What's in a name?

It's been an eventful week. I spent about 4 days in Clearwater, Florida with the manufacturer of the Coffee roaster we are buying. I learned a ton - not only about how to use and maintain the machine, but about the business of buying, roasting, packaging, marketing, and selling coffee. It was a bit overwhelming.

Before my brother and I left for Florida, we made an offer on some commercial space that we are pretty excited about. It looks like it is going to happen. We have a few details to finalize and some discussions with the city about permitting before we sign the lease. We are hopeful though.

While we were gone we received all our paperwork from the state. We are official now. Our company's name is... are you ready?

Mark's Brothers BIG WORLD Coffee Roasters.

This company is a partnership between my brother Brian and myself. Our oldest brother Mark is not really part of the business. He doesn't even care that much about coffee. But, seeing as though Brian and I are both "Mark's brothers" we thought we would include him in our title.

The "Big World" part comes from our desire to expand people's view of the world. We want to do that in a few different ways. First, we want to expand people's world by introducing consumers to the individuals that grow their coffee. Coffee is grown by real people who harvest and process their crop by hand in some of the most beautiful yet poverty stricken places on the planet. Our view of the world needs to expand to include people like these - places like these. So often, our own personal world tends to get so small and closed in around us - my friends, my job, my house, my family, my stuff. But it is a big world filled with exotic places and wonderful people made in the image of God.

We also want to expand people's world by introducing coffee flavors that most people have never tasted. And, when I say "flavor" I am not talking about "hazelnut" or "vanilla" - I am talking about flavors of origin. Each country, each region, each species of coffee plant has it's own flavor profile that is apparent when the coffee is roasted properly. I have been roasting and drinking exotic specialty coffee for several years now. I continue to come across flavors I have never tasted before. If you had to, could you tell the difference between a coffee grown in Tanzania vs. one grown in Burundi? What about Papua New Guinea vs. East Timor? There are wonderful coffees being grown in places I have trouble finding on a globe. And each one is distinct. I think it is exciting.

To us - it's an adventure. It's an opportunity to be introduced to people we have never met before who live in places we know very little about - who are producing wonderfully distinct coffee.

We hope others are up for an adventure as well.

Met some cool people today

I took a road trip today down to Austin to meet with the owners of Third Coast Coffee Roasting Company. They graciously agreed to welcome me in, let me see their operation and answer my questions about starting a roastery. That kind of openness is extraordinarily rare in this business. No one wants to talk. Third Coast talked to me, however - and for that I am very grateful. I learned a lot today and met some really cool people. It was well worth the 7 hours I spent in the car.

Check out this awsomeness

This is the roaster we're getting. Ours will be red instead of yellow - which is even better.

Ok - here's the deal

For the last two months I have been living with my brother and his family - which has been great - in a sort of hectic, vacationing kind of way. We are still waiting for our house to sell in Kansas. It's under contract, but the buyers need their house to sell first - you know how it goes.

In the mean time I have been hanging out at my brother's and I have been scrambling to figure out what the next chapter of my life will look like.


Here's what I know so far. I am going to be following two paths at once.


Path number 1.

Chase Oaks Church (http://www.chaseoaks.org/) . I have had the opportunity over this past year to get to know a few of the pastors at the church where my brother attends. They have been gracious and generous in offering counsel and help as I have dealt with some pretty tough issues.
Now that I am in town they have given me the opportunity to help out with their arts/production team. I have oversight over the production of the weekend services. It's a pretty big church - 5 weekend services divided between two venues. And, those two venues have a very different feel and different target audiences. My role is to use my arts background and my pastoral experience to help shape those weekend gatherings.
The learning curve - at least technically - is fairly steep here at the beginning. There are a couple of software programs that I need to ramp up on pretty quickly. It's been great to hang out with some wonderfully creative and gracious people. It's just a part-time gig though and doesn't really pay the bills. So...

Path number 2

Coffee, coffee, and more coffee. My brother and I have decided to take the plunge and open a coffee roastery focusing on organic fair trade coffee. I have been home roasting for about 4 years, and during that time I have become more aware of the inequities of the global coffee exchange. Our desire is to not only sell wonderful coffee, but to run a roastery as an extension of my ministry and my heart to meet people at their point of need.


Here are some facts about coffee that you might like to know.


Coffee is the second-highest traded commodity in the world and fifty percent of it is grown on small family farms. In America alone 2.3 billion pounds of coffee is consumed each year and for every daily coffee drinker there is a worker that depends on the crop for his or her livelihood. But the majority of small family farmers are living in poverty. They don’t have the money or the means necessary to transport their crop from their mountain-growing communities to their local market. They must rely on local middlemen to buy their crop from them. Forced to sell at rock-bottom prices with no other means of income and no other option to exhaust, the small coffee farmer gets stuck in a cycle of dependency that becomes impossible to break.



That's where "Fair Trade" organizations come in. These organizations gather farmers into producing coops (giving the farmer much more selling power). Distribution channels can then be provided to these coops so that they can sell directly to importers and bypass the typical auction system and all of its middlemen. Organizations like TransFair set a minimum "fair" price for coffee increasing the likelihood that growers could make a living off their crop. And, cutting out middlemen means that even though the growers are receiving more per pound - the consumer is not paying much more for a Fair Trade product.

It's a great idea - and it's working.

Part of the Fair Trade premiums that coops receive are retained by the coops and used for community development projects in the communities where the farmers live. I've been so encouraged to read report after report of schools and health clinics and wells and bridges being built - all through Fair Trade premiums. I love that.

My hope is that others will love it too.

Needless to say, the last month has been full of research - researching commercial roasters and packaging equipment, semi-industrial lease space, sources for green organic fair trade coffee, sales and distribution channels, etc. Lots of information gathering.

We have a name (but it's not legal yet - hopefully this week - I'll let you know). Our roaster will be arriving at the end of the month. I'll be attending a four day class next week in Florida to learn how to use and maintain our new roaster. Our hope is to be up and running by early February. We have a daunting amount of work to do before then.

The focus of our new business will be:
1. Wholesale roasting for restaurants, cafes and churches who want a fresh roasted, values driven product to provide for their customers.
2. Private label wholesale roasting - for shops and cafes who wish to resell our coffee under their label.
3. Retail sales through our web site. (coming soon)
4. Fundraising - for schools and church youth groups who desire to sell something a little more values driven than cookie dough and popcorn.

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I'll keep you informed.