Straight from The Horse’s Mouth

Laura St. John Earlier this summer, Glenn and I needed a vacation. We longed for a place that would rekindle our spirits and relax our bodies and minds. And we, being life long learners, wanted to find somewhere interesting.

We have a connection to Honduras. It’s where our coffee comes from, so we planned to visit the mountain town of Santa Rosa de Copan and the La Granadinas plantation. Also, sailing friends of ours are running a resort on the tropical Honduran island, Roatan. We could rest there, and do some serious scuba diving.

The plan seemed perfectly tailored for our needs. I booked it and discovered hours later that Glenn’s passport is expired.

Thankfully we were able to cancel it all with out penalty, but now we had to come up with a Plan B.

A customer of ours had been telling us of his wonderful trip to California. Wishing for more adventure than just a visit to another state we took the opportunity, in Glenn and Laura fashion, to make it a true journey. How about driving the entire West Coast from San Diego to Seattle?

Hey, wait! Seattle?! Isn’t that the origin of the coffee house? We OWN a coffee house! We could make a list of shops and bookstores and hit every single one learning new ideas along the way.

I printed the list and realized there are tens of thousands on the 1,900 mile route. And SEATTLE! Why, the dozens of cities we’d visit before we got there would be but a warm up for the espresso mecca of the Western Hemisphere. Seattle has 9,368 shops, and I’m told that is a conservative estimate.

So, that’s what we did. We trimmed the list to only independent shops and visited as many as each day would allow. All told, we visited 58 coffee shops and 10 bookstores. We had 80 cups of coffee, talked to shop owners and professional baristas. We received impromptu latte lessons, took over 800 pictures, and bought the t-shirts.

The tour was not really restful, but very energizing, and I’m not talking about the caffeine. We came home anxious to get back to ‘The Mouth’ to implement all the new ideas. Some of which have already happened with many more to follow. One thing we realized about our shop is that we have what no other coffee shop has on the whole West Coast; a “laugh out loud, ooh, how cool, this is neat!” public restroom. None of the ‘facilities’ I checked out used the space to express creativity! Here, folks are always commenting on our wall of cartoons, or the faucet that looks like an old-fashioned pump with a trough spout, or the quote on the wall written in mirror image. I must say, if we’ve done anything right, at least the restroom is entertaining. You could say it is a destination of sorts, worthy of a visit.

Next week I’ll share some of the stories of our epic coffee adventure. In the mean time there is a photo album at the store where you can get a glimpse (around 200 pics) of what we experienced.

-Future News- On Aug. 27th I’m heading to Austin to attend an advanced barista training! I’m very excited and quite nervous about pulling shots in front of real baristas. My goal is to learn as much as possible to further improve our espresso and continue my quest to create latte art. EVERYONE in Seattle does it. If you haven’t seen latte art, be sure to stop in and check it out.

- Correction- Last week I gave the wrong date for the “Learn to Promote Your Business” seminar. The real date is Saturday, Sept. 11th from 9-12 at the Gathering Room at Stewart Memorial Methodist Church. The speaker, Mr. David Cooley, will be sharing a veritable wealth of information. And it’s free to the public! Our Chamber of Commerce is picking up the tab, and it is an entrepreneur’s dream to receive this kind of service at no cost. Call me if you have questions - 903- 322-2180

Next week - “One Missed Flight, One Disappointed Wet Suit, and The Bomb”