Thou Mayest Coffee aims to start a revolution
A passer-by might think that Bo Nelson is smuggling a small jungle in the back of his Honda Element. On a hazy July afternoon, the longleaf plants disappear one by one into the Utilitarian Workshop – the design shop that has been bringing makers to the West Side for the past several months. An enticing, almost silky coffee scent lingers near his SUV.
The smell follows Nelson, 27, into the shop as he sets down the black planters from Family Tree Nursery, which has been in his family for three generations. Nelson, with a jet-black curled mustache and hair blown back by constant motion, sets a trio of half-pound bags filled with whole beans from Guatemala, Indonesia and Ethiopia on a table made from a rectangle of cardboard.
“This is about learning the language of something that doesn’t use the English vocabulary,” Nelson says, gesturing to the plants by the front door and the bags in front of him. “But everything around us is always speaking to our senses. It’s a question of ‘Are you listening? What does a [coffee] bean want to be? How can I roast that and get out of the way, so the person on the other end of this can have a beautiful moment with that bean?’ “
