The Coffee Fresh 10 with Squirrelly Joe!

Special Saturday morning dead men walking starts now exploring theology doctrine and all of the fascinating subjects in between. Broadcasting from an undisclosed location dead men walking starts. Hey, what's going on guys?

Saturday morning. I'm here in Michigan. It's about 1130. We're doing a quick live stream with Joe Morris from squirrelly Joe's. I'm worried. I'm waiting for Michigan football to start here in a little bit, which I'm excited about but we're not talking football today.

It's a beautiful almost fall day here in Michigan probably about 67 degrees sunny gorgeous. We're here with Joe Morris to talk about coffee. How you doing Joe? Pretty good. How are you? Pretty good. So we do this thing on our podcast called the fresh 10.

Coffee Brewing Methods and Morning Routines

Which is 10 fresh questions that we kind of rapid fire at you to get to know you a little bit more. You're obviously the owner of squirrelly Joe's coffee the best darn coffee around. We want to ask you 10 questions about coffee to get to know you a little bit more and to make it coffee centric.

Look at we're both reformed guys. We are coffee drinkers. Hopefully you're a black coffee drinker. Now if you're putting a double double in a nice premium coffee, we're gonna have words. Okay, I think there's something in the Westminster about that, but you want no judgment today.

We're a judgment-free zone. So we won't but would you like to would you like to do it stick around and do a fresh 10?

Let's do it.

All right. Here we go. Fresh 10 with Joe Morris from squirrelly Joe. Yes, we make everyone sit through that intro even if you don't like it. You should see it when like guys like Doug Wilson and Tom asked will have to sit through it and they look at me like What did I get myself into on this podcast?

But with Joe, I think we I think we're good. All right. Here we go. Question number one. So this is and we're gonna kind of cheat a little bit on this fresh 10 because it's a special fresh 10. This is a two-part.

Well, maybe not a two-part, how do you make your coffee? Are you like a French press guy electric pour over like you're a coffee guy. I want to know from the best. How are you making your coffee in the morning or evening or whatever you're doing up?

So I'd say it depends.

So in the morning, so I go to work. I'm at work by 6 a .m. So typically we'll do just. We've got a mocha master, which is just a really nice grip machine. Okay, so that's what we'll do. Pour over every now and then.

But that takes a lot of time and we have seven kids. So anybody with a bunch of kids knows that sometimes you don't get to play with your gadgets as much as you'd like. But then at work, I've got I've got a cheap drip machine that I use if I want to make a big pot of coffee and I'm short on time but.

Yeah, so pretty much the drip machine for the most part just because I'm usually short on time so.

Yeah, do you find that's a. Kind of makes the best coffee for you. The most flavorful full-bodied kind of like that the one at home the mocha master.

That's a great machine. The one that I have at my office at work is just a cheap Walmart. It's awful so I wish I could buy a mocha master and take it to work, but.

Yeah, I don't want to sound like a coffee snob but I can definitely tell the difference when I run it through just a regular coffee electric coffee maker versus Even a French press when I you know. Boil the water and even let it sit.

Let it kind of steep for like three to five minutes and it really gets rich in there. And it's not too bad with the French press. I mean, we're already boiling a lot of water too for teas. I'm or a big tea family as well.

We alternate. You know, but yeah, that's cool. Yeah the drip machine. I like press to have you ever messed with one of those.

It's like a single. No, I haven't. Yeah, so it's it's it's kind of like a think French press. But it just makes a single cup of coffee. It's pretty nice because it's plastic and small and you can take it wherever you you know, wherever you go.

It's good for camping things like that. But I do make one of those from time to time in my office. It makes a little bit better cup than my drip machine for sure.

Okay, I'm pulling up a bag right here for a little product placement. I haven't got into this one yet. The wisdom which is odd because Proverbs is my favorite book. And I do like a Guatemala bean. So I'm really excited to bust into this one.

I've been real big on the integrity. Which we should tell people a little shameless self-promotion here. We'll link it up. But right now squirrely Joe's Joe Morris has offered a free bag of coffee for all our listeners anyone watching the live stream.

You just got to cover shipping. We'll put that link in there below but um let's go to question number two because I alluded to this and now don't shy away from question number two just because I Fired over the bow there.

How He Takes His Coffee and Why He Drinks It Black

But how do you take your coffee? Be honest. Are we straight black? Are we doing a little stevia a little sugar you put honey in there syrup creamer? What are you doing straight black?

The only time my wife and I put anything in our coffee is if we do like an ice latte or something like that in the.

Afternoon.

Other than that, we so, you know 10 -15 years ago. We used to just dump Creamer, you know the flavored creamer and stuff in our coffee. Yeah, I was back. We were drink old jurors and we didn't know any better.

So but since we found good premium coffee now, we just drink a black.

You know, I'm the exact same way. I'm a coffee lover. If I'm in the mood for a latte, I will call it a latte, but I'm usually like a heavy whip. I'm doing a real strong brew some heavy whip almost like Americano if it's espresso.

I'm probably doing a third of heavy whip with a real strong espresso and make it lighter. But usually if I do cream it's gonna be it's gonna be like heavy whip. I can't do half and half. I definitely can't do like a non-dairy creamer.

It's got to be that nice thick. You know what? I mean, really? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, I like anything that just Really sticks out flavor wise. I'm a scotch guy. I'm a Maduro cigar guy. It's like everything needs to be sharp, you know, really really hit right here for me, but this isn't about me.

Let's go to question number three. How do you store your coffee because this is controversial among some of my friends. I've got some guys that go Hey, you got to put it in the freezer. You got to put it in the fridge.

No, just keep it closed. Is there any right way or how do you store your coffee once you've opened it?

Coffee Storage, Freshness, and the One-Way Valve

So sunlight and oxygen are the two killers, okay. So just like you see in our bags, you know, there's no there's no window you know, it's it's completely You know dark inside so that sunlight doesn't get in and has the ziplock at the top.

So it's completely sealed.

That way no oxygen gets in and then. Another thing too that I actually get a lot of questions on that I didn't realize was not common knowledge, but the valve the one-way valve that's on most coffee bags.

Yeah, let's carbon dioxide out and does not let oxygen in and I get asked all the time. What's this little tab on the back of the bag? So yeah, it's to let so the beans give off carbon dioxide after they're roasted.

So that one-way valve lets that gas out and then it doesn't let oxygen in to make the beans go stale. So as long as you you know, if you open the bag make your coffee, you know seal it part of the way.

Push all the air out of it and then seal it all the way it's gonna last a lot longer. So and then again to beans over ground coffee you if you are gonna get into coffee. You got to go beans and they because they last beans.

Yeah, yeah all bean.

Yeah, which I'm looking at the squirrelly Joe back here on the wisdom bag and yeah, we both have that. I don't know if you can see it on the camera, but we both have the. The valve and I love the fact that they're ziplock, you know that you have the ziplock top.

There's nothing worse than not having a clip around or you know. Some of them will give you a little piece of flimsy tape that wears out in like two times. And you're like trying to retape it. Ah. So zip it up.

Keep the oxygen out. I love it. All right. Question number four in the fresh 10 with Joe Morris from squirrelly Joe's coffee. What is the most interesting conversation you've ever had over a cup of coffee?

Is there one that sticks out?

So, I don't know if there's any one conversation. So years ago I used to own a CrossFit gym and I would take clients out for coffee just to kind of. Get to know him a little bit better ask him some questions.

You know how to improve the business and that sort of thing and I and I used to have a lot of good conversations with.

People.

You know because it's people you only see in the gym and When you get them outside of that gym setting and they're relaxed and a little bit more comfortable. You really get to know people on a deeper level.

So, I don't know if there's any one conversation that sticks out, but I used to really enjoy taking my clients out for coffee. So.

Coffee as a Setting for Deeper Conversation

Okay, I like it. Question number five. When is your favorite time of the day for a cup of coffee? I know some nighttime coffee drinkers. They're crazy folks. No, I can't do it. I'll be up all night.

So I think my coffee cut off is like 2 p .m. That's about the okay about two. And then a lot of times I'll have I'll have that latte that ice latte in the afternoon. But that first cup of coffee in the morning, that's the best.

I mean, you know sure sit down at the desk. It's nice and hot. Take that first sip and everything's everything's gonna be okay after you have that first sip.

Yeah, you know what I've been doing with the compassion is I'll I'll make like a 64 ounce batch of coffee I'll probably French press two French presses put it in a in a nice glass pitcher. Well, I don't know.

What is it called a craft? I think throw it in the fridge for a day and then man in the summer I got instant cold coffee and that's when cold coffee too. I'll sometimes do a little heavy whip with it too just to get like a you know, cold latte going.

But the problem with that with a cold coffee in the summer, I'll find myself starting You know a little fire in the yard go grab a coffee at 7 o 'clock and then at 2 a .m I'm going why did I do that? Why did I start my coffee drinking at 8 p .m. At night?

All right question number six. What person would you most like to meet in history that was associated with coffee? So this is kind of particular to you most of the time we ask people Who would you most like to meet in history?

I'm saying if they had some some association with coffee and you're in the coffee industry. Is there a name out there where you go? I just like to meet him and you know, talk to him because of the our connection in coffee.

The Origins of Coffee and the Ethiopian Goat Herder

So, I don't know the I don't know the person's name. But so the story goes for the discovery of coffee was that a goat herder in Ethiopia is they figured out? the effect of coffee beans because their goats were eating the coffee cherries and You know getting all wired on the coffee and then they discovered it.

So I think it'd be interesting to to know what exactly those goats were doing. Because I don't know if you've ever been around goats, but they don't need caffeine to act a fool. Pretty pretty interesting to hear some of those stories, but I don't know I don't know if the history of coffee is as well documented as church history.

So right, I'm not thinking of any specific names of people that I've come across.

No, I like it. Yeah, so that's it's a good answer though going back to the to the origins question number seven. In your opinion, what country makes the most delicious coffee bean or is there specific country?

Are they all good depending on how they're roasted? What are you thinking?

Brazilian, Costa Rican, and African Coffee Profiles

So coffee's very Preference, you know, it's it's a personal preference. So I like Brazilian coffee. I really like the chocolatiness the nuttiness that comes with Brazilian coffees.

I.

Think all regions have their different kind of flair. So, you know like the our Costa Rican coffees got a really nice sweetness to it.

And then.

You know, the African coffees are very fruity. Very. You know, they've got a little bit tea flavors to them. So but if I had to pick one, I'd say Brazil. That's that's the one that you know. If we run out of coffee in the house, and I run out to the the roasting room to grab some coffee real quick.

I always go for the Brazilian you always go for that. Yeah. Yeah. No, I like that. What was crazy is in my mid-twenties up until then I was a Folgers or maybe a you know Pre-ground Dunkin Donuts or just kind of whatever the parents grew me up on which the 80s and early 90s were wild man.

We were all about price cutting and cheap. It was the it was the decades of like margarine and instant coffee and it's like you look back and you go How are we putting that stuff in our body? But then I went on a mission trip for two weeks down to Nicaragua and The past the host pastor he was a pastor but his you know.

What he earned a living off of in the you know, the average person down there lives on 50 cents American daily. He he had a coffee bean or a coffee farm I guess you need farmed coffee and he sent us back with like 30 or 40 pounds of full bean and I got back and it was the first time ever ground A bean and I drank the coffee and I went what is this?

Yeah, this is it would like blew my mind I go wait, wait a minute coffee can taste this good. And so I've always had an affinity for Nicaragua because he really you know what I mean? He he got me young, you know, and he got me hooked young.

Oh, I find myself in the Nicaraguan cigar the Nicaraguan coffee preference, but Brazil. I'm right there with you. I you give me a Brazilian bean and I'm like, yeah, I'll drink that any day of the week.

I mean, yes, I'm the same way nutty chocolatey good stuff. Okay question number eight I think we're on and this is this is what I'm gonna be interested in as a business owner myself. What is your favorite and least favorite part about owning a coffee business?

So give me something that you just absolutely love and something you go. Yeah, I could do without that or I wish there wasn't so much of that. Sure. So the.

The Best and Hardest Parts of Running a Coffee Business

My favorite thing is probably dealing with people, you know, we go to a lot of conferences I'm on the phone with a lot of different people and that's just I'm a people person. I could just sit around and talk all day long to anybody about anything.

So that's probably my favorite part is getting to deal with different people. I'd say the the least favorite part is the oh. Just the monotony of doing the same thing over and over, you know, we roast coffee.

We package coffee. We ship coffee and.

Go to sleep and then do it again in the morning.

So, you know, I I kind of scatterbrained, you know, I am probably the Typical entrepreneur where it's hard to stay focused on one thing for a long period of time. I like to jump all over the place and do different things.

But I do enjoy so it's funny because I I enjoy the Can you know the process improvement of how do we make things more efficient? How do we bring costs down things like that? So that part of the operations I really enjoy.

It's just the the monotony of roasting packaging shipping over. I can see that. That's all that's you know, that's why that's why I hired my 17 year old son. So he could do you know a lot of that for me while I'm at work and then I can focus on other things.

So yeah and a good experience for him, too. And for those you guys just jumping on we appreciate the hundred or so on X and the many likes and views We're getting on Facebook right now. We're with Joe Morris owner of squirrely Joe's coffee.

And of course, we're gonna link up for you guys. If you're a dead man walking listener, you can get a free bag of coffee. All you gotta do is cover shipping and we'll give you that link at the end. We're just here going through our fresh 10 and we're on question 9 right now.

Where does the name squirrely Joe come from? I would really like to know this personally and we've got a couple hundred people out there watching that I'm sure want to know as well if they don't know.

The Name Squirrelly Joe and the White Squirrel of Illinois

So there's there's a bit of controversy in my household where this name came from. So what I like to tell people is My name is Joe and then my wife says I'm a little bit squirrely. So, you know squirrely Joe's but so the the squirrel on the bag the town that we live in all the Illinois.

It's the home of the white squirrel. That's kind of our town's claim to fame. People actually travel from all over the country just to come here to see the white squirrels. So I think there's only like five five or six places in the entire United States that have white squirrels.

And I really ours are a specific type of white squirrel they're an albino. So people come from all over the place to see the white squirrel. So we really wanted to you know, stay true to the to the hometown.

You know mascot kind of thing and and our you know, the other businesses we owned we've used the white squirrel before. So we kind of wanted to stick with that and then you know, Joe cup of Joe. There's lots of different, you know.

It's a really it's a versatile name and it's just kind of silly. So and there's a lot we can do with squirrely because squirrely can mean whatever you want it to mean. Sure, if you see something wild in my marketing, that's it's cuz we're a little squirrely.

So.

Right. Yep so the controversy is is a squirrely Joe you or Because of the squirrel and in the place where it's founded is that kind of the it's a little bit about yeah.

So my wife wouldn't would.

She.

She thinks that I've got a big head with with the name because it's you know, all about me my business, right?

So she's a little self-deprecating though squirrely, you know. So she's just trying to keep me from getting too big of a head. So, okay. Well good wives do that, right? That's right. Yeah, I have one of those two.

Alright question number 10 moving right along last question of the fresh 10. Why is squirrely Joe's coffee so good now? That is an opinion question, but I've had. The coffee it's very unique in flavor I think better than most coffees maybe all coffees that I've tasted.

Where do you get that flavor from why is it so good? Why is it so different? I mean, you know, let's just make it a two-parter. How did you stumble upon something like that? I drink a lot of coffee in my life and Never quite the unique taste that I've gotten in the few brands that I've had.

A few lines that I've had from squirrely Joe. So where'd that come from?

Fresh Roasting, Single-Origin Coffee, and Approachable Specialty Flavor

So first off it's fresh. I mean, you know, like we've got orders going out today that I just roasted this morning. So that's really the the biggest thing is the freshness. But as far as the the coffees that we've chosen to go with so we are.

We like good coffee. We like premium coffee. We like trying all different types of coffee, but anybody who's ever encountered. Anybody in the coffee industry. It's very snobby.

It's very.

I don't you know, I don't want to be too hard on people but it's it's a pretty snobby, you know. Cast of characters. So what our goal was was to how do we? Encourage and educate part of the market on premium coffee.

That's not you know, like if you look we've got our tasting notes on there. But we don't go into a lot of the the nerdy coffee stuff that most coffee companies do and we really did that on.

Purpose.

We really just want people to understand that there's different types of coffee different types of flavor profiles. So like our two light roasts. We have one that's got more of a nutty flavor to it. We've got one that's got a little bit of a sweeter flavor to it.

So we can kind of guide people into you know, do you like the nutty or do you like the sweet? Well, if you like the sweet, you know, let's go with the Costa Rican. So we tried to choose coffees that it wouldn't.

It wouldn't overpower. People who aren't used to specialty coffee because there's a lot of coffees out there where if the average coffee drinker had them they would be kind of overwhelmed with some of the flavors that are going on and the roasters do that on purpose and you know.

Those guys are are deep in the weeds on trying to capture those specific flavors that they're going for. But the average drinker doesn't doesn't really like that stuff so we were trying to choose coffees for the average coffee drinker and You know and then try with our messaging in a way that you know, hey coffee is approachable.

Yeah, because I think a lot of people are intimidated by coffee. So we're trying with our marketing with our packaging. It's all about the average drinker like hey stop drinking Folgers because it sucks, you know.

Yeah, we we do think ours is the best. But we would rather people drink specialty coffee versus Folgers. So we're just trying to make ours more approachable and less intimidating than a lot of coffee companies do so.

Yeah.

And what I found interesting was the flavor combinations above the Ziploc there that first interested me when I saw the bags when I was at The why Calvinism conference shout out Jeffrey rice and those guys make sure you come see us in February when we host the war conference in Tullahoma, Tennessee.

You know like I'm looking at wisdom and it's milk chocolate brown spice and pecan. So you don't get super into all the flavor profiles. But you're kind of giving an idea of where this is gonna go and on past bags like the compassion and the integrity.

I've.

Tasted. I've tasted those. I mean you're pretty accurate and I'm not saying I'm any kind of expert or anything like that. But as a young kid, I would make these weird comparisons when I would eat food and taste stuff and I go.

Oh, it tastes like pencil shavings. That tastes like burnt grass that you might parents ago. Right and then you grow up and you go, oh there's like a whole industry where people describe stuff like that.

But that's just how it's hitting me you know and I'm but I'm drinking a rye like I get tree bark like the tree bark on a walnut tree when I Smell it really close and it's a little moldy or maybe a peat scotch, right?

So there is stuff to where if you really taste something that has rich flavor like that. You can get those hints you do a very good job of just kind of letting the drinker go. Hey, this is the vein in its end and then you explore it and we're kind of giving you the idea where it's at.

What stood out to me is like I've never seen those three together before in my life a milk chocolate a brown spice and a Pecan you go. How's that gonna work? It does somehow though. Yeah, it works. So a Couple bonus questions here.

I know it's only supposed to be a fresh 10. But as you can see, I'm I love coffee and I love talking about it. So it's my show. So we're gonna go longer. Where do you get those? Where do you get those ideas to combine those?

Is it trial and error or is it? Hey, we think this is gonna work and send it to market.

So those tasting notes, that's the natural flavor of the coffee. So we don't add anything. Okay, that's another another question. We get quite a bit. So yeah, it's a hundred percent coffee. It's a single origin.

So it's one bean from one farm.

But those.

Flavor those tasting notes at the top. Those are the natural flavors of the coffee so that's why we put those on the bag. A lot of roasters put those on the bag is because. What we want is when people drink the coffee.

Try and taste those notes because that those are the ones that really stand out in the in the tasting process. So those are the ones that it's fun to kind of see. Can I taste the brown spice in there?

Can I taste the pecans in there? Yeah, so that's just the natural flavor of the coffee. We don't add anything to it. Yeah. Yep. Want to clarify that?

Okay, that was ten questions. But I got one bonus question for you because I forgot to put it on the list. And I just need to know what historical figure dead or alive Would you like to sit down with and have a cup of coffee with?

Oh, man, I kind of should have known this question was coming. Yeah, I'll tell you what. For now let's keep it. Outside of any any character mentioned in the Bible because a lot of my guys that are believers.

Oh Paul Jesus, right?

Enoch.

Moses, let's keep it outside. So let's. It can be a Christian or believer non-believer, but in history dead or alive outside of mentioned in the Bible. Who would you sit down with and go? I'd like to share a 45-minute cup of coffee with him.

I'd say probably John Knox. He he was a while new. There was a reason we liked each other Joe.

You know, and I'm Scots Irish and and you know, that's where My people come from so I think it'd be interesting to sit down with him and just you know soak in that personality.

Yeah next month I have. Oh. What's his last name Doug? He's an expert on John Knox. We're doing a two-part biography. I'm just breaking down his life his political stuff his his theology and it's gonna be a good two-part episode.

So watch out for that, too. If you're watching on livestream right now that should be out in a couple weeks. But that was it that was fresh time with Joe Morris from squirrelly Joe's J got anything for us before we take off in this special Saturday morning live stream almost Saturday afternoon here.

What do you got for the people watching? I just tell them go check out the link at that free bag a.

Man of few words, but very direct. I like it Joe. Thanks for joining us here on the live stream talking fresh 10 talking coffee. Appreciate you brother and guys for you listening on both places. Whether you're watching on Facebook YouTube or X.

We're gonna put a link there. Go get your free bag of coffee. Check out squirrelly Joe's be a return customer support this brother in the Lord. We don't want to give our money to pagans. We want to give our money to brothers that are building things for the glory of God and Joe Morris and squirrelly Joe's coffee.

He is definitely doing that. So guys remember chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. God bless.