A Canadian Contribution to Fair Trade Coffee

While searching the web on the subject of coffee, I came across an intriguing addition to the legions of small, medium and gargantuan coffee companies out there. Billing itself as "Kicking Horse Coffee" this company's claim to fame is that it is 100 per cent organic, fair trade coffee manufactured in the Canadian Rockies, where (the company claims) the pure, fresh air and water give the coffee its uniquely good taste. The coffee is not actually grown on the Rockies; it is in fact shipped from small cooperatives and then processed on site, at a place called Invermere.

Why is the coffee called "Kicking Horse?" According to legend, a man called James Hector set out in 1858 to discover a valley called Kicking Horse. During a river fording, one of the pack horses kicked Hector in the head so hard that his companions thought him to be dead. As they began to bury him, they noticed that one of his eyes was twitching. The "legend" says that it was a cup of "kick ass" coffee (their expression, not mine) that revived him.

The story is of course almost certainly apocryphal. Nevertheless, it adds a welcome bit of color to the sometimes rather drab coffee world (drab from a marketing point of view at least).

I completed a search on outlets said to carry the Kicking Horse on its shelves, and came across a number of stores located in my immediate area. If and when I buy some, I'll let you know what I think.