Twice a year, the Durham Lemur Center hosts Lemurpalooza, an open house and adoption event to support their amazing animals. Donations made through the Adopt A Lemur program not only support the lemurs, but the education, research, and conservation programs run by the DLC.
In honor of the event being held on Saturday, October 7th, our management team at the Duke University café has created a special syrup named after the sifaka lemur. This syrup - which combines sweet potatoes, lemongrass, clove, star anise, and sugar - will be featured as a seasonal latte and available for a limited time only. The Sifaka Latte offers a unique blend of traditional fall flavors with the spices of Madagascar, from which lemurs are native. Cydni Patterson, the Assistant Store Manager at Duke explains the inspiration behind her creation:
One of the inspirations for the syrup is the holiday season. Sweet potatoes are a staple at every family gathering for my family. It was a pleasant surprise when Lydia told me that one of the aspects of their conservation efforts was encouraging farms to move towards sweet potatoes as a cash crop instead of rice. Rice depletes the land and had added to lemur habitat depletion. The spices are spices used in Malagasy cuisine, and are exported as well. Since the Duke Lemur Center has been cleared to start up an agriforestry program to help the lemur conservation efforts, I thought it would be really cool to use some spices that they may be growing. The lemur center has recognized that centering their conservation around improving the lives of the Malagasy people, if they are going to be able to improve the lives of lemurs long term. It’s just a beautiful example of how we are all interconnected.
Although event spaces for this weekend’s Lemurpalooza are full, you can still support the DLC’s Adopt A Lemur program by adopting your favorite species HERE or by visiting our Duke Univesity café at 120 Science Drive in Durham. For every purchase of a Sifaka Latte, Joe Van Gogh will donate 25 cents to the Durham Lemur Center.