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Carta Coffee has partnered up with San Francisco-based Project Open Hand for a special roast that will be released at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival. The festival runs from Sept 9th-10th and will be held at Ghirardelli Square. A portion of the sales will be donated to Project Open Hand.
What is Project Open Hand?
Project Open Hand is a 501(c)(3) charity based out of San Francisco, California. Formed in 1985 by Ruth Brinker, this non-profit organization provides “meals with love” to senior citizens and critically ill people.
POH is unique in that they focus on healthy meals. These healthy meals in turn nourish and prolong the lives of the elderly and infirmed. Every day over 2,500 meals and 200 bags of groceries are prepared. The service area ranges from San Francisco to Alameda county. Over 125 volunteers work hard to help deliver the groceries and meals to the clients of POH.
The elderly especially benefit from this program as most of them can no longer drive and some are even confined to their houses. Getting up and walking to the grocery store is impossible for many senior citizens. Their nutrition tends to suffer because frozen food (which is very unhealthy) tends to store a lot better/longer and if left to their own devices, the senior citizens would be forced to eat frozen food because healthy food is not readily available.
The mission statement is: To nourish and engage our community by providing meals with love to the sick and the elderly.
Project Open Hand is unique in that they are constantly improving their methods and processes in order to be able help as many people as they can. One of their more recent innovations is the indoor greenhouse they built in their San Francisco offices.
The greenhouse is a hydroponic system called a “Volksgarden” which is manufactured by Omega Garden, a Canadian company. It works by utilizing a rotating cylinder which houses the plants that are arranged around the light at the center. This method ensures maximum efficiency of light and nutrients which in turn are soaked up by the herbs and vegetables thereby creating some of the healthiest and most nutritionally-soaked greens ever created.
Herbs and greens used by the POH chefs are grown in the state-of-the-art indoor greenhouse. This in turn provides healthy food, free from pesticides and other harmful chemicals. The first seedlings were planted in October of 2013 and basil and lettuce are the main crops grown.
Carta Coffee Project Open Hand Roast
Carta Coffee teamed up with Project Open Hand to create the Project Open Hand Roast. This isn’t your average roast with a charitable name slapped on it. Scott from Carta Coffee created a roast that is intended to pair exceptionally well with the Ghiraradelli Chocolate being featured at the festival this year. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Project Open Hand.
Carta Coffee is grown entirely in Kona, Hawaii. Due to the unique volcanic soil and rainforest climate, 100% Kona coffee is some of the best tasting coffee on the market. Carta hand-selected the beans that would go into the POH roast. When combined with Ghiraradelli dark chocolate, the experience has been described as “pure heaven”. If you are a coffee and chocolate connoisseur, then you definitely want to pick up a bag or two of the POH roast.
The Experience
There has been a lot of hype about this roast amongst coffee aficionados. The aroma has been described as a smoky, rich earthiness which gives forth to the spice and nutty sub aroma. The flavor is smooth, sweet and has complex flavors of spice, citrus and caramel. There is a citrusy sweet and clean finish to each sip.
What makes this roast completely unique is how Carta was able to completely avoid the long and unpleasant aftertaste that usually comes with very darkly roasted coffee beans. The citrus in it gives off an acidic edge which leads to a sweet and clean finish.
Drinking this coffee will give you visions of the Hawaiian Islands, complete with rainforests and volcanoes. The finish is very fresh and full of complex flavors, all working together in balance to create a non-bitter, clean finish. In short, this is the Rolls Royce of coffee.
Where to Buy Project Open Hand Roast?
The best place to ideally buy the Project Open Hand Roast is the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival. The coffee will pair very well with the dark, rich chocolate made by the famous Ghirardelli chocolate factory in San Francisco.
If physically attending the Ghiraradelli Chocolate festival is impossible, you can still order the roast from the Carta Coffee website. Due to the fact that this is a special roast/blend, orders may take a few extra days to process. We will do our best to get your coffee sent out in a timely manner, but each bag is specifically roasted for every order that comes in to ensure freshness.
Stop by the Carta Coffee booth at the Ghiraradelli Chocolate festival or order a few bags online. As you savor the exquisite flavors of the Project Open Hand Roast, you can take solace in the fact that you have contributed to help a worthy and noble charitable cause such as Project Open Hand. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to POH and will help make a difference in the lives of the infirmed and elderly living in San Francisco and the surrounding communities.
