'Tis the Season to Reflect... on our 2019 journey!

In this last post of the year, we wanted to focus on the most important people in the Ethos world this year - YOU!

We want to thank you (forever and always) for one more year, and also invite you to join us on reflecting on your journey this year - to celebrate everything you’ve accomplished this year, to be grateful for everyone and everything in your life this year, and to learn from this year’s lessons of the missteps that we’re humanly bound to make.

At the beginning of this year, we started posting an inspirational quote on our Instagram (@ethosroasters) every Monday - in an effort to articulate a little better what Ethos means (much more than great coffee!) - it’s a call to act on the idea that each of us -directly and indirectly- gets to make a difference in the lives of others, and gets to shape the kind of world we want to live in. Each day, we’re grateful for the amazing opportunity to continue to make an impact through coffee, and to roast for amazing people like you, who share our burning desire to make a difference!

We thought it was only fitting to end 2019 - and our call for collective reflection on our journey - with our 10 favorite quotes from this year:

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?” (Martin Luther King Jr. | Posted Jan 21, 2019)

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible” (Dalai Lama | Posted Feb 25, 2019)

“ To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift” (Steve Prefontaine | Posted Mar 11, 2019)

“Give to the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you” (Edward Bok | Posted Apr 22, 2019)

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves” (William Shakespeare | Posted May 20, 2019)

“Freedom cannot be bestowed, it must be achieved” (Franklin Delano Roosevelt | Posted Jul 1, 2019)

“You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe” (Oprah Winfrey | Posted Sep 9, 2019)

“The only true gift is a portion of yourself” (Ralph Waldo Emerson | Posted Oct 7, 2019)

“The price of greatness is responsibility” (Winston Churchill | Posted Nov 18, 2019)

“It is not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving” (Mother Theresa, | Posted Dec 23, 2019)

Thank you for one more year of Brewing Greatness in the world!

Jolian & Lisbeth

'Tis the Season to be Grateful... for those who Brew Greatness!

Happy Thanksgiving! Today we celebrate one of the most beautiful Holidays in the world - a day that’s all about coming together and appreciating all the wonderful people in our lives and all the amazing things - tangible and intangible - we get to have, and all the precious moments we get to experience!

Today - and every day - we’re grateful for YOU… and we hope to never miss an opportunity to say it! In this opportunity, we want to especially thank you for constantly reminding us - through each single order, post, message, ‘share’, conversation, and interaction with us - that there’s others like us. Those who also want to go beyond drinking a better cup of coffee, those who care deeply about making a difference… about Brewing Greatness in the world!

We hope today - and this weekend - is a Holiday filled with many happy moments, yet most importantly, with many opportunities to thank those who make a difference in your life.

Thank YOU for making a difference in our lives, and for making our Ethos of “Brewing Greatness” - possible!

With all our hearts,

Jolian & Lisbeth

RE: Our Top Coffee Storage Tips!

Summer is here again, which means our “RE:” Summer Series on scientific answers to your coffee questions is back! In this first edition, we wanted to cover a topic that’s always relevant, yet especially important during the summer months, when temperature and humidity levels are at their peak…

OUR TOP COFFEE STORAGE TIPS (to keep freshness and keep Brewing Greatness!)

[ Hint: each tip addresses one of the three main factors responsible for the loss of aromatics and flavor changes in coffee - Temperature, Oxygen, and Moisture - which you can remember with the acronym “TOM”]

1- Keep your beans cool! Temperature is one of the main factors affecting your coffee’s shelf-life, so keeping your beans at temperatures below 75°F is a must during the summer months! If you’re traveling and taking your freshly roasted beans with you (which we love to do!), place them in your carry-on, and avoid leaving them in the trunk of your car (which gets really hot!). Generally speaking, chemical reaction rates tend to double for every 10° rise in temperature, which means that beans that would last fresh for a month in a cool place may only stay fresh for a week or two in our summer temperatures!

2. Keep your beans inside an air-tight container. Exposing your beans to the air not only “steals” away its amazing aromatics… the oxygen in the air also reacts with the naturally occurring oils in your coffee, and begin a series of oxidation reactions that result in undesirable breakdown products like peroxides, aldehydes, ketones, and free fatty acids (i.e. rancid taste).

3. Keep your beans in a dry environment. This is perhaps our most insightful tip, particularly if you live in a place where summers are both hot and humid - like Florida! Most never think of moisture as having a large impact on shelf-life - yet its effects are profound! Oxidation reactions in extremely low-moisture foods like coffee are mostly diffusion-limited, which means even tiny increases in moisture content can increase diffusion - and oxidation rates - dramatically. One of the reasons we do NOT recommend placing your beans in the fridge, is that humidity inside your fridge tends to be relatively high (plus, it also de-gasses your beans faster, and they may absorb extraneous odors from the other foods in your fridge).

So, remember to avoid ‘TOM’ and keep your beans in a cool, dark, dry, air-tight container so you can enjoy them at their best!

Always grateful to get to roast for you… let’s keep Brewing Greatness!

Jolian & Lisbeth

PS. July 1st is the last day to sign-up for our trip to Guatemala in 2020! If this is something you really want to do… please consider joining us! Sign up at eo.travel/ethosroasters

Let's make it better! (New harvests will arrive soon!)

It’s such an exciting time! Our peak arrival season for new coffees is just beginning, and we can’t wait to introduce you to new origins and new favorites - while renewing all-time favorites!

We’ve renewed our commitment to our Poaquil partners in Guatemala (we’re now in our 4th consecutive year - we began sourcing from them since our early roasting days back in 2016!). We’ll be doubling our order this year, and adding some very special Natural and Honey processes from their most select Red Bourbon beans they’re doing just for us! We’ll keep sharing pictures (there’s some good ones on the drying process) on Instagram and keep you posted!

We’re also renewing our commitment to our Cafe Femenino offerings. Opportunity and equality for women around the world is a cause worth championing, and as a women-led business, is particularly close to our heart. It has been repeatedly shown that lifting women benefits not just their families, but also their communities, and perhaps most importantly - serves as an example for the next generation of women to aspire and dream even bigger!

Beyond these, and our core Signature Blends, we’ll be searching for coffees with the ability to Brew Greatness in the world - coffees that not just taste great, but have a compelling story and real impact. We realize our never-ending search for “better” is hard (as we may be discontinuing an old favorite), yet it is only through change, and the belief that better is always possible, that we can continue to raise the bar! So, we invite you to help us make our upcoming sourcing season even better… by sharing with us your “wish list” of regions/flavor profiles you’d like us to feature!

Finally, as some of you with recent orders may already know, we’ve launched our new "Featured Coffee” sampling program - we’ll feature a particular single-origin or blend each month, and include it with every order - along with a profile card that will tell you more about it! This month’s feature is Black Swan. We hope you’ll love this (please tell us - tag @ethosroasters on your Facebook/Instagram posts).

Always deeply grateful for the privilege to roast and Brew Greatness in the world with you!

Jolian & Lisbeth

PS. If you have a few minutes (and haven’t yet done it), we would be forever grateful if you could review us on Google and/or Facebook - as it will help other coffee (and impact) lovers (like us)… find us!

Spotlight on Greatness 2019

As we reflect back on these first 3 years of Brewing Greatness, we realize that one of the best things along this journey (besides getting to roast coffee for amazing, like-minded people who also believe we can change the world!), has been working with some amazing, inspiring entrepreneurs! So, we couldn’t think of a better way to end our 3-year anniversary celebrations than to do a “Spotlight on Greatness” on 3 of our partners who are Brewing Greatness with us!

Chef Ivy Wolf | Ugly Cupcake Muffinry | Jacksonville Beach FL

Chef Ivy Wolf reached out to us when she was looking for a coffee roaster who shared her values (of high quality, sustainability, freshness, and making a difference!). To say she’s passionate, creative, and experienced is an understatement - she has a background in Psychology, a prior career in athletics as a professional Equestrienne, and a decade of culinary experience. During the past 5 years, Chef Wolf has refined her focus to fresh and healthy eating. She believes (as we do!) that eating well is the key to good health, and that doing so can be done in exciting, creative ways. She features fresh, local ingredients crafted with professional perfection... everything from the Bruffins to the Benedicts is absolutely amazing, with beach views and coffee to match! (Instagram @uglycupcakemuffinry). So, the next time you’re in the Jacksonville area, we hope you’ll give her a chance to delight you! Menu, hours and more at www.theuglycupcakemuffinry.com

Meghan & Stewart Mackie | N+1 Coffee | Winter Haven FL

N+1 Coffee started about a year ago, when the Mackies decided to add a high-quality craft coffee bar to their Bike Shop, and to their hometown! Their name was inspired by the idea that the ideal number of coffees (or friends, or bikes) is always N+1 (i.e. you can always have one more!). N+1 has now outgrown its original spot inside the Bike Shop and has now its own (beautiful - find them on Instagram @nplus1coffee) space next to the Bike Shop, and they’re open every day of the week! They feature an impressive Pour-Over menu, Espresso drinks (pulled on a state-of-the-art “Strada”), Cold Brew, loose-leaf teas, and locally baked pastries. They pick up freshly roasted coffee every week (yes, every week!) to ensure unparalleled freshness… and we’re already planning some Ethos Cuppings (aka. coffee tastings) there for this Summer, so stay tuned! More at www.facebook.com/nplusonecoffee/

Berna & Erkan Nar | The Market at Cafe Zuppina | Lakeland FL

We were introduced to Berna & Erkan through two of our amazing Ethos fans - who are also huge fans of their fine-dining restaurant, Cafe Zuppina (which, by the way, is the best restaurant in Lakeland - according to many local publications, and perhaps most impressively - over 500 reviewers in TripAdvisor). They are known for being “passionately committed to offering the freshest organic and local ingredients possible” and all we can say is that their level of care and focus on quality of every single ingredient is admirable - they taste-tested each of our coffee origins and blends against several local (and national) roasters, and on several methods (including traditional, sand-cooked Turkish coffee!). We were impressed with their level of professionalism, their depth of research, and honestly ecstatic when they told us they’d chosen us to be their roasters! If there’s a foodie paradise in Lakeland, this is it! World-class, yet fresh and locally sourced, Mediterranean food, craft coffee, Italian gelato, and French pastries by people who are deeply passionate, highly trained, and well-traveled (and it shows!). More at www.cafezuppina.com

We hope you’re ready to discover a new favorite place! AND… if you make it to ALL 3 before the end of 2019 - we’d like to offer you a FREE 1-lb of coffee of your choice completely on us (we’ll ship free too!). Just: (1) visit and take a picture at each place, (2) share on Facebook and Instagram (don’t forget to tag us - @ethosroasters), and (3) send us an email with your IG handle, your name, and shipping address… and choice of coffee!

We can’t wait to see your posts… and hear your thoughts on these amazing places!

Thank you for choosing to Brew Greatness in the world with us!

Jolian & Lisbeth

Happy 2019! | This is YOUR year!

We hope you’re having a great start to YOUR year! These first days of the year have truly flown by us, yet we wanted to take a moment and give you an update on our plans for 2019!

Our main goal this year is to make it YOUR year - to find ways to do more, and give more to you - the people that we get to roast for! We want to make sure you not just fall in love with the coffee - but with our mission to create opportunities for small farmers and with our vision of a world where no child has to sacrifice school (for a life in the coffee fields) to help their parents feed their siblings - that is our dream*! We know we can’t do it alone, and that for us to achieve that dream, we must become coffee worth sharing!

This year, we want to make sure we give you an experience worth sharing - worth sharing based on a particular coffee you love or a new tasting note you just identified… worth sharing based on the incredible aroma you get from a fresh roast… but mostly worth sharing because you can give other coffee lovers the opportunity to make a positive (social, environmental, life-changing) impact through something as seemingly small as the cup (or cups) of coffee we drink every day! And perhaps also worth sharing because of the related (bigger) conversation about how the largest impact we collectively have in the world is all about the things we buy (or don’t buy!) - as every purchase is a “vote” (with our dollars) for the world we want to see.

So we want to begin the year with a request - if there’s anything you’d like to see from us this year… please share! (💌coffee@ethosroasters.com)

We hope 2019 is YOUR year in every sense, and that it brings you the opportunity - and the courage - to pursue all your dreams,

Jolian & Lisbeth

* Yes, we’re big admirers of the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr! Happy MLK Day!

PS. We just shared some photos and a video (on FB) from our Poaquil partners - they have some brand new coffee equipment thanks to YOU!