Coffee and mountain biking are similar on many fronts. Not that a bag of coffee is technologically complex like new Fox 36 FLOAT forks, but coffee is surprisingly one of the most complex things that we consume. However, as much as we love coffee and mountain biking they both have unfortunate parallels. They can be derided for their snobbery.
Gasp.
Of course we neo-Neanderthal mountain bikers chaff at that remark ... we are not like those frame-polishing roadies. We're not snobs. But like any sport, passion, hobby, or endeavor there is a lexicon of jargon and "insider" knowledge that even gives mountain bikers that "snob" moniker (whether deserved or not). The same actually happens in the world of coffee (shocker) ... especially in the coffee shop culture of the Pacific NW. It's not that the shops nor the baristas working there are aloof nor anything like that (though there are some for sure), but like mountain biking, there are insider terms and knowledge that can be intimidating to the newcomer.
Living in Portland I regularly meet up with out-of-town guests for coffee at one of the amazing local coffee shops and roasters. I watch these visitors as they walk in and pause as the place is swarming with refined hipsters in their natural habitat with appropriately placed tattoos, glasses, jeans, and other fashion accessories. Many newbies to the coffee shop are immediately put off because they assume they don't fit in (jeans not skinny enough?) and have no idea what a cortado is or anything like that. So they want to duck out and make a beeline to the nearest Starbucks to get a frappuccino.
Those who love coffee come in many shapes and forms from our grandparents drinking Folgers that has been sitting in the carafe for the past 6 hours to the above mentioned hipsters and their refined palate. So where does Loam Coffee fit into this crazy world of coffee?
We love mountain bikers. We are mountain bikers. Because of that we understand what mountain bikers are like. I call us neo-Neanderthals because seemingly a generation ago we were painting on the walls of caves and killing wooly mammoths. And now we ride $8,000 rigs hucking ourselves off of cliffs. Not much has changed. But for some strange reason, maybe it is because we play in the dirt (or eat it when we crash), we tend to be pretty grounded. Sure we may go off on tangents about the changing hub standards in the industry or wax poetically about 27.5+ tires, but at the end of the day we play in the dirt and love our coffee.
Loam Coffee, in our humble estimation, stands in that middle ground. Meaning, we are mountain bikers and can be rather juvenile and playful when out on the trail. And yet we are very passionate about our coffee ... where we get our beans from, how we roast it, and how we brew it. So rest assured ... we are here for you. We are you. We won't pull the coffee snob card on you and yet we do hope to push you to develop a deeper and more robust love for coffee and the process from roasting to brewing.
Cheers!