Flip The Open Sign

Time to flip the open sign on my website! This is something I have heavily debated doing for a very long time. I recently discovered that there is truly no right or wrong time to do anything, there is just the moment you are in right now and the moment you hope you'll have later. While this is something I have toyed around with in my own head for a few months, I realize it is probably out of nowhere for most anyone else who is reading this. So, allow me to explain the point of all this (for the time being).

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In February of 2018, I launched my first attempt at a coffee company: Peaks & Pines Coffee Roasters. It was a hail mary attempt at creating what I felt was missing in my community. We had coffee shops, some that served really good coffee. We even had a shop that roasted it's own coffee on a shiny new Diedrich IR-5 (the same shiny new Diedrich IR-5 that I learned to roast on). But it was missing something- all of the options in my area were missing the ever-important aesthetic and flair I desired. Not only that, they missed the mark on what I really found important in coffee- the connections.

Coffee is all about the connections. Connections from the farmers to the roasters, from the roasters to the cafes, from the baristas to the consumer. In between all of those connections are dozens of other connections that I can't even begin to list. The point is: Coffee is communal from start to finish, yet we miss so much of its start as consumers. What I was looking for was a place that no only highlighted the efforts and creativity of the barista, but also showcased and celebrated the efforts and creativity of the farmers, pickers, importers, and roasters.

This isn't necessarily a unique idea, but my hope was to make it more approachable than ever. In future posts I will dive much deeper into all aspects of the coffee industry, touching on what I personally see as it's greatest assets and also ranting on what I feel are it's biggest issues. For this post, I will just say this: There is a lot of bullshit surrounding and infiltrating the industry and I wanted to combat that. And I believe I will. But I quickly discovered that in order to create what I was envisioning, and to help pull back the curtain on the coffee industry, I need to do something. I need to take 3 steps back, and start at the beginning. I need to know what I am talking about.

This website is one piece of that never-ending journey. A public account of my education, findings, opinions, and hopefully my impact on the industry. Peaks & Pines isn't so much dead as it is undergoing some much needed development. I don't know what form it will return in, or if it will return at all beyond some anecdotal reflections in future posts.

Please come along with me and engage in my world while I try to learn a little about myself, a lot about coffee, and maybe even gain some transferable life lessons.

Flip the sign to open, the coffee is ready.

-Brad

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TLDR: Peaks & Pines Coffee Roasters is on hiatus, Brad is going to try and learn a bunch of stuff about coffee so he can be a credible source and experience as much as he can. The website is a companion to that journey. You're lazy.