Georgia Magazine - August 2023 - 30

GEORGIA Cooks
By Jane F. Garvey
Cheers for coffee!
F
rom its beginnings in the Kaffa region of
Ethiopia, coffee traveled to the Arabian
Peninsula and around the globe.
Today you'll find robust coffee in practically
every Georgia town, no matter the size. Check out
the beans roasted at Morning By Morning Coffee
Co. in Perry, Rev Coffee Roasters in Smyrna and
Old Soul Coffee Co. in Ocilla, for instance.
Georgia's college towns are guaranteed to have
excellent coffee roasters. Jittery Joe's brought good
coffee to Athens almost 30 years ago, and now its
coffee can be found all over the state. Also based in
Athens, 1000 Faces Coffee has offered
quality coffee since 2006. A relative
newcomer, Red Owl Coffee Co.
started in Valdosta in 2016; it has
expanded to nearby towns and
Chattanooga, Tenn., with other South
Georgia locations in the works.
In Americus, Café Campesino,
Jane F. Garvey
founded in 1998, started procuring fair-trade, organic coffees in
Mexico. Today it sources from a variety of producing countries
while remaining focused on paying farmers fair prices. Atlanta's
Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee imports coffee from a network
of Rwandan coffee communities whose farmers are ensured
a fair price. Also tied to community work, Refuge Coffee Co.,
based in Clarkston, has a mission to work with immigrants to
get them established in their new home.
Founded in 1988 as Batdorf & Bronson, based in
Olympia, Wash., Dancing Goats Coffee has five metro Atlanta
locations. At East Pole Coffee Co. in two Atlanta locations, one
may order a Spanish cortado, a smooth espresso drink of equal
parts espresso and steamed milk, without having to
explain how it's made.
A good cup o' joe requires great raw
materials, including good water, preferably
filtered. Water temperature is important. One
of my favorite pieces of kitchen equipment
for heating water is a goose-neck kettle by
Wenegg that has a temperature gauge on top;
when the needle hits the green zone, it means
the water is perfect for making coffee.
Method and materials matter, too.
" I only buy green [coffee] beans from the
current harvest, " says William " Skip " Beltz,
a coffee roastmaster based in San Miguel de
Allende, Mexico. He and his partner, Shari
Alexander, recently launched Our Coffee Lab,
a company that offers small-batch, artisanal, handroasted
coffee sourced from fresh beans. He offers
advice on making the perfect cup of coffee.
For grinding whole beans, Beltz recommends a
burr grinder.
" They have enough settings to go from fairly
fine to fairly coarse, " he says. He advises keeping the
same ratio of coffee to water but changing the grind
a little.
" Just a little bit of grind difference makes a huge
Above: Old Soul Coff ee Co. got its start in Ocilla in 2021. Its coff ee can be found at
retail locations in 16 Georgia towns. Above right: Athens-based Jittery Joe's sells
a wide variety of coff ees and operates several coff eehouses in Georgia.
30 Georgia Magazine August 2023
difference in taste. Play with it so you can figure out
what you like best, " he says.
For making coffee, Beltz recommends using a
Chemex, a specialized glass coffeemaker that uses
a pour-over method to brew the beverage. Coffee is
COURTESY OLD SOUL COFFEE CO.
COURTESY JITTERY JOE'S COFFEE
COURTESY GEORGIA TRUSTEES WINE &
SPIRITS COMPETITION
Georgia Magazine - August 2023

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