Coffee company drops Kickapoo name

VIROQUA, Wis. – Kickapoo Coffee devotees need to adjust to a name change. In August the locally ground beans will be rebranded as Wonderstate Coffee. TJ Semanchin, president of the coffee company, said too many people figured the coffee was named after the Kickapoo indigenous tribe. Semanchin said that such was never intended. The name, he said, came from the Kickapoo River, a120-mile wild river in southwest Wisconsin. Even so, Semanchin said, he began considering a new name two years to avoid the suspicion of cultural appropriation. “We need to consider the harm that we possibly were doing unintentionally,” he said.