If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you may recall my prior experiences with organic coffee. The coffee itself was okay, but nothing to write home about. The side effect for me was that after a week or so of drinking it, I was unable to tolerate any desserts. The first bite would taste fine on impact, but would turn bitter within the first three chews. Aside from being a bit disconcerting, it was a great deterrent to eating sweets. I just didn’t think that the coffee was all that delectable, and with the extra unexpected side effect, decided it also wasn’t worth the money.
And so it was two weeks ago that I ventured – rather unenthusiastically – down the coffee aisle at my local Drug Emporium/Vitamins Plus, where I stopped in front of a line of beautiful blue bags of organic coffees with familiar looking pictures on them…bayous and cypress trees, nonetheless.
Organic coffee with Louisiana flair…could it really be????
Now, I have to impart a startling fact about myself here. I am not a real good Louisiana coffee drinker. I love coffee, don’t get me wrong, but Starbucks Blonde Roast is more my line. I like my tea very strong, and my coffee…well, not so strong. What can I say? I’m an enigma. 😉 I leave the dark-roast, chicory, down-home, French Quarter-style coffee drinking to my dad, who could easily stand a spoon in his coffee cup. He complains that the coffee I brew is “for pansies.” Admittedly, he’s right.
So in keeping with my own taste I examined each blue bag of Louisiana Roasting Company organic fair-trade coffee to try to find a mellow, not so “Louisiana chicory” blend. And I found one that sounded pretty darn good. Magnolia Morning. What could possibly be more appropriate for a Saturday on the back patio of my North Louisiana home, I ask you?
And the answer to that is, of course, not a darn thing! Because I brewed it this morning and proceeded to enjoy not one, but THREE cups of the most magnificent, smooth, great-tasting coffee I have ever had. No lie. But that’s not even the amazing part.
Although I am usually an optimist, this venture into organic, good-for-you and good-for-the-earth foods has turned me into a bit of a cynic, what with all the so-called family farms that supply organic foods, and our nation’s lean toward slapping a clean label on anything cheap and easy. So I stood there, amazed by my first sips of this coffee, and found myself scoffing that this “Louisiana” roast was probably made in Indonesia or some other such place that had no ties whatsoever to my locality. I braced myself as I flipped the bag over to read where it was actually produced.
OH MY HOLY GOODNESS – my eyes landed first on the zip code: 71107. All. Too. Familiar. And then the city…SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA.
Louisiana Roasting Company is located right here in my hometown? Are you freakin’ KIDDING me?????? HOW HAVE I NOT KNOWN THIS???
By sitting my butt in the line at Starbucks, that’s how.
So I got online and stalked them for an evening, reading everything I could about why they are here and how they came to roast these coffees that Cajuns can call their own. I suppose there are worse things than an overly enthusiastic customer who happens to be so local she could show up in their parking lot. I’d like to ask them if they ever allow customers to tour their facility. They have the chance to reinstate my faith in the community of organic producers. Know what made me like them even more? Their decaf is made so by water processing…no chemicals. Peeps after my own heart, I tell ya.
If nothing else, I am emailing the coffee company to tell them two things: 1) I am in love with their coffee – like, I want it by the case-load, and 2) that I hope and pray they stay here, keep producing this awesome Louisiana brew, and remain true to their mission of making delicious, organic, fair-trade coffees available to the public.
I’m making a trip back to Drug Emporium to purchase a pound of coffee for my dad. I’ll get him the French Quarter Organic Coffee House Blend, noted in the description as a “bold blend.” That ought to be right up his Café-du-Monde-lovin’ alley.
Louisiana Roasting Company sells locally at Drug Emporium (not sure where else in Shreveport yet) and some sweet spots in Connecticut, Virginia, West Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania and California. They also sell all of their coffees online, for those of you who might be interested in their various coffee lines that are particular to the east and west coasts as well as our dear Cajun Country. Check ‘em out. Let me know what you think. 🙂