I always wonder what I should write about when it comes to the world of coffee.
Coffee has always been a passion of mine.
I’ve wrestled with the idea of starting my own coffee cart or coffee shop. But I tend to live in that space of wondering whether it’ll actually work out or not.
Years ago, I had a coffee truck—or more accurately, a golf-cart-looking thing. One of the products I created was a carbonated cold brew coffee that I called Coffee Pop.
When I first looked into carbonating cold brew, everything I read online basically said:
NOOOOOO!
Part of what makes cold brew different from hot coffee is that it reduces acidity and bitterness. Coffee beans naturally contain CO₂, and the cold brew process helps remove some of that. Introducing carbonation back into the drink felt like reversing the process and turning it up ten times.
It sounded terrible.
And honestly, the people on those forums weren’t wrong. Their advice was reasonable.
But I wanted to figure it out.
So I researched.
I experimented.
I failed.
Then I figured it out.
Eventually, my business partners and I had different ideas about where the company should go. We’ll leave it at that. We ended up going our separate ways.
He owned the company.
But I still had the knowledge of how to make the product.
After that, I started a craft soda company. I had kegs in a restaurant and even in a brewery. It actually went pretty well.
I named it after my daughter:
Sparrow’s Sparkling Sodas
My tagline was:
“Inspired by my daughter’s curiosity…”
I had a logo designed with a sparrow whose body was made of bubbles, and its neck was a drinking straw. It was subtle. Most people never noticed it at first. But if you knew what to look for, you’d find it.
I love creating new drinks.
New ideas.
That’s really what I hope this website becomes—a place where I can take that passion and share different ideas. Flavors and combinations that shouldn’t make sense, but somehow do.
What fascinates me most are drinks that tell a story.
Because isn’t that what life is made of?
Stories.
That’s usually where my process starts. I ask myself:
What do I want the person drinking this to experience?
What memories should it bring back?
What visuals should it create?
A while back, I created a coffee drink called After the Mow.
The idea was to capture the feeling of finishing mowing the lawn on a summer morning.
You know that smell of freshly cut grass?
You can smell it right now, can’t you?
Close your eyes and picture it.
You’re sweaty. The work is done. The sun is already warming up the day. And now you reach for a drink that’s not only cold, but genuinely refreshing.
So I combined espresso, coconut water, green apple shrub, and cucumber.
Weird?
Absolutely.
But it worked.
That’s what I want to do here.
Experiment.
Create.
And hopefully, somewhere along the way, encourage you to do the same.
Happy Brewing,
Corey J. Plummer
My List of Recommended Coffee Products
- Burr Grinder – Fellow Burr Grinder
- Gooseneck Kettle – Fellow Stagg EKG Pro Electric Gooseneck Kettle (for controlled pouring)
- Coffee scale – Greater Good Coffee Scale with Timer
- Freshly Roasted Coffee Beans – Onyx Coffee Roasters (honestly anything from them is great)
- Filtered Water System – Apec 5-Stage Reverse Osmosis Water System
- Coffee Water Mineral Packs – Mineral Packs for Brewing Coffee
- Timer – Elegant Digital Kitchen Timer (a smartphone timer works fine too)
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