We all love Coffee Liqueur because it combines two of our favourite things: coffee and alcohol. But New Zealand Coffee Liqueur company Jumping Goat want to give you a third reason to love it, and that reason is the help it can provide.
Many spirit companies have used their platforms for good, donating to a variety of different causes; after all what better way to help create a better world, then through the collaborations of booze and charities.
And that’s what Callum O’Brien wanted to do when he set up Goats For Good. As the Goatfather of the Jumping Goat brand, O’Brien has pledged to donate 10% of gross profits from every bottle sold worldwide to Farm Africa. At a minimum that could help cover the costs of more than 300 goats for woman in Ethiopia.
Farm Africa works with pastoralist women living in South Omo in the drylands of Ethiopia. Through their Livestock For Livelihoods initiatives, they help them to set up sustainable, small-scale goat-rearing enterprises that can generate an income and provide their families with a more nutritious diet.
“As soon as I saw that, I was like, wow, that’s actually trying to give something back through business,” he said. “A lot of charities, you give money and that’s where it stops. They go and buy something and that’s the end of that money. Whereas here, they give them these goats and the goats breed, and it’s an everlasting cycle.
“The longer we work with Farm Africa, the more we see the work they’re doing and it’s pretty amazing,” O’Brien continued. “They’ve worked with so many women over there, and actually developing sustainable businesses, all through using goats.”
As well as donating goats and helping establish businesses around them, Farm Africa has also established community-run goat breeding stations where high-yielding dairy goats that are suited to the local landscape and climate can be bred and sold. And at the same time, they establish buck rearing stations where goat owners can bring their local does to crossbreed them.
“They don’t just give the animal and walk away,” O’Brien continued, “it is really training them to use those animals to create a business that goes further than just, ‘Hey, here’s a couple of goats, we’ll see you later.” It’s actually a program where they train these women to do everything that’s needed to make that whole program sustainable.”
“To us, it may seem like such a small scale thing, but for a lot of these women, it’s their own business. And so they can actually use it to not only provide nutrition for their family but they’re also taught how to use them as a business, sell the milk at markets and things like that which further supports their families. That’s really is pretty amazing.”
But the company’s connection with Ethiopia even extends to the brand name itself. As O’Brien explains it, the name of the company, Jumping Goats, actually comes from an age-old story about an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi. Kaldi had his herd of goats that often spent their days nibbling on berries.
As the story goes, the goats used to jump around late into the night and he couldn’t quite understand what was going on. So he ended up trying the berries and then realised the caffeinating effects of them. That is believed to be the story about how coffee came about.
“Really, it all started with goats that were jumping in the night. I guess that’s what we try and do with our products as well, except in our case, it’s to humans as those berries did to goats all those years ago,” explained O’Brien
If you’re looking to be a bit of a jumping goat, the brand has two variations The first is a vibrant coffee liqueur made with New Zealand vodka, fair trade organic cold brew coffee and spices. The second is a whisky spirit that uses a high-quality overproof Scotch & NZ whisky blend, as well arsenal cold-brew coffee in the infusions.
Jumping Goat is available in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, UK & the US. For more information, go to jumpinggoatliquor.com
