California – Meadow Ranch

Region: Santa Barbara

Producer: Jose Yanez

Varietal: Caturra Rojo

Process: Washed

Tasting Notes

Super sweet with chocolate, cherry and blackcurrants.

Origin Story

Historically, coffee has never been cultivated this far from the equator. But the Southern California climate around Santa Barbara, where Ruskey’s Good Land Organics farm is located, seemed promising.

In 2002, Mark Gaskell, PhD, a California Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor gave Jay Ruskey 40 coffee plants from Costa Rican seed. Jumping at the chance to explore the possibilities, Ruskey planted the coffee among his avocado trees, enabling the two plant species to share water and nutrients sustainably.

It takes three to four years for a young coffee plant to bear fruit and another two years before it produces a viable harvest. Ruskey patiently waited. Coffee cherries appeared, but that was just the beginning. He quickly realized that much more work was needed after harvest to process the sweet coffee fruit.

As he gained success growing coffee in California, Ruskey started sharing his knowledge with other farmers in Southern California, making coffee plants and coffee-growing science available to them. Realizing the potential for a California Coffee Industry, Ruskey co-founded FRINJ in 2017.

Today, FRINJ supports more than 65 farmers growing coffee in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Diego counties and many more property owners adding coffee to their crops. And the FRINJ coffee movement is inspiring organic and regenerative farming methods.