If you had told me a few years ago that I would be part of starting a coffee company, I probably would have laughed at you.

Heather had been telling me for a long time that I needed to open a coffee shop.

She would tell me that I knew too much about coffee not to do something with it. I knew the different varieties, roast levels, brewing methods, and all the little things that can change the way a cup of coffee tastes.

I always thought it was just something I enjoyed.

Heather saw something more in it.

Then one day, she sat down and created the Southern Grounds Coffee Co. page.

And that’s really where this whole thing started.

From there, the two of us started brainstorming. We started looking at different coffees and roasting partners, trying to figure out what direction we wanted to take Southern Grounds.

That’s when we came across JavaMania.

The funny thing is, the name wasn’t completely new to me.

I couldn’t tell you exactly which one of their coffees I had tried before, but I remembered the name from being out on a rig. Someone had brought some JavaMania coffee out there before, so the name already had a little bit of history with me.

That was enough to make me stop and take a closer look.

We decided to include several of JavaMania’s coffees in the lineup we were building for Southern Grounds.

At first, we started choosing coffees based on their flavor notes and roast levels. We wanted a variety because we knew that not everybody drinks coffee the same way.

Some people like a light, smooth coffee.

Some want something bold and dark.

Some want flavored coffee.

And some people just want a good cup of coffee first thing in the morning without having to think too hard about it.

As we started putting the coffees together, something else happened.

We started changing some of the names.

Instead of simply using the original names of the coffees, we started coming up with names that meant something to us and fit the Southern Grounds brand.

That became one of the fun parts of building the company.

A coffee wasn’t just a coffee anymore.

We could take something we liked and give it a name that felt like it belonged here—with us, our story, and the Southern lifestyle we wanted Southern Grounds to represent.

We were figuring things out as we went, learning what people liked and watching Southern Grounds slowly start to grow.

At first, there were just a few orders.

We were excited about every one of them.

Because when you’re starting something from scratch, those first orders mean more than just making a sale. They tell you that someone else looked at what you were building and decided they wanted to be a part of it.

Then something happened that we really didn’t expect.

JavaMania reached out to us about partnering with us through a private-label program.

That changed things for us.

Instead of just offering coffee selections that we had chosen, we were able to create Southern Grounds labels for some of those coffees.

Our own names.

Our own branding.

Our own identity.

That might not sound like a huge difference to everybody, but to us, it was.

It meant we could take coffees we had carefully selected and make them part of the Southern Grounds experience we were building.

We weren’t trying to be just another place with a long list of coffee for sale.

We wanted Southern Grounds to feel like us.

We had taken coffees we liked, given some of them names that fit our story, and started building a lineup that felt like it belonged here.

And that’s one of the things that has helped shape Southern Grounds.

We work with roasting partners to bring together coffees we believe are worth putting our name on. JavaMania has been an important part of our story from early on, but Southern Grounds has always been about more than just where a particular coffee comes from.

It’s about what we choose to offer.

It’s the names.

It’s the labels.

It’s the stories behind the coffees.

It’s the people behind Southern Grounds.

And most importantly, it’s the fact that this whole thing started with two people sitting around talking about coffee and wondering what might happen if we actually gave it a shot.

We didn’t have everything figured out when we started.

Truthfully, we still don’t.

We’re still learning. We’re still brainstorming. We’re still coming up with new ideas and occasionally looking at each other and saying, “What if we tried this?”

But every time we add something new, come up with a new coffee name, put another order together, or see somebody enjoying something from Southern Grounds, we’re reminded of how far that little idea has come.

Heather told me for a long time that I needed to open a coffee shop.

I guess she was right.

We just ended up opening something a little different.