Words and Photos from Jessica C. & Miya H. - School Grounds Coffee cohort
It was the first expedition day for the coffee lovers & entrepreneurs. We first gathered in the common room in the morning. We briefly introduced ourselves and what we expected to learn in this cohort. Some people just simply loved coffee. Some people were interested in the field of business, others keen on marketing, branding and design. We all came together with different purposes. What makes a good coffee? The good coffee beans would be the answer. Therefore, the goal for today is to roast our own coffee beans. In order to learn the process of roasting coffee beans, we visited the Fernwood Coffee and watched their master roaster Ed produce a batch of their beans. The Q&A section was at the end of the visiting. We asked the questions we prepared in the morning and all learned something new, such as how to identify a great coffee bean as well as running a successful coffee company. Then we went to a lovely new coffee store, the Little June cafe, and got to look at the front end of the business, observing the barisitas preparing drinks for the customers. During this time, we talked over the following events throughout the year. The most exciting part of the day was roasting the coffee beans. We worked together and roasted a large number of dark coffee beans. We packed those coffee beans into small packages as samples to share with the staff in the school. We will be roasting more for the parents & teachers night. At the end of the day, we all have lots of fun and went back home with a well packed dark roast coffee beans. The fact I learned for the day was that fresh coffee beans are green when they are removed from the fruits of the tree. I look forward to the next expeditions, where we will begin to build the School Grounds Coffee Company here on campus!