Lineage Coffee in Orlando rescued me from the horrors of Disney theme parks and the apocalyptic traffic it produces.

In the words of the immortal Gob Bluth, “It’s an illusion Michael”. They promised castles, fireworks, and cool hangs with A-list Disney celebs and all I got was wall to wall traffic. On the upside, I knew my wife would be pleased to know that I had ample amounts of time to window shop for a minivan for our family amongst the millions in the barrage that were blocking my views of the palm trees and blotting out the sunshine. All that to say, I had enough of Mickey, Walt, and the crew and set out to find a good cup of coffee in the heart of Florida. After venturing towards the downtown area, I landed at East End Market where Lineage Coffee resides. I was instantaneously caught off guard by the lush garden in front of the building. The East End Market is a neighborhood market and a collaboration of creative culinary destinations in the Audubon Park Garden District of Orlando, Florida. The Market is home to some of central Florida’s top food entrepreneurs, chefs, baristas, and artists. My first impression of Lineage was the warm greeting and hospitality of their Lead Barista Alicia. She was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. Customer service experiences like this always make shops stand out in my mind. After a mouthwatering pour over, she recommended their “White Bottled Cold Brew”. That was all she wrote. I was instantly hooked on Lineage.

Today I am elated to tell you that Jarrett Johnson and Justine Johnson, the Founder and Co-Founder of Lineage Roasting, Orlando’s craft coffee roaster, are hear to discuss their story, vision, and journey with me on The Coffee Compass.

First off, I wanted to thank you guys for joining me on this guest post for The Coffee Compass and for the ridiculous amount of hospitality your staff showed me while I was in your city.

Thank you so much for the honor of having us be a part.

Tell us about yourselves and the story of how Lineage Roasting came to life?

I actually started in the craft scene by home brewing beer and became super passionate about the art of creating something so delicious from such simple ingredients. I thought for the longest time we would be opening a brewery in Orlando. It wasn’t until we moved here that we really got into the coffee roasting. I felt like coffee was a dumbed down sister to the more complex chemical reactions of fermentation and beer making. I really had to force myself to hit the books and study coffee because I just thought there was not enough to learn and without the challenge I didn’t have the determination. Once I started seeing this whole world of coffee and what makes it special and how it joins the farmer in Colombia to the drinker in Florida. Now you have my attention. I got so hooked that I bought every book I could find and began traveling and watching and tasting as many coffee companies as I could find. It became an obsession and still really is.

Is there significance behind the name Lineage?

The name Lineage is just a powerful name that comes from the word line or linear and really it might sound cheesy but we wanted to do new things with coffee and felt that in order to do so we needed to understand where coffee culture had come from to form this effort at being a part of its future, you know.

It became abundantly clear to me that that there are not a whole lot of craft coffee shops or roasters in Central Florida. That is unless you count the surplus of Mcafe`s engulfing the city. Is Lineage pioneering the way?

Orlando is kind of cool because underneath the big commercial industry that Orlando is known for, there is a strong community of people doing crazy cool things and so I think that for us its just awesome to be thought of as an important part of that.

Do you currently partner with any other companies or entrepreneurs?

We have gotten to work with a brewery several times and create some good stuff which of course was a fun experience for me but beyond that we don’t have an ongoing partnership with any other companies.

What would be your advice to those who might be starting up a shop or roaster of their own in similar type of setting?

I would have to say that it takes a lot of patience in educating your staff and the worst thing a shop can do is be pretentious about the art of coffee to a customer.

If you were stranded on an island, what brew method would you want with you?

This is a really good question actually. I would have to go pour over. I love our Kalita waves.

Im not going to lie. I straight up stole this question from my friend Jesse Harriot at Copper Horse Coffee, What coffee are you most excited about and why?

Hmmm well I really love some of the stuff we have been tasting out of San Sebastian Guatemala over the past couple years. I also am really digging some of the Kenya’s we have coming up right now. These are always nice because they are coffees with a lot of mystery below the surface and make the roaster work to pull it all out.

Could you give us a description of what your atmosphere is like? What albums are jamming at your shop these days?

This one is a little tough cause right now we are in a shared foodie’s paradise market. It is a neat place but the music is on repeat and never seems to be what we want. However when we do open up shop at our place I can tell you there will be a lot of variety. I personally want some Willie Nelson on regularly. You don’t see that much in trendy cafes.

What is the one thing you want people to know about Lineage?

I always like people to feel a part of our company. Make Lineage their shop, not just a shop they attend.

How can we get our hands on that awesome white and black bottled cold brew and what does the process for that look like?

Unfortunately we don’t ship this stuff. I wish we could cause the white is pretty popular, but the same thing that makes it so special is the same thing that makes it expire after 2 days. Our process goes like this. We steep at two temperatures depending on what we want to highlight in the coffee. Then we use an old beer trick and actually filter by recirculating the cold brew through itself. Then the white is mixed with the raw honey and organic cream and thrown into a bottle. We do all bottling by hand so this can take some time.

Where can we purchase your coffee?

We definitely have all our current offerings available on our site at lineageroasting.com but we would love to make you a pour over as well so if your in Orlando check out our little brew bar.

Takeaways

This talented duo was a pleasure to interview. I cannot say thank you enough to Michael, Darren, and all the dedicated Coffee Compass readers for the opportunity to write this guest post.