The founder and owner of Cafe Rebellion, Kerry Appel, is retiring and will no longer be roasting coffee in Colorado for the Coop. I always enjoyed calling Kerry and hearing his cheerful greeting The Human Bean company! It was often difficult for him to hear our order over the clatter of the roaster.
Kerry went to the Chiapas region of Mexico in 1994 to document how the Fair Trade Agreement between the U.S. and Mexico was affecting the indigenous people of Chiapas. After making several documentaries, he was asked to leave by both the U.S. and the Mexican government. So he decided to return as a businessman and establish direct trade between the citizens of Chiapas and the U.S.
According to Kerry, his coffee was grown in cooperatives under the Organic and Fair Trade standards in Mexico, but was not certified in the U.S. as that would have entailed paying the certification fees in both countries. He also sold us the honey bees made from coffee flowers--Zapatista honey.
Please appreciate all the labor that it takes to make a cup of coffee. -Click here for photos on Kerry's website taken in 2006 that detail the backbreaking work of harvesting, cleaning and transporting coffee beans.-
Ron, the bulk guy, plans to replace Cafe Rebellion with other high quality, fair trade coffees.
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