The Baylor coffee you can serve at home — and that serves others around the world

Every Bear of the past two decades knows Common Grounds, the iconic coffeehouse that’s served a generation of students and their families. What you might not know is that Common Grounds’ owners, both Baylor graduates, harbor a missional conviction that business should be a means to enrich the lives of others. Thanks to a fitting partnership with their alma mater, there’s a new coffee creation that does just that: Baylor Blend.

The key? Common Grounds will donate $5 for every bag of Baylor Blend sold to the Baylor Missions fund, helping send BU students abroad to serve and learn.

Common Grounds’ owners, Blake (BA ’08) and Kimberly (BA ’07) Batson, have long partnered with coffee-growing communities in Central and South America, seeking relationships with ethical companies behind the coffee we enjoy. One of those farms is Café’ Aurora in Guatemala, the source for Baylor Blend. The farm, which pays all workers living wages in the face of grueling economic conditions, is linked to Baylor Blend in ways that go far beyond growing and harvesting.

Berthed from a desire to support the people at farms like Café Aurora more deeply, the Batsons created an endowed missions fund at Baylor that will support Baylor Missions in perpetuity.

“Our vision is to utilize the Common Grounds Missions Endowment Fund to send as many Baylor students as possible to Guatemala and other undeveloped nations to offer real support to coffee farms such as Cafe Aurora and the workers therein,” Blake says. “In doing so, our hope is that the Baylor Blend coffee vision would align with Baylor’s mission as a whole to be a support to underdeveloped nations globally.”

Baylor Blend is just the latest partnership between Baylor and Common Grounds, including the new location in the Bill Daniel Student Center that opened last fall. Discussions of shared values led to the new brew, with the end goal fixed firmly in mind.

Of course, you can’t talk about coffee without highlighting the flavor: think notes of hazelnut, apple and caramel amidst a 50/50 blend of Guatemalan and Brazilian beans. The coffee is available at the Common Grounds location inside the Bill Daniel Student Center and through the Common Grounds website.

Sic ’em, Baylor Blend!