How the IWCA Empowers Women
If you’ve spent any amount of time either reading about coffee activism or wandering around the Ampersand Coffee website, you’ve no doubt come across an organization by the name of The International Women’s Coffee Alliance—or the IWCA for short. The IWCA is an expansive, ambitious organization. It uses the coffee industry to empower women at large, starting with those who grow, harvest, and produce the coffee beans. The alliance has an exceptionally unique structure: while most outreach organizations identify the problem from afar and concoct their solution in board rooms, the IWCA takes the opposite approach.
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What is Smithsonian Bird Friendly Coffee?
In the 1970s, as demand for coffee grew, a new process was brought into practice; sun-grown coffee provided higher yields and was, obviously, more appealing to producers. The process brought heavy amounts of deforestation along with it, effectively damaging the birds’ ecosystem. Smithsonian Bird Friendly Coffee is all about reversing this devastating practice.
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Espresso Remixed
Over the years, as companies often do, the makeup of Ampersand has shifted. Baristas come as do the back of house staff. But the Ampersand crew is starting to lock in place. Now, in 2020, we have more than doubled in size and gained some amazing new team members. So, we thought it apt that our only coffee blend matures alongside us. Our last Ampersand Espresso blend was created a few years ago when our team was entirely different. While we enjoyed our old espresso blend, we felt like it was time to reinvent our espresso together. A new blend for a new team.
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