Just Us! Coffee – Good in the Morning and Good for your Conscience
I love coffee.
I love the smell of it in the bag, I love the sound of it being ground, I love how it looks being brewed, and I love how it tastes.
Before I launch further into this blog about coffee, I’d like to mention just how awesome it’s been to be able to jet around the province and meet people who are committed to promoting all of the very best Nova Scotia has to offer.
All of the people I’ve met care deeply about the success of their respective businesses, but they also care about sustaining our provincial economy – and they each do it in amazing and innovative ways. Many are also focused on operating with a great deal of respect for the land and the people around them. This province is full of amazing small businesses.
I had the chance to check out an operation that has all of these things in spades – local processing, a passion for their product and real respect for the work and people that make their product possible. And did I mention that they provide a crucial component to how many people start their days?
That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I took a tour of Just Us! Coffee Roasters; a worker owned co-op just outside of Wolfville. This was a very, very good day.
Just Us! has been importing coffee to their roasting plant for 15 years, and their business model is innovative to say the least. Just Us! operates on the philosophy of “people and the planet before profits”, and adheres to the principles of Fair Trade in all the coffee they import.
The founders, Jeff and Debra, who originally come from a background in social work, had a fundamental desire to create equality for those producing coffee in Latin America. They were so committed to their vision that they put their home up as collateral to fund their first import of beans! The full story of their origins is found on their website – it’s amazing!
When you head to the roasting plant in Grand Pre, you’ll have a chance to tour the museum, which is dedicated not just to coffee farming, roasting and production, but also to the principles of Fair Trade and community social development.
We were lucky enough to have a wonderful tour of their whole facility from Britt (she takes care of outside sales for the company, and like all the staff there, is simply lovely). She took us through all the details of how the beans are harvested, the various degrees to which they’re processed in their country of origin, and what happens to them once they arrive at Just Us!.
An interesting side bar – when coffee is harvested the bean is actually inside a berry. Once the berry is removed, you are left with a green bean which is then roasted to the familiar espresso-coloured bean we’re all familiar with.
Side bar two – you can affect the flavour of the bean even before roasting by changing how long you leave the skin of the berry on the bean; leave some of the skin on during processing and you’ll get a coffee much sweeter in taste. Feel free to use this little gem of information at your next holiday party.
The roasting facility in Grand Pre is an amazing operation that when at full capacity, can roast over 6000 pounds of coffee. That’s a ton of happy mornings!
What is even more impressive than the roaster’s capacity, is the knowledge, care and dedication shown by the staff. These people know, and love, their coffee – and it isn’t just in the typical don’t-ask-until-I’ve-had-my-first-cup-of-the-day kind of love. They are constantly in touch with their product, and regularly taste their various blends for consistency and unique flavor combinations.
There’s a unique process for tasting coffee – much like tasting wine.
The process is called “cupping” – and you can pick out flavour profiles in the coffee that are quite refined. Here’s a videothat describes cupping.
We met with Joey, the roasting guru, and he explained how they roast and process the beans to make unique flavor combinations – a great example is this year’s Holiday Blend. One of the beans in this blend is from Haiti, which on account of its growth in low-lying areas has a unique spicy character and flavour to it – it has ‘Holiday’ written all over it.
And in case you were thinking “well coffee is all well and good, but what else can this pony do?” – the folks at Just Us! do a lot. They also process and package fair trade chocolates, teas and sugar. With the holiday season coming up, a stop by their spot would make a great gift (and perk up your social conscious as well!).
Just Us! also makes sure that they’re supporting their local economy. Part of the processing and packaging of their chocolates is taken care of by Flowercart, a local non-profit that provides training opportunities to adults with intellectual disabilities. Just Us! really is about people and the planet, and not just about profits.
As we were leaving Just Us!, I turned to my husband and casually said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if you could cook with the coffee?” He lit up.
We swung by Oulton’s in Windsor, grabbed some freshly cut pork chops and headed home. Later that night, as I was going through pictures of our day at Just Us!, I was presented with a beautiful dinner of Coffee Crusted Pork Chops (I think there were some potatoes on the plate as well, but I didn’t really notice). To make the rub for the pork he ground beans from organic Just Us! Sierra Nevada coffee (Columbia, single origin), with some rosemary and thyme and seasoned with salt and pepper. Amazing.
So there’s a lot more to coffee than just a perk-up in the morning. Coffee travels a long way to get to our cups here in Nova Scotia, and it really makes sense (and cents) to think about where it comes from, who’s producing it, and that those people are paid fairly for what they produce.
Just Us! is another example of an amazing, home-grown business in Nova Scotia that focuses on the quality of what people eat, and ensures the sustainability of those products.
So here’s a little toast (Ha!) to the coffee bean, to the wonderful people at Just Us!, and to all the Taste of Nova Scotia blog readers – here’s to a happy (and fully caffeinated) holiday season!