Merry & Bright - Year 3

Here we are, once again, staring down the end of another year. Things suddenly get dark so early, and we finally have (get) to wear a jacket, at least for part of the day. It feels like a mad dash to accomplish those year-end tasks, but there are wonderful points of connection, rest (hopefully), and reflection on what has already been accomplished this year. For me, life looks drastically different than I every could have imagined.

This year has been yet another pivot point in my life. It really started at the end of last year, with news that we were having not one, but two new babies join our family. Sarah and I weren’t even sure that we wanted more than one child, but we were open to the idea of two. Three (and twins) never even crossed our minds! We were living with my parents, while our kitchen was redone (a whole saga in and of itself), when we found out the news. Being a present and participative father is very important to me, and I generally try to attend all appointments for our babies, born or unborn. However, this time, I was behind on roasting, and I had it in my mind that Sarah was basically going to get a pregnancy confirmation. I didn’t realize they were doing an ultrasound! So, she got the intense news by herself, and I knew something was up when she called to see what time I’d be home. Sarah told me by showing me the pictures from the ultrasound, and my mother walked in shortly after and could tell by the look on my face that I had just been knocked for a loop. She sent us out to have dinner and come to terms with the news. To make an extremely long story shorter, we were ecstatic but overwhelmed by the news. It meant another huge change in the dynamics of everything. We spent most of this year rearranging the structures of our lives to be able to do life as a family of five. I stepped away from traveling for music gigs and resumed day-to-day management of Lee’s (which Sarah had been doing), while Sarah became the at-home mother, so she could breastfeed our new babies. Oh, and I also bought Mulvi’s Coffee Co. in Hattiesburg (drop by, if you’re down that way!). Did you know I also roast all the coffee for both shops, as well as a few others?

That brings me to the point of this post: Merry & Bright. This is my third year of developing/roasting this coffee. The first holiday season I roasted, I decided I didn’t want to just have a yearly “holiday” or “Christmas” blend. I wanted a coffee that would be uniquely different every year but had some core principles guiding its development. I was inspired by Anchor Brewing’s Merry Christmas & Happy New Year beer, which is always a spiced winter warmer but has a unique recipe from year to year. To me, the words Merry & Bright evoke my favorite parts of the season: the people with smiles on their faces and joy in their hearts, the communion we experience in a unique way as we share warmth during the cold(er), dark days of winter, and the myriad, twinkling lights that guide the way. I always look for two coffees that compliment each other and exhibit the characteristics of the season. This usually means warm notes of cinnamon, cloves, and other spices to bring a cozy feeling and a brightly acidic, sometimes tart character (like cranberries) to add some eye-opening flavor.

This year, the merry component comes from a natural anaerobic process coffee from Costa Rica. I used last year’s crop as a component in the blend I made for Organized Grime called Charm. It has those cinnamon characteristics that are often found in anaerobic coffees, and I felt like it would be the perfect warm base for this year’s Merry & Bright.

For the bright side of things, there weren’t many coffees that excited me that were cranberry forward. Instead, I landed on this beautiful washed coffee from the place where it all began, Ethiopia. A sweet, honeylike quality blends with lemon-like citrus notes to provide that prick of light that I look for in my yearly blend.

These two coffees dance and evolve as you drink it, morphing from bright and invigorating to a calm, cozy warmth you can meditate on. This is a great coffee to bring to your family and friend-filled gatherings and can be a great conversation piece itself, beyond being the catalyst for community and conversation coffee tends to already be. It is overall a lighter roast coffee, and it is best experienced with a V60 or Kalita Wave pour over. If you’re making it in a normal, automatic drip coffee maker, I would recommend grinding it finer and/or using more coffee than you might normally use. It shouldn’t taste sour. If it does, you need to grind finer and/or use more coffee. A great starting place is a 1:15 ratio of coffee (by weight) to water (water weighs 1g per ml, btw). If you want to order some, you can do so, here.

This coffee is equally great as part of your holiday celebrations or as a refuge of quiet contemplation during the season. I hope it brings you cheer, regardless of how you enjoy it, and may this Christmas and all your days truly be Merry & Bright. Cheers!