Are you a coffee lover? I am. I’ve loved coffee ever since I was a kid when I wasn’t allowed to drink coffee yet. Back then, I used to sneak past my mom’s watchful eye to grab an unexpected sip of her strong morning java. I used to devour the flavor of coffee, and I couldn’t wait until I was grown up enough to be able to drink this aromatic adult beverage.
Nowadays, I drink my morning coffee religiously. I honestly can’t start my day without coffee. And, over the years, I’ve tried many different coffee brewing methods. Surprisingly, I’ve found that Greek and Turkish coffee and European brews are my all-time favorite brewing methods.
I’ve recently purchased a little Turkish pot made out of copper to boil coffee the traditional way. I also invested in a good bur coffee grinder to precisely grind coffee beans. I’m much pleased with this brewing method! I always buy coffee in whole beans so that I can grind them myself.
Because coffee is the most heavily sprayed crop globally, I’m always searching for high-quality organic coffee. My favorite flavors are Arabica coffee with caramel and chocolate undertones. But I appreciate various Robusta flavors as well.
Did you know that coffee is like wine or even more complex than that? There are so many varieties of coffee. So, don’t stick to just your regular Dunkin Donuts. Try different brewing methods and flavors. You will be surprised how difficult it is to go back to drinking ordinary coffee.
As such, recently, I’ve stumbled upon a coffee brand with truly eye-catching packaging and a pretty humbling mission: to roast their small batches of coffee every day of the week so that it stays fresh.
Introducing: Joshua Tree Coffee Supply located in Joshua Tree, California.
I’ve contacted Joshua Tree to find out more information about this innovative company, and here is what I’ve found:
“We have five roasts: The First Roast (medium-dark, most popular), Espresso (dark roast), Breakfast Bliss (medium roast), Mellow Ethiopian (light roast), and Delicious Decaf (medium roast).
Here are some fun facts about us and what we do: We roast every day of the week as we currently have over 90 accounts in California that brew or retail our coffee and roast over 100,000 lbs a year! We’ve come a long way from roasting 2 pounds at a time out of our home kitchen (but are still doing everything by hand and with love out of our tiny 500 sq ft facility in Joshua Tree).
You should ideally consume coffee within 2-14 days of roast (we ship immediately after roasting and this is the period in which the coffee is off-gassing C02 which protects it from oxidization). If you don’t get around to drinking it that quickly, it will still taste great. The industry says 90 days (or more) and we say you should definitely try to order such that it will be enjoyed within 4-6 weeks after roast.
Coffee is the most heavily sprayed food crop in the world. 25 million farmers produce 13 billion pounds of coffee annually and often use banned pesticides and don’t wear any kind of safety equipment (they should have Tyvek suits, respirators, and face shields and have none of that). The direct impact on them, as well as soil runoff and groundwater contamination (from the 100’s of billions of gallons of pesticides sprayed on coffee crops), has a tremendous impact. Less than 2% of the coffee in the world is organic and owner founded the company specifically to create a direct offset with every pound sold and to educate as many people as possible about the importance of organic (as it applies to all crops too and not just coffee).
We roast on the only reinvention of the roaster ever, the Loring Smart Roaster. It uses 10% of the natural gas of a traditional roaster, is near zero-emission, has a burner in the cyclone rather than under the drum the coffee is in (for a more gentle, even roast), and creates a near zero oxygen roast environment.
Also, in roasting, there’s an endothermic reaction, exothermic reaction, Maillard reaction, caramelization of the sugars, and a Strecker degradation. How we hit each of those set points, at what temperature, and for how long, all varies based on varietal (i.e., Bourbon, Typica, Castillo, etc.), growing altitude, soil conditions, and even crop to crop variance. Sourcing, roasting, blending and everything else are tremendously complicated and nuanced. Wine has 500 flavor and aromatic components, green coffee (unroasted) has 400, and after roasting, that triples to 1,200. As defined by science, coffee is over twice as complex as wine! Among other things, we use a laboratory-grade refractometer to brew to Gold Cup Standard (1.25-1.4% TDS and 18-22% extraction yield) at our roastery.”
Interestingly, Joshua Tree’s newest addition is a roast called: Bali Kintamani. It’s a single-origin roast excellent for those searching for a roast even lighter than their Mellow Ethiopian coffee. The company spent several months perfecting this particular roast. Could we assert that this small business truly cares how you feel about their coffee? I think so.
Joshua Tree Coffee Company’s attractive packaging and branding are so captivating that you might even want to leave the pretty pink bag on your counter to admire it every day. In addition, I’ve been eyeing their enamel pastel pink coffee cup handmade in Poland, out of all places: made in my birth country!
What’s more interesting, besides single coffee packaging and beautifully branded merch, you can build a custom coffee plan to get your favorite Joshua Tree roasts delivered regularly on your schedule and never miss an order.
Well, all this coffee talk makes me thirsty for some good coffee. I can already smell the fresh beans meticulously roasted in the small town of Joshua Tree in the high desert of California. So, I think I will go back to their website and browse various coffees and charming pink mugs made in my very own country: Poland.
But first, I must grind and brew my favorite coffee decoction!
Should it be Turkish or Greek this time?
Photos: Joshua Tree Coffee
Featured photo: snapbythree
