As it’s brewed, freshly roasted coffee becomes a bubbly mushroom cloud that indicates the flavor bomb brewing below.

The chocolate brown beans we all know and love start their lives waxy and green.

Coffee beans are highly durable in this green, unroasted state. If transported and stored properly, they’ll remain tasty for up to a year.

Our mobile cafe is 2500lbs of finely tuned joy on wheels. During the summer peak, we fit a team of four into less than 150 square feet. In a flurry of ordering taking, grinding, shot pulling, steaming, icing, and delivering we routinely make over 300 drinks within the span of four hours.

My forearms were covered in sawdust and metal shavings. I was ensconced in what had been a finished trailer a few short hours ago. Now it was a gutted tin can on wheels. The wall panels, floor boards, aluminum window trim, and electrical conduit lay in a pile on the driveway.

“Well, that escalated quickly.”

The Friday morning following our twilight escapade to pick the trailer up dawned warm and bright. We gathered eagerly in Jimmy’s driveway to survey our prize in the full light of day.

Frozen

Months before the trailer even had a floor, we had started serving espresso at the market. During those winter months, the entire operation was placed one piece at a time into the bed of the truck like a heavy, three dimensional game of Tetris.

Two hundred pound espresso cart, six foot maple table, pour over table, tent, signage, and 150 pound generator—all were hoisted up onto the tailgate and then slid into place.