What's brewing at Tree Frog Coffees?
'Cup of Joe' going green, rainforests being saved
By BURLON PARSONS bparsons@journal-spectator.com
After 10 years of teaching Janet Goings wanted a change.

Tree Frog Coffees owner/ roastmaster Janet Goings watches as beans are being cooled by fans and stirring after being custom roasted. Tree Frog Coffees has specialty coffee from around the world. Beans happen to have been grown in Panama and are shade grown. Staff Photo by Burlon Parsons

But where could she find a job that would still allow her to teach, make a living and meet her criteria of being environmentally friendly.

After a long search the junior high English, ESL and GT teacher found organically shade grown coffees. She started Tree Frog Coffees at 1302 Bear Bottom Dr. in Wharton.

"I've always been a coffee drinker and since it's farmers were not destroying rainforests for their crops it appealed to me," Goings said.

"The 'sustainable' coffee farmers fit in with what I believed in. These are farmers who grow their coffees under the canopy of the rainforest only clearing enough underbrush to plant their trees."

She says this means the ecosystems are not harmed and the farmers rely on the native animals and soils to protect and grow their crops.

"This results in a coffee bean which has its own unique flavor because of where it's grown," she said. "While large commercial roasters use heat to burn out imperfections and chemicals, organic beans are custom roasted to bring out their own unique flavors."

Goings became a member of the Specialty Coffee Association of America and learned the roasting process. She is a certified roastmaster with SCAA and gets coffees from 17 countries.

But they have to meet her standards of farms being in the Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade Association, organically produced, shade grown or bird friendly.

In other words, no trees were harmed in the production of the coffee beans.

Her dried beans, which are "green," come from North, Central and South America, Asia, Indonesia, Africa, Dominican Republic and Galapagos Islands.

"Each coffee has a distinct flavor from the area from where it was grown," Goings said. "This means through SCAA that I have the top 2 percent of the coffee industry's most flavorful coffees."

Her customer base has grown large on-line. She says about half of her business is on-line, 25 percent from bed and breakfast businesses and 25 percent from out-of-town customers.

"My husband picks up large commercial saws and resharpens them," she explained. "He began leaving samples of some of my coffees at the businesses. Now people in the businesses give him orders when he picks up a blade and delivers them when he takes the resharpened blades back."

She also makes her own line of candy featuring roasted coffee chips and flavored confectionery candy.

All are molded like frogs and have names like Hoppers, Ribbits and Hopscotchers.

She makes up gift baskets of coffees, candies and coffee mugs for special occasions.

Both Goings' coffees and candies are making their ways into stores in the Brazoria area.

Tree Frog Coffees is still a wellkept secret in Wharton. With all the custom roasting, grinding, packaging and shipping to be done, the business is only open from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturdays.

Orders can be called in during the week at 531-1652 and picked up on Saturday.

It's worth the six mile drive to Bear Bottom to pick up an order, sit on the deck in the quiet wooded surroundings with a cup of specialty coffee and watch the birds.

"I'd like to see more local folks come out and use the custom deck that seats 40 which my husband built for me," Goings said. "I'd like to introduce and educate Wharton residents to the most flavorable organically friendly coffee grown throughout the world."

More information may be found about Tree Frog Coffees at treefrogcoffees. com.