🇳🇮 Our newest high-impact coffee: Comayagua!

We’re overjoyed to introduce you to our newest high-impact coffee: Comayagua! A beautiful offering from the mountains of Honduras that’s as comforting and creamy as it is impactful. With warm notes of hazelnut and creamy praline, this cup feels like a sweet, new, yet familiar adventure — cozy, rich, and endlessly satisfying. Yet, what truly sets this coffee apart is the story and impact behind it.

Comayagua comes from a unique coffee-sourcing partnership with Mtn2Sea Ministries (it’s completely out of the ordinary for a non-profit to be involved in the international coffee trade, yet Mtn2Sea is definitely extraordinary!). Since 2022, we’ve been awed and inspired by how they have helped some of the most underserved small-scale coffee farmers we’ve ever worked with, break the cycle of extreme poverty, through direct, community-inspired initiatives aimed at elevating their coffee quality and earn more money - which has instantly improved many aspects of their lives (they even made a cool video about it!). To truly stand alongside the farmers they serve, Mtn2Sea recently purchased a small parcel of land in the Comayagua region. There, at over 5,000 feet above sea level, they will live and work alongside dozens of family farmers in a secluded mountain village. It’s a place without utility services, where homes are built of mud, and opportunities are scarce — but the coffee? It’s something special - and we’re proud to do our part by being a long-term partner who will always be willing to pay life-changing prices for their harvest, ensuring they can support their families and build a better future.

Comayagua is more than just a delicious cup of coffee — it’s a testament to what’s possible when people come together with a commitment to make a difference. We’re honored to share this story with you, and even more honored to share their coffee. Our hope is that you’ll fall in love with it like we have — so we can keep buying as much as possible and continue changing lives. Ready to taste the impact? Your next favorite coffee is here!

Deeply grateful to get to Brew Greatness with you every day,

Jolian & Lisbeth

A new chapter for our longest coffee partnership! 🇬🇹

We are thrilled to end our Anniversary month in a high note, introducing our sweetest coffee yet— our new Poaquil Anaerobic Honey! This exceptional coffee offers a cup bursting with sweetness and complexity. From the very first sip, you’ll be greeted with juicy, sweet dark cherry notes, layered with rich toffee undertones that unfold seamlessly into a smooth, velvety body. As you savor each sip, the experience lingers with a delicate, slightly fruity, dark chocolate finish that is both refined and deeply satisfying— both as a morning brew or as a mindful, flavorful coffee break in the afternoon!

This special collaboration embodies the evolution of our longest and most impactful coffee relationship. Since 2016, we’ve worked closely with the small farmers at CoOp La Asuncion in Guatemala, building a partnership rooted in trust, excellence, and the pursuit of greatness for our Ethos family! In that spirit, they’ve taken their post-harvest processing craft to an entirely new level by running an Anaerobic Honey process on their ripest Yellow Bourbon cherries for the very first time this year, and exclusively for our Ethos family. Without a doubt, the magic of this coffee lies in its meticulous processing: the ripest cherries were carefully hand-picked and partially de-pulped before undergoing a 48 hour fermentation in sealed tanks, allowing a controlled anaerobic fermentation process to partially break down some of the more complex carbohydrates into sweeter and more complex flavors. Once fermentation was complete, our beans were slowly sun-dried on raised beds, where they were turned every few hours for several days until reaching the perfect moisture content of 11%. This intricate method enhanced the cup’s natural sweetness and complexity, resulting in a profile unlike anything we’ve had before —and one we hope you’ll love!

We hope you won’t miss a chance to experience this one-of-a-kind coffee – and we can’t wait to hear your thoughts (especially if you found it particularly enjoyable in a specific method!). Thank you for making all our coffee adventures possible - we love Brewing Greatness with you,

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

🎉 Celebrating 9 YEARS! 🥳

Nine years ago, we set out on an adventure to make a difference—one pound of coffee at a time! Or more accurately, a half-pound, as our very first roaster had a capacity of just 8 ounces per batch. From spending two days a week roasting enough to bring about 20 (8-oz) bags to our first farmers' markets, to now routinely roasting 10 times that amount in an hour—this has truly been the journey of our lives!

Our Ethos is living proof that championing life-changing, long-term relationships with small farmers is fully compatible with business success. The transformation we have seen in the communities we’ve supported over the years has been beyond our wildest dreams. It’s amazing what happens when people have a chance to improve their lives—they seize the opportunity, faster and in more ways than we ever thought possible! Every day, we’re inspired by farmers who are now processing and professionally tasting their own coffees—something they once believed was out of reach.

We are equally inspired by people like YOU, who continue to care, believe, and support our Ethos and coffee. We hope your search for a great-tasting, high-quality, freshly roasted coffee experience brought you in… yet we hope that it is our mission what makes you feel part of our Ethos family, and gives you a special feeling no other cup can - the knowledge you’re part of a small but mighty effort to make a positive impact in the world.

We’re thrilled to celebrate our Ethos this year with our 9th anniversary, limited-edition Brew Greatness Blend—crafted to capture the heart of our journey: adventurous, impactful, and full of sweet surprises! This special blend unites two coffees that have been part of our story for many years, and which we’ll soon be saying goodbye to: Yirgacheffe and Poaquil Honey. Their chocolatey, fruit-forward notes shine in this beautifully balanced, full-bodied cup—crafted to remind us that coffee, like life, is best when shared, savored, and meaningfully ephemeral.

We also have our most original Anniversary gift yet—our Ethos Rocks! Each was lovingly handmade by fellow Ethos lover and Lakeland-based artist, Leticia Miller, and is a one-of-a-kind, adorable surprise that we hope you’ll love! As always, we’ll be sending these with all orders of 3 lbs or more. And for larger orders of 9 lbs or more, we’ll also include one of our new blue denim hats, hand-embroidered right here in Lakeland!

Words truly can’t express how grateful we are to get to roast for you and Brew Greatness with you—so we hope our coffees will!

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

🥳 New Year, New Coffee!

As we embark on a new year filled with possibilities, we’re overjoyed to share with you our newest coffee: Huila! An embodiment of excellence, uniqueness, and impact that embodies our Ethos to change the world one cup at a time!

In the high hills of La Unión, nestled in the heart of Huila, Colombia, a small but determined collective of small farmers is quietly reshaping the future of their coffee community. Guided by a dream of a better life, they have cultivated a coffee that is as remarkable for its flavor as it is for its testament to the power of community and commitment to excellence.. Huila’s tasting notes read like a love letter to nature: honey, plum, and peach - lots of peach! Each sip is an absolute delight, beginning with the gentle sweetness of golden honey, transitioning to the lush ripeness of plum, and finishing with a crisp, bold bright note of peach. These flavors don’t just happen by chance; they are the result of meticulous attention to detail given to these Organic Caturra varietal beans, including a 72-hour anaerobic fermentation to enhance complexity and depth. This one is for the coffee enthusiast seeking something truly special, this one is for YOU, Ethos family! And we bought the entirety of this microlot and are planning to offer it mostly exclusively online (always including our subscribers, of course!) so we can make it last as long as possible!

We have no words to express our immense gratitude for yet another record-breaking year in 2024, so we hope this new coffee reflects our gratitude and commitment to always bringing you the best. This 2025 we really want to set a new bar on off-the-charts excellence, impact, and value - one that’s so compelling and memorable, that we hope you’ll proudly share with anyone who will listen! Our Ethos, our impact, our coffee is possible thanks to YOU - thank you for the LOVE Ethos family… we can’t wait to write this 2025 chapter with you!

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We also recently re-imagined and made our Crema Espresso Blend even more delicious- keeping the sweet, nutty profile that you’ve always loved, yet adding more body and creaminess to the cup with the addition of high-grown Colombian beans, and a new direct-trade partnership! We hope you’ll give it a try and let us know your thoughts!

🎄It's Christmas every day at Ethos! 🎁

As we celebrate our 9th Christmas season, our hearts are filled with joy and deep gratitude. This year is shaping up to be our busiest season yet, with hundreds of pounds being shipped every single roast day (to us, it feels like Christmas every day!)—a milestone we could never have reached without you. We’ve always been convinced that our brand and mission tends to attract like-minded people who turn out to be some of the best customers in the world, and you’re definitely proving us right! Your incredible loyalty, advocacy, and passion for sharing our Ethos and coffee with your family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and everyone in your world—whether for the first year or the ninth, continues to make all the difference. Thank you for loving all our Holiday specials— we promise they’ll always come back around this time of the year!

We couldn’t end the year without sending a heartfelt THANK YOU for being part of our story and all our coffee adventures in 2024. And, we’ll begin these last two weeks of 2024 in the same way and spirit that we have begun the last fifty… eagerly waking up, ready to see and roast all of your orders, and sipping on a delicious cup of Ethos as we ponder how amazing it is to get to “brew” change through the seemingly ordinary moments of every day life. Every cup of Ethos we brewed this year supported the livelihood and dreams of a small farmer, and moved us closer to building the company of our dreams - one that’s a constant engine of opportunity and inspiration for everyone involved. We hope you can feel how incredible that is in every sip, and we would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a season filled with joy, warmth, and cherished memories. May the short time we have on this planet give us the opportunity to find our purpose and make an impact in the lives of others— thank you for the support that continues to make our Ethos possible,

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. Our last roast before Christmas will be on Mon, Dec 23, yet we must ship by Fri, Dec 20 for delivery before Christmas to most addresses. We won’t be roasting on Christmas Day or New Year’s day (both fall on Wednesdays this year), yet we’ll keep our Monday and Friday roasts both weeks. And… we’re already brewing up new coffee adventures for 2025!

🦃 'Tis the Season for Gratitude... and New Coffees!

As the days grow shorter and the temperatures cooler, we’re excited to unveil two new coffees that are sure to warm your heart, stimulate your senses, and hopefully convey the immense gratitude we feel for each and every one of you.

First in the lineup, our Yirgacheffe Natural is back! This is one we know many of you were sorely missing, and for good reason - this Heirloom Natural is as unique as it is exquisite! Sustainably grown by small farmers belonging to the Worka CoOp, this light-medium roast dazzles with strong floral aromas, notes of peach and white sandalwood, and a velvety mouthfeel. Its delicate cocoa-toned sweetness, gentle red fruit acidity, and subtle spice create a harmonious cup that’s perfect for your “slow bar” (i.e. pour-overs and manual brews), or to enjoy as a special Thanksgiving treat with friends and family!

Joining it is our 2024 Red Swan Holiday Blend, a bold and beautifully balanced creation crafted to embody the spirit of the season. This year’s blend features our always wonderful, shade-grown Poaquils (Washed and Natural) for chocolate richness and red fruit undertones; Marcala Anaerobic Honey for added complexity and spice; and our Organic Planadas (in a darker roast) for a robust, earthy finish. Together, these coffees deliver an aromatic, comforting brew that’s perfect for drip, pour-over, or French press methods. This one will only be available until Jan 5, so don’t miss the chance to enjoy our most complex blend of the year this season!

Last, but never least - we want to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering, incredible support for the past few —or past many— years! Thank you for every order, for every mention, and every gift of Ethos coffee to your family and friends. Your belief in what we do allows us to source some of the world’s finest coffees, and do it exclusively from small farmers who pour their hearts and hopes into each coffee they grow. Together, we get to champion prices that honor their labor and ensure a better world for all of us. Your support fuels the very heart of our Ethos—proving that a mission-driven business can thrive while making a positive impact in the lives of everyone involved: from our farmers, to our small yet mighty team, to each of you who chooses to Brew Greatness with us every day. We hope our coffees make your days brighter, your mornings more inspiring —as with every cup you brew, you’re helping us create ripples of goodness that travel far beyond. Thank you for making this dream a reality and for being part of this coffee family that champions greatness in every sense… Happy Thanksgiving, Ethos family, we are truly so grateful for you,

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

🎉 Our Most Unique Coffee of the Year – Oak Barrel Aged is Here!

We are thrilled to announce that our 2024 Oak Barrel Aged Poaquil is now available– now in its third edition, and better than ever! This limited-release promises to deliver a one-of-a-kind experience that will captivate your senses and leave a lasting impression. It features Natural processed, Bourbon varietal beans from Poaquil, Guatemala—our longest high-impact coffee relationship, and an embodiment of our Ethos to make a difference through coffee. They have been aged to perfection for the past four months in a handcrafted American Oak Barrel that previously held the best "Riskey Single Barrel Aged" Rum from Lugo’s Craft Distillery. Lugo's is a Lakeland-based, family-run distillery that shares our passion for quality and craftsmanship, and this third year of partnership has resulted in a coffee bursting with the complexity and sweetness that only a seasoned oak barrel can provide—its golden hue and intoxicating aroma is evident even before the beans are roasted! As you brew and taste it, expect strong hints of stone fruits and a sweetness that lingers beautifully on the palate. It’s festive, yet undeniably refined – perfect for those looking for something exotically fruit-forward, sweet, and memorable. We'll be offering this coffee in all sizes this year —including 5 lb bags for those who want to stock up and savor this exclusive batch a little longer (this one is after all, a labor of love for you, the fans!) and roasting it on our regular schedule, every other day on weekdays—until the barrel is empty! We hope you’ll get a chance to enjoy it, and we hope it will steal the show at all your gatherings.

In other news, for all our locals —or those willing to travel—, we have just announced dates for our brand new 2025 Immersion Experience at the roastery! During this immersive event, you'll enjoy a sample roasting demonstration, learn more about the art and science of coffee, get some hands-on experience with Immersion Brewing, and end your afternoon with an exclusive tasting of 5 different coffees, while discussing their unique flavor profiles and origins. You will also take home a lot more than memories—you’ll leave with your own brand new French Press and a bag of freshly roasted coffee to continue your coffee journey and perfect your craft! Each date is limited to 10 participants (18 or older) so we can provide you all with the absolute best experience possible —and it also makes a great gift for those who seem to have it all! (they’ve definitely haven’t done this before!).

You can also look forward to even more surprises in November, as we welcome back Red Swan (Holiday Blend), and all our Holiday gift bundles and specials! We are so grateful for you, our Ethos family, and look forward to Brewing Greatness, and creating some new amazing coffee memories with you this Holiday season,

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. In case you missed it, our new “Mirasol” Honey from Nicaragua launched a few weeks ago, and is a unique Marsellesa varietal featuring sweet caramel and red apple notes over a comfortingly nutty profile—one also worth considering on your next order! 😉

☕️ Coffee News + New Hats + Last 2024 Roastery Experiences

As cooler temperatures bid farewell to the Summer, we’re also entering the final week of our Ethereal Summer Blend! If you’ve fallen in love with its bright, vibrant notes and refreshingly bold, smooth cold brews, now is your last chance to enjoy it one last time until next year!

We also just added one more date (Saturday, Nov 9 at 3 pm) to our final 2024 Brewing Experiences, designed for anyone who wants to elevate their home brewing skills, or simply spend a fun evening with us at the roastery. Whether you're a total beginner or a total coffee nerd, this hands-on workshop will give you a solid understanding of brewing principles that apply to most (non-Espresso) methods. You’ll get hands-on brewing experience with different beans, get to ask all your coffee questions to a professional, and leave the event with your own brand new V60 Dripper, a bag of freshly roasted high-impact coffee, and other surprises! Based on your feedback, our roastery experiences are now on weekends, and earlier in the day (so we can all enjoy a caffeinated afternoon without disrupting anyone’s sleep). Tickets will always be exclusively at ethosroasters.com until supplies last (and events are limited to 10 participants, for the best, most personalized experience) - and we hope you’ll consider joining us if you haven’t yet participated on this one! We’ll be creating a new Experience offering for next year, so stay tuned!

In other news, we have new embroidered Ethos hats in two new colors (which we hope you’ll love!) - Denim Blue and Vintage Gray - both very high-quality, machine-washable, and lovingly embroidered by “Handmade by Malee” in Lakeland, FL! They’re now online, and available for shipping and pick-up orders at the Lakeland Farmer’s Market, or at our newest local pick-up option —Honeycomb Bakers in Winter Haven!

Finally, expect new coffee launches very soon… we have a new one planned for October, November, and December - to complete our largest coffee selection of the year for all your Holiday gifting (and drinking!) needs! Expect exotic profiles, creative fermentations, and absolute deliciousness in every new surprise (and yes, we’ll have a 2024 Barrel Aged offering too!). As always, we welcome your ideas on what YOU would like to see from us, as everything we do—we do it for you, and thanks to you, our Ethos family!

Love Brewing Greatness with you,

Jolian & Lisbeth.

Re: Tips for your Early Morning Brew

As you know, brewing coffee at home is the ultimate way to enjoy the best coffee money can buy, while making the biggest positive impact in the world (thank you for supporting our Ethos 💛). Your morning coffee ritual may already be a cherished way to begin your day, yet on busy mornings, or when you have an earlier-than-usual start, finding ways to speed up the process without significantly sacrificing quality can make a big difference! Here are some tips to help you Brew Greatness at home on those days:

(1) Prep the Night Before — One of the easiest ways to save time in the morning is by prepping the night before. If you won’t have time, or don’t want to make noise too early in the morning, weigh and grind your beans (we’ve tested this, and aroma retention overnight has been surprisingly good). Place your coffee grounds in an airtight container to preserve freshness, set a filter in your brewer, fill the water reservoir, and leave your travel mug next to it. In the morning, you’ll just have to place your grounds in the filter, press a button, and fill your cup!

(2) Use a Coffee Maker with a Timer— Investing in an all-in-one coffee maker that doses, grinds and brews with a programmable timer can be a game-changer! There’s an increasing number of options in the market, and prices keep going down. Just set it up before bed, and wake up to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee!

(3) Create a Coffee Station (or area) in your Kitchen— An organized coffee station can dramatically reduce your brewing time. This simply means keeping all your coffee brewing essentials—coffee, filters, mugs, condiments, flavors, stirrers—in one place, so you don’t waste precious minutes searching for what you need in the morning.

(4) Consider Cold Brew— If you don’t crave hot coffee in the morning, cold brew is an amazing make-ahead option! Brew a large batch of cold brew (we use one part coffee for every 10 parts water), store it in the fridge, and pour over ice in the morning. You can even prepare it just as you like it (i.e. with any milks, flavors) the night before and skip the ice if you’d like. This method gives you a smooth, highly caffeinated, cool coffee that needs no time to prepare in the morning, and is perfect for these hot summer days.

Brewing most of your coffee at home is not just good for your wallet (i.e. you’ll be able to enjoy a superb cup for <$1); it is also good for our planet—you’ll be positively impacting the livelihoods of small farmers and saving the world millions of single-use, non-recyclable, disposable cups.

A single decision to brew your coffee at home may seem trivial, yet we are the sum of what we repeatedly do… as Aristotle wisely said over 2,000 years ago—excellence is not an act, but a habit. Thank you for Brewing Greatness in the world with us… our craft and our impact wouldn’t be possible without you!

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We have a special surprise on all your orders of 3 lbs or more this month! If you’re a local, we’re treating you to the dreamiest craft ice cream at our newest Ethos partner, Ripples! (Learn more at rippleshandcrafted.com). And for those who are farther (and is not possible to share ice cream with you!), we’re sending you a sample of our hand blended Spicy Chai, and a stylish Ethos pen, which we hope you’ll also find “cool”! Thank you so much for Brewing Greatness with us this Summer!

👌 Re: Evenness in Coffee Extraction

Our second technical summer series is devoted to a universal, yet frequently overlooked variable: the evenness of your coffee extraction. Evenness in coffee extraction refers to the uniformity with which water interacts with the coffee grounds during the brewing process. Ideally, every particle of ground coffee should be of exactly the same size, and exposed to water for the same amount of time and to the same degree. This ensures that the soluble compounds within your coffee are extracted evenly, resulting in a balanced and harmonious cup of coffee.

As you likely realize, achieving perfect evenness is in practice, impossible. Even the most advanced and expensive coffee grinders produce a range of particle sizes, yet aiming for as much evenness as possible can significantly improve the quality of your brewed cup in many ways. First, you’ll get a more balanced cup, as when coffee grounds are evenly extracted, the resulting brew will have a smoother, more harmonious blend of flavors. Second, you’ll reduce or eliminate unpleasant sourness and bitterness, as uneven extraction often results in some parts of the coffee being under-extracted while others are over-extracted. Under-extracted coffee tends to be sour and acidic because the water hasn't had enough time to dissolve the desirable flavors from the grounds. Over-extracted coffee, in contrast, can be bitter and astringent due to excessive dissolution of higher molecular weight compounds. Finally, evenness in extraction ensures a more consistent cup of coffee from one brew to the next, which means your favorite tasting notes in a particular coffee will always be there!

Achieving this elusive “ideal evenness” is also easier than you may think when you:

1. Invest in a Quality Burr Grinder: While no grinder can produce perfectly uniform particles, investing in a high-quality burr grinder can significantly improve the consistency of your grind size compared to cheaper blade grinders. Burr grinders produce a more uniform particle size, which promotes even extraction.

2. Pay Attention to your Brewing Technique: Ensure even saturation of the coffee grounds by pouring water uniformly over them. For methods like pour-over, practice a steady pour rate and use a gooseneck kettle for easier pour control. If you own a standard drip coffee maker, pay attention to the design of the spray head (a wider head and numerous, smaller openings is always better).

3. Adjust Your Recipe: Experiment with your coffee-to-water ratio, grind size, and brewing time. Making small adjustments can help you find the optimal balance for your particular setup, leading to a more even extraction.

4. Regular Maintenance: Keep your equipment clean and well-maintained. Old coffee residues and oils can interfere with the extraction process, leading to uneven results.

5. Practice Consistency: Be consistent with your measurements and techniques. Weigh your coffee and water for accuracy - it does make a difference!

Evenness in coffee extraction is a key factor in achieving a delicious and balanced cup of coffee. While perfect evenness is unattainable, striving for the highest level of evenness possible can make a significant difference in the taste and quality of your coffee. By investing in the right tools, paying attention to your technique, and practicing consistency, you can Brew Greatness every single time!

We hope this was a helpful overview, and we’re so deeply grateful for our busy Summer… we truly love Brewing Greatness with you,

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We’re on our last sack of our limited-edition “El Espejo”! This was a one-time opportunity based on a great harvest last year for this farmer, yet her coffee will now be part of the new lot/crop of ASOPAP (aka. our “Planadas”), which just arrived at the roastery and which we expect to launch soon after “El Espejo” is gone!

💧Re: Optimizing Water for Coffee Brewing

Our first 2024 “RE: Summer Series” is all about the one ingredient that comprises 98.5% of our cups of coffee… water! While easily overlooked, water quality can greatly influence the amount of coffee flavors extracted from your beans. The right water can enhance the coffee's natural characteristics, while poor-quality water can result in a flat, bitter, off-flavored, or unpleasant cup. In this article, we’ll explore the 3 scientifically-proven elements in your water that can significantly impact your coffee brewing: purity, hardness, and pH.

These 3 attributes are officially recognized in the Specialty Coffee Association Brewing Water Standards as follows: (1) Purity (clean odor, zero chlorine); (2) Calcium Hardness between 50-175 ppm; and (3) pH 7-8.

Purity

Water purity is an essential factor for any great cup of coffee, and one you can easily influence with a good water filter! Chlorine and other impurities can impart undesirable flavors to your coffee, and contaminants can lead to off-flavors. Spring, bottled, or a good filtered water has always been - and will always be - behind any great cup of coffee you’ll ever brew!

Hardness

Water hardness refers (primarily) to its magnesium and calcium content (aka multivalent cation concentration). This means, a water that is “hard” will have many cations, and a water that is “soft” won’t have as many. Why are they so important? They’re important because the flavor compounds in coffee happen to exist as aprotic, charge-neutral species and as a collection of acids and conjugate salts - all of which need cations (i.e. the Mg+ and Ca+ in your water) to extract into your brew! If water is too soft (i.e. has too few cations to extract), your coffee won’t taste so good! There is, however, a limit to how hard you’d want your water to be, particularly if you care about the longevity of your coffee equipment - if the water is too hard, these cations have a tendency to crystallize inside your machine and within the pipework, blocking flow, causing corrosion and leading to an eventual “early death” for your brewers, particularly Espresso brewers. Most studies agree that 50-80 ppm CaCO3 hardness is ideal for both flavor and equipment performance. The easiest way to know how “hard” is your local water (without testing it yourself), is to search for “City, State Water Quality Report Hardness” - one of the first results should be the most recent test that your City conducted (in Lakeland, our water is around a 150 ppm - still within the SCA ideal standard, yet hardly ideal for our equipment… which is why we must de-scale them periodically!)

pH

pH is the indicator of acidity or alkalinity - below 7, it indicates an acidic solution, and pH greater than 7 indicates an alkaline solution. For coffee extraction, the amount of flavor extracted increases as the pH increases until you reach very high alkalinity, which can lead to chalky flavors being extracted. A neutral to slightly alkaline pH, between 7 and 8 has been consistently found to be best. Again the easiest way to know the pH of your local water (besides a water pH meter) is in your City’s Water Quality Report (in Lakeland’s most recent report it was 7.8)

We hope you enjoyed learning about water today, and please know we always welcome your questions and topics for future articles… we’ll also be doing technical “Summer Series” on FB/Instagram (@ethosroasters) starting this week, so we hope you’ll enjoy those short videos as well! Oh! And the new 2024 Ethereal Summer Blend just launched and will be with us for the Summer… and since I’m already running a bit long here, please find all the details online (ethosroasters.com and on this month’s “Greatness Times”)!

Love Brewing Greatness with you,

Lisbeth

Sources & Further Reading

SCA Water Standards

Hendon et. al. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2014 62 (21), 4947-4950 DOI: 10.1021/jf501687c

🧭 Explore the flavors of Guatemala with our May special!

Get ready for a delightful journey through the vibrant flavors of Guatemala! This May, we are thrilled to be featuring not just one, but three exceptional new crops from our Guatemalan farmers in our “Coffee of the Month” special!

For over eight years, we have nurtured a remarkably impactful relationship with “Cooperativa La Asuncion” in Poaquil, Chimaltenango, Guatemala, and it brings us immense joy to witness the town's incredible growth and economic development with each visit. Since 2016, we've been championing this community with life-changing prices, and now, we're excited to share the fruits of this special partnership, and our relentless continuous improvement journey with you. Our May special showcases the distinct profiles of all three new crops: Poaquil Washed, Honey, and Natural. Whether you're drawn to the intoxicating aroma and robust chocolate notes of the Washed version, the creamy body and sweetness of the Honey process, or the tantalizing blend of chocolate-drenched red fruits in the Natural process, this special promises to be a sensory adventure you won't want to miss! We will also be featuring these exquisite coffees frequently as samples in all your boxes throughout the month.

Plus, there’s plenty to look forward to this Summer: our 2024 Ethereal Summer Blend will be launching in June, and we’ll be doing our “RE: Summer Series” on different coffee topics in June, July, and August (if you have a coffee topic, idea, or question you’d like us to research and answer, please reply back and let us know!). In addition, we’ll be doing some fun interviews with some of our coffee partners (i.e. the people choosing to Brew Greatness with us at their coffee shops, stores, and businesses), and Lisbeth will be personally hosting the first-ever Ice Cream & Ethos, “ICE Happy Hours” at our newest joint venture, Ripples Handcrafted in Winter Haven this August! If you’re in the Lakeland-Winter Haven area, we hope you’ll come and share some delicious coffee and dessert with us!

Grateful to begin every single day Brewing Greatness in the world with you,

Jolian & Lisbeth

🌒 Introducing... Eclipse, our new Dark Roast Blend!

We’re thrilled to welcome our latest creation: a bold, rich coffee experience with prominent roast notes dancing on your palate, a creamy body that envelops your senses, and a strong, balanced brew that awakens you with every sip (and as you may suspect... I’m writing this as I enjoy a delicious cup of Eclipse, roasted last April 8th - the day of the total solar eclipse that inspired its name!).

We’ve created Eclipse as the dream dark roast for craft coffee connoisseurs - and envision it as a permanent offering that features a consistent, roast-driven taste profile. At the heart of Eclipse lies a prolonged roast that brings the beans tantalizingly close to "second crack" – that magical moment when sugars caramelize, and roast flavors reach their peak. This meticulous roasting process ensures that every sip of Eclipse is bursting with complexity and depth, without “eclipsing” the incredible body, sweetness, and quality of our coffees. If you love dark roasts, we invite you to give it a try - it is bold, flavorful, and the perfect choice for your dreamy lattes… and if you do not love dark roasts (but are adventurous and open-minded), we think you should definitely try this - this is a blend that will expand your perspective and tasting range in ways that may be completely unexpected!

Finding and perfecting this dark roast was a bit of a challenging journey for us (who, as many of you, tend to personally favor lighter roasts), but we think Eclipse is the destination we've all been searching for! We would be grateful if you could try it and send us a quick email back sharing your thoughts… everything we do at Ethos, we do it for you, and thanks to you - we are so honored to Brew Greatness with you every day,

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We’re planning to do a special FB/IG series this Summer (to accompany our Technical Summer Series newsletters in June, July, and August), and we wanted to invite you to email us any coffee questions you’d like us to answer, or topics you’d like us to cover in more detail. Please consider following us (@ethosroasters) for more behind-the-scenes stories, farm and roasting videos, and of course - our past and future coffee series!

☕️ Savor the last sips! Last call for 3 exceptional coffees!

As we bid farewell to the last few kilos of three remarkable coffees, we invite you to join us in celebrating their unique flavors and stories… and the few last cups in the next few weeks! Let’s take a closer look at these extraordinary coffees that have left their indelible mark on our journey…

(1) Amani (DR Congo): a rich, creamy, dark roast adventure with earthy undertones and a sweet, nutty finish. This coffee is a testament to the finest washed African Bourbons sourced from the Lake Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And it's not just about the taste, but also impacting the lives of Congolese farmers and helping to break the cycles of poverty and injustice. If you love dark roasts, please don’t panic - we’re already planning an exciting new dark roast blend (also featuring this CoOp!) as a replacement, so stay tuned for “Eclipse”, launching in early April!

(2) Yirgacheffe: this one is for the fans of overly floral, fruit-bomb, light roast coffee experiences. This heirloom natural boasts a unique flavor profile with strong florals, peach, and white sandalwood aromas that are uniquely Ethiopian. It has been an Ethos staple for several years, yet the CoOp is moving away from Naturals, and it looks like most our Ethos family may also be favoring more “Honeys” and “Washed” coffees, so we’re discontinuing it to make room for your future new favorites, and we may have an Ethiopian Natural back if we find just the perfect one for us!

(3) Brew Greatness 8 Year Anniversary Blend: this blend is a limited-edition flavor bomb, which we only do once a year! By aging the last of our honey-processed "Pacheco" in semi-dry oak barrels and infusing them with Madagascar Vanilla beans, we've created a truly unique experience this year. The inclusion of Yirgacheffe and Poaquil Natural adds layers of chocolate and red fruit notes, resulting in a sweet, balanced, and full-bodied cup. It's a tribute to the impactful partnerships we've forged over the years and a reminder of how beautifully sweet it is to make an impact through coffee.

Each of these coffees represents more than just a wonderful cup; they embody a commitment to quality, sustainability, and making a positive impact in the world. As we bid farewell to these exceptional offerings, we invite you to savor every last sip and cherish every moment. Whether it's the earthy richness of Amani, the floral sweetness of Yirgacheffe, or the nuanced flavors of the Anniversary Blend, there's a story waiting to be told - and to reminisce about- in every cup. Thank you for being a part of our journey, and we look forward to sharing many more memorable coffee adventures with you in the future… like the new Eclipse Dark Roast coming in April (yes, just in time for our historical Solar eclipse on April 8!!!)

Let’s keep Brewing Greatness!

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

🍒 New Marcala + 8 Year Anniversary Surprises!

In just a few more days, on March 8th, we will be celebrating 8 years of being in this journey to Brew Greatness with you! As you may know, we love to celebrate our anniversaries with you, our Ethos family, and say THANK YOU for making this dream a reality, and our Ethos possible every single day - for nearly a decade!

This year, we’re celebrating with our largest coffee selection yet - of 15 coffees! - including our new Organic “Marcala” - an anaerobically fermented, Honey processed bean that we hope you’ll enjoy in pour-overs or any of your favorite methods. We launched it earlier this month, as an extra pre-Anniversary surprise, and have been thrilled by the wonderful response - luckily, we bought this whole special microlot for us, so it should be available for the next several months! And, since we truly can’t wait to celebrate with you… we’ll start gifting our new 8-Year-Anniversary Ethos slate coasters on all orders of 3 lbs of more (one per order), starting NOW! We’re again working with a wonderful Lakeland-based family business, and created a special new design this year, which we hope you’ll love as much as you did last year’s coasters! We’ll be gifting them now through March 31st (and if you’re a current subscriber getting 3lbs+ per month, you’ll automatically get one on your March box!)

Our 8-Year Brew Greatness Anniversary Blend is also launching March 1st, and available until April, or until supplies last! We’ve again done a second Oak Barrel fermentation with real vanilla beans for 120 days for the base of our Anniversary Blend, which has been developing fantastically over time… and which we also can’t wait to share with you! (yet, we had timed it just right for a March 1st launch… so we’ll muster all our patience in favor of the best cup possible!). Finally, if you’re in Lakeland, we’d like to invite you to celebrate in person with us on Saturday, March 9th - we will have a very special sweet surprise - baked just for us!- by our wonderful friends at Honeycomb Bakers - as a free treat with any bean purchase (including online order pick-ups) that day!

Words truly can’t express how grateful we are for these amazing 8 years… we are still dreaming and hoping the best is yet to come… and we can’t wait to share many, many more coffee adventures with you! Thank you for Brewing Greatness in the world with us!

-Jolian & Lisbeth

🥳 Happy 2 0 2 4 !

Happy 2024, Ethos family! We hope your New Year is brimming with joy and exciting possibilities. As we embark on this journey together, we're thrilled to share some updates that we hope will help make this year a bit more memorable, more joyful, and more impactful!

To kick off the year, we've welcomed the new "Cajamarca" to our coffee family. This double-fermented, washed, organic Peruvian coffee from the skilled hands of Esmérita Vasquez offers a rich cup with sweet stone fruit notes and delicate citrus undertones. The 48-hour double fermentation process results in a syrupy body and a complex flavor profile that we felt perfectly complemented all our current offerings.

We're also excited to introduce the 2024 Brewing Experience! Join us at the roastery for some hands-on learning of the chemistry of coffee brewing. Learn the basics, brew different coffees, and have all your coffee questions answered by professionals. But that's not all - each participant will leave with a brand new V60 Dripper and a bag of one of our latest coffee releases, freshly roasted for them earlier that day! We’re limiting this to 10 participants per date, and tickets for our March, April, and May events are now available. Visit the Ethos Brewing Experience page to learn more and secure your spot!

Finally, we're thrilled to announce the acquisition of a highly coveted piece of land in the south of Lakeland (by Christina Park), for the future home of our flagship coffee shop, which will focus on drive-thru excellence and coffee education. Imagine having a higher-quality, healthier —yet just as convenient and fast— alternative to chain coffee shops when you’re on the go… AND a welcoming space where the slow bar menu dazzles, and unique coffee events and experiences happen! All while championing life-changing prices for small farmers and a better world for all involved. It is still a couple of years away (yes, we’ll be literally paving our own entrance lanes, parking, and a whole building!), but we just couldn't wait to share this exciting news with our Ethos family - and we’ll do our best to keep you updated as we reach major milestones, and you’ll of course be among the first invited to come see it!

Thank you for being part of our Ethos family. Your support fuels our passion, our dreams for the future, and we truly are looking forward to a year filled with exceptional coffee, continuous learning, and changing the world, one cup of coffee at a time! Here's to our Ethos journey and the exciting chapters awaiting us in 2024 and beyond,

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We also just came back from our last visit to our Poaquil farmers! We’ve uploaded a few videos to both our Facebook and Instagram pages, and we’ll make sure to keep sharing more over time. It was truly amazing to see all the incredible growth and development that has occurred there since our last visit… they’ve become fairly sophisticated with their processing methods, and we’ve begun some conversations that we hope will lead to some very interesting profiles for our Ethos family for the next harvest season!

🎄 'Tis the Season to Make an Impact!

The most wonderful time of the year is here! It is time to enjoy all the glittering lights and delightful treats, embrace the joyful holiday spirit, and enjoy every minute of these chilly winter mornings with your favorite coffees - which always seem to be particularly delicious when it’s cold outside!

Words cannot express how grateful we are for the role each of you plays in making our holiday seasons extra special - getting to roast for you and your loved ones for our 8th holiday season is truly the best gift in the world! We hope every single bag of Ethos is a gift of warmth and connection, one that creates a joyful experience when shared, and most importantly, one that reminds you of your impact in the world – that's the holiday magic - the “greatness” - we're always seeking to brew with you.

This year, we’re hoping to have just the perfect coffee gift option for you, from discounted “bundles” of our best sellers in sets of 5, 10, and 20 bags (8 oz or 16 oz), to the "Ultimate Coffee Sampler" – a compilation of 12 different coffees designed for the coffee connoisseur who seemingly has everything else; we hope you’ll find the perfect gifts for all the coffee drinkers in your life! We’ve also made a surprise addition to our lineup this year – the limited-edition "San Jeronimo" - which is our way to add a touch of mystery and excitement to your holiday samplers, and subscriber boxes! Finally, in lieu of cards this year, we're opting for a more durable and practical small gift - pens! - which we hope will become a small but meaningful part of your daily rituals, just like our coffee!

Thank you for making our Ethos possible this year, we hope your holidays are filled with love, hope, and many amazing opportunities to create cherished memories, and Brew Greatness in the world!

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We recommend placing your orders by Sunday, Dec 17 for delivery before Christmas! Our last roast before Christmas will be on Friday, Dec 22. We’ll be back roasting Tues Dec 26 and Weds Dec 27 for our last roast of the year (our whole team is going to Guatemala Dec 28-31 for a long overdue visit to our farmers! We’ll be back roasting Jan 2, and will bring back lots of farm pictures and videos for you… along with LOTS of surprises… we can’t wait to create many new coffee adventures with you in 2024!

🎁 Grateful for you - 8th year edition!

Our favorite Holiday - Thanksgiving - is just a few days away! As we’ve paused to count our blessings for these past 8 years, our Ethos journey, and the amazing people like you who make it possible, are always top of mind. Thank you for making this dream possible every day - for allowing us to keep building the coffee company of our dreams - one that sources for impact first, one that champions those who will never be able to “repay us”, one that seeks to both elevate your coffee experience and make a positive impact in the world every day. Ethos family, today and every single day, we are grateful for you!

We also want you to know that you are top of mind every time we source a new coffee, make a new blend, or do something new! Among those, are the new “roastery experiences” - which we began last Sept/Oct, and which we are continuing in Jan/Feb! This first offering is a Coffee Tasting Experience where we cover some essential knowledge and tools to improve your ability to taste better coffee, better! (please note, the sessions in Jan/Feb will be on the same program as those in Sept/Oct - we’ll offer a whole new experience later next year). So, if you didn’t get a chance to attend, or are looking for a unique gift experience for a someone who is really into coffee… we have you covered!

We have also launched the 2023 Red Swan Holiday Blend - we’ve again chosen 3 high-impact beans representing all 3 coffee processes, for an aromatic, harmonious blend of red fruit notes and strong, earthy, spiced undertones. It’s a high-impact blend that will fill your Holidays with memorable moments and exceptional coffee… one that is worthy to pair with those memories! All special Holiday offerings, including gift coffee samplers (with up to a dozen different coffees!), our especially priced sets of 5, 10, and 20 bags (for stocking stuffers or small gifts to those who have made a difference in your life this year), will launch on Thanksgiving day, and will be available until Christmas.

Words can’t quite capture how grateful we are to still (8 years later!), get to start each day “Brewing Greatness” with you. We wish you all our best and hope that all the greatness you’re projecting into the world comes back to you in ways that make your life richer in every way possible,

Jolian & Lisbeth

☕️ Oak Barrel Aged Poaquil Natural is here! 🥂

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our highly-anticipated, 2023 Oak Barrel Aged coffee beans! This year, we've taken a slightly different approach, aiming to create a cup that's more approachable and enjoyable for the majority of our Ethos family. We took our high-impact Poaquil Natural beans and aged them in a fresh white oak barrel, previously used to house some exquisite spiced rum by our friends at Lugo's Craft Distillery right here in Lakeland. We shortened the aging to 7 months, resulting in much subtler rum undertones, and much heavier vanilla notes, along with a kaleidoscope of flavors and lingering peach notes for an experience that’s as close as it gets to a sugar-free dessert in a cup!

Embracing simplicity and approachability, we've simplified our labeling and pricing (with the addition of a 16-oz option that offers greater value for everyone who absolutely loves it), making it easier for you to indulge in this exceptional coffee treat! We’ll also be roasting it on our regular schedule, every other day on weekdays (typically Mon/Weds/Fri - moving one day on Federal Holidays). We can't wait for you to experience the uniqueness and complexity of this year's batch - it’s one of the ways we want all of you to know how grateful we are for being part of this incredible journey, and we hope you’ll love it as much as we do - we’ll keep roasting it for you until the barrel is empty!

We’ll also soon be launching Red Swan (on Nov 1st), and releasing all our Holiday specials, like Swan-plers, Holiday packs for stocking stuffers and gifts (and maybe a few other surprises for all your gifting needs), at midnight on Thanksgiving (no need to stay up or rush… they’ll be available until Christmas, and we’ll keep roasting them for you every other day - and even more often if we need to keep up with orders!)

Thank you for being a part of this journey, and we truly can’t wait to hear what you think of this year’s Oak Barrel Aged… we made it for YOU!,

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. Have any ideas for us? Anything you wished we offered for the Holidays? We’d love to hear from you!

🍂 Fall in love with the new El Paraiso! 🍯

We are bringing our impact to the next level this Fall, with a sweet nano-lot from El Paraiso, Honduras! This Honey-process coffee will make you fall in love with its delicate, rich aromatics that invite you to dive into a sweet cup that features notes of ripe figs and brown sugar molasses, elegantly balanced with a subtle tartaric acidity, reminiscent of green apples. It truly is the perfect coffee to welcome the Fall/Winter season! We have particularly enjoyed it as a hot brew on pour-overs and French Press, and as an amazingly sweet and smooth Cold Brew on the rocks (yes, it’s still quite warm down here in Florida!)

The story on how we got to source this coffee for our Ethos family began with a call for help 3 years ago… when Ruben and Maria (your coffee farmers!) reached out through our social media channels, as they had heard about us, and our mission to champion life-changing prices for small farmers… we mentioned that we have loved Honey processed coffees from Honduras in the past, and buy only high-scoring coffees (86+) for our Ethos family - so we set this as the goal. With admirable perseverance, unmatched hard work, and some help and advice along the way, just 3 years later, this tiny 5-person, family-run farm got to export their high-scoring coffee directly to the USA for the very first time this year… all of which was grown using Organic practices, and meticulously fermented and dried as a Honey, exclusively for our Ethos family (who paid them 3 times the current “Fair Trade” price for it! 🙌). Today, we are overjoyed, proud, and beyond grateful for this amazing privilege to make one more small farmer family’s dream come true… we hope you’ll love it, and look forward to continue Brewing Greatness in the world with you!

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. Deeply grateful to everyone who bought tickets for our Tasting Experience, which starts this Friday! We promise we’ll do another set of dates in the Spring -if and only if - we get rave reviews from everyone this time!