Introducing: Thanksgiving Coffee Company!

Um. Thanksgiving Coffee Company is awesome.


Why, you may ask? How bout the fact that their trucks run on Biodiesel? Or that their president Ben knows every employee's face and name? Maybe because they have been in the business since 1972 and they've been visiting several of the same coffee farms and families to this very day?

The list goes on and on, but perhaps the number one reason why Thanksgiving Coffee is so awesome, is because the coffee is ON. POINT.

Pia, Carl, Rey and I made the 3 and a half hour trip up to Fort Bragg this Monday. I rolled outta bed and somehow made it to the office by 6:30am. I knew I was going to have a lot of coffee that day, so I didn't have my morning cup which resulted in me falling asleep almost immediately in the backseat of the van. I was awoken by a bump in the road and the smell of burnt rubber. Yes folks, we had a flat tire. Luckily, Pia and I were in the company of two manly men who removed the flat and replaced it with an extremely sketchy doughnut spare tire from the trunk. I was nervous about driving up the winding forest road with a weird tiny tire, but we made it with all limbs intact.

We finally arrived at the Thanksgiving roasting facility and met up with Ben, the president. He made me a killer (and well-deserved) Americano using their Northern Italian Espresso which I sipped on while we roamed the property. We took a tour of the facility and met several of the employees--many who have been working there for decades. It was amazing to see sacks and sacks of green coffees from all different regions of the world. We were in luck--a shipment of brand new coffees had arrived that weekend and we were going to have the privilege of cupping the first batch of these beans with the company heads!


After the tour, we headed to the cupping room where Jacob, the Quality Control Manager had already laid out the dozen or so coffees that we were going to taste. He ground the coffees in their individual cups and had each of us smell the grinds. Even without water, each coffee totally took on a character of its own.





Jacob then filled each cup with hot water and the coffees really came alive. We took turns smelling each coffee again and I was totally surprised at how the aromas changed as the grinds married together with the water. Some coffees smelled earthy while others smelled like berries and fruit. We skimmed the tops of the coffees and prepared to actually taste them. I was nervous and feeling pretty self conscious about my slurping technique--I had secretly practiced it the night before. I wanted to look cool and everything for the extreme coffee pros, but after everyone rolled up their sleeves and really got into it, I realized that one night of slurping wasn't enough. No one seemed to say anything, so whatevs.



While tasting, we listened to Ben describe the differences in coffee regions, drying and roasting processes--every little factor helps to form the character of the bean.












Thanksgiving has a monthly single origin it features to their customers. The single origin of the month is the Musasa, Rwanda which just happened to be my favorite out of all the coffees on the table. Thanksgiving describes it as sugary-sweet with deep chocolate overtones and the pungent sweetness of grade-b maple syrup, this elegant coffee opens up on the palate to sparkling, juicy hints of orange and plum. I describe it as: awesome.

All of us in the cupping room:
Carl, Jacob, Pia, Emily, Ben, Jenais

As if our day couldn't get any more action packed--we headed over to Mendocino to the Thanksgiving Coffee Cafe and had a killer lunch. Paul Katzeff, the co-founder of Thanksgiving Coffee just so happened to be in the cafe roasting beans in a small roaster. We sat and picked his brain about coffee, the coffee industry, and Mendocino County.






After a fun filled day, I was sad to say goodbye to the Thanksgiving crew. I was also slightly sad to say goodbye to them, because I knew we'd be driving back on the weird tiny tire and I feared for my life a little. But, we had to do what we had to do. This time, I had enough caffeine in me to stay awake the entire drive home. We were all jazzed about our trip and can't wait to get back up there again.

As I sit here sipping on the Musasa, Rwanda, I can honestly appreciate every careful step it took to allow me to enjoy this killer cup of coffee. I know that the company that brought it to me seriously knows their stuff and I can't wait to learn more from them.