Let me start with a question: What gets you out of bed in the morning?
It lies on the cusp of what it means to be human. Is it coffee? Is it your job? Perhaps your partner, or even kids.
Ultimately, the answer should be passion, in whatever form. Luckily our passion bounces us out of bed.
Spend any time in the specialty coffee industry and you’ll notice coffee drinkers, coffee roasters, baristas and enthusiasts alike are all united in a journey. Coffee wakes us up, gets us together, and pushes us forward.
In our world, coffee is a simple pleasure, but an often needed one. It’s the little push in the morning to get our work done and, we work a little harder so we can play a little more.
Yet somewhere along the way, coffee gets so infused in our lives, it begins to tell a story. It’s the story from farm to cup, but it’s also a story of community.
This blog series is all about exposing those stories, whether it’s local news or international impacts on our favorite crop. We want to introduce you into our passion and spark some interest of your own. For those of you bouncing out of bed already, consider this kindlewood.
Today, we’re starting with our story.
Rewind a little bit. I met Joe as a budding enthusiast a couple years back…
I was finishing up my associates degree at Wake Tech, living next to State’s campus. I had just joined Raleigh Coffee Club, a group where we tried a local coffee once a week and talked about it. Each week came alive to what coffee I would have, how I would drink it, how I experienced it. In fact, Raleigh Coffee Company was the first coffee roastery I had ever set foot in.
Few things compare with your first experience in a roastery. A sanctuary for the caffeinated. I traveled down that long hallway, my excitement paired with the smells that led me from The Meat House. The air pushes you into Joe’s communal, a space for each coffee and their flavors. I found myself intrigued with every new, rich encounter.
Joe had recently opened and I immediately wanted to help him in sharing specialty coffee with the world. Working together, I started teaching coffee classes. In the class, we talked farm to cup and worked through brewing methods. Next thing I knew, summer was over and I had began working as a Barista while attending UNC Chapel Hill.
It was a small time gig, but an opening of pandora’s box for me. There I found my desire to teach more, learn more, and simply make more coffee.
That’s what drove me to learn about Raleigh Coffee Company. The affordance of a small roaster is that he has no allegiance but to his community. He can experiment and he can engage.
That’s why we source from various import groups: to ensure diversity and quality in our coffee. So we find things different and special. We also value coffee from every part of the world so, as we build our roasting profiles, you develop your tasting preferences too.
And our story continues to grow. As the blog comes weekly, expect more of us.
Tuesday’s we will throw at you what’s homegrown and keep you up-to-date on world coffee news. This is time we’ll take to talk about trends, local and national, as well as think about coffee as an industry.
Thursdays we’ll be more personal as we spend time talking about ways to better experience your coffee.
Feel free to engage ! Like our coffee, we want to be saturated in our community.