What is Forestry Coffee Roasters? — Forestry Coffee Roasters

Why Forestry? Naming a business can be a deeply personal process. It has to capture the intended feeling and mood of the brand. It has to project at least a hint of the mission of the company. It needs to be memorable. In today’s world, it also needs to be something that is easily searched and typed. It needs to be unique but familiar. For me Forestry is all of those things and more. Forests, woodlands, lakes, and the National Parks defined my youth and was the foundation of my formative years. It also deeply captures my area, Southern Illinois.

Most outsiders may think of Illinois as mostly prairie and they would be correct. We even call ourselves “The Prairie State.” However, the great glacier that paved central and northern Illinois into the flat, fertile prairies we are known for stopped short in Southern Illinois and left at its feet the beautiful and little known Shawnee National Forest. This is the Illinois I know. Miles and miles of forests laden with white oaks, beeches, and sugar maples. Wetlands full of geese, ducks and the blasting croak of bullfrogs in the summer evenings. The gorgeous protruding sandstone formations of Garden of the Gods give a glimpse of what all of Illinois may have looked like before the last ice age.

The forests are at their full prominence in the Shawnee area but continue to weave their way north throughout the small towns scattered around the middle of Southern Illinois. At least one oak tree is common to have in every yard even in the town centers. We, literally, live within the trees. The trees abate around the line of latitude where Saint Louis rests and give way to mostly agricultural lands.

*An old picture of the creek in “The Forestry”*

So, I lived in an area with forests, woodlands, and some prairies. Again, why forestry? Even closer than the Shawnee National Forest was a wooded area directly in contact with my childhood home. A ranger station was on the other side of that wooded area and they called the roughly 55 acre plot of woods “The Forestry.” It may as well have been a million acres when we were kids, it felt endless. It had a pond and a creek that ran all the way to the nearest interstate. The creek then passed under the interstate through a massive culvert. After we mustered enough courage to venture through the culvert we found that it eventually let out through a swampy delta into Rend Lake.

The Forestry used to be open to the public and was created during the height of the Civilian Conservation Corp program in the early 1940s. Unfortunately due to lack of funding the park was closed during the 1980’s and left in disrepair. Road access to the park was removed and the parking lot destroyed. It was our own, personal park right next door. It was mysterious with old wooden bridges, dilapidated pavilions, and even a stone chimney. The overgrown paths were only maintained by the deer, fox and stray dogs that roamed the woods. We explored, created maps in our heads, and sometimes feared what the forest held, but always wanted to go back. It was a much different experience than most national parks.

We were drawn to The Forestry not to read plaques of dates, event and facts, but to see and hear and feel. It wasn’t about the names of trees, the pH of the soil, or the population of wild life. We were drawn there for reasons that aren’t quantifiable. It was the process of filling in our ignorance with experience, the root of curiosity. As we learned more of The Forestry, we went deeper. We crossed under the interstate and would routinely make it all the way to Rend Lake. From there, the woodland continued for as far as our feet would take us.

That curiosity, that mystery and the rewarding experience of exploring, understanding, and becoming more familiar with the unknown is what Forestry Coffee Roasters is about. We want to bring the wonderful flavors and experience of specialty coffee to folks at just the beginning of their coffee journey. We want them to be drawn into the expansive world of specialty coffee with its vast selection of coffees from all over the world. We want to explore the sensory experience, the feelings that different flavors and aromas of coffee can evoke and provide a fun pathway for folks to expand their coffee knowledge. The almost magical flavors of high quality coffee is what draws people in. We eventually learn the names of trees, how plants grow, and the science behind all things. But first, it is magical and mysterious.

Coffee is a mystery until it is roasted

*My childhood lawn bordering “The Forestry.” A parking lot used to be there.*

We believe every coffee bean has a story to tell, a mystery to unfold. From the farmer who cultivated, nurtured and harvested the beans to the processors who hulled, washed, and dried the beans. The generations of farmers before them that selectively breed coffee into the strains, cultivars, and varietals we enjoy. The transportation by land and sea. The roast, the brew, and the pour. All executed flawlessly to give the warm, comforting feeling of a morning cup of joe. We as roasters are simply the last line of the coffee bean process until it is in your hands. It is on our shoulders to tell the story, to realize the full potential of all the hard work that went into creating the coffee before it reached our roastery. What will the bean taste like? We won’t know until we roast it. To roast a bean is to unlock its flavor and its message. Think of us as the authors of someone else’s story.

Unlocking the mystery of coffee is what Forestry Coffee Roasters explores, celebrates and has fun with. From there, we learn of the tastes, sensations and stories the beans have to tell. Forestry Coffee Roasters is for folks just starting off on their hike with coffee but it is also for those that have explored awhile and are looking for a great cup of specialty coffee, with a little whimsy on the side.