Gift Idea: Local Southern Skies Coffee

A cloudy Sunday morning should be all you need to remember the value of a great cup of coffee.

If you're still looking for presents -- or just looking for caffeine -- consider ordering a few pounds of coffee from Southern Skies Coffee Roasters.

Southern Skies is Jeff Givens, who roasts the coffee personally just across the line in Carroll County.  Jeff has commented occasionally on HowChow, and we met in person watching the Travel Channel film R&R Taqueria last month.

Jeff gave me a pound of coffee that day, and this is delicious coffee.  I say "delicious" because I'm still new to coffee whose flavor I liked.  Until a few years ago, I larded Starbucks with milk and sugar, thinking that dark, bitter roast meant quality.  A brush with Hawaiian coffee made me change my ideas, and Southern Skies coffee has the strong flavor that I like without any of the burnt taste.

The revelation with Southern Skies was that Jeff roasts coffee when it is in season.  Coffee is always in season somewhere, but the plants mature differently in different parts of the world.  Somehow, I hadn't thought about that in the past.  Jeff posts about the flavors and sources of his rotating varieties with the detail and enthusiasm of a legitimate geek.  For the coffee geek in your life, this could be a fun gift to goose up next Sunday morning.

Check out the Southern Skies Web site.  He has three varieties now.  Coffee runs $14 a pound now.  That's in line with the coffee that I have been buying from Sidamo's in Fulton.