Category: Blog

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Launching Greatkup Coffee Monthly Subscriptions

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our Greatkup Coffee Monthly Subscription service on our website, GREATKUP.COM. This feature has been on our to-do list for quite some time, and we are grateful to our dedicated customers who encouraged us to make it happen.

To start, we are introducing a value-priced 3-month subscription model. Our goal is to ensure that our Payment Gateway (Stripe) and WooCommerce platform are functioning smoothly before expanding our offerings. We want to ensure that the quality of our website, subscription experience, and products remains top-notch.

Customers can choose from 3 subscription options: 8oz Whole Beans, 8oz Ground Coffee, or 12-count K-Cup Pods (regular price $11). As we move into 2023, we plan to add more flexible subscription options, including 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months.

Our subscription service also offers unique features such as flexible delivery options and money-saving options. Sign up today and enjoy premium, freshly roasted coffee delivered straight to your doorstep every month!

Our Coffee Monthly Subscription service offers three convenient options for customers to receive their coffee: Local Pickup, Local Delivery, and Shipping.

Local Pickup: Customers can pick up their coffee at any local farmers market where we participate, such as the Geauga Fresh Farmers Market during the summer or winter Farmer’s Market season. Check out our event calendar

Local Delivery: We have added a new feature this year, where customers can have their coffee delivered to their home or office for a flat fee, as long as the delivery location is within a 30 miles radius of 44202 zip code.

Shipping: Customers can choose from a variety of shipping options available at the time of checkout, and we recommend the cheapest option as the subscription is on a monthly basis and there is no need to rush the shipment. We will ship as per your schedule.

Like any other subscriptions, customers are always in control of their subscription and can easily Pause, Renew, or Cancel at any time.

Local Delivery Map

Inner Circle – 15 Mile Radius
Outer Circle – 30 Mile Radius

Please note that while our map may show areas on Lake Erie, we are currently unable to deliver to those locations as we do not have the means for water or drone delivery at this time. We apologize for any confusion this may cause. However, we hope to expand our delivery options in the future. This map is for reference only.

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USB Rechargeable Handheld Electric Milk Frother

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT YOUR LOCAL FARMER’S MARKETS, Chardon Farmers Market and Geauga Fresh Farmer’s Market. Please check our Farmer’s Market Calendar here

** Available in 2 colors, Black and Silver. Limited quantities **

CREAMY FROTH IN SECONDS AND EASY TO CLEAN

Quickly turns your milk or cream into a smooth frothy foam in seconds. It is a perfect foam maker for coffee, latte, cappuccino, matcha, hot chocolate and any other frothed milk and you just simply clean the milk frother by rising the wand under the running water.

USB RECHARGEABLE, ULTRA-LONG STANDBY TIME

Unlike other battery-operated frothers, this frother has built in a rechargeable 1200mAh lithium battery, letting you charge anywhere without and hassle or battery replacement. A single charge last up to 180 uses.

THREE ADJUSTABLE SPEED

3 Whisking Speeds allow you to choose a proper speed (low, medium, high) to get your desired amount of foam. Simply press the button to turn on.

TWO STAINLESS STEEL WHISKS

Equipped with two high-quality stainless steel whisks, cleaning will be a snap just placing the rod under the running water. The ball on whisk can be used as egg beater to whip eggs or heavy cream; the milk whisk is perfect for making cappuccino, latte, hot chocolate.

NOISE-FREE OPERATION, KITCHEN HAPPINESS

The low noise motor barely makes a sound and keeps your mornings calm and peaceful.

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Coffee Processing – Washed vs. Natural vs Honey?

Since the beginning of GREATKUP, our goal is to empower coffee consumers/customers with more insights about their favorite drink they start off their day with, the Coffee they enjoy! As part of this effort, we are putting together interesting quizzes, articles and fun facts for our followers and customers on our Instagram Stories to make it a fun and interesting learning experience.

In this article we wanted to discuss how coffee is processed after coffee cherries (that’s what the coffee fruit are refers to as) are picked from coffee plants by the coffee farmers. In a commercial setting, machine harvesters will be at work but, we source our beans only from the farms where coffee cherries are picked by farmers manually. We support small farmers, micro-lots, and co-op societies run by women. We want farmers to benefit from their hard work.

Based on the ideal conditions, farmers opt for 2 methods of processing, Washed and Natural. To get the actual coffee bean from the coffee cherry, cherries need to be de-pulped.

Natural Process

Whole cherries are dried without de-pulping. This process requires close attention and care from farmers. Cherries drying on the coffee drying beds need to be turned regularly to make sure that the entire cherry is exposed to the sun evenly. The natural process creates or introduces more fruity flavors into the beans through fermentation and the beans have more time to absorb natural fruit flavors from the cherry.

Once the cherries are optimally dried, the pulp is removed through the hulling process.

This process is time-consuming, must be carefully done to avoid damage to the beans, and is efficient only in dry weather countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, and other African countries. We love Natural process coffee beans for their unique fruity taste notes and to develop specific roasting profiles.

In the Natural process fruit taste notes are dominant.

Drying of Coffee Cherries

Washed Process

Cherries are de-pulped first and then beans are dried in the sun. As soon as the cherries are picked they are sorted by their ripeness, float tested using water, washed, and de-pulped to get the coffee beans. This process requires water and in some countries, water is a more expensive resource.

More farmers opt for this process as they can produce higher quantity beans from the start and beans tend to develop brighter taste notes. Washed process produces beans with predictable taste notes.

There are 4 steps in the washed process, Sorting, De-pulping, Fermentation, and Drying. In the washed process, coffee bean taste notes are dominant.

Drying of Coffee Beans

Honey Process

This is the 3rd method often referred to as Honey Process. This process is somewhat in between Natural and Washed methods. Once cherries are picked they are de-pulped similar to Washed process but not all the pulp is removed. Small amounts of pulp have remained on the coffee beans during the drying process.

During the drying process, this pulp develops into various colors like Yellow, Red-Black, and in some cases White.

The honey Process refers to the color of the pulp during the drying phase. Beans from this process offer balanced taste notes compared to the Natural and Washed process.

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Cardamom – The Queen Of Spices

What is it? What does it taste like?

A very genuine and common question we hear all the time at Local Farmer’s Markets where we offer our signature iced coffee latte our ‘Spice Cardamom Latte’.

This articles is our attempt to answer those questions and provide some context to the spice, Cardamom also know as “The Queen Of Spices“.

Even before we get into details, honestly we are simply obsessed with Cardamom. From our point of view no other spice can come close to the unique taste, flavor, and aroma of Cardamom.

One of the reasons why it is so familiar to us is it is widely used in Indian cuisine like appetizers, main course, dessert, and hot and cold beverage’s like liqueurs, Coffee, Tea (chai), fruit refreshers and a plethora of others specialties.

The only way to explain it’s subtle flavor is to experience it.

We want every coffee lover to experience this spice, the main reason why we have introduced “Iced Cardamom Latte” to our Farmer’s Market Menu.

We are the 1st Coffee Roasters in America to introduce Cardamom Latte to Coffee Enthusiasts in America.

Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) belongs to the ginger family Zinziberaceae, Binomial name Zingiber officinale.

Originally cardamom was wildly grown in the mountain ranges of southern ghats of Kerala also rightly know as God’s Own Country, given its lush green beautiful landscapes and crystal clear beaches that will leave you awestruck and a very popular tourist destination in India. This mountain range is named “The Cardamom Hills”.

The Cardamom Hills – Kerala, India

In Indian history, references to cardamom spice dating back to 4000 years. It is primarily used as a spice, as natural medicine for digestion and as a natural mouth freshener.

The cardamom plant was introduced to Guatemala before World War I by a German coffee planter named Oscar.

Guatemala offers perfect conditions to grow Cardamom and it is now the largest producer of Green Cardamom with India in 2nd place. Cardamom is expensive due to the manual labor involved, pods must be picked manually without using any farming machinery.

There are 2 types, Green and Black Cardamom. Green Cardamom is widely used because both pod and seeds are ready to be used. Black Cardamom pods are 3 times bigger compared to Green Cardamom Pods. Cardamom pods contain black seeds.

The powder is made only from the seeds and is used to add to any dish the subtle richness of the flavor to enhance your food experiences to create the special bond between the cardamom and you. Some recipes call for both shell and crushed seeds, like Indian Sweets, Coffee, and Chai (Tea).

Cardamom – The Queen Of Spices

Green cardamom is one of the most expensive spice by weight but just a little goes a long way to impart it’s aromatic flavor. It’s flavor and aroma are best preserved in the pod, as the flavor and aroma of exposed or ground seeds are not the same when freshly ground and used.

Cardamom is currently the third most expensive spice lead by Saffron and Vanilla.

Similar to coffee plants, cardamom plants grow well under shade trees, in cool temperatures, and at higher altitudes. Cool temperatures in the mountain range offer ideal conditions. Cardamom from “The Cardamom Hills” is well known for its organic, premium quality and taste.

Once harvested, cardamom pods are sun-dried or machine-dried depending on the weather conditions. Cardamom is graded based on size and color. To retain their green color, once dry, they are packed in black polythene bags. Cardamom requires a lot of care and timing is a very crucial factor.

We love Cardamom! We love it so much that we have registered a website for the same, cardamomlatte.com

If you want to know more about Cardamom Latte, please feel free to ask any questions you have or start a cardamom conversation at the next Farmer’s Markets and we are excited to chat with you.

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Local pick up for your online order

Local Pickup option is now available for your online orders. Place your order online and pickup your order at Geauga Fresh Farmer’s Market (OHIO) or Chardon Farmers Market (OHIO) on Saturdays between 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Local Pickup orders are automatically saves you 25% off on your cart total. Convenient, easy and great savings!

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Our first appearance at Geauga Fresh Farmer’s Market

Planning all winter and last-minute menu changes, we were able to participate in Geauga Fresh Farmer’s Market this year. It was a great learning experience and we are sure we made a lot of coffee visitors happy with our signature iced latte “Iced Coffee Cardamom Latte”

Geauga Fresh Farmers’ Market was started in 2002 and focused mainly on producer-only farmers operating year-round in Geauga County. Great people and great community. We are grateful for all the support.

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Spring Coffee Savings are here!

Coupon valid till end of May, 2022!

Take advantage of this special coupon, valid till end of May, 2022! Save 10% on Araku Valley Whole Roasted Beans!

Taste the world’s famous Specialty Coffee, made from 100% Arabica beans, grown on Araku Hills, located in the southern ghats of India. 

Araku Valley coffee offers a very unique coffee flavor with Heavy Body, Dried Fruits, and Nutty taste notes. Araku Valley Coffee is grown under natural shades of tall silver oak trees. Shade trees provide opportunities for farmers to grow additional crops like peppers and act as a safe natural habitat for native and seasonal migratory birds, a perfect example of true eco-friendly and sustainable coffee growing practices. Coffee plantations are established on the beautiful slopes of the Araku Hills with elevations of 1000m to 1500m above sea level.

In order to preserve this unique taste and freshness, beans are roasted to perfection and made to order.  

Araku Valley Coffee is perfect for any preparation, black coffee, coffee with milk (traditional Indian style coffee), espresso, french press and goes well with creamer and sugar. 

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What is Specialty Coffee?

Specialty Coffee is very unique in nature and produced only by using top-quality green coffee beans and a careful roast process to highlight the taste notes that are very unique to the coffee beans. We source our coffee beans from different parts of the world by carefully evaluating many factors, reaching out to the coffee farmers or coffee co-ops directly or through their representatives in the US.

At GREATKUP we pick quality green coffee beans based on various factors. Few of them are listed below.

  • Beans are grown at higher altitudes
  • Grown with different soil characteristics like volcanic soil, foothills of mountains
  • Sustainable farming practices
  • Biodiversity, Shade Grown, Micro Lots
  • Women-owned or operated
  • Local Co-ops to support the local economy
  • Fairtrade practices
  • Organic, Natural washing and drying practices

Procuring quality green beans is only one-third of the entire process. The next crucial step is carefully roasting the coffee beans to highlight their native taste notes. This is where Specialty Coffee differs from generic coffee. The majority of the coffee consumed in the US or in fact around the world is roasted with generic roast profiles in large batches, mixed with one or more types of beans sourced from different growing regions.

At GREATKUP we spend a lot of time in developing specific roast profiles for each type of beans. In reality, there is no generic roasting profile that we can immediately apply to a variety of beans. This is where artisan roasting practices play an important role. It is possible that 10 to 20 various profiles are developed for every type of beans before we find the sweet spot in which the majority of the taste notes are preserved.

Happy customers!

Taste notes for each type of beans are very unique, based on their origin, elevation, type of environment they were grown, washing and drying practices. Our main goal in the roast profile development is to highlight the taste notes and strike a delicate balance between acidity and the way coffee tastes.

The final step is cupping. The cupping process is tedious and with practice and patience, we develop different roast profiles to match different brewing methods and needs.

At GREATKUP we invest a significant amount of time in procuring beans, developing roast profiles, and multiple iterations of cupping to achieve the perfect taste notes.

We strongly believe that this process is what makes us unique and creates a perfect and uniform roast all the time. Least but not least, we only roast coffee in small batches, every time to maintain the perfect coffee taste. At first specialty coffee tastes a little different but you will start appreciating the different taste notes offered by different coffee beans.

We offer coffee from Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda and India, soon we will be adding more specialty coffee from Guatemala.

GREATKUP specialty coffee is available in, Whole Beans (roasted), Ground Coffee and in K-Cups for your Keurig coffee brewer.