When I got the call from Woody at One Village Coffee, a local company, asking if we’d be interested in carrying their line of coffees, I was skeptical…after all we are a cigar company. He grabbed my attention though with his passion and enthusiasm about coffee and by explaining the similarities between growing coffee beans and growing tobacco, and it didn’t hurt that he was a cigar smoker…always a plus.

 

Woody’s a licensed Q grader – which is apparently kind of a big deal…like a coffee sommelier or something and I wasn’t sure what to expect when Woody came in to do a presentation that included brewing coffee with some crazy looking equipment that could’ve come out of a science lab. There were scales, grinders, and some wild glass beaker thing called a Chemex…I was frankly amazed and was wondering where to put the K-Cup.  Woody then explained how to properly brew a cup of coffee…hint, no K-Cups…and began throwing around all kinds of terms I had no idea about. Ever ‘bloom’ your coffee before to release the gases? We knew after the show that Woody and One Village were the real deal, and the coffee he brewed was nothing short of amazing. One Village Coffee routinely visits, searches out, and buys from many of the same areas that we make and buy our cigars – like Honduras. Their mission is a good one, they support and go to lengths to ensure the well-being of the farmers and make sure the coffee is grown in a responsible and sustainable way.

 

A few weeks ago, we fired up the old Bunn in the office and brewed a pot of the Honduras variety, and although I didn’t have all the fancy equipment, this was without a doubt the best pot of coffee I have ever made. The coffee is sourced from a single farm, and really highlights the quality of the beans. It smelled almost like a flower garden with flavors of fruit with some hazelnut on the finish, now I take my coffee black so this was a surprise. The best way I can explain this is using a cigar analogy…coffee you buy at a store is mass produced and contains a blend of beans, kind of like a Swisher Sweet, whereas One Village coffee is more of a super-premium cigar that contains premium tobacco, like a Man O’ War. I would recommend giving it a try and seeing what you’ve been missing out on.