Welcome to our new (and alliterative) Bold Bean blog – words fresh from the roastery, direct to you.

Just like our coffees.

I’ve been wanting to begin posting for more than a year, but starting a roastery, keeping it running and growing the business is akin to triage. There’s little time to spare, accept for those immediate and most pressing needs.

Finally, though, I’ve settled into something of a routine where I might actually find time to take care of all (well, at least some) of those things I’ve been putting off too long. Couple more time with summer temperatures that make working in the roastery just short of unbearable (and the AC in my office highly desirable), and NOW seems an ideal time to begin blogging away.

But, first, a few words about our company and where were coming from . . .

To Share is to Care

There’s an old yellow mug – chipped, stained, somewhat faded – sitting on a top shelf behind glass cabinet doors in our kitchen. I’m not quite sure how old it is, but do know it had a spot at the family table long before I did.

That time-worn tankard today shares space with other retired, mismatched pieces that have become unlikely family heirlooms – household relics retrieved from our childhood homes that through the decades manage somehow to avoid going into trash bins, yard sales or charity drives.

What makes that cup a keeper is that it was my dad’s. A one-man, multi-purpose mug – just the thing for coffee in the morning, beer in the afternoon.

I keep it around to remind me of him, but also as a reminder of the magical power of sharing.

You see, it was from that old mug that I took my first sips of sweetened coffee (and surely some bitter sips of beer) while sitting on my dad’s lap – magic moments shared between a father and young son.

But it wasn’t so much the mug, the coffee or even the occasional bitter brew that made those moments magical. It was that simple act of sharing.

I think about it now and want to believe that whenever I sipped from that mug, it wasn’t because my dad was giving in to a precocious child. No, I like to think he was knowingly passing on to me his enthusiasm for sharing with others those things that are to be enjoyed and considered special.

I hold to that belief. And, it’s a belief that our young and growing company is built on. Sharing, after all, keeps good things going . . . and growing.

– Jay Burnett