Unpacking Coffee with Kandace and Ray: Mudhouse Coffee Roasters

Needmore Designs photo.

In this episode of Unpacking Coffee, Kandace and Ray catch up with Roast magazine 2017 Roaster of the Year (micro) winner Mudhouse Coffee Roasters, of Charlottesville, Va.

Roast Founder and Publisher Connie Blumhardt visited K&R at their Portland studio to discuss the impetus of the award itself, while praising the infectious coffee-focused passion of Mudhouse’s founders Lynelle and John Lawrence. (In the interview with K&R, Lynelle includes “director of joy” among her titles, while John is not identified as active in the company’s joy division.)

A coffee company since John and Lynelle’s VW van parked in Charlottesville in 1993, Mudhouse recently  expanded its vertical operations, partnering with Willem Boot and Kelly Hartmann for the purchase of a farm in Panama, called Finca La Cabra, that has been planted with Geisha.

“Adding another vertical component — to be a company that’s our size and so tiny, to be able to go completely farm to cup — is a special thing,” John Lawrence told K&R, describing the venture as like traveling through the hedge into Narnia.

On with the show:

Unpacking Coffee is a show discovering new coffee roasters one episode at a time led by Kandace and Ray of the Portland-based studio Needmore Designs, which specializes in coffee, wine and lifestyle brands.