George & Bin Laden, Part 2

Where were we... oh yes, just getting the two of us out into the drive way ready to rock some coffee... and meet some neighbors. We managed to be out there on an unusually warm, and quiet Saturday in September. After a few hours of drinking our own coffee, and doing some yard work. We began to talk about throwing in the towel. Maybe this wasn't going work. Just as we were thinking about packing up our coffee supplies... two guys turned the corner down our street. One of the middle aged men was on a bike, and one on foot. My gut was feeling this was not going to go well (preconceived notions will get you every time). As they got closer I could see them trying to figure out what we were doing, but would they engage with us? As they crossed the driveway, Josh said hello. They acknowledged, and there was a brief pause... They wanted to ask what the heck we were doing, we wanted to offer a cup of coffee... but would either of us act?

The pause was just enough to open the door for Josh to blurt out, "you guys want a cup of coffee?" They responded, "How much?" When we told them it was free... The two men shrugged and said, "yeah, we'll try some coffee." Game on. We fumbled around making a new brew of a tasty Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. We explained what we were doing out there, and they thought that was pretty cool. Somehow the conversation turned to the word "organic". One of the men mentioned how he was watching a show the night before about organic growing practices, and how what we put into the ground when we grow our food, ends up in our bodies. We agreed and related that to our desire to have sustainable growing conditions for the coffee (hopefully yielding better coffee). We finally got around to introducing ourselves. "My name is George," the first man said, and then the other said a name that I couldn't quite catch, followed up by, "but people call me Bin Laden, its the beard". Of course our first success of bringing people together through coffee would be with, George and Bin Laden... by then the coffee was ready. They were baffled when we asked if they could smell the blueberry notes coming off the cup, and to their surprise they could, "I never had coffee that smelled like that!" were the words that jumped out. They grabbed their cups and set out on their way... half way down the street when they could finally get a sip of the hot brew, "Its good... like Tasters Choice and S*%t!" The two men waved and walked away. We were both fed by the interaction, we made a connection, coffee was enjoyed... our first taste of success for Garage Coffee.