In 2004 we (The Wells Family) owned a gas station in the Florida Keys. This was the same year there were four named hurricanes within about a 5 week time span. Although the Keys did not take a direct hit, our supply lines are always affected, because delivery trucks are limited to traveling to the Keys.It was hard to get gas and items for our store. Even the major grocery store chains were affected and most of all, I could not get a cup of fresh gourmet coffee. It was bad.I was walking around the house complaining about the quality of the coffee I was being forced to drink, when one of my children told me to stop whining and do something about it. Dad, as you have always said, we are islanders and we learn to take care of ourselves. The light turned on.I spent the next few weeks researching coffee and how to roast it. I ordered a home roaster for about $175 and 25 or so different types of green beans i.e. Sumatra, Guatemalan and Colombian etc. Only ordering the best green coffee beans I could find online. If we were going to do this, then it would have to be done right.When the home coffee roaster and green coffee beans arrived one afternoon about 5 pm, I was set to go. It was a school night, so everyone, but I, went to bed early.  I setup my roasting system in the kitchen and begin experimenting. I roasted each type of green bean at least to four different roast profiles. Light, medium, dark and burnt.Now, if you have every eaten a peanut from the shell, you know after you crack the peanut, there is a thin and light chaff covering the nut, well coffee beans have this chaff. It is very light.  It floats and flies through the air with the greatest of ease. Starting at about 8 in the evening and roasting straight through until 7 in the morning, when my children came into the kitchen, the first thing they spotted was the entire kitchen. I mean everything. Cabinets and even the one that were open, the stove, top of the refrigerator. Just everything was covered with an 1/8 inch layer of chaff from the beans roasting. The home roasting was shooting them out of the top and I never thought about it, as mad scientist had been awaken in me.When my wife entered the kitchen, the unspoken word was powerful. Her eyes toured the kitchen and then she focused her look as me. Still, she did not speak. I begin my two hours cleaning. When I was finished, I felt like a puppy looking for her approval, but she was not done. Again, her unspoken words guided me. She looked at the coffee roaster and then her eyes looked toward our back porch. I move the coffee roasting station to the back porch, which was fine. It was a nice big screen in porch.I was happy. And every day after school, my children would show up to check on my progress and they begin getting involved. I recall thinking, if nothing ever came of my coffee roasting venture; well at least, I had found some common ground for my children and I. They were young to be drinking coffee, but they could smell it and taste it.  They even began asking about blending different types of beans together.  We had long discussions about coffee. We would start with the origin of  the each coffee beans, discussing its traits and then we would roast, blending the different types of beans, learning to mix them so they complimented one another, as is proof my some of the rating we have received i.e. Smugglers Brew (88/100), 90 Mile Stretch Espresso (90/100), Misty Mornings (88/100) Black Flag Espresso (90/100), Beemers Papua New Guinea (91/100) and Island Joes Breakfast Blend (91/100). Perhaps one of our landmark achievements was the creation of our 90 Mile Stretch Espresso Pods ESE, which were reviewed and rated by Kenneth Davids rating 91 out of 100. In the same assessment, our espresso pods out rated some of the world leading espresso pods producers. We are humbled to be such the company of such great coffee roasters.

• IllyCaffe – Tostatura Scura (Dark Roast) ESE Pods – 89 out of 100
• IllyCaffe – Tostatura Media (Medium Roast) ESE Pods – 89 out of 100
• Jolly Caffe – Espresso ESE Pod – 88 out of 100
• The Supreme Bean – Espresso ESE Pod – 88 out of 100
• Sagafredo Zanetti – Espresso ESE Pod – 87 out of 100
• Lavazza – GrandCrema (ESE Pod) – 87 out of 100
• Lucaffe – 100% Arabica, Black Label ESE Pod – 87 out of 100
• Fazenda Aguas Claras – Espresso ESE Pod – 86 out of 100

My next problem came from our neighbors. First our coffee roaster sounded like a popcorn popper magnified by 10 and then add a loud churning sound from the beans being rotated in the roaster. But wait there is more. We lived on the ocean and as you should know, on the water sound not only carries for long a distant but it also seems to magnify the sound even more.But we remained relentless. My children would join me to roast before they went to school. I would roast all day and then they would rejoin me after school. Each with their own ideas, which we discussed at length.Now back to the neighbors. With the sound carrying across the water, our neighbors begin to ask.  What was all the noise and what were we doing on our back porch? We would invite them over to proudly show off our new passion. We would brew them up a cup to sample. They loved it, which made us feel proud. We would even give them coffee to take home and brew. The word quickly spread throughout our neighborhood. We became so popular, 4 or 5 neighbors begin showing up each morning, when they heard the roaster. We would brew up coffee and have long discussions. Some neighbors even begin bringing homemade fresh bake goods to go with our coffee. We basically had a coffee café on our back porch. Now keep in mind, our home coffee roaster, would hold 1/3 of a pound of green coffee beans, which, depending on the roast profile (medium or dark roast), would yield about 70 to 80% of brew able coffee.  It took about 10 minutes for one roast and you had to let the roaster cool. So if we got 3 or 4 roast ad hour, we were lucking.Our next step was the introduction of our coffee to our customers at our gas station. We would roast all night, grind the coffee and have enough for 2 maybe 3 large pots. At first we gave taste away, but our local customers begin asking for larger cups, even saying they were willing to pay. We finally sold our first 12 ounce cup for $1.  Then they begin asking for coffee to take home.  Wow, this is cool we said to one another. Then we begin offer our coffee to the many tourist who would stop for gas and supplies. We would offer them a small taste. They remarked how much they enjoyed it and would purchase one of our 12 ounce cups for a $1.The next thing we notice was the phone began ringing. It was the tourist who had tasted our coffee the week before. They wanted to know how they could purchase our coffee and could be ship them some. This went on for several months.Then one night at the dinner table, I told my family, I had ordered a 7 pound coffee roaster to be delivered to the gas station in a week.  Their eyes lighted up with joy.  When the roaster arrived, we removed two shelves of candy and such, from our store and setup our coffee roaster. It had begun and there was no turning back at this point.We purchased coffee bags, purchased software to design and print labels. It was selling.  The next step would be to create away for the tourist who stopped by to be able to purchase our coffee online. Hence the birth of our online business.Well, trying to shorten this already long story. Our coffee has been reviewed and rated by some of the world’s leading coffee experts, with many of our signature coffee and espresso blends rating in the top 5% in the world. And perhaps even more importantly, some of our customer who discovered Island Joe’s Coffee at the gas station still to this day, order our coffee and espresso online.We have nor, will we ever lower our quality just to increase sales and trust us, we have had offers. And customer service is one of the foundations of our coffee company. From our time on our back porch and even today, we listen to what our customers have to say. We have created a coffee family, which is enduring.We created our motto in the early days and still abide by it —

Born our of Necessity and Crafted with Passion The Proof is in the Cup