Who own's Morning Light Coffee in Montana?
Who own's Morning Light Coffee in Montana? It's an incredible story that begins on the side of a mountain. Read on and find out.
Morning Light Coffee began on the side of a mountain outside Helena, Montana in 1988. During a break from logging, Mike Myers asked his friend what he thought about the coffee business.
This first conversation on a Thursday afternoon in April was followed by a straight drive through to a specialty coffee roasting convention in San Francisco that weekend. From conception to inception: six weeks and the grand opening held during Helena's Governor's Cup Marathon.
There was never any doubt in Mr. Myers' mind that coffee was a good idea, "We were trying to educate people, you know? Raise the standards of coffee in the area." And that's just what Morning Light Coffee did.
Jake and I walked into the local coffee shop in Great Falls to see what we could learn about the coffee we stock at North 40 Outfitters- the place was packed I mean every table was full with more chairs being brought out to seat the milling people. And this was Wednesday at 9 am.
Passionate. Consumed. These are the adjectives to best describe Mike Myers. I am looking at my notes now writing this up five full pages of legal pad covered in notes on coffee. I have included a few highlights. This was the most information I've ever digested in one hour, and my classroom was a coffee shop.
1.) The Pop-- He explained to me the "crack" you hear in roasting, "There are two skins on a bean, the first pop is the water inside the bean expanding and splitting that first skin. This is called a city roast." And he went down into the basement and brought up beans for me to see.
2.) WWII-- This session included a brief lesson on economics and the impact of WWII on the specialty roasting market. Before WWII there was a burgeoning roasting market. During the war there was no way to ship and preserve coffee, so Maxwell and Folgers other companies who dealt in canned coffee, became Goliaths and the local roasters became salesmen of canned coffee. "Roasters are still coming out of this shift- it impacted the way people thought about coffee."
3.) "We have 7 single origin coffees."-- What's that mean? It means Morning Light has coffees from a single farm that are Grade AA, 16-18 screen size and hand sorted for impurities (or double electronic eye sorted), shipped at 11% water weight and arrive at the perfect 8% weight and hand-roasted by Jude May.
At North 40 Outfitters we are proud to stock locally roasted coffees and straight to you from Great Falls, Montana, we give you the Charlie Russell Blend by Morning Light Coffee Roasters. This is a varietal blend of roasted beans handpicked in the Hardin Colombia region and Antigua Guatemala region. The passion that goes into this coffee is unparalleled and I can give it a full five stars.
The drive to educate, which started this company, is continued today with Mike sending his roaster Jude May off to roasting expositions from Jamaica to Costa Rica to bring some international flair to the old-fashioned stainless steel outfit in Montana.
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