Teeccino Herbal Coffee: Creating New Trade

This month’s feature green company is Teeccino Herbal Coffee, American’s #1 coffee alternative. We selected Teeccino because of its work creating new trade for unique ingredients that brings additional sources of income to rural families in Central America and India.

Teeccino was created by Caroline MacDougall, an award winning herbal beverage designer who creates teas for top tea companies in the US.  Caroline’s career over the last 35 years has taken her around the world developing new sources of supply for herbal ingredients. In the early 1990’s, Caroline became devoted to rainforest preservation and put her skills to work in Central America to protect the remaining forests from further loss.

Vanilla beans was one of Caroline’s first ingredients that she identified as helping to restore rainforest because vanilla, the only orchid in food production, gave economic value to second growth forests planted for shade. Teeccino Vanilla Nut was the first flavor she created to use vanilla beans grown by a small Mexican cooperative that was breaking the stranglehold of the large producers owned by North American companies like Coca Cola. With the support of grants from non-profit organizations and the Mexican Government, smallholder vanilla growers could gain the added economic value of their beans by relearning the technology of curing them over 6 months – a process developed by the Maya and the Aztecs!

When searching for a new ingredient for Teeccino that would provide a dark roasted coffee-like flavor, Caroline was introduced to the ramon nut tree in Guatemala. Originally a traditional food of the Maya, this 130 ft tall tree was called the “corn tree” because the seed of its fruit can be ground into flour that when mixed with corn flour, significantly raises its nutritional value. The Maya roasted the seeds and drank them in a beverage that tasted a lot like coffee – only this was before coffee had ever been brought to the New World by the Spaniards! Caroline realized she had found the Maya’s favorite “coffee alternative”.

Developing the harvest of a wild ingredient like ramon nuts is full of challenges, but fortunately a small company like Teeccino has the flexibility and perseverance plus a lot of patience to pursue success despite the obstacles. Caroline has made repeated visits to the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the Northeastern part of Guatemala to work with the people living in rural villages within the forest. She partnered with a team in Guatemala to produce the environmental studies required by the government. It took 6 years before permission for the first harvest was finally granted!

Today, thanks to Teeccino’s work, ramon nuts are harvested, roasted and ground in Guatemala, thus providing added value work for this unique ingredient. Teeccino’s Maya flavors feature roasted ramon nuts and their French Roast is now a top selling flavor along with Vanilla Nut. Because ramon nuts aren’t a true “nut”, they don’t contain tree nut allergens so Teeccino’s Maya flavors can be drunk by people allergic to nuts. Ramon nuts are now part of products made by a number of other companies, including Mary’s Gone Cracker’s Love Cookies and Nutiva’s HempShakes.

The most satisfying part of the ramon nut project has been the impact it has on the nutrition of families in Guatemala. Unfortunately, the tradition of preparing and eating ramon nuts had been forgotten. Although food was scarce, no one was picking up this free food on the forest floor because they thought the nuts were too hard to eat. Now workshops are given in villages to teach women how to prepare food made from ramon nuts for their families. A rural women’s cooperative is baking ramon nut muffins and cookies for distribution in the government lunch program for school children. Ramon trees are now being planted by the thousands in deforested areas to restore the forest canopy and provide much needed food and income.

Creating new trade was also part of developing organically grown chicory root for Teeccino. Chicory as a young plant can’t compete with weeds and conventional chicory is sprayed with weed killers. Although chicory grows in the US and Europe, farmers didn’t want to do the weeding by hand. Caroline went to India where she partnered with Organic India, a company that works with smallholder farmers to grow organic ingredients. Beginning with a small harvest of only a couple of tons, Indian farmers are now growing hundreds of tons of organic chicory for Teeccino and other Western companies. Organic chicory provides an excellent source of income for Indian families and it also improves their health. By learning about organic agriculture, the health of these families has improved since they are no longer exposed to harmful chemicals and sprays. It is crops like organic chicory that is helping to reduce poverty and the high rate of suicide for Indian farmers.

You can find Teeccino Herbal Coffees in 10 different flavors at your natural food store. Naturally caffeine free and non-acidic, Teeccino makes a great afternoon pick-up or after-dinner dessert beverage that won’t interfere with sleep. Teeccino is available in an all-purpose-grind that can be brewed any way you brew coffee or in a single serve “Tee-bag” that can be steeped just like tea. Visit www.teeccino.com to learn more about the health benefits of Teeccino Herbal Coffee.