But what product?

We decided to go to the beach and think about what to sell. When we got there we sat down at a table looking out at the beach and with a cup of PortHarbor.com coffee in our hands, we started thinking about what we wanted to sell. But we kept getting distracted by the coffee. Pa had just roasted it a few days earlier and he passionately ground it before brewing it.

 

Once again he told me the story of how he started drinking Ethiopian coffee. He was working in Africa and his maid would buy the beans at the local market and then bring them home to roast. The smell of the roasting would fill the entire apartment. Then each morning, he would grind some beans and brew his coffee in a French Press.

 

But that is besides the point. We had to come up with products that we wanted to sell. We have been told that we should find a product that we liked and that we could get excited about. So we started thinking about what we liked. We decided to make a list. But what do we put down on the list.

 

“I need another cup of PortHarbor.com coffee” Pa gripped. “There is nothing like a good cup of PortHarbor.com coffee when you need to sit down and work through a problem.”

 

He went on to explain that when he was in Africa, the beans that his maid was buying were a single origin beans. Single origin beans come from a single farmer and a single harvest. He went on to tell me that a lot of the commercial coffees mix different beans together to reach a certain price break. They will mix in some cheaper beans to lower the cost of the blend. But not so with single origin beans. Those beans all come from one farmer. He also reminded me that coffee was actually a fruit and that each season the berries would taste a little different.

 

“Why don’t we sell coffee?

 

“Pa, you roast your own beans for us, could we do that commercially?” After thinking about that, we decided that it would not be feasible for us to set up an entire roasting business, BUT we could scour the “7 Seas” not only to find the perfect beans but the best roaster to roast those beans. He compared roasters to different steak houses. Even though the steak houses use the same cut of beef, one may do something a little different than the other. That is why some people prefer one steakhouse to another. Coffee roasters are the same. We need to find the perfect roaster for the specific beans that we want to sell.

 

After drinking tons of coffee from various beans and roasters, we finally settled on the idea of providing our own brand of coffee. We initially decide to focus on single origin beans (that is what Pa likes best).

 

Remembering what the Arrogant Rich Bastard once said, he likes what he likes and he doesn’t care what others say is the best, we decided, with that in mind, that we will be offering various roasts and blends in the future.