Text Box: The Great Rift Valley is the beginning. The Coffees that go into Great Rift Valley Blend are from that same vast geographical area; a fissure in the world that produced more than just great coffee. The Great Rift Valley begins in northern Syria, nearby Aleppo, which is the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. It runs through Lebanon into Israel, creating Galilee, the Dead Sea and River Jordan. Its violent birth raised the Sinai Peninsula, and submerged the Red Sea. Three of the world's major religions were inspired from within its folds, their holiest sites rest on its foundation. From the Red Sea the valley produced the highlands of Ethiopia, and the great lakes of Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro were its progeny. The oldest human remains were found along this remarkable continental fissure; and it was there that humankind first distinguished itself from its companions in the wild. Humankind distinguished itself through its innate curiosity; that self-same curiosity that led shepherds to pluck wild berries from the hills where they grew and found that the berries contained magical properties. Magical properties that come from a beverage we know simply as coffee. Coffee began in Ethiopia, and was rediscovered in Yemen, where a fork of the Great Rift submerges and runs along the ocean depths to India. The Indian Ocean saw Dutch traders take coffee first to Sri Lanka, and onwards to Jakarta. It would return to Ethiopia by that same trade route; though it had never left, as Ethiopia is the only place in the world where coffee grew wild. Coffee would spread through the eastern half of the Rift, into Kenya, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Plants and their roots have longer memories than we do, so in returning to their home they retained the wild flavor of the time when they shared the land with a new species as wild and electrified as the coffee they would learn to adore. The Great Rift Valley is for the intrepid dreamers among us who look for our origins in the detritus of the past. It is the valley of Eden, and east of there it is the valley of Nod. It has witnessed humanity's boundless capacity for mercy and sadly it has also seen our inscrutable urges for violence. All the while, through our triumphs and follies it has sheltered us without judgment. Now, that has changed. The scales tipped and violence and inequity have bred endemic poverty and hunger, and while the valley can house our fellow man, it can no longer sustain them. The people in the valley are still vibrant, still looking and working towards a future without hunger. They are still wrapped in culture and customs that are as colorful and vivacious as humankind's first dance under the stars. Their children deserve to walk in the future their parents envision, and humanity owes them. The World Food Program's efforts in East Africa offer hope for the future to those who cannot protect themselves; the children of Kenya who face the choices of starvation, forced labor or violence. Civilization began in this place, and now the youngest generations of grandchildren from our earliest forbearers need our help. There was a man who spent much of his life dedicated to raising awareness of this obligation that we owe our first home. Pope John Paul II said, "To welcome the weakest, helping them on their journey is a sign of civilization..." To help these children along shows that civilization still thrives outside it's cradle, the Great Rift. Text Box:   Home
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