There's Still Hope for Local Coffee

I am now completely situated in my lovely apartment down in DC. The only bad thing is that it's on the top floor so right now the hurricane is kind of pummeling our windows. It's fine. I just am not too fond of the leaking windows in my room. The location, however is great- I've got the National Cathedral down the street, which is actually missing a couple spires from the earthquake earlier this week (DC is just not doing so great this week), and there's a Mexican place down the block! Oh and it's not too far from campus. Not important though.

So one of my flatmates is from Milwaukee, which apparently is a cool city, even if it is in Wisconsin (old Midwest rivalries never die). He brought some coffee from over there for us to make in the apartment. And it's REALLY good. I asked the back story, and it was actually very interesting. This place, Alterra Coffee, was started in 1993 (I did some more research. I'm a historian, what do you expect?), roasting and brewing their own coffee. The following year they opened a cafe, and it built up such a base of regulars and people who loved their good coffee that they now have around ten different cafes throughout the city, as well as at the airport. They have successfully kicked out the Milwaukee Starbuckses, and other cafes and restaurants who don't brew their own coffee often use Alterra's coffee. I looked up the extensive list of coffees available through Alterra and it included a whopping 36 different coffees, 16 of which are Fair Trade. The hope is that this will expand and the whole county will be using Alterra coffee rather than nasty Starbucks. I thought this was great. This meant that there was still hope for small-town coffee and that Starbucks won't take over the world. No one's going to monopolize my coffee, dammit!
I just hope that more cities follow lead and use their local resources rather than big mega-chains. In Pittsburgh, I've found that La Prima Espresso Company, in the Strip District, is phenomenal, and both of the small cafes that I've worked at in the city use them. And the great thing about these types of roasters and cafes is that people who work their really love what they're doing and love talking with people who feel the same. That's generally what Starbucks is lacking, I feel. It no longer is about the people and the coffee, the simplest thing it could be. If you're interested in Alterra Coffee, just check out the website, http://www.alterracoffee.com/Home.aspx, or if you're interested in La Prima, their website is here.