It's the Season for Gratitude... for Giving... for Greatness!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year once again… and today, we just want to say THANK YOU!

Thank you for taking a chance and trying us for the first time… a few minutes, a few days, or a few years ago!

Thank you for starting your day with the aroma of freshly roasted beans making a difference across the world!

Thank you for believing that we can have an impact… and for having it!

Thank you for sharing our story, our coffee, and our mission!

Thank you for making our Ethos possible every single day.

Today and always, it’s our absolute joy and honor to be your roasters… and we look forward to many more Holidays together!

We’ve been preparing for this special season, and are welcoming it with our largest variety of offerings yet! As you may know, we’ve added five new coffees (Red Swan, Amani, and Poaquil Washed, Honey and Natural) in just this past month, and are thrilled to have SIXTEEN different coffee offerings for you this Holiday season! And of course, Holiday samplers and stocking-stuffer Holiday bundles are back!

We can’t wait to send some coffee to you and your loved ones and hopefully make the world a bit more thoughtful, more connected, more united, and spread a sense of love, gratitude, and shared humanity… can’t wait to Brew Greatness with you!

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. USPS is advising that we ship by Friday, DEC 17 for guaranteed Priority delivery before Christmas. If you’re sending a gift to a Florida address, we have until DEC 20 (and we’ll keep roasting and shipping until Dec 27th - we’ll be taking a few days off Dec 28 - Jan 2 - check our IG for Guatemala pics!).

🇬🇹 2021 POAQUIL crops are finally here! 🥳

It is with our absolute joy and greatest honor to announce that the 2021 Poaquil crops - Washed, Honey, and Natural - have finally arrived! While it is our SIXTH year sourcing coffee from the Co-Op, it has been quite a memorable one: months of port delays in Guatemala, days turned to weeks in customs, and finally… our Washed and Natural pallets were deemed “lost” in transit… yet, (very, very luckily) ultimately “found” and delivered exactly a week ago! (a special thank you to all those following our stories and sending us sweet messages of support and encouragement… we really think all of your good wishes had a lot to do with our ultimate “good luck”!).

I recently had the chance to be interviewed on a podcast (a 20-min listen on Spotify) by ‘Simply Creative’ - run by a fellow entrepreneur and one of our Miami-based Ethos fans, and one of his questions at the end was about how important was “having a mission”… and it made me realized that for us, it has always been and will always be everything - I truly can’t imagine our Ethos existing without going out of our way to champion opportunity and impact for those who need it - and want it - the most… without it, we would be just one more craft coffee roaster.

In that spirit, we’re planning to make this Holiday Season, our most impactful season yet! In addition to our full Poaquil lineup - and Black Swan being back! - you can look forward to the new “Amani” from D.R. Congo - another high-impact relationship and our SECOND year working with this Co-Op! (you may remember “Umoja” from last year? We decided to support a smaller group of farmers within their same Co-Op this year, and we hope you’ll love “Amani” - which means “Peace” in Swahili and is a perfectly fitting name!).

Finally, I wanted to offer our apologies for having had to raise our prices for some of our beans, and our “free shipping” threshold from $35 to $39 - it is mainly driven by higher shipping costs (inbound and outbound - which have increased 50-200% during the pandemic). We’ve been absorbing these and waiting - hoping - they would be temporary, yet they’ve proven very permanent. Sacrificing quality or impact would never be an option for us, and we also don’t want to jeopardize our ability to offer great jobs locally, remain sustainable, re-invest in the business as we grow, and keep supporting our farmers with advance payments that provide much-needed no-interest financing in the months before the harvest. We also want to source the most amazing, most impactful coffees we can find - and being able to pay the highest price really helps!

Also - we’re hosting a special Thanksgiving coffee pick-up at the roastery on Weds, Nov 24th, from 3-6 pm. We’ll add this pick-up option at checkout on Nov 15th if you’d like to place an order and come say hi and see your roastery! (Or just stop by and say hi… Jolian and I will be there and we’re always so happy to get to meet and share some coffee with our Ethos family!)

💛 Lisbeth

Sourcing News : Last Calls & Upcoming Arrivals!

We’re happy to share some exciting news! All our Poaquil crops are now in US soil, and should arrive at the roastery within the next two weeks… which means we’ll soon have three long-time favorite coffees added back to our lineup (and available for the long run)!

As you know, we’ve experienced prolonged wait times at every step of our supply chain this year, fueled by a variety of (mostly) pandemic-related factors internationally, from container shortages to reduced hours and congestion at the ports, and unreliable freight… and the coffees we were expecting to arrive back in July are now arriving in October! Thank you for your patience, and most of all - for your incredible support throughout these past couple of months… when even when we didn’t have some of your favorites, you were open to try and discover new origins and special microlots, and continued to believe in our Ethos and make it a reality.

In order to make room for our new arrivals we’ll be doing a special “last call” sampling on all your boxes, plus an 4-oz bonus of “La Estrella” (which is down to our last bag!) on all orders >3 lbs now until Weds, Sept 29th - National Coffee Day (retroactive to any recently placed orders which haven’t yet shipped, of course!). We also plan to have Ethereal available for just a few more days, until our new Poaquil crops arrive… so expect some changes to our lineup soon!

Finally, we’re preparing a few more surprises and offerings for the Holidays, and are working on a few exciting, first-time collaborations (hint: it involves chocolate!), that we hope you’ll absolutely love! If you have any ideas or suggestions, we would really love to hear from you on anything you’d wish we’d offer this Holiday season!

Can’t wait to keep Brewing Greatness with you this winter!

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. If you’re a local… we’re also considering special events at Pressed (213 E Bay St, Lakeland) and Honeycomb (140 6th St SW, Winter Haven), plus a day-before-Thanksgiving coffee pick-up at the roastery. And, we’re back at the Downtown Lakeland Farmer’s Market (200 N Kentucky) every Saturday, 8 am - 2 pm, and will continue to offer pick-ups there every week (just order by Thursday, using code MARKET at checkout).

RE : How to Taste Coffee like an Expert

In our last Summer Series, we would like to invite you to embark on a metaphorical trip around the world through coffee! It truly seems is the perfect time to do so - it is currently much easier than actual travel, and your roasters happen to be sourcing a lot of new wonderful coffees because of pandemic-related logistical challenges… some of which are ‘experimental’ microlots that may only be available this year!

So, here’s a quick guide, and an open invitation to slow down and savor - to discover the aromas, flavors, sensations, and memories you enjoy and associate with each cup! Fill each page of your “coffee passport” with as much details as you’d like about the sensory attributes of each brew, yet also note the method, the place, the time, the context… and do not be surprised if the same bean yields two -or more- completely different cup experiences depending on how, where, and when it was prepared, and enjoyed. Please feel free to print as many copies as you need, and share with your friends. It is inspired by the actual Cupping Forms used by professional tasters, yet adding some important details that will help you create - and recreate - many coffee memories.

We truly can’t wait to participate in this experiment with you… and look forward to seeing and sharing a few pages of our “coffee passports” (just tag us on Instagram @ethosroasters if you’d like us to share in our social media stories… no worries, it is only there for 24 hours… which is why we love stories… their ephemeral nature always feel unconditionally forgiving and inviting!).

Grateful and excited to begin each day #BrewingGreatness with you!

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We will be taking a short break Aug 24-27… and we’d love to send you some coffee before we leave, so we’re offering a special bonus for all orders placed by Aug 22nd (get a bonus 8-oz bag of one of our current favorite single-origins to Cold Brew on all orders of 4 lbs or more… or get a bonus oz per lb ordered on smaller orders)… plus, more new coffees are coming in September… notably, our new Poaquil crops!

RE : Introducing our first "Double Fermented" coffee!

Washed, Honey, or Natural? You’re likely familiar with these three coffee processing methods… beans are either dried as a cherry (Natural process), just partially milled before drying (Honey process), or fully washed and dried as a seed or “bean” (Washed process). In the past few years, specialty coffee farmers and institutions have been experimenting with even more variations on these methods, trying to achieve more sweetness, body, and complexity in the cup… and this year we encountered a coffee so interesting from a small farmer family in Colombia, that we just had to get it!

Introducing “San Isidro” - an experimental “Double-Fermentated Washed” microlot by the Leguizamo family, who hand picked their best coffees, harvested at peak ripeness and selected for high sugar content (cherries must have over 22% sugar to be suitable for a double fermentation) . This special microlot was first fermented as a cherry, fully washed, and again fermented as a “bean” (parchment), resulting in a richer body and a very interesting sweet, spiced flavor profile. It was finally sun dried in raised beds, milled, packaged in special 20-kilo bags, and flown directly from the farm to the roastery!

This coffee was sourced well beyond our High-Impact threshold, at 400% above the current “fair-trade” price, paid to the farmers - and yes, we were able to buy this microlot in its entirety for our Ethos family! We hope you love this introduction to a new processing method (if you’re a subscriber and get a variety of beans, you’ll definitely get this one next!), and look forward to your thoughts and reviews… we’ll run a little experiment ourselves and update this coffee’s page with any email reviews we get from all of you!

Hope you’re having a wonderful, adventurous summer… ours continues to be filled with joy and gratitude for getting to start each day #BrewingGreatness in the world with you!

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. San Isidro was originally planned as a surprise for the Holidays, yet we didn’t anticipate running out of Poaquil… and experiencing months-long delays on the new crop’s arrival - we’re truly sorry, and hope this special microlot makes it up to you a bit!

PS.PS. If you’re in the area on July 29th… we’ll be celebrating the grand opening of “Pressed Coffee” in downtown Lakeland (with special surprises for our Ethos family, of course!)

RE : Cold Brewing 101 ☀️

Happy Summer Solstice! We’re celebrating with the launch of our 2021 Ethereal Summer Blend (featuring our limited-release Colombian Natural “La Estrella” this year), and wanted to devote this first “Summer Series” edition to re-visiting the coffee drink that is almost synonymous with summer: Cold Brew!

Want to know our secret for great Cold Brew every time? Get these basics right:

(1) Coffee - we’ve found that the best Cold Brew is actually made from beans that have been allowed to rest a few days before Cold Brewing (as the fast de-gassing of freshly roasted beans seems interfere with the extraction). In fact, Cold Brew is a great method to use some of your “older” Ethos beans!

(2) Water - its impact on flavor simply can’t be emphasized enough! Bad quality water (i.e. tap water that tastes like chlorine or is too hard/soft) can ruin the taste of even the best beans… remember the final brew is over 90% water!

(3) Filter - using a good cold brew paper filter has a big impact on the clarity and quality of flavors. We’ve also found re-usable cloth filters perform well when you use a set of two and clean them throughly after each batch. And while you can make Cold Brew without a paper or cloth filter, the flavor difference is so pronounced, that we must recommend you use one! (it filters out the oils, diterpenes, and some of the fines from your brew, for a much cleaner taste).

(4) Grind - coarsely ground coffee will always work best for the prolonged cold brew extraction times. While you may be tempted to use a finer grind to “accelerate” the process, it may only result in a more acidic, unbalanced brew. When cold brewing, good things do take time! (about 20-22 hours to be precise)

(5) Ratio - this one is listed last because there may not be a single “ideal ratio” - it all depends on how strong you’d like your brew, or if you’ll be adding more/less ice, milks, etc. We would recommend you start with a 1:8 (i.e. one ounce of coffee for every 8 ounces of water… which happens to be the ratio we use for our Cold Brew for Saturday markets!), and adjust if needed. This concentrate will hold well to dilution with ice, milks, and sweeteners.

Happy Cold Brewing, and happy adventures this Summer!

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We just got more bracelets from Guatemala (some beautiful new designs for your collections!)… and a couple more surprises we’ll be sending with your large orders (i.e. over 3 lbs) all this Summer! We’ll post details on our IG stories this week 😉

Let's Brew 'HARMONY'!

We are excited to officially launch our new HARMONY Blend today!

We’re so grateful to each of you who participated on the naming process, and voted - ‘Harmony’ ended up winning by a large margin, and we’re thrilled to be - for the very first time in our history - naming a blend collectively with all of you, our Ethos family! We’ve combined three very special coffees in this blend: Poaquil Natural (our wonderful chocolatey, fruit-forward, high-impact, Guatemalan bourbon), Rio Coco (our nutty and sweet women-farmed ‘Cafe Femenino’ from Nicaragua), and an extra creamy Natural from the APROCEM Co-Op in Sul de Minas, Brazil - sourced for this blend!

The result is a complex cup with layers of fruit, hints of caramel, and a sweet, clean finish - that shines on both Espresso and filter methods like Pour-Overs, and Drip (aka. your good old coffee maker!). We hope “Harmony” adds a little more adventure to your coffee ritual this year, and we can’t wait to hear from you as you put it to the test on all your favorite methods! As a three-bean-blend, it is extremely versatile, so we highly encourage you to try it on as many forms as your heart desires!

Also, it is almost time for our 2021 RE: Summer Series! (i.e. our technical newsletter series we publish from June-August every year)… and we would love to hear if there’s any question you’d like us to deep-dive in! While we’ve previously covered general brewing principles, health benefits of coffee, and a variety of methods (from Cold Brew to Espresso), we would love to get to answer more specific questions from you this year! We promise our responses will always be well-researched and aimed at bringing your coffee expertise to a new level! (which we realize will be challenging, as some of you are already in the top 1% of most savvy coffee drinkers!). We’ll address your questions on the next three monthly newsletters, so if you think of anything between now and then… please send them to lisbeth@ethosroasters.com!

Oh, and if you’re in the area, we’ll be brewing Harmony (pun 100% intended!) every Saturday at the Downtown Lakeland Farmer’s Market for the next few weeks, so come say hi!… we truly can’t wait to finally see your wonderful, happy faces again!

Jolian & Lisbeth

PS. We’ll also be including Harmony samples on ALL your boxes for the next two weeks! We understand not everyone is close, or is ready to venture out, so no worries - your now fully vaccinated Ethos production team will ALWAYS be happy to ship your freshly roasted coffee to your door!

Blossom, Epic, or Harmony?

The top 3 names for our new Espresso Blend are in! Our new multidimensional Espresso blend featuring classic chocolate, nutty, caramel notes layered with hints of berries is… “Blossom Espresso”, “Epic Espresso”, or “Harmony Espresso”? - please email us back and let us know your pick by April 30th! (we’ll finalize the blend, order labels, and be ready to launch with our May newsletter!). We truly can’t thank you enough for being part of this creative process with us - suggesting names, sharing your thoughts, and voting - and we can’t wait to share the final result with you!

In the meantime… we have an amazing, limited-edition microlot for you! An outstanding 90-pt coffee with a heavy body and intense notes of raisins, plums, stone fruit, and molasses, this Natural Castillo varietal truly honors its name - “La Estrella” - which means “The Star”. Its grower, Yinyini Avilez, is also a star producer and leader within the ASOPAP CoOperative - known for helping his fellow small farmers improve their coffees, and championing others. A few months ago, he decided to use all his expertise and efforts to produce the most perfectly fermented, Organic certified, Natural-processed coffee he could… and we’re so, so happy we were able to buy it ALL for us!

We hope you enjoy it as much as we are (well, someone had to drink the first ‘experimental’ batch!)… with all our love and gratitude,

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We’re also in the last few days for this season’s Poaquil Honey… promise it will return in the Fall (and we’re buying more next season, of course!).

Help us name our new Espresso Blend!

We’re ending this month with a grateful heart, and still in awe at the level of love and support we’re getting on all our Anniversary goodies! We’re overjoyed by all the positive reviews and repeat purchases on the Anniversary shirts (small is sold out, yet all other sizes, particularly larger ones, are still available).

We’re also excited about so many new partnership opportunities this year (both small farmers and new shops, as you’ve probably seen, and continue to see, on our Facebook and Instagram)… and as we grow our partnerships, we’re thrilled to be able to expand our range of offerings for you! (online is our primary channel, so every single new coffee we get, will always be available online first! If you’re a subscriber, you’ll always automatically get all our new releases, and all our special limited-editions - unless you’re subscribed to specific coffees, of course!)

We’d like to make this coffee adventure a lot more interesting and fun - while keeping our Ethos as impactful as possible, and always going out of our way to support those who are often overlooked. In the next few months, expect two new limited-edition, incredible microlots: the first is a sweet, fruit bomb - “La Estrella” - a Natural from the same Co-Op as Diana’s Planadas microlot, and the second is a mind-blowing ‘experimental’ anaerobically fermented gem which is being air shipped directly to the roastery, from Huila, Colombia! (no estimated arrival yet, as we work through some of the logistical challenges getting coffee from this small grower for the first time, but it’s coming… we promise!)… and we’ll be adding a new Espresso Blend! 

Our goal with this new blend is to have something that would contrast and complement the nutty and traditional notes of our beloved Crema (which has many fans, and is here to stay!). The new blend will have a more fruit-forward and complex character, and feature all Natural-processed beans from 2-3 different regions (our Natural Poaquil will definitely be there, of course!). As we work through our sample roasts, blends, tastings, and iterations… we wanted to reach out to you, as we would love to make you part of our process! Would you like to help us name this new blend?

If you do, just email us (coffee@ethosroasters.com) with your name submission(s) by March 31! We will compile them and run a series of voting rounds on our IG stories (find us and follow us @ethosroasters to vote!), starting April 1st - and we will share the top 3 names on our next newsletter, so all of you reading our emails (our Ethos family!) will get to decide the winner!

If the name you suggested gets chosen, you’ll get a special code for a free 16-oz bag of it as soon as it launches! (and yes, each and every person who suggested the winning name gets one!).

Truly can’t wait to hear from you!

Jolian & Lisbeth

* Small print: Jolian and Lisbeth are IG neophytes pretending to know what they’re doing… yet trying very, very hard at it (Jolian does posts, Lisbeth does stories, and we both do inspirational quotes, captions, and answer messages), and always, always open to your ideas and feedback!

Our First FIVE Years! 🎉

We’re officially starting our 5 Year Anniversary celebrations today!

About five years ago, on a beautiful Spring day, Jolian and I made our very first coffee sale at a farmer’s market. We didn’t have a website yet, our logo was (in all honesty) not very good, our packaging was a paper bag with a black-and-white label, and we didn’t know what Instagram was! Yet, the intoxicating aroma of those freshly roasted coffee bags (roasted one by one, in 8-oz batches!) always reminded us we were not there to just sell coffee… we were “on a mission to Brew Greatness” - to create an impact through our coffee (which we had bought weeks before, from the soon-to-be Poaquil Co-Op in Guatemala, and had physically carried with us in our suitcases) - and that - was more than enough to keep us going!

We have learned and grown so much from those early days, yet the mission and the dream - our Ethos - is still the same (and will always be!)… and are thrilled to now have so many more people - our Ethos family - who now share this dream and this journey with us! So, we really want to celebrate you - and with you - for the next five weeks (or so)!

We’re doing Ethos t-shirts for the first time (well, technically second time, but our first run at t-shirts was a bit disastrous, and we’d prefer its memory to be buried into oblivion) - they were designed by our own super-talented, Alyssa McGuire, and stamped one by one, right here in Lakeland, by Deborah Dodge’s “Wolf in the Shop” startup. We’re also doing a new, limited-edition hat color (ruby red!) and just got new classic black hats as well! - both colors lovingly embroidered in Guatemala by women-owned micro-enterprises. All net proceeds from both shirts and hats will go towards enhancing our annual gifts to two non-profits we have proudly supported over the years - Take Heart Africa and the Cafe Femenino Foundation. Both items will be perfectly paired with an 8-oz bag of our new 5-Year Brew Greatness Anniversary Blend, featuring 3 high-impact coffees from Guatemala, Colombia, and Honduras - the 3 countries (besides our beloved, awesome USA, of course!) we have called “home”, and that have inspired our Ethos to make a difference.

We also have new Ethos totes! Also lovingly made by Guatemalan women, they are larger, sturdier, unique, great-looking - you’ll be able to add one for just $7 to any Brew Greatness Blend, or get one FREE on any order of 5 lbs or more (if you have a particularly nice neighbor or very good friends or family members living close by, now is the time to get some extra coffee for them! 😉), until the end of March. New totes will also be included in all our Samplers from now on!

Last, but not least - we’ll be sending special Brew Greatness bracelets until March 31st - to add a unique design to your collection!

We hope you love all our Anniversary additions, and that it makes you feel a little bit closer to this dream and this mission we share. You are truly family to us, and it means the world when you choose to spread the word about this idea that we actually CAN make a difference through coffee! We are deeply proud and always honored to roast for you, and to Brew Greatness with you every single day… for the past 5 years!

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

2021 : A New Chapter Begins!

Just a few weeks ago, we began our first ‘blank page’ of the year… and we’ve been busy preparing to write a really great new chapter with you this year!

Our goal is to make 2021 the year of “even better”… even higher scoring new coffees, even bigger impact, even more storytelling, and an even better connection with you, our Ethos family! Our first coffee arrivals of the year truly reflect this - we have Diana’s new “Planadas” microlot (a lower yield this season, but an even more outstanding coffee this year!), the new crop of our amazing Natural Yirgacheffe (as floral and fruity as ever!), and more of both of our Cafe Femenino coffees (Rio Coco & Andes) just arrived today! We’re so excited to keep growing our support for all these small farmers, while having the opportunity to search for the most unique, most special, most impactful coffees we can find… and we hope to soon be able to announce the arrival of our first experimental dry fermentation nano-lot from Colombia, from an incredible small grower!

We also look forward to continuing our support of D. R. Congo - we just got samples of all their new crops, and will soon need to decide which coffee(s) to get from them… so if you have a few minutes, we’d love if you could share your thoughts on Umoja (we’re on our last bag right now!), and more generally on what kinds of flavor notes you’d love to see on our new coffees and blends this year!

Oh, and Brew Greatness bracelets are back - and better than ever! We’ll keep including one on every single order, and a new, more special design on your larger orders (>$50). We also have new Ethos totes, also in a more sophisticated design that we hope you’ll love (and we’ll keep including them on all samplers and free on all orders over $100). Both our totes and bracelets are lovingly made in Guatemala by women artisans, which we’re also so honored to continue supporting through our coffee proceeds!

Thank you so, so much for the privilege to begin this year so busy… finding new ways to make an impact, discovering new coffees, roasting for you, and getting to #BrewGreatness in the world with you every single day! Thank you for making this dream, this work, this coffee, this Ethos - possible!

Thrilled about all our new adventures this year,

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. You’ll also see our 8-oz bags changing soon… to the new design (matching our new 16-oz bags)… you’ve been so amazing, that we’ve depleted our bag inventories much faster than we thought… so there’s a chance we may need to use interim bags to ‘bridge the gap’ until the new bags arrive (our apologies in advance - rest assured, the coffee inside will be as great and as fresh as always).

AN ETHOS OF GIVING

Happy Holidays, Ethos family! We’d like to close the year with an invitation to reflect and be grateful for one more year of challenges and triumphs, of misadventures and adventures, of life and possibilities!

This year we wanted to reflect on the joys of giving as the ethos that gave us the courage to continue, and even take risks, in the midst of so much uncertainty this year. We truly believe that our deep desire to give - to our farmers and to our customers - is the invisible bond that holds us together, and ultimately makes our roastery different from any other. So, we want to invite you to make this Holiday season all about the giving - not about how much you give, but how much thought and love you place into your giving… through the years we’ve discovered the best gifts are not the most expensive, the best gifts are those that have an element of something the recipient can’t really “buy” - i.e. it’s always thoughtful and deeply personal - it’s perhaps a new product or experience they have never tried (or always wanted to try!). May your season be full of amazing gifts, and above all, full of thoughtful, joyful giving!

As you know, we post an inspirational quote on our Instagram (@ethosroasters) every Monday - and, as is now a tradition, here are our 12 favorite quotes this year:

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?” (Martin Luther King Jr. | Posted Jan 20, 2020) - always, and forever a favorite to live by!

“Not all those who wander are lost” (JRR Tolkien | Posted Feb 17, 2020, along with a picture of us visiting our Poaquil farmers in Guatemala!)

“ Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great, we can be that generation” ( Nelson Mandela | Posted Mar 23, 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic)

“Life is measured by love” ( Pope Francis | Posted Apr 6, 2020, as stay-at-home orders were being implemented throughout the US)

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall” (Confucius | Posted May 25, 2020, as we began a Summer of uncertainty)

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that” ( Martin Luther King Jr. | Posted Jun 1, 2020, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd)

“If not us, then who? If not now, then when?” (John Lewis | Posted Jul 27, 2020, a few days after his passing)

“Don’t count the days, make the days count” (Muhammad Ali | Posted Aug 10, 2020, as pandemic fatigue began to set in, and we decided to take a risk with our new “Umoja” from D.R. Congo)

“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you” (Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Posted Sep 21, 2020, in the wake of her passing)

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world” (Desmond Tutu | Posted Oct 5, 2020, as we were creating our new Red Swan Blend!)

“How do you say thank you for sunshine or health… for clear days or gentle rains… for happiness, joy, or love? You say it by sharing what you have. You say it by making the world a better place in which to live” (Thomas Willhite | Posted Nov 23, 2020, the week of Thanksgiving)

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give” (Winston Churchill | Posted Dec 7, 2020, overjoyed by your giving spirit, and experiencing our busiest holiday season yet! About half those orders are gifts… which we’re especially grateful for, since most of us only share products, missions, and stories we love and are proud of! Thank you for all the love… we’ll always strive to make you proud!

Every single day, we’re grateful for the opportunity to get to roast for you, to get to live this dream and make an impact, and most of all, for each of you who continue to make it all possible!

Always wishing you much joy and blessings this Holiday season - and a New Year full of possibilities to realize your dreams and Brew Greatness in the world,

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We have a bonus guest blog post this year! Enjoy these Holiday Coffee Recipes written just for us by Blogger Jessie Bayer (a fan generously sharing her talents with us!).

Fun Coffee Recipes for the Holidays! [Bonus Guest Post]

Special thanks to Blogger Jennifer Birch for writing this piece just for our Ethos family!

Ah, coffee — the ideal way to start your day and the best drink to pair with dessert. With coffee shops everywhere you look, it’s easy to get your hands on a cup of joe. But what if we told you that you could make a coffee shop-standard brew from the comfort of your own home? That’s right. You don’t need to head out to get some quality caffeine. You can do it by yourself!

Don’t believe us? Think about it: All you need are some quality ingredients and the right kitchen appliances. It’s no wonder entrepreneurs have found success in starting and running a café! The margins are impressive, as people go to coffee shops to pay $3.50 to $4.50 for a cup of coffee that only costs around $1 to make. Factor in the fact that some 83% of Americans enjoy a cup of coffee regularly, and you’ve got yourself a nice business model. Pretty awesome, right? Remember to give us a shoutout once you’ve built your coffee empire. Until then, here are four fun coffee recipes for you to make at home:

1. Cold Brew Coffee | Iced Coffee

No special equipment needed for this coffee recipe. Cold brew coffee is made by steeping around two ounces of ground coffee beans in cold water for a long period of time (~20 hrs). It yields a rich taste that isn’t at all bitter. We recommend leaving it in the fridge overnight, then serving it the next day with milk and honey.

But if you’re looking for a quick coffee fix, we’d recommend some good old iced coffee. It uses the same amount of coffee beans. Just dump it into your coffee press with some hot water. After a couple of minutes, push down the plunger, then serve over ice.

2. White Chocolate Mocha

Got some leftover white chocolate in the fridge? Why not repurpose it into a decadent white chocolate mocha? Pour some milk into a pot, throw in around three tablespoons of white chocolate, then whisk. Once the mixture is smooth, pour it into a cup of coffee and stir. To make it look fancy, top it with some whipped cream and a little nutmeg!

3. Gingerbread Spice Coffee

Craving coffee with a hint of spice? Try a cup of gingerbread spice coffee! Mix a spoonful of molasses with a half teaspoon of brown sugar, baking soda, ground ginger, and cinnamon in a bowl. Once it’s all blended, cover and leave in the fridge for around ten minutes. After it’s chilled, you can prepare your coffee as usual and stir in a teaspoon of the spice mixture. We recommend having this with some milk and whipped cream. You can even make your own gingerbread cookies to go with it! They pair really well with any cup of coffee.

4. Banana Coffee Smoothie

This last recipe is a little bit different. It’s a great way to kick start your day, but also a delicious way to end your meal. To make a banana coffee smoothie, drop two frozen bananas, some sugar, a cup of vanilla ice cream, and a cup of strong coffee into your food processor. Blend the mixture until smooth, then serve in a tall glass. It’s a healthy smoothie with a kick of caffeine!

Four delicious coffee recipes, and each one can be made in your kitchen! Ready to try them out? With so many choices, you’re sure to find the perfect cup of coffee for you. Happy brewing!

AN ETHOS OF GRATITUDE

Today we just wanted to wish you, from the bottom of our hearts, a very special and joyful Thanksgiving. Even if it looks a little different this year, we hope you'll take some time to reflect on all your blessings, and all the ways you've made a difference in the lives of others.

Thank you especially for being a blessing in our lives. Ethos 2020 - and all our new High-Impact relationships - have only been possible thanks to your love and support.

We often like to say we're "always here for you"... yet we are also -quite literally this year- here thanks to you. On behalf of all the many others whose lives are better because of you - THANK YOU!

Much love from your roasters, we love Brewing Greatness with you!

Jolian & Lisbeth

Ethos 2020 in a Cup : Introducing this year's Red Swan!

What a year this has been! Full of surprises, challenges, many (perhaps too many) learning opportunities… and yet, we’ve done some of our most impactful work this year. It has been a year full of uncertainty and despair, yet we’ve been able to offer certainty and hope to our farmers. It has been a year of a few losses driven by unfortunate events and a few painful changes… yet, we feel so much clearer about our path for the future, and are even more convinced on our ability to make a difference. It has been the year of social distancing… yet we feel more connected to each of you than ever before! - to the extent we’ve secretly started calling you our Ethos family.

As we began working on our Holiday Blend for this year… we wanted to do something extra (truly extra) special - that could help embody our immense, deep gratitude for each of you this year. It is not an understatement when we say Ethos exists only thanks to you - our High-Impact coffees are now 80% supported by our online customers and subscribers! With this in mind, we began by sourcing a coffee that would only be featured on this blend - a women-farmed, Organic, Direct-Trade Honey-processed Bourbon from Copán, Honduras… and combined it with two of our most special, most impactful single-origins we currently have: Poaquil Natural and Umoja (Washed Bourbon). And, as some of you may have already noticed… we also combined all main coffee processing methods (washed, honey natural) into this intoxicatingly aromatic, well-balanced, sweet cup featuring fruit-forward notes that contrast nicely with strong earthy, subtly spiced undertones.

We hope you love it… and we hope you can taste our intense joy and gratitude for getting to still be here, in this journey…. Brewing Greatness in the world with you!

Gracias familia!

Jolian & Lisbeth

PS. We’re adding a little surprise to every online order that includes Red Swan this and next month (and I’m dying to tell you… but I think you’ll be happier to just see it when you open your box!). We hope you love it, we hope it makes your Holidays a little more special this year, and above all - we hope we’re able to show our gratitude for all the love and support you’ve shown us this year! YOU are truly awesome, family!

Coffee : How it all began...

This month marks our 5th year celebrating “International Coffee Day” (Sept 29th) - which is an unofficial global holiday to celebrate coffee, the third most popular beverage in the world (water is #1 and tea is #2 - in case you were curious) and everything it means to humanity: a livelihood, a favorite way to start the day, a way to connect with others, a ritual to relax, a hobby, and for a few lucky of us, Ethos lovers - a way to make an impact!

We’ve written extensively about the future we want to see… so this time, we thought we would do something different and go back in time, and tell the story - more accurately the legend - of how it all began…

About 1,400 years ago, in an Ethiopian highland named Kaffa, a goat herder named Kaldi noticed something strange in his goats one fateful evening. His usually calm goats were jumping around and bleating loudly, and refused to go to sleep. This was highly unusual, so Kaldi decided to investigate - he took them back to the same field the next day, but this time stayed close to carefully watch them. He saw them flocking to a group of shrubs with round red fruits… and enthusiastically begin to eat them. He decided to try these fruits himself, and was delighted as he began to also feel its energizing effects. Excited about his discovery, he filled his pockets with as many fruits as he could carry, and took them home to his wife. She tried them and thought the berries were “a gift from God”, and told him he should show them to the monks in the Abyssinian monastery nearby. Unfortunately, the monks disagreed with her, and labeled these fruits as “the devil’s work”, tossing them into the fire. Yet, the delicious aroma that filled the room from the roasting berries (and its seeds!) captured their attention. They removed the remainders from the fire, placed them in a vessel, and added water to extinguish the dying embers. This freshly brewed coffee had an even more intoxicating aroma, and attracted even more monks. Some of them tried it, and once they also experienced its energizing effects, they thought they had finally found something that would keep them awake during their prayers - beginning the first daily coffee drinking ritual in history!

Fourteen centuries later, we continue this great tradition… and now strive to brew more than a delicious cup, to brew the change we want to see in the world!

Thank you for being part of our story,

Jolian & Lisbeth

RE: Wet vs. Dry | How Processing Impacts Flavor

We’ve had an exciting week! Our new crops of Poaquil (Washed, Honey, and Natural), arrived yesterday, and we’re so ready to share them with you! Overall acidity is down across the board, the Honey is sweeter than ever, and the Natural is a fruit bomb! We’re so proud of the amazing job the Co-Op has done for us this year, so happy to report we’ve been able to reward them with even higher premiums for their Honey and Natural this year, and so eager to start roasting and drinking all these amazing coffees with all of you!

Of course, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to re-visit the topic of processing methods, and how a process that begins thousands of miles away, at the farm, impacts the flavors in your cup in such a big way! Coffee processing is what transforms a coffee cherry into a coffee “bean” (technically, a seed) that’s ready to be roasted - which means all - yes, all - the coffee in the world is “processed” (i.e. nobody brews ‘roasted cherries’). There’s two main ways to achieve this: (1) “Wet” processing - aka. “Washed”, under which coffee beans/seeds are throughly submerged - and literally - washed with water to remove any cherry and pulp components prior to drying and (2) “Dry” processing - which do not use (or use very little) water, as the cherry is not removed (Naturals) or is only partially removed (Honeys) prior to drying.

The main resulting difference is that Wet Processed/Washed coffees won’t have any sugars or enzymes that can be fermented as the beans dry… while Dry Processed/Natural/Honey coffees will have lots of them (the exact amount will depend on a few factors like cherry ripeness and sugar concentration, and the amount of pulp left behind). As a result, these coffees will undergo a series of fermentation reactions - i.e. the breakdown of carbohydrates and sugars by enzymes, environmental bacteria (mostly Lactobacillus, widely used in dairy fermentations), and yeasts (from the same awesome Saccharomyces genus also used in bread and beer production!). The end result of these fermentations (when perfectly controlled)? More sweetness and body in your cup, and a lot more flavor complexity - including stronger and more specific fruit notes (i.e. raisin) and a more lingering finish. In contrast, Washed coffees tend to be cleaner and more “well-balanced” (i.e. just the right amount of sweetness and acidity), and feature more prominently those characteristic roasted notes with chocolate and nutty undertones.

We hope you’ll give the new Poaquil crops a try! We’ll also be sampling them regularly in the next few weeks… along with our awesome new “UMOJA” from the Democratic Republic of Congo - which is another high-impact coffee changing lives (watch farmers’ testimonies @ethosroasters), and adding incredible variety and depth to our coffee offerings. It is also a Washed Bourbon (like Poaquil), yet features a completely different flavor profile (earthy, sweet, bold yet with a slight fruity/winey character), reflective of the unique growing conditions that make African coffees so special!

Thank you so, so much for making all of this possible - our travel may still be restricted - but this is still, and will always be - the journey of our lives! What an amazing privilege it is to get to make a difference for those who need it most, when they need it most… and I always hope that you can also feel that joy, and all of our gratitude and love every time you brew Ethos at home!

So deeply grateful to get to roast and Brew Greatness with you,

Lisbeth

P.S. The same day our 5 pallets of Poaquil were delivered… we also got another special delivery - of our brand new, custom-built 10-kilo roaster! This will be replacing our smallest roaster and adding more capacity, flexibility, and technology to your roastery - we’ll be working as fast as possible on the installation so it’ll be ready and at your service this Holiday season! We’re also hoping to be able to do some (limited-capacity, socially-distanced) events so you can see it in person this Winter!

RE: Cold Brew vs. Iced | The Experiment

Cold or Iced? Whether you’re a Cold Brew lover, or an Iced coffee fan… Summer is always a great time to try a new cool method!

Let’s first address some basic questions:

What’s the difference? Two key brewing parameters: time and temperature. Cold brew is all about long brewing times (18-20 hrs) at low water temperatures (~40℉) while Iced coffee is the opposite - short brewing times (3-5 min) at high water temperatures (~200℉).

What’s the same? Both are typically brewed at higher strengths than hot brewed coffee - i.e. using ~50% more coffee per brewed cup - so they can be served over ice or be paired with milk without tasting too weak or watered down.

Now, our recipes using the exact same ratios, and the exact same method, so you can brew them and compare them! If you’d like to keep things scientific, you’d also need to brew the exact same bean under both methods… and try a few different beans! (Spoiler alert: you may prefer some beans iced, and some cold brewed! Some we think do particularly well on both: Poaquil, Rio Coco, Andes, and Ethereal!)

ICED COFFEE

1. Grind 2 oz coffee to a coarse (sea salt) level.

2. Place grinds into the bottom of your French Press.

3. Pour 16 fl oz of hot (200-205℉) spring or filtered water and mix well.

4. Steep for 5 min.

5. Plunge your Press and transfer to a new container (to stop the extraction!). Voilà! Your Iced Coffee concentrate is ready!

COLD BREW

1. Grind 2 oz coffee to a coarse (sea salt) level.

2. Place grinds at the bottom of your French Press.

3. Pour 16 oz of spring or filtered water and mix gently, ensuring all grounds are wet.

4. Cover, place in the fridge and let it steep for 18-22 h.

5. Plunge your Press and transfer to a new container (yes, also to stop the extraction). Voilà! Your Cold Brew concentrate is ready!

Place 8 fl oz of each concentrate in a cup, and add 4-8 oz of ice or milk to taste (again, add the exact same amount to each if you’d like to keep it scientific!). Now they’re ready to be tasted side-by-side!

If you don’t have a French Press (or just prefer filtered coffee), an alternative would be to make Iced Coffee as a Pour-Over and make Cold Brew using a disposable paper filter - keeping all ratios the same. The use of a paper filter (on both instances) will reduce the amount of oils and yield a much cleaner drink (i.e. no small ground particles in suspension).

Happy Cold/Iced brewing… and most importantly, thank you for choosing to Brew Greatness in the world with us every single day! It’s my absolute joy and honor to be your roaster,

Lisbeth

PS. We just sourced two new, very special coffees… a new high-impact single-origin from Congo launching in September… and a special Honey processed coffee from Honduras, which will be the star of this year’s Red Swan Holiday Blend! Truly can’t wait to share them with you (clearly… as I wasn’t supposed to tell you anything until next month! Ooops!)

RE: Coffee and Health | Myths vs. Science

In this first Summer Series, we’d like to demystify some of the latest, scientific findings on coffee! And hopefully do our part to clarify and counteract all the misinformation that’s so easily found in our online feeds these days! Below, an amazing scientific review by our own medical expert -  Jolian Rios, MD,  ABIM Board Certified.

Myth #1: All Studies are Scientifically Valid

Coffee has been widely studied - there have been hundreds of studies published about it over the years. Yet, the first thing to keep in mind is that not all studies are created equal - as they can go from very strict, scientifically valid Cohort, Case-Control, and Randomized Controlled Trials where data drives the findings, to an Opinion Paper, which is simply someone sharing their thoughts  - of course, their findings do not carry the same weight! To make matters worse, these Opinion Papers are many times “interpreted” and reported by the media in ways that favor their ratings. So every time you read something, go to the source, and please don’t share it if it is not a scientific source! - advice that seems especially relevant right now!

Myth #2: Coffee = Caffeine

When we think of coffee, we immediately think about caffeine; yet we should keep in mind coffee contains many other compounds with potential health benefits. These include polyphenols such as caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, diterpenoids, and other antioxidants, as well as potassium, magnesium, niacin, and lignans. In fact, concentrations of these phenolic antioxidants are much higher in brewed coffee than in brewed tea - which is often touted as an antioxidant powerhouse!

Myth #3: Caffeine is Unhealthy

Caffeine is quickly absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, and it gets metabolized by the liver. It antagonizes adenosine receptors in the central and peripheral nervous systems - and in this way, it can have a variety of effects. Some of the main effects found so far:

• Caffeine is a proven analgesic, property that has been used for the treatment of headaches, specifically tension and migraine headaches [1,2]. 

• Multiple cohort studies with over 600,000 individuals found it may reduce stroke risk [3-6]. 

• Two case-controlled studies and two cohort studies have shown a small protective effect of coffee consumption advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Moreover, animal models have shown long-term caffeine consumption may delay or reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease [7,8].

• Randomized Controlled Trials of healthy individuals have found caffeine improves cognition, mood, vigilance, and reaction time - regardless of age and gender [9-14].

• A study with sleep-deprived Navy SEAL trainees showed improvement of cognitive function, learning, memory, and mood despite continuous exposure to stressors with an optimal dose of 200 mg of caffeine (about two cups of coffee!) [15]. 

Myth #4: Coffee is Unhealthy

Numerous studies on coffee have actually shown the opposite - there are several health benefits from long-term coffee consumption. Some examples:

• A matched case-control of almost 1700 women with BRCA gene mutation found that coffee intake was associated with 10% - 69% lower risk of breast cancer, this was a dose-dependent effect, with the lowest effect being seen on women who drank 1-3 cups of coffee and the largest effect seen on those who drank more than 6 cups of coffee per day [16]

• A case-control study of 1900 women found that coffee intake was associated with a 40% lower risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women who drank 4 or more cups of coffee per day [17].

• A meta-analysis of cohort and case-control studies showed a decreased risk of endometrial cancer in coffee drinkers [18].

• A large prospective analysis of over 47,000 men found a strong dose-dependent reduction in the risk of prostate cancer [19].

• Several studies, including randomized trials, and cohort studies, have shown that coffee consumption, including decaf, decreases the risk of type 2 diabetes, by improving insulin sensitivity as well as insulin secretion [20-24].

• Another study showed caffeine in coffee to be a potent stimulator of smooth muscles that prevent constipation [25]. 

• A meta-analysis of 14 different studies shows that coffee drinkers had 39% less probability of developing cirrhosis [26].

Thus, coffee has been shown to have positive effects on multiple systems and may even lower the risk of multiple chronic diseases in the long term. I’ve listed the studies used for reference, in case you’d like to read in a lot more detail on your own (it pairs perfectly with a great cup of Ethos to keep you awake!). 

So, let’s keep enjoying coffee, and let’s continue to make a difference, to Brew Greatness in the world!

- Jolian

REFERENCES

1. Goldstein J, Silberstein SD, Saper JR, Ryan RE Jr, Lipton RB. Acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine in combination versus ibuprofen for acute migraine: results from a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, parallel-group, single-dose, placebo-controlled study. Headache. 2006;46(3):444-453. doi:10.1111/j.1526-4610.2006.00376

2. Diener HC, Gold M, Hagen M. Use of a fixed combination of acetylsalicylic acid, acetaminophen and caffeine compared with acetaminophen alone in episodic tension-type headache: meta-analysis of four randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover studies. J Headache Pain. 2014;15(1):76. Published 2014 Nov 19. doi:10.1186/1129-2377-15-76

3. Larsson SC, Virtamo J, Wolk A. Coffee consumption and risk of stroke in women. Stroke. 2011;42(4):908-912. doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.110.603787

4. Lopez-Garcia E, Rodriguez-Artalejo F, Rexrode KM, Logroscino G, Hu FB, van Dam RM. Coffee consumption and risk of stroke in women. Circulation. 2009;119(8):1116-1123. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.108.826164

5. Larsson SC, Männistö S, Virtanen MJ, Kontto J, Albanes D, Virtamo J. Coffee and tea consumption and risk of stroke subtypes in male smokers. Stroke. 2008;39(6):1681-1687. doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.107.504183

6. Larsson SC, Orsini N. Coffee consumption and risk of stroke: a dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies. Am J Epidemiol. 2011;174(9):993-1001. doi:10.1093/aje/kwr226

7. Arendash GW, Schleif W, Rezai-Zadeh K, et al. Caffeine protects Alzheimer's mice against cognitive impairment and reduces brain beta-amyloid production. Neuroscience. 2006;142(4):941-952. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2006.07.021

8. Barranco Quintana JL, Allam MF, Serrano Del Castillo A, Fernández-Crehuet Navajas R. Alzheimer's disease and coffee: a quantitative review. Neurol Res. 2007;29(1):91-95. doi:10.1179/174313206X152546

9. Fredholm BB, Bättig K, Holmén J, Nehlig A, Zvartau EE. Actions of caffeine in the brain with special reference to factors that contribute to its widespread use. Pharmacol Rev. 1999;51(1):83-133.

10. Jarvis MJ. Does caffeine intake enhance absolute levels of cognitive performance?. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1993;110(1-2):45-52. doi:10.1007/BF02246949

11. Kamimori GH, Johnson D, Thorne D, Belenky G. Multiple caffeine doses maintain vigilance during early morning operations. Aviat Space Environ Med. 2005;76(11):1046-1050.

12. Lorist MM, Snel J, Kok A, Mulder G. Influence of caffeine on selective attention in well-rested and fatigued subjects. Psychophysiology. 1994;31(6):525-534. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1994.tb02345.x

13. Ker K, Edwards PJ, Felix LM, Blackhall K, Roberts I. Caffeine for the prevention of injuries and errors in shift workers. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2010;2010(5):CD008508. Published 2010 May 12. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008508

14. Smith A, Sutherland D, Christopher G. Effects of repeated doses of caffeine on mood and performance of alert and fatigued volunteers. J Psychopharmacol. 2005;19(6):620-626. doi:10.1177/0269881105056534

15. Lieberman HR, Tharion WJ, Shukitt-Hale B, Speckman KL, Tulley R. Effects of caffeine, sleep loss, and stress on cognitive performance and mood during U.S. Navy SEAL training. Sea-Air-Land. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2002;164(3):250-261. doi:10.1007/s00213-002-1217-9

16. Nkondjock A, Ghadirian P, Kotsopoulos J, et al. Coffee consumption and breast cancer risk among BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers. Int J Cancer. 2006;118(1):103-107. doi:10.1002/ijc.21296

17. Baker JA, Beehler GP, Sawant AC, Jayaprakash V, McCann SE, Moysich KB. Consumption of coffee, but not black tea, is associated with decreased risk of premenopausal breast cancer. J Nutr. 2006;136(1):166-171. doi:10.1093/jn/136.1.166

18. Bravi F, Scotti L, Bosetti C, et al. Coffee drinking and endometrial cancer risk: a metaanalysis of observational studies. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2009;200(2):130-135. doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2008.10.032

19. Wilson KM, Kasperzyk JL, Rider JR, et al. Coffee consumption and prostate cancer risk and progression in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2011;103(11):876-884. doi:10.1093/jnci/djr15

20. Huxley R, Lee CM, Barzi F, et al. Coffee, decaffeinated coffee, and tea consumption in relation to incident type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(22):2053-2063. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2009.439

21. van Dam RM, Feskens EJ. Coffee consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Lancet. 2002;360(9344):1477-1478. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)11436-X

22. Rosengren A, Dotevall A, Wilhelmsen L, Thelle D, Johansson S. Coffee and incidence of diabetes in Swedish women: a prospective 18-year follow-up study. J Intern Med. 2004;255(1):89-95. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2796.2003.01260.x

23. van Dam RM, Willett WC, Manson JE, Hu FB. Coffee, caffeine, and risk of type 2 diabetes: a prospective cohort study in younger and middle-aged U.S. women. Diabetes Care. 2006;29(2):398-403. doi:10.2337/diacare.29.02.06.dc05-1512

24. Salazar-Martinez E, Willett WC, Ascherio A, et al. Coffee consumption and risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus. Ann Intern Med. 2004;140(1):1-8. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-140-1-200401060-00005

25. Murakami K, Okubo H, Sasaki S. Dietary intake in relation to self-reported constipation among Japanese women aged 18-20 years. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2006;60(5):650-657. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602365

26. Liu F, Wang X, Wu G, et al. Coffee Consumption Decreases Risks for Hepatic Fibrosis and Cirrhosis: A Meta-Analysis. PLoS One. 2015;10(11):e0142457. Published 2015 Nov 10. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0142457

Let's Not "Go Back"... Let's Go Beyond...

As our country re-opens, and we adapt to a new post-COVID reality, we may find ourselves in a unique position to make a difference… to support the places, the ideas, the people, and the organizations shaping not just the world as it is, but the world as we would like it to be! This is a special call to support them… a special invitation to go beyond labels, beyond certifications, beyond pretty marketing graphics and clever tactics… to paying attention to their real - always quantifiable, always specific - impact and support those who are making the difference you would like to see in the world! Now, more than ever, your support will be the difference between those businesses and organizations who make it… and those who don’t!

If there’s one thing I now know for sure is… that nothing is bigger than the collective impact of small actions, and nothing more powerful than a small idea in action. You keep proving this to us every single day… that we can go beyond a $0.20 “Fair-Trade” premium… that we can place impact at the top of our list when sourcing… that small farmers (not just wealthy farms and “Estates”, as is the case with most Specialty coffees) can produce some of the best coffees in the world if given the right opportunity and support… and that we can make all of this happen at a fraction of the cost (per cup) that you’d pay for coffee at a gas station! One of the unexpected rewards of this journey has been my own growth as a conscious consumer, as I’ve become keenly aware of my responsibility for everything I buy - and from whom I buy it - and how big the impact of those seemingly small decisions really is! So, I hope you’ll go beyond coffee… I hope you’ll find and champion as many small companies daring - and trying - to make a difference in this new world that now more than ever, favors the survival - and consolidation - of the giants!

Once again (and I won’t ever get tired of saying it) - THANK YOU for making a difference through coffee with us… it is always a privilege to roast for you, and my ultimate happiness to get to #BrewGreatness in the world with you!

❤︎ Lisbeth

P.S. We’ll begin our 2020 “RE:” Summer Series next month (he doesn’t know it yet… but Jolian is writing the first one!) - which is a 3-month series of articles on different coffee topics… we would love to hear from you on which topics or questions you’d like us to feature this year! Please email us: coffee@ethosroasters.com! Oh… and we have one more coffee surprise for you this Summer… stay tuned for our new ETHEREAL Blend launching in June!