Of fathers and daughters

Life has been pretty crazy around the Holmes' household for quite a while now. I have been so consumed with moving and settling into a new city, a new house and starting a new business that it is easy to lose focus on things that really matter. Through all the craziness, I think each of my daughters have grown about an inch.

I feel like I have missed it.

I turned around and said, "When did this happen? When did you get so tall?" I have been so wrapped up in all my own stuff, my daughters have gone about their business of getting older - without me.

Following the advice of a dear friend I took Abby (my oldest) to a "Fathers and Daughters Summit" today. These summits are put on by the National Center for Fathering. It was well done. I am so glad I went. How refreshing to be in the same room with 400 other fathers and daughters who desire a good relationship with each other.

To be quite honest, I was not super excited about going. I had a ton to do today - none of which got done. I had some great conversations with Abby though - conversations that were long overdue. It was a great day.

Emma - you're next.

Mark's Brothers are now selling coffee

We're open.

It's been quite a process, but we are now up and running. Mark's Brothers Big World Coffee Roasters is now in business. Visit us at www.marksbrotherscoffee.com. Our site is functioning but we are still finding revisions. Be patient.

If you live in the Dallas area, stop by the shop between 10:00am and 2:00pm (or whenever you see the light on). We are located at at 1915 Central Expressway in Plano (the south west corner of Central Expressway and Park Blvd - behind the Fishmongers and near the Asel Art). The suite number is 340. We don't have a sign yet - coming soon.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in what we are trying to do - who might be intrigued by our story and stories of the coffees we are trying to sell, please point them to our web site.

Thanks

O.K. - Kelly here (Greg's wife). I'm supposed to be editing his post, but I'm here to say that he copied mine minus the bling (he's really tired).

The honest to goodness deal is that this coffee is amazing; we are thrilled to have our website functioning (even with revisions forthcoming); and you have been tremendous in your support. And, well, we're REALLY HAPPY to be roasting coffee that is amazing - I'm loving it and we're hearing great things. Thank you! Your word of mouth plus great coffee are the best marketing tools we have going for us.

Don't tell him I invaded his blog; He'll never know.

More progress

We moved into our new home this last weekend. We are living in the midst of boxes and are surrounded by little projects that need to be done to make our house our unique home. It is great to be in our space again, though. We are very thankful. We love our new place.

I'm roasting - running "junk" beans through our roaster to get it seasoned and calibrated.

We were just told this morning that our web site should be up and running next week.

Soon we will be open for business.

Progress

As anyone who has started a new business already knows - there are about 15 things that need to happen (hopefully concurrently) before a business can really be up and running - there are legal issues, finance issues, accounting and book keeping issues, marketing issues, inventory, sales, purchasing, etc.



We are slowly but surely crossing things off our list.



This past week was the "dealing with the building and health departments in the city of Plano" week. No fun. The city has never dealt with a coffee roastery before, so they are not quite sure how to classify us. We are not a coffee shop. We aren't serving coffee by the cup - or any beverage - or any food items. But coffee is obviously ingested, so sanitation is very important. Pinpointing the exact requirements has been a bit of a puzzle for the city. In a way it's good that the city doesn't know what to do with a roastery - it means there's not a lot of local competition. But, we have had to adapt to several building requirements that we weren't expecting. Some of the requirements aren't too costly. Others, however...



The biggest requirement we have had to adapt to was the health department saying we had to install a 3 compartment sink (like in commercial kitchens), a hand washing sink, and a mop sink. That's all on top of a sink we already have in our bathroom. In case you are keeping score - that's six sinks.



Six sinks.



And - all those new sinks have to be in our prep area where - you guessed it - we did not already have plumbing. So, we have been doing our best this past week to keep area plumbers employed during a down economy.



On a brighter note - our big new roaster came in. It's hooked up and our vent stack is installed. The gas company is coming by today to check everything out and turn the gas on. We will start calibrating and seasoning the machine this week.



Very exciting.

Hurry up and wait

Nothing quite goes like it's supposed to.



Everything seems to take longer than it needs to.



Starting a business is not for the feint of heart. The learning curve is pretty steep. Stress levels get pretty high. Every day is a new obstacle. Some of the obstacles are external - venders who don't return your call - landlords who... don't return your call - coffee roaster manufacturers who... don't return your call - stuff like that. Some of the obstacles are internal. It's pretty overwhelming having to get good at about 10 things at once, knowing that about 9 of them I have never done before. It can get paralyzing if you are not careful. There is a reason why accounting, finance, marketing, real estate, sales, and web design are all professional jobs for professional people. I am in one of those "Am I in way over my head?" stages of life. It's exciting and terrifying all at the same time.



I made an important decision today though. I ordered my first shipment of coffee. I am super excited; we have some great coffees coming in. We have been sample roasting and cupping coffee after coffee over the last 3 weeks. Our goal was to start out with a manageable handful of coffees - with a good mix of Central and South America, Indonesia and Africa. We also want a good flavor mix of: mellow and balanced, buttery and sweet, fruity, deep and dark, along with a great tasting decaf. Above all of that, who we buy the coffee from and under what terms is an issue that is very important to us. We have had the privilege of beginning the process of relationship building both with our buyer who shares our values and the farmers whose coffee we'll carry. Each of our coffees were purchased at or above Fair Trade prices. And, there are some exciting stories of what's going on in those regions as a result of the premiums these fine coffees are fetching - schools being built - standard of living increasing. Cool stuff.



Here are the coffees we will be carrying. You will hear more about these coffees - and the stories that surround them soon. And, when our web site is done - there will be much more there.



1. Guatemala Huehuetenangeo Rio Azul - This is a wonderful, smooth and balanced coffee. It has a gentle nutty flavor that makes you just want to drink it all day.

2. Brazil Mogiana Natural Yellow Bourbon Fazenda Cachoeira - Wow - this coffee is awesome. It is naturally sweet and buttery - like an oreo cookie dipped in heavy whipping cream.

3. Ethiopia Natural Sidamo Gerbichu Lela. Starbucks carries a Sidamo - and it's a crying shame what they do to that coffee. The Ethiopian Sidamo has one of the most prized and distinct coffee flavors in all the world. When roasted right a good Sidamo should taste like a cup of blueberries. We roast it right - it's blueberries forever, dude. If I'm lyin' I'm dyin'. This coffee is flat out incredible. Starbucks roasts theirs so dark that those delicate blueberry notes are burned and (literally) go up in smoke. It's real shame. If you have never tasted a good Sidamo, I can't wait for you to taste ours.

4. Sulawesi Torajaland. This is a deep, dark, heavy, and powerful Indonesian coffee - a good coffee to brood by. It has a long aftertaste on the back of tongue. This coffee has some meat on its bones.

5. Tanzania Peaberry Songea. Grown in the acidic soil and shadow of Mt. Kileminjaro, this is an exotic flavor that we just had to carry. It has a subtle tart fruitiness - like a dry red wine. It's really a great coffee.

6. Peru Mountain Water Decaf. This is an all natural and organic decaffeinating process - not too dissimilar to Swiss Water process. Having cupped them side by side, however, I think the Mountain Water process they do in Latin America retains far more subtle coffee flavors than Swiss Water. Swiss Water decafs have always tasted a bit "thin" to me - like the flavor left with the caffeine. Not so this Peru. This is a wonderful coffee that you would swear was not decaffeinated.



That's what we are starting with. They should be here in a week or so. I'll let you know when we are open for business.

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.