Wilkinsons-USA

Wow, what a good day. My favorite days have always been when we’re roasting the beans, but delivering them the same day to a client is especially fulfilling. “John Juan” rose to an emergency call yesterday (after working elsewhere since 4am!) and roasted up some beautiful batches of Brewton Brew and Blue Mountain Blend for our newest client, a popular bakery in town called BeeSweet Bakery. They had coffee for their clients this morning that was roasted just last night.

The folks at Bee Sweet Bakery truly appreciate specialty coffees and are excited about offering our coffees to their customers. What I (and their customers I’m sure) enjoy is how they actually talk with their customers rather than just handing them a cup of hot java. They truly want to know how you like it, and if you don’t like it they want to know. We are a great match in that respect…feedback, whether positive or negative, can only help you improve.

The only complaint I have with our new bakery partnership is that they’re trying to fatten me up! Every time I go in they hand me a white bag with surprises inside – yesterday it was not one, but three, melt-in-your-mouth Cream Cheese Danish, the day before it was a huge carrot/walnut muffin, and some of the most yummy lemon bars! Crikey! I normally don’t even eat sweets, but like I tell people who say they don’t drink coffee, “Maybe you never had it this fresh!” (BeeSweet is now serving lunch as well, and I must recommend the panini-style sandwiches and a most delightful Sunshine Salad, with cranberries, sunflower seeds, pecans, and a mouth-watering raspberry vinaigrette…a serious taste explosion, in the most welcome way.)

I’d also like to thank our other local merchants who have been carrying our product since the first roasted beans dropped into the Probat cooling tray.

NDI/Cracked Pot is a local reseller of the most beautiful floral reproductions you’ll ever lay eyes on. (NDI stands for Natural Decorations Inc.) The factory is located here in Brewton, and provides elegant arrangements that you must touch to realize they are not real (even that is a guess!) . They provide their arrangements for some of the most well-known showrooms in the country, and of course the finest homes. The Cracked Pot is Brewton’s own local outlet for purchasing NDI’s unique and classic reproductions. www.ndi.com Stop by their shop and let Jan and Joan show you around, and be sure to have a look at their photo gallery to see what’s driving the bees crazy!

The Hourglass Antique shop is a treasure well worth searching for, also located downtown Brewton. Situated in a building that is an antique in it’s own right (the old Luttrell Hardware Store), the shop still has an old freight elevator that is now loaded with oriental rugs, and two jam-packed floors that hold true nuggets of home-furnishing history (in addition to WoN coffees, and other local offerings such as hushpuppy mix!). I’ve got my eye on a bedroom suite upstairs, and an antique shoe-polishing kit. They also have a huge variety of gift items, like porcelain place settings, leather-bound diaries, and my favorite aroma beads (I especially like the mango/ginger variety). The Hourglass is currently working on their website, and when I have a link I will certainly provide it. A treasure map of sorts!

And the kudos portion of my blog entry today wouldn’t be complete without including the local Brewton Area Chamber of Commerce www.brewtonchamber.com. They have been hugely instrumental in getting the word out to chamber members about our company, and have procured our coffees for a “Coffee with the Candidates” political forum next week. They display our fliers prominently in their beautiful chamber offices where many visitors (and now WoN customers) have learned of our presence.
Brewton has been Berry good to us (we are the home of the Blueberry Festival ya know?). We look forward to adding to our merchant listing, as well as our home-use customers. Come grow with us, because as you should know by now, it doesn’t get much fresher than this!

A funny thing happened on the way home from the factory today. My first “poppage.” Just how fresh is “too fresh?” Have you ever heard of the guy who thought he’d been shot in the back of the head, only to discover that a tin of biscuit dough he’d just purchased at the grocers had exploded in the back seat of his car and plastered itself to his scalp? (He reached back to touch his head and thought his brains were falling out!) Well, very similar experience, only I was showered with coffee grounds! Though my brains weren’t falling out, I certainly put them to task trying to figure out what the heck had just happened.

I recently had what I thought was a stroke of genius, and had cut down some larger bags to accommodate sample size pouches for potential customers (until the sample pouches I had on order arrived). I didn’t bother with using the valved bags, as coffee grounds aren’t supposed* to de-gas as much as the beans, though they do continue to de-gas (I often remind our coffee customers that, unlike other food products such as biscuit dough, if it’s bulging, it’s simply an indicator of freshness). But it appears that perhaps we were bagging coffee that is “too fresh?” Oh my God! Is there such a thing? Apparently so.

The little 2oz pouches had swollen up to resemble those little souvenir footballs that cheerleaders toss to the crowds at football games. I had brought a couple home with me and planned to use a tiny sharp object to puncture the bag and release the gases. Rupert had told me he’d never seen one explode, though he had seen many that looked on the verge. Well, please advise our Master Roaster that I have one up on him! The best part of this experience is that my car, though riddled with coffee grounds, smells better than any coffee shop I’ve ever visited, due to the lingering aroma of freshly roasted Columbian Supremo remnants that will likely continue showing up for months to come.

Our motto is “It doesn’t get much fresher than this!” Well folks, I’m here to tell ya, our roasted coffee is fresh. Wanna vacuum my car? I’ll send you a free sample, complete with safety pin.

…in one of the 100 Best Small Towns in America!

Well folks, our Brewton, Alabama factory is finally roasting! And before we got the air conditioning installed, roasting was the key word (right Rupert?). Rupert, our head roaster in the Norwich facility, recently spent 10 sweltering days in Brewton sharing his secret blend profiles and getting us off to a super fresh start.

Our brother Johnny (now known as Juanny) quickly learned the roasting process after having been a chef for several decades. Roasting beans is very similar to cooking, and “Juanny” is already finding ways to tweak some roasts to suit the local tastes. He effortlessly became one with our Probat L15 roaster and finds every opportunity to experiment.

The Brewton-based facility is currently roasting blends including the ever popular Blue Mountain Blend, Brewton Brew (a fast local favourite), and Jean’s Java which was named in memory of dear Mom. Brewton Brew combines the biscuity smoothness of Brazilian and Central American beans, while the Jean’s Java mingles intensely rich and luxurious flavours of beans from Sumatra and Columbia. We also offer Verona Espresso, and several single-origin roasts like Columbia Supremo and Kenya AA.

A few of the local shops are already stocking our roasts. NDI/The Cracked Pot and The Hourglass antique and gift shop were our first local customers. Last weekend was Brewton’s 28^th Annual Blueberry Festival and our product was on the shelves for the visitors and locals alike. The reports from the shop owners were uplifting. Folks are excited and intrigued that coffee this fresh is being roasted right in their backyard.

Many people have asked how it is to work with family, stating that it’s a good thing we all get along. Indeed we do, and to see my brother Rick’s dream come true to start a family business and provide opportunities to those he loves only makes the family bond stronger.

Rupert (now part of the family, and affectionately renamed Brupert) will return in the near future to hone our skills in the tea department, and teach us some more entertaining English phrases (we’re suddenly dumping rubbish in bins instead of taking out the trash!). I know he’ll return, not only because we now have air conditioning, but because I gave him a small taste of nearby Pensacola Beach on the last day of his visit. Once he planted his feet in that sugary sand and watched in awe as the skimmers flew by at arms’ length, I knew we had him! He quickly became a photographer for tourists posing on the beach and made friends with all who heard him speak (that English accent gets them every time).

Wilkinson’s of Norwich – USA LLC is a member of the SCAA (www.scaa.org) and the local Brewton Area Chamber of Commerce (www.brewtonchamber.com). We look forward to expanding our US presence, and carrying on the warm tradition that Wilkinson’s of Norwich has honoured since 1972. In the name of family and all that is fresh, let’s roast!

Hello. My name’s Patsy and I ride herd over the Alabama branch ofWilkinson’s of Norwich – USA. On this page I’ll share with you some of my thoughts and adventures as we get this branch of the best coffee and tea company up and running. I’m hoping you’ll grow along with us.