Wednesday, July 29, 2009

PROGRESS to San Antonio!

PROGRESS COFFEE TO DEBUT IN SAN ANTONIO WITH SPECIAL DELIVERY TO WHOLE FOODS MARKET – 80 MILES, FROM AUSTIN, BY BICYCLE
Whole Foods Market to carry Austin-based coffee from nationally-known green café, created by Progress Coffee

(AUSTIN) – In Austin, when one-pound bags of Progress Coffee are delivered to Whole Foods Market’s downtown flagship store, it’s done by bicycle. Riders transport the coffee along a nearly four-mile route from the Central Austin headquarters of Owl Tree Roasting (Progress’s sister coffee roasting company) – in part to show the viability of biking in Austin’s urban environment, and in part to fulfill Whole Foods Market’s promise to customers that Progress is bike-delivered coffee.

On Friday, July 31, the Whole Foods Market store at the Alamo Quarry Market in San Antonio will fulfill the same promise – only the route will be an eighty-mile, seven-hour endurance test, along a series of less-traveled highways and back roads, in what could be another record-setting day of triple-digit temperatures.

John Trujillo, co-owner of Beat the Clock Bike Messengers in Austin, will deliver the coffee, leading a small group of cyclists from a sendoff party at Progress Coffee (500 San Marcos, Austin) at 7:30 a.m., with a planned arrival at Whole Foods Market’s Quarry store (255 E. Basse Road, San Antonio) at 3 p.m.

“We’re fully committed to sustainable living, and delivering coffee by bike rather than car is one of just many choices we consciously make,” said Joshua Bingaman, founder and owner of Progress Coffee. “Bike delivery from Austin to San Antonio isn’t the easiest thing to do, but we hope showing that it’s possible will inspire people to think about a whole range of easier, green choices they could be making.”

Since opening in 2004, the East Austin café has received regional and even national attention as a sustainable business as well as a popular meeting place, incorporating corn-based plastics, composting, and recycling into its operations.

Bingaman, and his Owl Tree Roasting co-owner and head roaster Travis Kizer, will be in San Antonio to help welcome the inaugural bike delivery to Whole Foods at the Quarry – followed by an in-store event, allowing customers to taste the café’s signature organic, fair-trade blend of Indonesian, Central and South American coffee.

“It’s a blend that a lot of people in Austin recognize and love,” said Kizer of the signature Progress blend. “We’re grateful to Whole Foods for the chance to bring it to people in San Antonio.”

Future deliveries of Progress coming to San Antonio will be made via a combination of bicycle and motor vehicle – bikes will take the coffee from Owl Tree to trucks at the Whole Foods Market distribution center in Southeast Austin.