💪🏻 RE: New Science on the Health Benefits of Coffee

This Summer, we noticed a few new - very extensive and comprehensive- studies on the benefits of drinking coffee… which seemed perfect for our last technical Summer series article! Below are some summaries and links to the studies, which we hope you’ll enjoy learning about:

In the most recent study published last month in the Annals of Internal Medicine, daily coffee consumption was associated with longer lives on 171,616 people (mean age 55), followed for 9 years. Compared with those who did not drink coffee, daily coffee drinkers (1-5 cups per day) had lower risks for all-cause mortality after adjusting for lifestyle, sociodemographic, and other health factors. Benefits were most pronounced among the group who drank between two and four cups per day, whose risk of early death was 30% less likely than non-coffee drinkers. Interestingly, the positive effects were a lot less pronounced for those who drank coffee with an artificial sweetener, as opposed to real cream or sugar (one teaspoon, on average). Researchers believe other factors may be at play, including higher rates of obesity and hypertension among those using artificial sweeteners (yet recent studies on the effects of artificial sweeteners on gut microbiota suggest it may be best to stick to natural sweeteners, just milk/cream, or our favorite - just black!).

Back in April, three studies presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 71st Annual Scientific Session found that drinking coffee - particularly 2-3 cups a day - was associated with a lower risk of heart disease and had a heart-protective effect for both people with and without cardiovascular disease. For the first study, researchers examined data from 382,535 people (mean age 57) without heart disease to see whether coffee drinking played a role in the development of heart disease or stroke during the 10 years of follow up. In general, having two to three cups of coffee a day was associated with the greatest benefit, translating to a 10%-15% lower risk of developing coronary heart disease, heart failure, a heart rhythm problem, or dying. The second study included 34,279 individuals who had cardiovascular disease. Coffee intake at two to three cups a day was also associated with lower odds of dying compared with having no coffee. Importantly, consuming coffee was not associated with a higher risk of heart rhythm problems, including atrial fibrillation (AFib), which is a common concern. In fact, in the 24,111 people who had arrhythmia, drinking coffee was actually associated with a 20% lower risk of death. In a third study, researchers looked at whether there were any differences in the relationship between coffee and cardiovascular disease depending on whether someone drank caffeinated or decaf. They found, once again, two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day to be associated with the lowest risk of arrhythmias, blockages in the heart's arteries, stroke or heart failure. Decaf coffee did not have favorable effects against arrhythmia or heart failure, but did reduce cardiovascular disease. The studies attributed the benefits not only to caffeine, but to the over 100 biologically active compounds in coffee beans that can help reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, improve insulin sensitivity, boost metabolism, and inhibit the gut's absorption of fat.

We hope this was an interesting read… and it makes us so immensely happy to be able to offer you a delicious cup of coffee that we know will benefit your health in the long run… thank you for starting your day Brewing Greatness with us,

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. The new crop of Poaquil should be finally arriving at the roastery in early September! 🙌 (we’ll announce it on our website and Instagram/Facebook, and we’ll be sending samples in your boxes as soon as it arrives!).

☕️ RE: Our Grinder Guide (+ new Rio Coco crop!)

There’s truly nothing like waking up to a brew of freshly ground coffee beans! In fact, one of the most frequent questions we’ve been asked lately is about what type of grinder would we recommend buying. Knowing there are many great options in the market - some of which we haven’t had the chance to try ourselves personally - we thought we would give you some essential aspects to consider, both in your purchase journey, and keeping your grinder - and coffee experience - at its best!

1. Get a “burr grinder” - i.e. make sure that your grinder uses two rotating burr plates or burr cones for grinding your beans. This is the most consistent type of grinder design, as it is the distance between the burrs that determines your grind size. This means you’ll always get a very uniform, consistent grind - which is essential for consistently great cups of coffee in every method!

2. Get a grinder that matches your most used coffee preparation method. This is particularly important if you do mostly Espresso - Espresso grinders are designed differently, with burrs that are particularly close to each other, for the ultra-fine grind needed for Espresso. A ‘standard’ grinder that grinds everything from coarse grinds to “Espresso” will never be able to match the grind quality of a true Espresso grinder. So, if you have mostly a Espresso household, we would highly recommend getting a Espresso grinder, and we’ll always be happy to send you a coarsely ground bag for your Cold Brew or medium grind for your Drip (we always have those options on the drop-down menu on each coffee). Espresso grind is also the only grind we don’t offer in our beans, because the grind size needed is very dependent on calibration with your machine, and it is so extremely fine that the coffee will oxidize in a matter of hours after grinding.

3. Know - and use - your budget. The amount you’re willing to spend on your new grinder will generally be the most useful factor when narrowing your choices. Some of the things you can expect at higher price levels are better build and materials (i.e. stainless steel vs. some plastic parts on cheaper models), easier maintenance (i.e. easier to clean / take apart), and quieter operation (i.e. cheaper machines are always much louder), and perhaps some other extra features (i.e. grinding directly into the filter/portafilter, which also saves you some cleanup). Comparing options within your budget range is always a great way to make decision you’ll be very happy with! The best machine for you probably won’t be the cheapest, or the most expensive (certain brands have a hefty markup just for their “name”) - it is the one that has everything you need -and most of what you want- for the amount you’d like to spend!

4. Learn from the experience of others - if you know someone who owns the particular grinder you’re considering buying, asking if they would buy it again. Or, if you don’t personally know anyone, read at least a few of the most recent reviews, and pay attention to those recurring themes or attributes mentioned by the most detailed reviews (generally the most trustworthy).

5. Keep it up! Once you’ve made your decision, make sure you keep your grinder working at its best by doing a deep cleaning (i.e. take apart and clean the burrs with a brush) every 1-3 months depending on your use and type of beans (i.e. more often if you love dark, slightly oily roasts - like our current “Amani”). Avoid cleaning agents - all you need is a good brush (or a vacuum cleaner if a bean is ever “stuck”). Grinders are generally very easy to maintain, and can last a long time (ours is over 5 years old), especially when you’re using only fresh, high-quality beans. Also, be sure to never store beans in your hopper’s grinder - it will oxidize them more quickly, and if you live in a humid environment (like Florida!), the beans will absorb some of the humidity in the air and oxidize even quicker, and they may “cake” and overheat your machine as you grind them. Keep your beans inside their bag, on a cool, dark place in your pantry and just use what you need!

We hope this was helpful and please know we’re always here for you if you need us! So, so grateful for our busiest summer yet!

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. The 2022 crop of “Rio Coco” from Nicaragua, just came in on Friday! It is remarkable this year - the sweetness and cocoa notes are off the charts! We’ll be sharing samples with all your orders this next week!

❄️ RE: Iced Coffee Essentials

Summer is definitely here, and these warm temperatures are having us experiment with iced versions of all our favorite methods! Did you know you can “ice” virtually any coffee brewing method? Here are our top tips for you:

1. Taste your ice! High-quality, great tasting ice, made from Spring or filtered water is essential for a tasty cold drink. You can very easily - and unknowingly - ruin a perfect brew with ice that has any mineral, metallic, or off-flavors from your freezer.

2. Weigh your ice! Remember it will become “extra” water as it melts, and dilute your drink. Our standard technique is to reduce the amount of water used by half (i.e. 30 g of coffee in 250 mL of water instead of the standard 500 mL you’d normally use). Keep in mind, you normally need at least 250 mL of water for proper extraction, so you may need to double the amount of coffee you use in our brew for a single serving (this way there will be “enough” water to extract properly… otherwise it is very likely you’ll get an under-extracted, weak, probably acidic cup). For example, we normally do 15 g of coffee for every 250 mL in our hot drip and pour-over brews. For our iced brew, we would use 30 g of coffee for the same 250 mL of hot water - which would then be poured into 250 grams of ice, for a resulting 500 mL drink. This method works well for both drip and pour-over methods. Espresso drinks -due to their concentrated brewing nature- are even easier, and natural fit for iced drinks. Simply add ice instead of water to your espresso shot, or half the amount of milk if you don’t normally add any water.

3. Cool immediately & keep cold! It is very important that you ice your drink as soon as you finish brewing (this will keep all those special “fresh brewed” aromas and flavors in your brew) - and if possible, brew your espresso shot or pour-over directly over ice. In our experience, iced brews keep well for 2-3 days if iced immediately after brewing and kept under refrigeration.

Beyond grateful and excited for one more summer, Brewing Greatness with you!

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. Your roastery will soon be powered by the sun ☀️! We’re planning to install solar panels this Summer, projected to generate ~110% of our electric needs (the excess will be automatically donated to the City of Lakeland)… we’ll do updates in our IG/FB stories (@ethosroasters) as the project advances!

🇨🇴 Get ready to meet your new favorite Colombian! 💃🏻

Some very special beans just arrived at the roastery! It’s the 2022 crop of our Organic “Planadas” from ASOPAP, a Co-Op we have been supporting since 2019. This year’s crop is everything you would wish for in a Specialty-grade Colombian cup: boldness, sweetness, and intensity! Its intoxicating aroma will invite you to immerse yourself in subtle citrus notes that perfectly complement a light caramel sweetness dance on the palate, and its bold finish will leave a lasting impression. It’s now online, and shipping to subscribers starting tomorrow! It is an extremely versatile cup that’s perfect for summer, as its high soluble solids lend themselves well to a variety of brew methods - from your morning Drip to home Cold Brewing!

We also recently launched our 2022 Ethereal Summer Blend , a refreshing cold brew or iced coffee blend featuring our beloved Poaquil Honey this year! This triple single-origin blend aims to be the perfect balance of classic and modern flavors to cold brew or enjoy as an iced pour-over, an iced coffee, or an adventurous hot brew for your summer mornings. Plus, in an effort to expand on healthy, refreshing drink options for us this Summer, we’ve paired Ethereal’s launch with a new herbal (iced tea) offering, our Sunrise Summer tea! We will continue to send extra samples of this one on all your coffee orders >3 lbs this summer, until supplies last (i.e. we’ve drank it all!).

Our 2022 “RE:” technical summer series begins next month, and if there’s any particular coffee topic or question that you would like us to professionally review for you - we would love to know about it! Thank you for continuing to make our impact possible… we’re facing many sourcing challenges (i.e. opportunities!) this year, yet knowing that we have the support of our amazing Ethos family has allowed us to pay historically high prices for all our coffees this year, while continuing to have a thriving business which we hope will be able to sustain this commitment and this work for many, many years!

Wising you an adventurous, impactful, and refreshing Summer season!

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

🎉 "PACHECO" - our newest High-Impact Honey! 🇭🇳

Our newest High-Impact coffee from Honduras is now available as a single-origin! And - thanks to your valuable advice on the name, it is called “Pacheco” - as it comes from the town of Pacheco in La Paz, Honduras. It is our newest high-impact partnership through our collaboration with Chad and Christie of Mtn2Sea Ministries, and the more we have gotten to know them, the more inspired and in awe we are of their calling to make a difference… Chad is currently in Honduras right now, doing a lot of the groundwork to amplify the impact that coffee can have in this community, and we truly can’t wait to see the transformation (we have plans to join him next year). This coffee is incredibly sweet, balanced, and full-bodied that offers a kaleidoscope of flavor gems to savor in every cup. A truly special collaboration with people who deeply share our desire to be the difference, and one which we hope to be able to support for many years, and change many lives in Honduras!

This Summer, you can also look forward to the launch of the 2022 Ethereal Summer Blend (late May), the new seasonal “Sunrise” herbal tea (a refreshing blend of lemongrass, rose hips and other botanicals), and more videos on coffee methods on our Facebook and IG @ethosroasters. Plus, we’ll be back next month with our 2022 “RE:” technical summer series with an Iced Coffee deep-dive, a fun historical piece and… anything else we haven’t covered but you’d like to know more about? (all our past technical series begin with “RE:” so you can easily search for them in our blog archives).

If you’re getting back to traveling more this year, we hope you’ll bring some Ethos with you in your adventures… if you do, please tag us on your stories (@ethosroasters), so we can share with our Ethos family! We can’t wait to see all the places you’ll go, and the coffees you’ll choose to go with you!

Always looking forward to roasting for you, and always deeply grateful to begin each day Brewing Greatness in the world with you!

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

🌼 Spring into... a new roast! ☕️

As our 6-year Anniversary celebrations continue for three more weeks, we have been taking a closer look at every single coffee and every single blend, with the goal of continuing to raise the bar on everything we do. Celebrating Ethos’ first six years have made us realize we really want to celebrate the 60th (I don’t know who will be writing this blog/newsletter then, but we do hope they’ll look back kindly on these early chronicles!), and do it as happily and as proudly as we are now celebrating these early years!

It is our deepest desire -and commitment- to add more high-impact coffees as permanent offerings as our volume grows, so we have decided to do all we can to support “Amani” (from D.R. Congo) as a permanent offering, and make it our signature Dark Roast. We have been experimenting with a darker roast profile on this bean for a few months, with the idea of potentially adding a second “dark roast” to our menu… yet, now that supply chain issues have delayed the arrival of “Andes” (our dark roast from Peru), it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make this one our main dark roast and hopefully get to support the Co-Op in D.R. Congo in a bigger, permanent way. We’ll be sending it as a sample this coming week, and can’t wait to hear your thoughts! (no worries, most of our offerings will remain in the light and medium roast profiles… yet we wanted to have a dark roast with the potential to appeal to 4th-wave* coffee lovers!).

And of course, our 2022 Brew Greatness Anniversary Blend will be available for a few more weeks, until April 15th, and we will continue to send a free 8-oz bonus bag on every 5-lb order! We also have a few more surprises in the works… and as always, would love to hear what would you like to see from YOUR Ethos this Summer! (remember our technical Summer Series runs from June-August - we’re planning a historical piece, an “Iced” tutorial, and are still looking for a great topic for our third piece!)

Beyond grateful to begin every day Brewing Greatness with you!

💛 Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We’re also on our last half-sack of Geisha… and can’t thank you enough for supporting it in such a big way! We will try to get it again next year if the grower decides to separate it again as a super-premium nano-lot.

*We consider ourselves part of the “4th Wave” of coffee - which is a term that has been used to describe both the quality and attitudes of (first-world) consumers towards coffee over time. The first wave was canned/brick, cheap robusta coffee (i.e. Bustelo/Folgers), the second wave was higher-quality arabica coffee (i.e. Starbucks), the third wave was even higher quality, freshness-focused craft coffee with an emphasis on flavor, and the fourth wave -which we’re working to pioneer- is coupling that highest-quality, freshness focus with an equal concern for the impact and quality of life of the people who grew it. MLK famously said “the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice”… thank you for your role bending it!

🥳 Celebrating 6 years! 🎂

We’ll soon be celebrating 6 years of roasting coffee for the best people in the world - each of you! We’re beyond grateful for the incredible journey you have made possible for us - a journey that began with an idea and desire to make a difference, and that is now a thriving roastery that gets to buy thousands of pounds of coffee from hundreds of small farmers around the world - year after year! It’s a dream come true, and as our Ethos family has grown, we continue to look for new partnerships to grow our impact.

Our newest high-impact partnership in Honduras is such a special one! When Chad and Christie first reached out to us and told us their story working with a community of small coffee growers in a remote area in Honduras, and how they aimed to break their cycle of poverty through the sale of their coffee, and shared this video, we couldn’t pass the opportunity to meet them and try their coffee. It blew us away - it was the sweetest, most delightful honey-processed Honduran coffee we had ever tasted. The fact they had paid the farmers life-changing prices (which by the way, was set by the farmers in answer to the question “what price would change your lives?”) - we just knew this was a coffee that would Brew (so much) Greatness in the world, and it will soon be the star for our 2022 Brew Greatness Blend! It will be complemented by our awesome Poaquil Natural for a celebratory blend to truly Brew Greatness in every possible way!

We will be officially launching it March 1st, and sending special preview samples on all online orders placed from now until then 🙌… and since we’re celebrating 6 years, it will be available for 6 weeks, until mid-April to hopefully give you a chance to order this amazing blend more than once! Afterwards, we are planning to launch it as a single-origin offering… yet, there’s a curious coincidence that has us thinking about what would be the “right” name for it… as the name of the small town in Honduras is… PACHECO! (this is Lisbeth’s family name… which has some drawbacks: it’s hard for people to both pronounce and remember, and it can mislead some to think it is the farm or the business of a relative (for those who don’t know, Lisbeth is originally from Guatemala -not Honduras- and didn’t even know there was a town named like this in Honduras, until Chad and Christie told us - we couldn’t even believe it at first!). So, we would really, really like to hear your thoughts on this - should we go with the town’s name, as is our long-standing tradition… or have another name contest so you can help us pick a great new name for it? Email us back and let us know!

Can’t wait to share this amazing coffee and celebrate 6 years with you!

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We’ll also be sending you a special anniversary souvenir on your boxes next month… follow us on Instagram (@ethosroasters) for a special preview this week!

💫 Our 2022 journey begins!

We’re starting this year with a beautiful present (this amazing video!), and a new coffee: Organic Sierra Nevada from the highest peaks in Colombia! An outstanding 88-pt coffee with a heavy body and intense notes of caramel, citrus, and brown sugars, and the perfectly bold, well-balanced cup to start the New Year!

We also just secured a limited amount of the highly renowned “Geisha” varietal (a famously delicate and floral, yet very challenging to grow coffee!) - ours will come from a small group of women farmers in Santa Barbara, Honduras, and should arrive just in time to celebrate our SIXTH year anniversary (officially March 8th). We’ll also have the 2022 Brew Greatness Blend, special freebies on all your boxes, and maybe even some birthday treat collaborations with one of our amazing local partners!

We truly want 2022 to be our most impactful year yet, both for our existing coffee partners, and for any new small coffee farmers we get to meet this year! Living through all the pandemic challenges made us realize -more than ever - how fortunate we are, and how much of a difference we can make. The world is changing faster than ever, yet it’s often easy to forget that people - just like us - are the ones actually changing the world. Whether we realize it or not, our world has always been a product of our collective actions. And though we are only a small group of people in the world… for the small farmers we get to support, we are the difference in their world. Thank you for beginning one more year #BrewingGreatness with us… we truly can’t wait to write this new chapter with you!

Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. We really would love your ideas on what you would like to see from us this year! More coffee origins? More loose-leaf teas? Roastery visits? More coffee partner events? Email lisbeth@ethosroasters.com and/or jolian@ethosroasters.com and let us know!

🎄Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! 🎉

Today we just wanted to wish you a very merry Christmas from the bottom of our hearts! Thank you for one more year of making our #BrewGreatness dream a reality.

We look forward to an amazing 2022, and we hope this New Year brings you all the opportunities, adventures, and achievements your heart most desires. Roasting for you continues to be our absolute joy, honor, and the most wonderful adventure!

- Jolian & Lisbeth

P.S. Your small Ethos team is planning to take a short break this week - from Tues Dec 28 to Fri Dec 31. We’ll be visiting our families (and our farmers in Guatemala). Our last roast of the year will be this Monday Dec 27, and we would be honored to roast for you if you need some coffee!

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).