Jeff Taylor's Postcards from Africa and other coffee growing countries

PT’s Coffee Roasting Co. began in 1993 as a single coffee shop in Topeka. An intense passion for coffee led Jeff Taylor and Fred Polzin to start roasting coffee in 1997. They now roast over 100 tons of premium specialty coffee annually for wholesale clients throughout the US and still operate its retail location in Barrington Village Shopping Center. Recognized for award-winning small lot coffees, PT’s Coffee is among the leading roasters reviewed by industry resource Coffee Review, receiving the guide’s highest ever rating of 97 points. PT’s Coffee is also Roast Magazine’s 2009 Roaster of the Year.

“Our passion for coffee does not stop with roasting the best coffee in the world,” Taylor says. “We are also passionate about its preparation and service.”

PTs began sourcing coffee directly at the farm level in Jef f Taylor’s 2001. Taylor says his desire to find the best coffees on earth has led him to travel the globe in search of it. His most recent travels took him to the far reaches of Africa, where he visited Burundi as part of the USAID and PAIR project, then Rwanda as part of the USAID and SPREAD projects. These projects are helping to rebuild countries that have been devastated by genocide and civil war. Taylor then traveled by car over 14 hours to Tanzania to work on the Gombe Coffee Project. In Tanzania, he worked with coffee producers to improve quality and processing in one of the poorest regions of the world. TKbiz presents Jeff Taylor’s Post Cards from Africa, highlighting his journeys and mission to help the small coffee growers become better at business and – just as important – grow better coffee.