I Am Galaxy Girl
I grew up in the Pacific NW, where coffee is an integral part of life. I remember working in downtown Portland, Oregon and being able to see 3 or more coffee shops in every direction at most street corners. I then joined the US Navy and ended up being stationed in an area that did not have the abundance of coffee options that I was used to. I also got used to drinking the dredges that were available on the ship, because what other options were there? None.
Styling my happy dancing coffee bean mask.
Galaxy Girl Coffee (GGC) has been a dream of mine for about 15 years. The idea started when I was still in the Navy and I learned about home roasting coffee. Before my grandfather passed away, he told me about how he roasted coffee at home in a popcorn popper. I tried that, and while it marginally worked, it was messy and not very efficient. I also roasted coffee in the oven. Again, not efficient, and very messy.
To further my quest for fresh roasted coffee, I bought a home roaster in 2007. Unfortunately, I still found roasting coffee at home too messy, with a lot of smoke and power issues (my roaster liked to trip the circuit breaker). There have been considerable improvements with home roasters over the years, but not everyone is ready to take that step.
Unfortunately for me, fresh roasted coffee is what I prefer, and the freshest coffee I’ve found is usually from a local roaster and/or coffee shop. Not all communities have a local roaster, and anything found in the grocery store is at least a month old, if not much older, with the peak flavors of the coffee already starting to decline by that point. Additionally, buying pre-roasted coffee also means that you have to accept whatever roast level that the roaster decided on, which normally is a lot darker than I prefer.
Here I am at the market on one of the few rainy Saturdays I’ve seen in MHK.
With these experiences in the back of my mind, I started thinking of ways to fill the gap between DIY roasting and mass production. This is where GGC comes in. I’m here to bridge the gap between those that want fresh roasted coffee but aren’t ready to commit to buying a home roaster or don’t want the mess of oven roasting. There are so many coffee bean varieties available, and each coffee has its own unique flavor, that changes depending on the roast level. I want to help people explore these options and to facilitate bringing their coffee experiences to the next level.