Welcome To Expedition Provisions!
I’m excited to share my passion for delicious coffee with you. This journey began nearly 10 years ago when I discovered an incredible smell in the air near my home in Athens, GA. It smelled as if fresh baked cookies were being made down the street so I went on a journey to discover what was being made. As I made my way across the railroad tracks, I found a small shop with smoke coming out of the chimney and a sign that said “Jittery Joes Coffee Roaster” over the door. I made my way in and found what looked like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory but for coffee. The roaster gave me a tour and showed me how a single bean from the Ethiopia Yergacheffe could have two completely different flavors depending how the bean was processed after it was picked. I grabbed two bags and went home to try it for myself. The results blew my mind. Not only were these the best beans I had ever tasted, but these two beans had completely different tastes even though they were from the same farm.
I thought I knew a lot about coffee, but this moment lead me to realize that I knew almost nothing about it. From this moment I set out to try as many new coffee shops as I could. On a trip to San Francisco, CA a friend recommended a small local shop called Blue Bottle Coffee. I went to their shop tucked away in a small alley way and had one of the best cups of coffee of my life. I purchased James Freeman’s book “The Craft of Coffee” and read it on the train home. I discovered there was so much more to making a cup than just putting it in the coffee pot or a french press. The pour over method introduced me to both the art and science of making a cup. I ended up taking courses at Blue Bottle on the pour over method and studying barista methods from around the world.
My first attempt at roasting coffee was using a ceramic stovetop roaster and the results were very poor. I thought that maybe I’ll just leave the roasting to the professionals and continue to enjoy making beans from my favorite roasters. That was until one day my friend Chambs saw me making a pour over on a trip in the desert and gave me a bag of his freshly made beans. I tried them and thought, woah.. these are amazing! I asked how he made them and he told me it was on a simple home roaster. A few months later my buddy brought a simple $200 roaster on a work trip and we roasted some of the best beans I’ve ever had on it.
After this, I realized that making good beans at home was in fact possible. So I ordered a roaster and decided that I would give it a shot. I used an old stamp that I found at a flea market in London of a classic Land Rover as the logo, and started roasting away. My goal was to solve the biggest problem that I found in coffee, simply having access to fresh beans. I found it nearly impossible to find coffee beans within this 14 day window, even at local coffee roasters. Most roasters don’t even put the roast date on their bags! I knew this was the problem that I needed to solve, making fresh beans accessible to anyone.
At first I was planning to just sell beans locally to my friends, then I started getting asked for recommendations from friends around the country. I shipped a bag across the coast and found that it arrived in just two days. This lead me to realize that maybe I could provide delicious fresh beans to anyone in the country! A few days later, I got the website up and running and now shipping beans all over. From a small Bed & Breakfast in the mountains of North Carolina, to enthusiasts in Hollywood, CA.
I’m truly grateful to all of my friends and family that have supported me in this coffee journey and look forward to bringing joy to your mornings with fresh delicious coffee!
Sincerely,
Brandon & Charlie