First-Ever San Diego-Grown Geisha Coffee Featured at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --Bird Rock Coffee Roasters announced today an exclusive partnership with Mraz Family Farms, owned by multi-Grammy winning singer/songwriter Jason Mraz, to provide the first-ever San Diego grown coffee to consumers in the U.S. This is the first time a Geisha varietal has been grown and harvested on San Diego soil and made available online and to local consumers.

The unique availability of intercontinental-grown coffee is made available due to Frinj Coffee's proprietary coffee plants that have proven viability in partnering with avocado farms in Southern California. Mraz Family Farms is one of the early Frinj Coffee growers, is a certified organic operation, and located in northern San Diego. Partnering with Frinj Coffee in 2015, they planted their first coffee plants, integrating them into their existing avocado farm. As co-partners, they worked together to grow high quality, single-origin varietals for coffee enthusiasts. Frinj Coffee is credited with managing the post-harvest process for Mraz's production and the preparation of the highest quality lots for sale to Bird Rock Coffee Roasters. This year marked the largest harvest to date and is the first time Mraz Family Farm coffee will be available to San Diego, and only through Bird Rock Coffee Roasters.

"It has always been our mission to provide San Diego with the best specialty coffee the world has to offer, and now we can include San Diego County in that lineup of excellence," said Jeff Taylor, co-owner of Bird Rock Coffee Roasters. "Now, unlike any other moment in history, we have access to Geisha, one of the world's rarest, multiple award-winning and delicious coffees, grown right in our backyard. We see this as the beginning of a sea change in coffee producing and are thrilled to be on the forefront with our outstanding coffee partners, Frinj and Mraz Family Farms."

This launch follows Bird Rock Coffee Roasters' and Frinj Coffee's partnership earlier this year where an exclusive cupping event took place, featuring a California-grown certified organic Cuicateco, which received a score of 92 in a third-party review from Coffee Review. The coffee was grown by Frinj's flagship and organically certified farm, Good Land Organics. All beans available for purchase sold out in one day.

"This is a true milestone in California's culinary history and I am proud to see it," says Jay Ruskey, CEO of Frinj Coffee. "What you are tasting in this cup is the tireless refinement of 20 years of farming from a very dedicated group of people on the Frinj and Mraz Family Farm Team. Thank you Bird Rock for supporting us."

Frinj Coffee is on a mission to develop coffee production along the southern coast of California. There are 47 partnering Frinj farms between Santa Barbara and San Diego with more than 57,000 coffee trees planted in the ground. Coffee, an entirely imported product, has now been growing in California for over 17 years. The increasing demand for super-specialty coffee is what is fueling the commercial growth. Another result of this pioneering industry is the opportunity to provide the struggling local farming industry with an alternative to the existing commercial crop production of avocados and citrus with a high-valued crop.

"In 2015, with the help of family & friends, Mraz Family Farms was established to produce a diverse array of organic fruits in a sustainable and conscious fashion. At that time, we planted our first coffee trees and teamed up with Frinj Coffee to help us grow high quality, single-origin varietals for serious coffee enthusiasts," said Jason Mraz, owner of Mraz Family Farms. "Bird Rock Coffee Roasters will be the first and closest coffee shop in California to sell Frinj's California Geisha grown by Mraz Family Farms. We are proud to have partnered with both of these companies. After 20 years, it is an honor and a thrill to still be sharing my joy in coffee shops."

The Mraz Family Geisha has tasting notes of jasmine tea, honey, key lime pie, and elderflower. The coffee will be available by the cup at all six Bird Rock Coffee Roaster's locations for $35 per cup as supplies last. The whole beans will be available online and offered at 4oz for $199 per unit.

Further harvests from Mraz Family Farms are expected in the Spring of 2020 and to be available at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters.

For more information about Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, please visit: http://www.birdrockcoffee.com.

About Bird Rock Coffee Roasters:
Bird Rock Coffee Roasters (BRCR) is proud to have put premiere, direct-trade coffee on the map in San Diego. BRCR has won multiple national and international awards for quality, taste, roasting and socially responsible practices, including: sixteen medals at the 2018 national Golden Bean coffee roaster competition, the national Good Food Awards in 2016, 2017 and 2019, the national Micro Roaster of the Year Award in 2012, and a consistent winner of scores over 90 points for several of their coffees. Bird Rock Coffee Roaster's staff sources the best coffees in the world and directly from origin. Going beyond the perfect latte, Bird Rock Coffee Roasters has professional roasters on site and pour-over bars featuring seasonal offerings. Bird Rock Coffee Roasters engages in direct trade with farmers, and is proud to serve the best green coffee, prepared with the utmost respect for those who produced it. These endeavors are all accomplished through the scope of sustainability; Bird Rock Coffee Roasters considers material quality, waste production, raw material consumption and environmentally-conscious sourcing to be key in their coffee production process. Bird Rock Coffee Roasters has six locations in San Diego. For more information, please visit http://www.birdrockcoffee.com

About Frinj Coffee:
Frinj was incorporated in 2017, setting out to provide California farmers an opportunity to successfully enter into the coffee production industry. Coffee presents a high valued crop for diversifying farm portfolios. Our science-forward services span from production to post-harvest to product marketing, ensuring excellence from the field to the cup. Today, Frinj Coffee supports a growing number of farms in coastal southern California (47 to date). Frinj's goal is to build a sustainable coffee production industry for California and put Southern California on the map as one of the most unique specialty coffee markets of the world.

About Jason Mraz:
Jason Mraz is a two-time Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter and Songwriters Hall of Fame Honoree, most famously known by his hits, "I'm Yours" and "I Won't Give Up." He sits on the board of the ASCAP Foundation as well as his own Jason Mraz Foundation, which serves to shine for inclusive arts education and the advancement of equality. Established in 2015, Mraz Family Farms is committed to peace in the world through organic regenerative agriculture, fair trade, and kind words.

SOURCE Bird Rock Coffee Roasters