Jay Ruskey and dog Trejo, Founder & CEO of FRINJ Coffee at his coffee farm Good Land Organics / Photo by Summer Staeb for FRINJ
Jay Ruskey, cofounder and CEO of California’s Frinj Coffee, wants us to think about coffee as we do wine. For 20 years, he’s been perfecting the art of coffee growing in an unlikely place—California—and now you can taste that place in the cup. Today, his farm, Good Land Organics in Goleta, is a coffee lab bustling with scientists, geologists, farmers and connoisseurs sampling Frinj’s lauded Geisha beans straight from the source.
California-grown coffee has a small but devoted following. Currently, 74 farmers have teamed up with Frinj to grow Ruskey’s high-end Geisha and caturra coffee cultivars. Frinj’s scientists mentor farmers on soil health, organic growing and pruning techniques, then Frinj splits the substantial sales price with farmers—this year, just five ounces of Geisha beans sold for between $50–$80.
