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SHOW DESCRIPTION

Most people think they know coffee. Jackson Coffee Festival is here to change that. With the second annual event launching on May 2nd, the city is buzzing with energy around how deep, innovative, and unexpectedly local coffee can get. If you’re tired of the same old brew and ready to taste, learn, and experience coffee in a whole new way, this episode reveals what truly makes this festival a must-attend for coffee lovers and curious explorers alike.

Jim Currie, the visionary behind the Jackson Coffee Festival, shares exactly why this event isn’t just about sampling beans. It's about immersing yourself in a flavor journey that highlights Mississippi’s unique contributions to the coffee world. From local producers roasting their best creations to a new barista league spearheaded by North Shore Specialty Roasters, Jim breaks down how Jackson is positioning itself as a hub of coffee innovation. He explains why the South’s overlooked culinary heritage holds the key to the bold flavors and creative techniques that are about to take the national stage.

TRANSCRIPT

PAUL:

He sipped a cup of coffee in Hammond, Louisiana and tasted skittles, not metaphorically, actually skittles. And that moment is basically the whole thesis behind what's coming to Jackson on May 2nd.

Hey, it's Paul Wolf for the front row seat to Conversations on Culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call our podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places and events that make the City With Soul shine. Today, we're talking about Jackson Coffee Festival. One day, one location. More than a dozen of the region's best specialty coffee producers all under one roof. And on this Soul Sessions Extra, we've got Jim Currie, the organizer of the Coffee Festival here today.

So Jim, you've been building toward this second year in Jackson. What's the energy like headed into May 2nd?

JIM:

I think a lot of times people assume that a festival is self-explanatory, but really I think it's something you've got to experience. And that's both as an attender as well as an exhibitor. The exhibitors, I think, have learned and grown a little bit from year one to year two to better consider what they would do from their table to help educate people, not just sample coffee, but really educate people about coffee.

PAUL:

The festival is Saturday, May 2nd at the Mississippi Trade Mart, 1200 Mississippi Street from nine until three. General admission is only $12. Parking at the fairgrounds is free. The exhibit hall opens at nine. And what you're walking into is more than a dozen of Mississippi's best specialty coffee producers. Confirmed vendors from Jackson, Madison, Flowood, Ridgeline, Lucedale, and Hattiesburg all pouring their best. Your admission gets you unlimited samples all day long. But here's the thing, and Jim touched on this, the sampling is almost secondary to everything else happening on the floor.

So Jim, for someone who's never been to a coffee festival, what does that experience actually feel like when you walk in?

JIM:

We've got about a dozen different coffee producers right there in Mississippi that are the best of the best. And so they're going to sample their favorite brews, their best brews, maybe something special they did just for the show. But we're also going to have things to experience, different presentation areas, different coffee demonstrations. We really want to immerse you in coffee education and coffee learning. You know, we do have classes in coffee. There's a classroom that changes a topic every hour, and that's going to be pretty fun to find a topic that you would enjoy.

But one of our classes is led by a lady from Exploradora Coffee. They're from Oxford and she owns the company. She kind of leads the way on the roasting and really the green coffee search. And she's been able to find women-led farms in several places around the world that they've partnered with to develop several specific coffees. These are coffees that Exploradora sells day in and day out. And what's amazing is they've taken the proceeds from a couple of these coffees and they're donating it back to single women in the Jackson area, single mothers, I should say, who need housing. And they specifically make grant money available through the coffee that came from women-directed farms.

PAUL:

Five coffee classes run throughout the day in the Hall A classroom, each one on a different topic. So there's room to find something that genuinely interests you. And if you want something a little more competitive, well, North Shore Specialty Coffee is taking the lead on a latte art competition, morning and afternoon, right there on the festival floor.

JIM:

There's a movement to form sort of a barista league in Mississippi. And so we've told that barista league that's really a brand new idea. You can have some space at Jackson Coffee Festival. They're going to host a morning and an afternoon latte art competition. And I'm not really clear if that's just baristas only, or if they're going to let the public join in, but I think that's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of energy. So come, if you haven't seen a latte art competition. A great opportunity to have some fun with us.

PAUL:

Jim, you've talked about the South getting overlooked with not much representation and very few coffee events here. So what does bringing this to Jackson mean in that larger context?

JIM:

Yeah, that's a great perspective. Isn't it really kind of surprising that national food people might overlook Mississippi as a source of flavor innovation. That's crazy, right? Because we have a great heritage of culinary innovation, particularly around flavor and coffee can be an amazing flavor journey. So I think the experts in Mississippi are doing a great job experimenting with the roasting, experimenting with the brewing, and exploring new flavors that I think reach beyond our Southern cuisine, but I think are gonna have national impact as well.

PAUL:

One angle of the festival that tends to catch people off guard is the conversation around custom coffee roasting. The technology has changed enough that roasting at a micro level is genuinely accessible now, which means if you're a chef, a restaurant owner, a hotel or bed and breakfast operator, working with a regional roaster to develop your own proprietary blend isn't some far off idea. It's a conversation you can have on Saturday, May 2nd with people who can help make it happen. Hey, Jim, what does that actually look like and who should be thinking about that?

JIM:

You know, Paul, I think that's maybe the most exciting trend of the moment in that technology in coffee roasting has changed. Historically, you needed big, big volume and big, big machines to do big, big roasting. And that's really now quite different. There are amazing equipment items that can roast on a very small micro level. And that gives a chef all this flexibility. That gives a coffee roaster all this flexibility to it. Just like we see with wines being paired to very specific food offerings, we can start to see that now with coffee being paired to very intentional food and flavor platforms.

PAUL:

Someone asked me recently about the festival and said, so you pay and they give you coffee? And yes, technically, but the framing undersells that pretty significantly. Beyond the sampling, there's a home roasting area where you can learn to do this all by yourself. That's an insider experience that doesn't usually make it outside the industry. But on May 2nd, it's open to everybody.

JIM:

Yes, you will get plenty of coffee to sample. No question with a dozen or more people offering you the best brews. You'll be satisfied on the free coffee side, but what we really want to surprise and delight you with is the opportunity to learn more. There's a home roasting area where they teach you, if you get curious enough, you may want to try this at home and you can. And there's some folks that'll show you exactly how to do that. We've got Sean Rogers from Cups Espresso. He's bringing in equipment that is used all over the world. It's called coffee cupping. And it's, what the professionals use to tease out flavors and define flavors of a specific coffee. And they roast it up a little bit, roast it down a little bit, add a little moisture, take a little moisture away. But this cupping process lets you quantify everything. And he's going to be demonstrating that all day long. That's really an insider type experience that we're offering to everyone who comes to the Jackson Coffee Festival.

PAUL:

Jim, when the doors open and people start walking in, what are you most hoping they discover that they didn't expect?

JIM:

You know, I would love it if they would be surprised in two ways. One, that they don't know what they don't know. And that they begin to realize, you know, you may have a favorite coffee shop and that's okay. You may have a favorite coffee package that you buy at the grocery store and that's okay. But if we can show you a new flavor or a new way to do coffee that you haven't experienced, you might begin to say, you know, I'm going to add a second bag of coffee to the pantry. Or, you know, this Saturday we're going to go explore some new coffee shops and some new coffee experiences. I think if we can encourage people on that sense of adventure, then that would be the best thing that could happen.

PAUL:

That's Jim Currie, who decided the best response to the South getting left out of the specialty coffee conversation was just to throw the party himself. The Jackson Coffee Festival is May 2nd from 9 to 3 at the Trademark on the Fairgrounds. $12 gets you in. Parking is free. And all of the details will be in our show notes at visitjackson.com/soulsessions.

This podcast is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thigpen, and I'm our managing editor. There's always something great going on in Jackson and we're keeping up with it at visitjackson.com.

I'm Paul Wolf and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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