Archive: Business & Technology

Gimme! Coffee, an Ithaca announced this month total donations toward anti-fracking in our region has exceeded $20,000. The specialty coffee company’s popular 'Fracktivist' blend has sold over 10,000 units since its release and a portion of proceeds from every bag has been donated to a local agency to assist in the fight against fracking, a controversial drilling method used to extract natural gas from underground shale.

Ithaca-based Toxics Targeting have benefited from the portion of proceeds from 'Fracktivist' and other organizations are being considered for the upcoming year.

“In spite of the fact that we use natural gas in our roasting process, I'm terrified by the documented ecological harms of fracking and I know better than to trust energy companies to place the interests of the people and the planet above their profit motive,” noted Kevin Cuddeback, CEO of Gimme! Coffee. “The success of this blend demonstrates the public understanding that we need to resort to bake sales and constant innovation in order to have a chance at opposing the powerful interests that want unfettered access to energy below us and who pretend that the environmental risk is minimal or manageable under existing standards and practices.”

'Fracktivist' is one of five blends currently offered by Gimme and is a shade-grown, organic coffee. The blend's flavor profile is defined by cocoa tones, red fruit sweetness, and a clean, "unpolluted finish."

Gimme! Coffee has raised funds with 'cause coffees' before. Past examples include Colombia Finca San Luis La Gloria, an award-winning single origin organic coffee from the farm of Omar Arango. Proceeds from coffee sales helped raise over $3000 to build a new mill at Arango's farm in Líbano, Colombia.

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