Photo by Joshua Ness on Unsplash
On March 9th, Memphis’ coffee connoisseurs will gather at the Memphis College of Art for the first-ever Grind City Coffee Expo, the brainchild of Daniel Lynn and Rachel Williams. The event is to celebrate Memphis’ coffee culture and to turn folks on to some good coffee from places they may not be familiar with.
There will be nine vendors at the expo, and one group — the Memphis Coffee Community. We asked one of the founders, Benjamin Fulfer, to explain themselves.
Memphis magazine: How did the Memphis Coffee Community come to be?
Benjamin Fulfer: Well MCC came together when a few paths intersected. In 2015, I moved back to Memphis and worked in a place where we sold Dr. Bean’s coffee and tea. I began my journey by just going every week to the roastery in order to know more about the product I was selling.
At the same time, a latte art champion named Lance Hedrick moved to Memphis. Being a coffee professional and living in Memphis, he began an Instagram page called Memphis Coffee Community. The goal was to grow a tiny coffee scene to something we can be proud of as a city.
And finally, Erik Rocha, a young man who stumbled into coffee at Starbucks, became obsessed with this little bean. He made it his personal mission to connect coffee lovers in Memphis.
We all converged, and as more coffee enthusiasts and shops opened, we all had an idea to bring Memphis a non competitive group that everyone would be open to join.
Lance moved on to another city, and gave Erik, myself, and a group of baristas/shop owners/coffee enthusiasts the Instagram. We were getting together every week at houses, shops, and businesses just sharing stories and coffee experiences.
Then we would go out of town to Little Rock, Nashville, Florence, Alabama, and many other places to visit shops that excited us.
And finally the weirdest thing happened… we realized that we loved the people as much as coffee. And we wanted to grow this into a community group that actually connected people through this little bean we called coffee.
How formal is the organization? Are there bylaws? Do you have to pledge no instant coffee?
Currently we are just a community board/support group. We try to elevate our friends in the coffee business and be a bridge to coffee lovers throughout the city. We have done a few events (cuppings/cold brew competitions/judges for throwdowns/gathers).
However, over the next year, we are formally putting together what our organization looks like. That means getting funding to help facilitate events for shops, help train new shops to specialty standards and just cheer on the growth of coffee in our city.
No instant coffee, lol. We try to be a place for everyone. While we do like to give the experience of excellence in coffee served, we also meet people where they are. We all have had the growth in our journey so there is no judgments. However, it is really fun when people get the itch and grow within the field.
We have meetings among our leadership team one or two times a week. We are trying to put together our timelines and goals for 2019 so we really grow.
We have a leadership team of two with a board of eight for advice. But we are all broke barista/coffee owners doing what we can. We are looking for growth by offering services like demos, trainings, events, and consulting. More on that later in 2019.
How do you join?
DRINK COFFEE! There is no subscription or dues as of yet. We are still very much just an open community group. If you drink coffee, you are in.
You can follow us on @memphiscoffeecommunity on instagram and follow us on Facebook.
Email us through memphiscoffeecommunity.com to set up an event or get us to host a demo. We are here.
Our leadership team has been fully trained by some of the best coffee professionals in the area and we are really proud of what we can offer to help a shop/individual/business have a better coffee experience. We also are connected to all the shops and roasters so we can get you the best coffee in the city, or help with machines or set up.
We have consulted on some shop layouts too… so we are here to help, but no membership sign-ups (yet, but stay tuned).
Where's Memphis at when it comes to coffee?
I look at our coffee scene personally as a kid turning into a teenager. We have had a rich history in some roasters and shops that have been around since the ’90s, and even before. And then we got a few newer shops, or what we call Third Wave shops in the business.
And over the last year to year and half we have seen our scene blow up. But we still have a long way to go. We are awkward and trying to find out where we fit in the full picture.
That’s why we started MCC. Unlike bigger cities that have gotten too cool, or snobby, we have an opportunity to be a true community. In this together. We are all from Memphis, so we believe in that spirit. No one is gonna give us anything… we are going to have to make it happen. Together. And we at MCC would like to be the cord that holds that growth together.
At the end of the day, it isn’t that MCC grows into a huge thing… we want every shop and their unique offering to grow with the growth of Memphis. The pie will just get bigger, in turn growing each slice people have. No need to push anyone out. Let’s do this together.
What are you doing for the expo?
We have the unique and humbling opportunity to sponsor and operate the demo table. We will be doing an array of coffee demonstrations for the Memphis community using pieces from several shops, roasters, and knowledges. We are unbiased, so we are here to support everyone. Which is cool to show how differently you can do coffee. Even shop to shop or brew to brew.
We are humbled to be asked to be a part of the first year and be a big part.
