Quite a while ago, I wrote about JumpinGoat coffee in Helen, Georgia.
Well, I am happy to report that over the summer my boys and I took a quick, overnight trip to Helen to sneak away from the doldrums of being at home for weeks on end. On the way back home to Cumming, I thought I would search out JumpinGoat and visit their little business.
First of all, let me back up a bit...
In case you are not familiar with the quaint mountain village of Helen, let me familiarize you with it. Helen, is a small mountain community nestled in the foothills of North Georgia's mountain range. It has been built to resemble a small German Alpine village. Those of us that live close often overlook it as a getaway, and that is shame because the town is cute and quaint and a pleasant getaway from the busy life of Atlanta.
The picture above shows the main drag or strip in Helen. Nestled at the end of this strip is an IGA grocery store. The store is very popular and sometimes hard to get into and navigate around. It showcases a lot of "old-timey" food and beverage products, along with items native to the area.
One item I found showcased at IGA was JumpinGoat coffee.
IGA offered a wide range of flavors, all ready to be ground and sold by the bag.
So, long story short. I ended up buying three different flavors! I was excited to have found this coffee while in Helen, and in fact, I thought this was all I would find.
This brings me full circle, back to the beginning of my story. On the way home, out of Helen, I was lucky enough to discover that JumpinGoat Coffee Roasters has it's own little store right outside of town!
Don't blink! ..or you might miss JumpinGoat! ...Here's a quick tip to find it - it's right next to Nora Mills and across the street from a large antique store. All three buildings are old white clapboard antique home/business buildings.
Inside, as pictured above, the store is small and (again) quaint and quite lovely! The store sells it's empty coffee bags (pretty popular these days for crafts), a myriad of coffee mugs, and of course - a LOT of coffee beans! There were also a lot of gifts for the coffee lovers in your life.
After looking around at everything and drinking in the rich aroma of the shop, I purchased a cup of their famous coffee. While waiting for my coffee, I have the priviledge of meeting and talking to the two wonderful women running the store for its owners -- Shelia and Savannah. They were great. They filled me in on the history of the area and the store and some of the events going on around town. I had a great time meeting them and talking with them. I even "met" their store mascot -- the (not so) JumpinGoat!
If you are ever in the North Georgia mountain community of Helen, make sure you stop in both the IGA and the JumpinGoat coffee house. (The IGA offers coffee beans in flavors not offered at the coffee house). Grab yourself a cup of java, a bag full of delightful beans, and then stick around for a spell to chat with Shelia and Savannah!
It's a North Georgia tradition you won't want to pass by!
*****
A brief history of JumpinGoat (from their website):
Our story began during a lunch meeting between three business colleagues with well over 30 collective years dedicated to the food and fundraising industry.
Our goal was to combine our unique skill sets to select a line of products we could manufacture, thereby insure the highest level of quality. With our past history and understanding of the industry, we began to design a business model that included the absolute best product offerings available, with our ongoing philosophy that our customers always come first.
After in depth research, we concluded our products would include the best 100% AA Coffee Beans and Luxury Leaf Teas in the world; and after searching diligently we successfully did just that! We have since become Coffee Roasters that offer the highest quality single origin beans and flavored coffees found anywhere in the world. With the addition of the finest Luxury Loose Leaf Teas, including energy and wellness selections, we launched JumpinGoat Coffee Roasters. Enjoy the following myth of how we at “JumpinGoat Coffee Roasters” derived our name:
JumpinGoat Coffee Roasters derives its name from the legendary discovery of the coffee “cherry “by Kaldi, an Ethiopian goatherder. Kaldi, noticing that when his flock nibbled on the bright red berries of a certain bush they became more energetic (jumping goats), and chewed on the fruit himself.
His exhilaration prompted him to bring the berries to a holy man in a nearby monastery. But the holy man disapproved of their use and threw them into a fire, from which an enticing aroma billowed. The roasted beans were quickly raked from the embers, ground up, and dissolved in hot water, yielding the world's first cup of coffee.
