The Hippest Mobile Coffee Cart in Tampa Bay – Banyan Coffee
Twice a week at night we prepare for Scooch going to work the following morning by grinding coffee beans. Before Charlie was born 8 months ago, we would simply grind our King State or Buddy Brew coffee beans and not have to worry about the unpleasant noise the grinder made. However now, as new parents a coffee grinder might as well be an alarm clock for Charlie at night or early in the morning. We’d been talking about our coffee grinding noise issue for weeks and it became a bit of a meme around our house in the mornings. Then, last month the husband and wife owners of Banyan Coffee, Abbey and Josh reached out to us…
We have two kids ourselves (3yrs and 4years) and with little sleep we had to be creative with making coffee in the morning. As a coffee roaster, we grind our coffee religiously but grinders are so loud in the morning! We had to grind our coffee in the garage so we wouldn’t wake up any of the kids but that became a hassle so we invested in a hand grinder. That did wonders! We also realized we were not going out for coffee as much so it forced us to make more coffee from home. We think if your audience would like some tips on ways to brew coffee from home and just be creative with coffee and balance a newborn at the same time. Let us know.
Josh and Abbey Schmitt of Banyan Coffee Co.
What are the odds that right when we were talking about our coffee grinding noise issue we get an email from fellow new parents about the same issue!?
With Abbey and Josh reaching out we took it as a great sign and asked to try their three favorite coffee beans to review them here on the blog. There are a lot of coffee readers here who I’m assuming may have had this same coffee grinder issue! So after we go through our favorite beans from Banyan Coffee, we’ll share a couple of tricks we’ve learned from grinding beans at night with a newborn.
The Coffee Beans
Shortly after going back and forth with Abbey and Josh they sent us their JAVA dark roast, Guatemala San Sebastian medium roast, and Guatemala medium roasts. Absolutely love the two medium roasts and only needed one cup for the entire day! Over the last two weeks, we tested all three roasts and the Guatemala San Sebastian medium roast was our favorite. To get the full picture we tested with two different oatmilk creamers. The “must-try” creamer with the Guatemala San Sebastian medium roast is Califia’s Oakmilk Creamer. You can find all Califia’s unsweetened and flavored oatmilk creamers at any Publix.
When testing different coffee beans it’s best to try different methods of preparing the coffee. Using a basic french press, Mr. Coffee Pot, and a Chemex pour-over will always give you a full picture of what the beans are like. By preparing the Guatemala San Sebastian medium roast in a couple of different ways we picked up notes of fruit and citrus. A key attribute we liked about the coffee bag labels from Banyan is they include the process of how the beans were harvested. Our favorite roast was labeled “Natural.” The other two roasts were labeled “washed” and “wet-hulled.”
What is wet-hulled coffee you ask? It's when a farmer picks coffee and runs it through a hand-cranked depulper to remove the skin from the coffee cherries. Wet-hulled coffee is dried for just a few hours, until it reaches about 50% moisture, at which point the bean is still swollen inside the parchment.
Now that we’ve talked about our favorite beans, a key benefit that stands out to us about Banyan Coffee making them different is their MOBILE COFFEE CART! This trendy little cart can be booked directly on their website HERE for events of all kinds and it’ll travel from Bradenton to Tampa to Saint Pete to Orlando and beyond. If you aren’t based in the Tampa Bay area, you can still order their amazing beans BUT you will miss out on their cute coffee cart local sensation. When we first started talking to Abbey and Josh they warmly welcomed us to visit the mobile coffee cart at the Bradenton Farmers Market where they make their rounds with their loyal fans.
The Banyan Mobile Coffee Cart
When it comes to coffee beans there are a ton of companies out there, so each business needs a differentiator and a profound focus. With this great little coffee cart that can be booked online and their “single-origin coffee” approach to deliver the coffee fresh, they have what it takes to stand out from the rest. If you’re new to single origin, it tends to come from one farm or a co-op in a region so the coffee is in its truest form providing an abundance of flavors. Typically blended and flavored coffees are lower quality beans that lack the true flavors of the origin in which they come from.
While living in San Francisco 3 years ago both of us drank Blue Bottle Coffee regularly which prided themselves on their “whole beans only” approach. They ground the beans a minute before making every cup of coffee to make sure it is the freshest possible. With the Banyan mission around single-origin and mobile coffee cart delivery, we see a few powerful similarities with Blue Bottle Coffee’s whole bean and freshness approach.
The Banyan Coffee Story
In addition to having a simple approach and differentiator like an awesome mobile coffee cart, there needs to be a relatable story for our generation to get behind. Abbey and Josh began roasting coffee beans in their garage in 2013 with an everyday popcorn popper (love that).
Frustrated with the same coffee chains offering the same products and cutting corners, they started to share their coffee with everyone around them and eventually upgraded to a larger size roaster to keep up with demand.
Banyan Coffee was born!
Grinding Coffee with a Newborn
Once we connected with Abbey and Josh about both grinding coffee beans while huddled in a dark corner of our houses while our babies slept, we tried a few tricks. Naturally, we wanted to share some of the tricks that actually worked with readers that have a sleeping baby and want to grind some of Banyan’s fresh whole beans!
- Wrap the grinder in a thick blanket. We found a thick quilt/blanket that wraps perfectly around our coffee grinder to muffle the sound really well at night or in the morning.
- White noise machine. Most parents have these in the nursery with their precious little ones but we snagged an additional one on Amazon that we bring out just for the 30 seconds of coffee grinding.
- Move rooms. Probably the most effective is to move into a seperate room in your house or apartment. If you live in a studio apartment the bathroom will work just fine 🙂
- Run the faucet. Similar to the white noise machine is turning on the kitchen faucet to try to cover up the grinding noise.
- Grind while the baby is awake. Ultimately the best plan we found is to grind your coffee beans while the little one is still awake. This can even be minutes before their nap and you don’t risk disrupting your baby’s important sleep!
We hope you liked our review of Banyan Coffee and we highly recommend giving them a try or even booking their mobile coffee cart. Be sure to support small local coffee businesses in your city. Also if you’re a new parent grinding coffee beans at night or in the morning while huddled in a dark room away from the nursery, we’re right there with you. 🙂
Love,
Scooch and Steve
