Our "cupping" program is tailored to libraries, but is also popular with civic groups and social gatherings.  A narrated slide show about coffee history, cultivation and characteristics precedes an adapted coffee cupping.  In the real thing wholesalers and independent roasters are seeing, smelling, touching, tasting coffees; looking for the very best taste and quality for their customers and clients.  In this version, participants examine and taste coffees blindly, then try to identify the beans based on information about regional characteristics.   We "prime the senses" then challenge the players.  There are lots of laughs and a new appreciation for the morning cuppa' Joe!  

The U.S. War Department considered coffee to be an essential element of the troops' diet--lifting morale, keeping them alert for night time combat and used as a therapeutic in the field by medics. The army requisitioned 10 times more coffee in 1942 than they had in the year before Pearl Harbor was attacked which meant that back at home, families were asked to stretch their coffee supplies by reusing brewed grounds. We can only assume that Maggie Higgins was getting the coffee she needed as she competed to "get the scoop" in the male dominated world of wartime journalism. The rule that barred women correspondents from reporting from the combat zone didn't keep her from jumping in a jeep headed behind enemy lines, putting her in position to be the reporter on site as Dachau was liberated. She went on to cover the war in Korea in a way that few other reporters did--from the center of combat. In her new biography, Fierce Ambition, Jennet Conant chronicles Higgins' achievements and explores her motivations. In an NPR interview Conant recently said that although the journalist opened doors for women, she never wanted to be distinguished for her gender. "She won the Pulitzer for her daring dispatches, and the Pulitzer committee noted that she won it under extraordinary, difficult circumstances because she was a woman. But she did not want that to be what she was known for. She wanted to be seen as a good newspaper man, not woman." Truly, Maggie Higgins belongs on the WWC Wild Women billboard!

One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself. ~Lucille Ball Lucille Ball brought the gift of laughter to generations with her hilarious antics and ingenious wit. While she earns "wild woman" status with her acting alone, she was a force to be reckoned with off screen as well. Ball started in film but found real success in broadcast television, first in front of the camera and later as the first woman to own and run a major television production studio. Her show I Love Lucy ran for 6 years (1951-57) and was the number one show in the country for 4 of them. She also acted in The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy and Desilu productions went on to produce Our Miss Brooks, Make Room for Daddy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Untouchables, Star Trek , Mission: Impossible and other groundbreaking shows. Lucille Ball was the first woman to receive the International Radio and Television Society's Gold Medal (1971). She also won 4 Emmy awards and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. The combination of her genius and drive toward perfection made her a legend in the world of entertainment and her work paved the way for the countless women in comedy who followed her. In 1957 Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz filmed a Sanka commercial. We have to believe that it was bold, caffeinated coffee that fueled her long hours, but if you prefer decaf, this is one area where we would have to say, don't take Lucy's advice. Try one of our Wild Women Coffee decaf selections instead! (Getty Images)

Some of us have great runways already built for us. If you have one, take off. But if you don't have one, realize it is your responsibility to grab a shovel and build one for yourself and for those who will follow after you. ~Amelia Earhart Ninety years ago this week, that wild woman Amelia Earhart made history when she became the first woman to fly nonstop across the Atlantic solo, sustained throughout the trip by tomato juide and a few squares of chocolate. When she was flying, Amelia followed three simple "food rules:" 1. She ate just enough to “prevent fatigue, but not induce drowsiness.” 2. She ate food that was simple to access since “pilots have only two hands and dozens of things to do” and 3. She only brought the lightest weight food on a flight because “…a pilot whose land plane falls into the Atlantic is not consoled by caviar sandwiches.” Of course, she had a thermos of steaming hot coffee stowed to keep her awake on lonely, extended flights, right? Sadly, no! According to a post by the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, “She didn’t drink coffee or tea, and would use smelling salts … to stay awake on her long flights!” Well Amelia, if only you had added salt to your coffee! As it turns out, according to foodie Alton Brown (and a Turkish bridal tradition) adding salt to ground coffee before brewing (a quarter teaspoon of kosher salt to every six tablespoons of ground coffee) enhances the flavor and neutralizes the bitterness of coffee. A little salt as a substitute for milk and sugar might have made even Amelia Earhart a black coffee connoisseur! Could coffee have saved her from vanishing just a few years after her record-settting trans-Atlantic flight? For more about this Wild Woman, check out the Library of Congress Amelia Earhart Resource Guide. And to read about the benefits of salt in your coffee visit The Old Coffee Pot. Use your fear...It can take you to the place where you store your courage.