tects against cir­rho­sis, espe­cially alco­holic cir­rho­sis. Joe Vinson, PhD regards the study, “In a cross-sectional study, cof­fee con­sump­tion was also sig­nif­i­cantly related to a lower preva­lence of transam­i­nase enzymes [mark­ers of liver dam­age], with a stronger asso­ci­a­tion for those who drank large quan­ti­ties of alco­hol.” While some spec­u­late that the active prin­ci­ple may be caf­feine, Vinson strongly sup­ports the hypoth­e­sis that it is the polyphe­nol antiox­i­dant com­pounds in cof­fee that are the causative agents and that they act in con­cert with caf­feine, which is also hepatoprotective.

A myr­iad of research con­tin­ues to sup­port the healthy nature of cof­fee, giv­ing opti­mism to those who par­take in the beloved bev­er­age and pause to those who do not. Considered an author­ity on cof­fee, Forrest Graves sum­ma­rized quite nicely, “The pos­i­tive med­ical research and find­ings around cof­fee have obvi­ously been mount­ing since the 15^th cen­tury, mak­ing it the largest con­sumed bev­er­age in the world next to water. Who knows? A cup a day could keep the doc­tor away.”

A few weeks ago, we blogged about a couple of our more eclectic brew methods, vac-pot and Chemex. While we had all the intentions of going back through and posting about specific differences but then we stumbled upon a site with pretty thorough tutorials so we thought we’d share(here).  Anyway, do keep checking back on our Brew Gear’s page for more Brewing tips and techniques!

credit: Stumptown coffee, I like the contrast of the background with the vac pot

photo credit: Tapestry Project website

Last spring, we supported an organization in OKC, called The Tapestry Project. They’ve been engaged in some pretty neat initiatives and we felt compelled to continue advocating for them!

photo credit: Tapestry Project Blog

The Tapestry Project is a organization that focuses on the revitalization of one specific low-income neighborhood in OKC by restoring homes and building community. It is their hope to establish a model that can be used to reach women and children in crisis in other neighborhoods of OKC. Read more about them here.

Here it is, our new roaster (still to be named!):

If you have a great name for it, we’re all ears, so far, we’re leaning toward: El Capitano.

We’re all about supporting local, so we went with a local manufacturer  in Oklahoma City,  U.S. Roasters Corps. They were given the title of best overall roast in 2010 by the Roasters Guild of America. In 2011 U.S. Roasters Corps coffee roasters were recognized to match roasts profiles generated by other leading roasters (Probat and Dietritch). We are proud to have such a talented bunch as a part of our local coffee community!

Hi there! There have been many new and exciting developments since our last update–one being that our new coffee roaster is built and awaiting shipment (photos to come). As for now, we’re starting a new series about brew methods and tehcnique— thought it’d be fun to breifly blog about a couple of our favorite brew techniques:
1. Vac pot

“Vac-pot”  is just short for, vacuum pot, this method uses steam pressures and the resulting vacuum seal to brew coffee in what some would say, it’s purest form (becasue the beans are only in contact with the glass and its mesh filter). Coffee brewed in this manner results in delicate and smooth cup!

2. Chemex

The Chemex method utilizes an unbleached conical filter that’s slightly thicker than drip filters. In body, the coffee that results is similiar to that of the standard drip, except Chemex produces a much more aromatic and rich cup of coffee (though, not as rich as coffee from french press).

That’s it for now, our next couple posts will outline specific steps for these two methods–we’re hoping to return to a much more routine blogging rhythm.

We recently used our 15% to purchase art supplies for the talented entrepenuers of Bee’s Knees. Bee’s Knees is a program of Youth & Family Services, Inc., a non-profit, community-based charitable organization based in El Reno, Oklahoma. The mission of Bee’s Knees is to encourage independence, promote self-sufficiency for young adults with special needs through entrepeurial experiences and business skills. The entrepreneurs of Bee’s Knees create handmade functional products and original one-of-akind masterpeices to sell at various venues and exhibits. All proceeds from their products sold benefit the program through purchase of supplies, afurther pursue forms of entrepreneurship, and social activities.

During this past year, one of the Mariposa team members had the opporutnity to serve as a LEND intern and was exposed to the myriad of challenges and triumphs that accompany children with special needs and their families. As a result, I had the opproutnity to meet several of the youth that create art fo Bee’s Knees at this year’s State Autism Conference and Governor’s Conference honoring those with disabilities. Please check out their accomplishments at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bees-Knees/106361136062973?sk=wall

Visit them at the Paseo Art Walk in January!

Check out their 2012 calendar – all proceeds go to their program!

We’re partnering with Zach Winters as he releases his new album, They Were Longing For a Better Country on October 15th at 7pm at The Backroom (228 W. Hefner, OKC). In a way to show that we absolutely love his new album, Mariposa will be giving away free take-home samples to anyone that signs up on the mailing lists for Mariposa Coffee and Zach Winters music. Not only that, but anyone that purchases Zach Winters’ new album will also receive a free bag of Mariposa Coffee! This is definitely an event to listen to great music, and get your free Mariposa fix.

Listen to free music on his website: http://zachwintersmusic.com/.

For more information, see the event on Facebook, cover is $7 at the door.