This situation, this Coffee...

So, a little over 2 months ago now, I was surfing the internet on baristaexchange.com. I was skimming through the current posts and someone was there looking for a job in the Midwest and I just so happened to click on it for some odd reason. I did not need a job, I had a job, a good job, getting paid under the table plus tips. I was doing fairly well for myself, catching up on bills, paying student loans for a degree that I never finished (yet). This post had one response from Steve Kessler, a man I have come to know really well in the past 2 months, saying that Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co. was hiring for a wholesale guy. It peaked my interest.

I had recently been thinking about what I have wanted to do with myself in the world of coffee. I had also just gotten done reading "God in a Cup" and it made me realize that this rock-star barista thing that everyone is competing so hard for was not really me. As much as I like a good challenge, I really prefer working together to complete a common goal with a group of people I really like. I wanted to no longer be a barista, but work behind the scenes and produce something worthwhile for myself and for others. So, I replied to the reply, and within minutes I had gotten an email from Steve at Anodyne. We had from that point and in the next few following weeks hammered out the details for me to suddenly move out of state from Michigan to Wisconsin. It took about two weeks for me to quit my job working at Kozy Koffee in Highland, Mi to move to Bay View, one of the boroughs in Milwaukee WI. In my last few weeks in Highland, we partied, and partied hard. We threw a show where we were not allowed to throw a show, our favorite bands and favorite people were all there. There were lots of hugs and a few tears, but no sooner did this all happen, than were all of our things packed into a u-haul and were we on the road.

When I think to myself, I sometimes remember all the way back to when I lived in Warren, MI. It is the city to the north boardering Detroit. I grew up there for the first 12.5 years of my life on the notorious 8 mile. Yes, that 8 mile, the same 8 mile Eminem is from. I remember riding my bike all over the place. Places where I know I should not have ever been or where I should probably never return. The important part was all the bike riding. It seems like a thing you do when you are a child, you learn to do it, then soon forget it when you are old enough to drive. I guess looking at it in retrospect, this moving to Milwaukee where there are bike lanes everywhere, where I do not own a car, I feel like I have returned to my childhood in some weird way.

My journey thus far has forced me to meet peoples from all over the world, from different backgrounds, from different perspectives. I have become part of a team of people passionate about coffee, people who love coffee, people that go out to dinner and talk about nothing but coffee. It feels really good to be surrounded by these people who share some of the same ideas and passions as I do.

Just the other day, Luke, my roommate and best friend had gotten into the conversation about how we are hedonists in pursuit of only those things that pleasure us. I would hate for this to be taken the wrong way, but I believe it to be true in some sense. We are hedonists in that I have moved to Milwaukee in hopes of satisfying my love for coffee, the pleasure I get out of coffee as a plant, beverage, an industry, and as a way of having fun. We are hedonists in that I get the feeling of my childhood coming back to me, "lets ride bikes" not because we need to get somewhere, but because we want to. Lets seek out beauty, lets capture the essence of a place or a thing. We are hedonists in that humanity has reached a point in that I can take full advantage of 'our' industries, governments, and manipulate them to conform to my passions and loves so as to instigate more of what I want.

Ultimately, I am viewing my current situation as a means to do more of the things I want. Not money, not fame, not anything but those things I want to do because they make me happy. Eventually I dream of coffee taking me around the world so I can experience more of humanity through the eyes of coffee, more human perspectives, more of everything.

It has only been two months since I was surfing the Internet in search of nothing in particular. today I am sitting in Anodyne drinking some Kenya Peaberry Ruera that tastes like chocolate and guava. I am beyond happy!

It was a request...

I have created this blog with the hopes that all of my adventures in coffee will be recorded in one place for others to read, comment, enjoy, and learn. I am going to try and fill in my past coffee experiences and most definitely my new ones. I hope you like it.