travel (2)

The consumer-product relationship is broken. Just think – walking into a store  - there is no real interaction between you and the products on the shelf? For most of us it is a simple “Hmm this looks good, I’ll take it.” and throughout consuming the item, nothing new about it is really ever learned. We seek to revolutionize this experience by allowing you – from the moment you first see the product on the shelf to your last interaction with it – it adds value & color to your life.

When we saw this gap, we started Coffee Match – changing the buying & consumption experience around Coffee.

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Revolutionizing the way we consume Coffee & Tea

We are both passionate about technology and wanted figure out a way to use it to create an experience around Coffee & Tea. To create an experience – we started thinking about what kind of content would add value to the consumption.

To start…You want to know where it comes from, who is responsible for making it. Next to really spice things up – experience it with your own eyes. Meet the farmers, the local roasters, understand how its locally consumed, what is interesting about the Coffee/Tea drinking culture, & impacts around the production of this beverage.

And that’s exactly what we did. We went to India to accomplish this.

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Our First Journey: South India

Our trip in India was incredibly insightful. Most of the amazing Coffee in India is grown in a region known as Coorg which is about 3-4 hours away from any major city. On our journey to Coorg, we realized we were stumbling across amazing locations filled with interesting people & an amazing culture. We started to see how the Coffee & the culture fit together.

It was a surreal experience of how we initially began the trip to find this amazing Coffee, but in the process of doing so – we ended up with so much more. From learning local recipes, understanding how the Coffee is supposed to be made, listening to local music, meeting the local developer community, picking small bits from the language – how it all came together to change our perception of what Coffee & Tea really is.

So we want to bring this experience back – package it in a way from the first sip to the last sip – you feel you’ve been there.

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The future of Coffee & Tea:

Once we came back home, we realized we had an opportunity to expose the world to interesting cultures through their daily interaction with Coffee & Tea – a seamless way to consume information while enjoying a delicious beverage.

So we built an app as prototype that pushes all the of the content that we gather while sourcing the coffee/tea from that destination & delivers in a seamless way to the end customer from the moment they see the product at the store.

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For instance, meet the farmer with a quick snap – you can see the actual farmer who made it & the raw coffee/tea in his/her hand right on the store shelf. Watch it in action.

And through the process of drinking the coffee/tea until the last sip – we push interesting content through directly to you.

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Creating an experience around products

Our vision is at the store – walking into an aisle – is much more interesting & interactive. The products are alive. You’re not buying a product, but you’re buying an experience.

We just launched our Indiegogo & we’d sincerely appreciate your support in changing the way we consume coffee forever.

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Irish Eyes on Nicaragua

Ever traveled with a pack of Irishmen? Lucky for me I can say that I have. And it was the gift of a lifetime. I traveled to Nicaragua with representatives and affiliates of our long time supporter in Ireland, Java Republic. While it's always an adventure and an eye opening experience when our supporters visit Coffee Kids project participants, this was truly an extraordinary journey. ..

I don't know that I have ever seen such an extraordinary spirit of generosity, compassion, adventure, fun and learning. I myself learned about the Irish and their history and just what incredible people they are. There were people from each region of Ireland, including Northern Ireland. Because of the history of poverty and violence that Ireland has experienced and because they were able to overcome that history largely due to education, these travelers felt a sense of solidarity with the Nicaraguan people. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti. Nicaragua has experienced a long history of civil strife, corruption, and poverty.

Perhaps it was this ability to identify with this shared history and to see the hope for the future that lead to such exceptional generosity on behalf of these Irish travelers. But I don't think so. I think they are just highly compassionate people. ..
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I watched as 17 people made a concrete difference in the tiny community of Aguas Amarillas by supporting the students struggling to continue their education and learn new technologies to bring them into the future. Perhaps the most moving gesture, at least to me, was that each one of these people brought back the knowledge that they can make a difference -- not just by being associated with Java Republic, but through their own personal commitments to support Coffee Kids and generate more support for the town of Aguas Amarillas and so many like it throughout Latin America...

I have never been so proud to represent Coffee Kids internationally and of the work that we do. I can't thank them enough for all that they taught me about the impact an individual can have on the lives of others. They each touched many lives, not least of all my own.

Check out pictures from the trip at Coffee Kids Flickr site or you can visit this site and see photos of the trip from our friend Patrick Jordan who was one of the visitors with the Java Republic.
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