How we package and ship our coffees after roasting is crucial to how it tastes when it reaches your cup.
Coffee is sensitive to oxygen, moisture, light and odor. Our specially produced bags insure protection from the elements, while a one-way degassing valve allows for the release of naturally occurring carbon dioxide. When you open your bag of Morning Glory, you are greeted with a fresh aroma and a quality cup each and every time. After opening we recommend storing your coffee in an airtight, dry place. Do not place in the refrigerator or freezer, where your coffee will be affected by moisture and odors.
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We are fortunate to be able to live and do business in a place that is special to so many throughout the world. West Yellowstone, Montana and Yellowstone National Park are a worldwide destination and many will do whatever it takes to visit and experience it's beauty. The following article was written by our local chamber of commerce in West Yellowstone, Montana.. We would like to introduce you someone we met at the West Yellowstone Visitor Center. Touring Yellowstone in the early spring can be a bit challenging. Different sections of roads open on a staggered schedule, the weather can change as spring rain or snow showers move through, and there are limited services. Late on a Tuesday afternoon, a visitor arrived on the shuttle bus from Salt Lake City, Utah. He had flown from around the world (possibly Taiwan) and come to Yellowstone. He did not have a driver’s license and tours into the park do not begin operating for another week or so because it was early in the spring. He asked if he could ride a bicycle into Yellowstone. He could, and in fact many people come just to ride into the park in the spring before traffic gets heavier. It is 14 miles from the west entrance to Madison Junction along the Madison River and through a canyon. At Madison Junction you can turn south and ride another 16 miles to the Old Faithful geyser area. Or, you can turn north and ride another 14 miles to the Norris area, turn east and ride12 miles more to Canyon where you can see the beautiful Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and waterfalls. Either route is long ride round trip through scenic, but sometimes challenging terrain. The staff at the visitor center and a Yellowstone Park ranger showed this traveler a map and explained the challenges of route, darkness, and animals, especially to someone who had never been to Yellowstone before, plus where he could find lodging and even rent a bike. We all thought that he would either hire a local shuttle/taxi service. The next day one of our staff members and their family drove to Old Faithful after work. Later that night they were returning back to West Yellowstone, and who did they see? Our visitor from the night before doggedly riding back from Old Faithful on a bicycle. It was starting to drizzle and the family was able to coax this visitor, quickly becoming a friend, into a ride back. It was 9:00 PM. The next day we all wondered how he had made such a ride (probably about 16 hours total) and whether he would even be able to get out of bed that morning. That same day, our same family headed in to the Canyon area of Yellowstone and who did they see? The same gentleman pedaling like mad. He was about to the Canyon Junction. We meet lots of folks (literally over 100,000+) each summer at the Visitor Center, but this "Yellowstone Fan" has inspired us. I gotta say the guy is determined to see Yellowstone. Our staff person said it best, "He was very excited to be here and to see the Park. He spoke broken English but was quiet and kind to me at work. It is just an outstanding example of what determined people will do to accomplish their goals. He has seen Yellowstone up close and personal and I am proud of the guy." You can contact the West Yellowstone Chamber of commerce to plan a Yellowstone visit at http://www.destinationyellowstone.com/ or on Facebook at http://bit.ly/9I8U2F Plan a trip to Yellowstone today! Receiving a shipment of green (unroasted) coffee to our West Yellowstone store always seems tantamount to a miracle, considering the distance and intensive labor it takes to grow, process, cup, grade and ship coffee. Almost every day and especially days when we receive a shipment of coffee at our store, I will be asked the same simple (with a complicated answer) question. “Where do you get your coffee?”
I am sure that every coffee roasting company in the world will at some point be asked this question. Initially, I will smile and say “from around the world” hoping that this will suffice and the questioner will enjoy a cup or purchase a bag and move on. Unfortunately this is not the answer that most people are seeking and I then must do my best to shrink the entire coffee industry from tree to cup into a few sentences that will most certainly not do it justice and at the same time confuse and confound my customer. So having said that, I will now try and explain where we get our coffee without getting into too much trouble. Like any product, the further from the origin you are the harder it is to track and explain how it gets to your shelf. The specialty coffee industry has been a pioneer in properly tracking coffee, in an effort to improve standards of living, quality of product, sustainability and ethical business practices. This continuing quest covers 50+ countries of origin ( http://ncausa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=75 ) and hundreds of thousands of farms, co-op’s, processing mills, shippers, importers, brokers and roasting companies. The majority of coffee roasters in the U.S. do not import/export coffee directly therefore, they are purchasing their coffee from brokers and importers that make it their business to source and sell green (unroasted) coffee. Even if a roasting company works directly with a farm, mill or co-op, they will still make all of, or the majority of their purchases from one of these companies. If a roasting company has the resources they may visit an origin or tour a variety of farms/co-op’s to develop relationships that strengthen the bond and help with tracing and confirming quality and certifications. Having lived on and worked for a farm/producer in Hawaii, I cannot stress enough how important it is to make at least one trip to an origin as a coffee buyer or roaster to fully understand the process from the ground up. I am however realistic that many coffee roasters lack the means to take long trips out of country and cannot afford to be away from their businesses. Needless to say the brokers/importers play a crucial part in maintaining the farm to roaster relationship. The brokers/importers also have the ability to purchase and warehouse coffees from many origins in a central location that the roasting company can purchase and ship from. New York, New Orleans, Houston, San Francisco are all major points of delivery for coffee in the United States. Raw coffee is shipped to warehouses in a variety of places for ease of shipping to roasting companies. In the case of Morning Glory Coffee & Tea, the majority of our coffees are shipped from warehouses in San Francisco or Seattle. By ordering this way we can purchase a variety of grades and origins at one time from our brokers.This is called "Spot Market"; The spot market is where the purchaser actually buys the beans. As opposed to the future's market where the sale of coffee is at sometime in the future.These coffees are then shipped freight on pallets in burlap or jute bags. Each bag will be marked with origin, weight, lot, grade and certification markings. Any given pallet will have coffees from a variety of origins. The Pallet that arrived here in West Yellowstone has coffees from the origins of Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Sumatra. These coffees will then be roasted to a specific roast profile so they can be enjoyed as blends or enjoyed as a single origins. It is the hope of many a coffee roaster that through the craft of roasting they will create a cup that holds true to and fairly represents all the hard work and many hands it takes to get our favorite coffee to our local shelves. The truth is in the cup!
It has been said that Montana is a small town with very long streets. When seen from above this sentiment becomes reality. Small towns and cities tied together by a vast landscape. It is amazing to live in a place so large in area and yet so connected in it's independent spirit, culture and sense of character. Home is where Montana is Montana is my home. The absence of action has more implications than presence of action~ Tim Minchin
We believe in supporting and creating solutions both big & small, for better products, better business, a better community and a better planet. As a business owner it is simple for me. It does not matter if the climate changes that are occurring are man made or a natural cycle; they are happening. As a company, we could not in good conscience go out of our way to hold on to equipment and processes that are were inefficient and, that added to the problem at hand. We needed to make a change. Cultural and scientific shifts take time and will only change in increments. It is not about being anti fossil fuels, it is about moving toward better technology regardless of what we are dependent on at the moment. I don’t see the same resistance when we compare the modern automobile to the horse and carriage, or the advances in computers, or phones. When things work better and are more efficient, the culture naturally gravitates toward them. Morning Glory Coffee & Tea, Inc. operates a hybrid vehicle, not because of ideology, but because it saves us money while supporting better and more efficient technology. We installed a low carbon footprint coffee roasting system not because it will save the planet on it’s own, but because it supports an American manufacturer that is dedicated to finding better, more efficient and cleaner ways to roast coffee ( http://www.usroastercorp.com/therevelation.html ). Through our actions, we have lowered our need for natural gas, almost completely eliminated our emissions and lowered our carbon footprint for production by 95+%. We have saved money for our company while contributing less to the problems at hand, regardless of how they came to be. If our society, governments and businesses are interested in creating a better world to live in , it would be best that we forget ideology and support science based solutions. It will create more sustainable jobs in the long term and help us to address real environmental issues that will affect us all, whether we believe in them or not. At Morning Glory Coffee & Tea, Inc. we operate in one of the most isolated rural communities in the United States. Just blocks from Yellowstone National Park, our town of 1,200 undergoes drastic shifts in park visitation throughout the year. Over 1.4 million visitors will pass through West Yellowstone, Montana this year, some stopping and others quickly moving on to see the sights of Yellowstone and beyond. Traditional business models do not apply here. When dependent on visitation, a business must strive to find new ways to connect with customers after they leave. At the same time, we have to nurture seasonal residents and return visitors to remember us and keep coming back. Before social media's rise it was more than challenging to communicate with customers once they left our store. It was almost impossible to track or contact those that consumed our coffees at area restaurants or bought our retail coffee off grocery shelves. Having moved to an isolated rural town, I had also lost contact with professionals within the coffee industry.
It is social media marketing that allows us to compete and grow regardless of our location.The importance of social media platforms such as Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and others to our business cannot be overstated. The use of these social marketing has allowed Morning Glory to communicate, educate, learn, sell and build our brand, in ways that were impossible less than ten years ago. You can learn a little bit more about us from this recent article in the our local paper, The West Yellowstone News~ http://www.westyellowstonenews.com/news/article_eb2d3b8c-b31b-11e5-b1d5-7f6eb6f5d129.html The world of Specialty Coffee has grown enormously in the past twenty five years. Improvements in agriculture, roasting and packaging now allow an incredible variety of great origin coffees, blends and flavors to be available to the customer.
For many of us coffee is the wake up call or the conversation with dessert. In coffee houses and homes across the United States coffee is presented in many forms to satisfy the thirsty connoisseur. Pour over, Drip, press, espresso, cafe' latte, cappuccino and blended, just to name a few. Coffee like no other beverage created, is prepared and enjoyed differently throughout the world. It is Coffea Arabica that has been the spark that has changed and continues to change human kind. From its discovery and first cultivation in what today is Yemen, coffee has transformed life, culture, religion, trade and business. In many ways, coffee is the one product that has the capacity to bridge differences and bring people of differing cultures, faiths and ideas together. At Morning Glory Coffee & Tea, Inc. we are very fortunate to share our coffees with visitors from around the world. We believe that whether you are entertaining at home, traveling or in your favorite coffee shop, the only wrong way to drink coffee is to not drink it at all. The rules are, that there are no rules, except to enjoy your coffee how you like it. With this in mind we should also share in the wonder that is coffee, by celebrating and better understanding its origins. The current coffee market is filled with a confusing mix of labels and marketing schemes that tempt us to pay an extra premium for our daily brew. Specialty, gourmet, single origin, organic, shade friendly, fair-trade, the list seems to be endless. Because the history and consumption of coffee is different among cultures, there is no simple answer to the question; What is the best coffee. There is, however, one distinct difference between commercial coffee and coffees labeled “Specialty”. Commercial coffee is of lower quality on every level. The coffees that are used in the major grocery brands are primarily purchased on the coffee futures exchange in New York City and London. The coffee traded in New York is all arabica species and is referred to as C grade; the lowest certifiable grade in the industry. Coffee traded on the London market is robusta Species. robusta is the second most used species of coffee in the world. Found in the 1890’s in Central Africa, robusta is now a large part of commercial coffee production. robusta is easier to cultivate, is more resistant to insects and disease and has twice the caffeine of arabica coffees; robusta is also cheaper to purchase. During times of high prices for arabica species coffees, robusta use is increased, as a blender to lower the cost and increase the margins of commercial coffee products. Specialty coffee is more complicated. Specialty coffee roasters typically by higher grade coffees, paying a differential on the daily C market price. The differential may vary based on origin, quality and availability. Higher prices and trendy terms do not denote high quality. With the rapid growth of the last twenty years, some roasters have chosen to focus on gimmicks to set themselves apart. Extravagant coffee shops and equipment along with an over analyzation of taste perception and brewing methods, threatens to marginalize growth of solid medium and high grade coffees. Producers must get sustainable prices for their entire crops not just the top grade, so they can continue to invest in improved methods of cultivation and production. Roasters must not lose focus on the bigger more complex reality of what makes quality achievable and sustainable. Having our pictures taken while visiting coffee origins, new brewing trends and latte' art are important in marketing, but we must not lose sight of where true quality comes from. The truth is in the cup~ I spend a fair amount of time explaining where we live and, how isolated our little town of West Yellowstone, Montana is from the rest of the world. We spend our days roasting, shipping and serving coffees, two blocks from Yellowstone National Park. Once a week we regardless of weather (for the most part) we make the trip from West Yellowstone, to Big Sky and on to Bozeman to deliver our coffees and stock up on supplies for home and business. Ninety miles each way, this trip brings us through a portion of Yellowstone and is a weekly reminder of just how special it is to live and do business in Montana. Thanks to Zeno Pontiggia for taking this footage. For us at Morning Glory, this is our weekly trip.
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May 2023
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Location129 Dunraven Street,
West Yellowstone, Montana |