The Story
I have to always write a script. Not to make it super fancy, but because otherwise otherwise I freeze. So here is what I wrote for our incredible chance to be on Augusta Food Blog “ Cooking with Coffee.”
Start off by thanking Augusta Food Blog for reaching out & asking us to be apart of this.
Introduce self
Jami Craft. I moved to Augusta in July 2019 from Statesboro, GA. Hail Southern! I have spent a lot of time in Zimbabwe Africa and after a semester there I came back wanting to know more about coffee. I loved how in Zim they would have tea time and people would gather around a cup of tea or coffee and just be in community with each other. So I wanted to experience that back in the states. My coffee journey started with Three Tree Coffee while I was in school at Southern. The owner of Three Tree Coffee, Philip Klayman, and his wife, Anna, began roasting in 2014 just as a side hobby. They started serving it at the Farmer’s market and pretty quickly they got a name for themselves. I was very interested in coffee and wanted to work in the industry so I reached out to Anna & began to just watch her roast while I wrote everything down that she said. Soon they hired interns & that’s where I officially came in. I became an intern and Philip would have us research coffee articles, we handled packaging the coffee, inventory, work markets, create events, & learn to make lattes on the lil espresso machine in the back. I fell in love. It was truly an art and a science. All of it. From the importing to the roasting to the cup. So I was an intern then they realized that it was time for an actual coffee shop. The building was located, the equipment purchased, the walls painted & floors scrubbedddd ( so much scrubbing), & I was finally a barista. We started as a team of 4 plus the ,now 4, owners. I gave practically everything to Three Tree because the people became family & the mission was genuine. I was in college, but truly I think I was in Statesboro for Three Tree & school just got me in the right place. I had a few titles and a lot of tasks while there. I got to see the ins and outs of all the details of coffee and coffee shop life. I was a barista, baker, roaster, trolley & shop manager, & wedding coordinator. They watched my husband & I go from the awkward flirting / dating stage to dating to engaged to married and then eventually to having our own baby. SO they truly are family and a huge part of why I love coffee.
Beginning of co.
My husband & my superrrr pregnant self moved to Augusta for him to get his Masters in Nursing at AU in July of 2019. A lot of people thought we were moving here to start a coffee shop. Surprise, that was not on my radar. In my mind, I would just enjoy it the rest of my life & maybe commute the 1.5 hour drive to Statesboro for Three Tree or IDK what. I had babe and missed working with weddings so I STALKED Florologie and started working with Rebekah. She is an incredible florist in town who does wedding flowers and truly the sweetest & gracious soul. Through her I got back in the wedding industry & realized okay, I’m ready to get back at it. So I reached out to some of the wedding vendors I had met on wedding days with Rebekah and stalked some others and began Emerald oX (Craft & co at the time). I kept thinking, what makes me different from all the other wedding planners and vendors. My love & knowledge of coffee. Most wedding days (before the mimosas), the planning process, the meetings, the celebrations all start with coffee. People come together to celebrate and so in my mind, it only makes sense to bring the two together.
The coffee
So we started an online coffee shop that does door to door delivery in the Augusta Area. We offer wedding planning services, coffee corner events, & now our coffee. You can buy it through our website emeraldox.co . We offer cold brew growlers, homemade vanilla, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Brazil, Emerald oX Blend, Espresso, and decaf beans. You wont be surprised but our coffee is Three Tree Coffee. There are other coffees that are delicious, but Three Tree is doing something different. They roast all of their coffee so that the natural flavors of each bean come out. So African coffees are usually fruitier or more vegetal & south American coffees are usually nuttier and chocolatey, etc. SO no coffee origin tastes the same, but once they get the right roasting profile, every bag of Ethiopia, or Guatemala, or whatever you get, tastes consistently that delicious. Besides the incredible tastes, the actual mission of Three Tree is one of a kind. They have a mission to empower the farmer, end human trafficking, and engage the community. Not one of those points is more important than the others. They all go hand in hand. So they only purchase Fair trade organic coffee. Some of their coffees do more for their farmers than just fair trade standards. The organizations build community wells, or pig farms, etc. They partner with organizations like IJM and out of darkness in the effort to end human trafficking. A couple years ago they sent a few of us to a training to learn to recognize and act against trafficking. They host events at the shop to teach customers what to look for and about the issue. So long story short, this shop is a baby of three tree coffee and we fully support what they are doing with their mission. We hope to share in that through serving their coffee.
Emerald oX is a company run by women. 4 to be exact. We love pretty things, are creatives, coffee gurus, and wedding obsessed. We didn’t intentionally plan a woman run company, but when you run in very close circles with each other and share the same passions, it is only natural. There are husbands supporting us from the background, but we are for sure boss babes praying we can make this company happen. We are so thankful to have gotten to know so many people in Augusta already & to have the support of people who have been here longer than us.
Today/goals
Our goal is to keep this up. We would love a brick & mortar coffee shop one of these days, but until that happens we will happily deliver coffee to your door and help you experience coffee in a new way. We want to help bring the community together. We are living in such a strange time filled with unknowns and anxious moments. Our goal is to be a place of joy and an opportunity to bring people together- even if they’re sitting 6 ft apart or zooming.
Thank you for reading all of this. Order online at www.emeraldox.co!