These are candid photos taken during the event. Enjoy!

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All day long, on Saturday, August 14 we're going to celebrate the all new Conscious Cup. Attend one of our special events, featuring a special appearance by Crystal Lake's David Radford.

Celebrate Our Grand (re)Opening Aug. 14

In between, we'll do coffee tastings and show you how to prepare really delicious coffee at home. Oh, samples! Yes, we will be sampling our new menu.

Schedule:

2:00 pm Coffee Tasting

3:00 pm Roast Demonstration

4:00 pm Home Brewing Demonstration

7:00 pm Live Music by American Idol Finalist David Radford

Mountain mists and shade grown coffee in Nicaragua

What does "estate grown" mean? We love Fair Trade, but it has a blind spot to integrated farms like the one owned by Martha Veronia Lopez in Nicaragua. This from our importers is what we look for in sustainable, responsible trade estate coffees:

Martha Veronica Lopez inherited her mothers coffee farm, established in 1903, in the mountains providing a stellar view over Jinotega, one of the most famous and well-known coffee producing regions of Nicaragua.

A drive to the farm is straight into the clouds, where shade trees planted over 100 years ago tower over the coffee trees below. Almost half of the farm is left as natural jungle to protect the environment, springs of water, and congo monkey habitat.

Income from the farm’s coffee is currently being used to make improvements to the local school, install a small health clinic, and renovate workers’ housing. Beans are wet processed on the farm late in Nicaragua’s traditional harvest period (due to a microclimate of colder temperatures and often heavy cloud-cover) and are sun-dried in a valley far below.

Cupping notes: Balanced, juicy, floral, citrus, delicate, orange, sweet aftertaste.

Ham and Swiss

Buy a drink and save $1 on any of our hot, fresh panini or deli sandwiches, like our big handful of ham and Swiss cheese.

We've moved and expanded. To introduce you to our new location, Conscious Cup Coffee Roasters is offering you $1 off of your next purchase of a fresh, hot panini or deli sandwich with purchase of any drink. Present this coupon when you order to receive the discount.

You know our coffee and espresso drinks start with our freshly roasted, fine Arabica coffees. Just so, our sandwiches are freshly made, including the hand-mixed honey dijon on the simply savory sandwich above.

Print and clip the coupon below and bring it with you for $1 off any lunch sandwich.

You've all enjoyed our freshly roasted coffee -- deeply tasty and smooth.

Now Chef Michal Manno is introducing our fresh take on food.

Caprese Salad

The Caprese salad is a summer favorite and traditionally prepared with torn basil, fresh buffalo mozzarella, vine ripened tomatoes and then finished with organic baby spring mix.

Our house salad is simple pleasure: organic baby spring mix, carrots, cucumbers and tomato with a drizzle of honey splashed balsamic vinaigrette.

Looking for more excitement? Our summer salad features blushing strawberries with organic baby spring mix, tomatoes, goat cheese, candied walnuts in honey splashed balsamic vinaigrette. Chef Manno candies the walnuts in the kitchen, light and tasty.

Really hungry? Add our fresh-roasted, marinated chicken breast.

Platter up a handful of our ham and swiss, with lettuce, tomato, onion and our hand whipped honey dijon on a prezel bun.

Ham and Swiss

Oh, there's more, including delicious breakfast panini's that went so fast I didn't get a photo of them! You've really got to slip into our new cafe at 5005 Northwest Highway, Crystal Lake. You know you want a Mocha anyway, iced or hot.

Oh no!

We've now gone through several updates to fix bugs in our shopping cart. We've given up. Too much ambiguity and too many errors and support times measured in calendar pages.

So, please call us at 815-356-0115 during business hours and we'll take your order the old fashioned way, with pen and paper and then we'll make sure it's shipped promptly.

In the meantime, we're having a new shopping cart configured.

We will add a list of available coffees and prices on the "Shopping" page.

Dining out. Go fancy at Crystal Lake's 1776 restaurant, or at Duke's Alehouse and Kitchen, both serving delicious, fresh Conscious Cup Coffee. Try the decaf in the evening: You'll be surprised at the rich flavor.

Cook Street Coffee, downtown Barrington, IL

We consulted and trained staff for Tracey Kreiling's  Bells & Whistles , a charming location in a former drugstore in Glen Ellyn's downtown. Bells & Whistles is keenly family-focused with a game room and offers our espresso and coffee (and our drink preparation training) as well as Italian sodas, gourmet ice cream and a menu of sandwiches and salads. Yummy popcorn, too!

Where to go when you're not nearby Conscious Cup:

Java Planet

2400 Lake Shore Drive
Woodstock, IL 60098
(815) 338-4751

Bells & Whistles  Snackery

Address: 401-405 Main St.
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
Phone: 630.545.2355

Cook Street Coffee

100 East Station Street
Barrington, IL 60010
(847) 387-3768

Duke's Alehouse and Kitchen

110 North Main Street
Crystal Lake, IL 60014-4433
(815) 356-9980

1776

397 West Virginia Street
Crystal Lake, IL 60014
(815) 356-1776

Vero Beach at Dawn, Kurt Kamholtz

Our latest guest at Conscious Cup, who may if wishes come true linger for a time, is Kurt Kamholtz and his paintings.

Kurt is a graduate of Crystal Lake Central, from a time before it was "Central," and Illinois State University, where he studied art under Harold Gregor.

He admits that family and work diverted his attention for a while but lately has been resurrecting his painterly life. We display portions of his McHenry County on Canvas series and new works he calls Slack Tide. Vero Beach at Dawn, shown here is from the latter.

Slack Tide is a mind play; toe tag with the surf. Kurt describes the works as a progression, as Monet took from simple rural scenes to wall-sized water lily paintings. Slack Tide studies the interplay of color, light, texture and composition found at the water's edge. Kurt captures the serenity, beauty, and relentless tug of the surf on sand.

Andrew was born in Kampala, Uganda. Inspired by his sister at a young age to focus on his creative talents, he went on

to pursue art more seriously and received a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial and Commercial Arts from Nkumba University in 2001. In 2005, he moved to the US. His desire is to capture the,beauty of what God has created in a unique and interesting way.

Paintings are for sale. More about Andrew and his works can be found at www.andrewsentamu.com.

"At Bat" by Colin Burke on exhibit at Conscious Cup Coffee.

Colin Burke is a big fan of comic books, especially the exaggerated poses, bold lines, and striking colors of superhero comics. At the same time, he is fascinated with abstract paintings that feature heavy use of texture and color.

It is Colin’s appreciation for these two styles of art that drives him to create his own work. He brings elements of both illustrative and abstract artwork into his paintings. Colin captures emotion and energy in the subject of the work through color and texture. This style allows for constant experimentation, making every painting new and exciting.

You can find more of Colin’s work at swirlingpaint.com, as well as prints of most of his paintings.

If interested in purchasing a painting, please contact Colin through email at swirlingpaint [Email address: swirlingpaint #AT# gmail.com - replace #AT# with @ ], or by phone at 224-805-3840. 20% of all sales from this show will be donated to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation.

Colin grew up in Cary, IL, and received a B.F.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL. His work has been shown in various art fairs around northern Illinois, and has received several awards.