I am Bill Hodge, master coffee roaster of mesquite roasted coffee and rancher in west texas. I mesquite fire-roast one of the finest tasting coffees in the world. I hope you enjoy drinking my coffee as much as I do roasting it. (read the mesquite roasted coffee story... click here)

The Mesquite Roasted Company Story

Thirty-six years ago in the panhandle of Texas, two college students endured life in a dormitory called Gaston Hall. Their life was often defined by the constant noisy banter of 300 men living in close quarters, of weekly water fights, and of nightly whooshes of shaving cream spurting under the room doors. What else could happen in a story like this but for at least two of that rowdy crowd to become the best of friends?

Four years later life took those two friends on separate paths. One fellow went back east to live the corporate life of a big city salesman and travel to all sorts of fancy dancy places by airplane. The other fellow went to live in the secluded dusty oilfields of the Texas panhandle.

Twelve years later something strange happened. A great conjunction of the planets perhaps? The two fellows "flip flopped". Flipped out some would even say. Others, some even relatives, would say they had always been flipped out but were just being who they were.

The one that was living the corporate life answered a mysterious higher calling that drew him back to the land where he was born to eventually begin living the life of a rancher. The other fellow that was living a blue collar life of oilfield and pipeline construction also answered his own mysterious higher calling which took him to the corporate world to travel in the U.S. and abroad to all sorts of fancy dancy places by airplane.

It was a strange dichotomy of both parallel and opposite lives. Still, the two fellows remained best of friends and kept in touch despite the fact they did not seen one another for twenty odd years while on their individual life's journeys.

Nowadays, the two friends are neighbors in a Texas sort of way, living just a scant 185 miles, only 5 towns apart, with one chap living in Big Lake Texas and the other one living in Fredericksburg Texas. And, it is still a strange dichotomy of both parallel and opposite lives.

The two fellows do have one special thing in common that helps to bind their friendship so tightly. It is a thirty-seven plus year old membership in a club that was formed way back while living in Gaston Hall. It is a rather exclusive club having only two members.

The club is called the "Best of Everything Club" and it works this way... sort of like a game of friendly one-up-manship but even better. The club is all about an unofficial ongoing contest to seek out the most unique and best of, well, what ever it is that they choose to seek out. And once acquired, the "best" is always shared with the other even if only a just a taste. So both men can savor some of the best that life can offer... of what ever it is they choose to seek out.

Belonging to the Best of Everything Club is a good thing. It meets regularly and will continue to do so for many years to come. And, the sharing of the prize part. Ah yes, the sharing of the best of what ever it is they choose to seek still has sweet has rewards for both the fellows. In fact, this is how the best coffee ever, mesquite roasted coffee, was discovered. Mesquite roasted coffee began with a "Best of Everything Club" quest to find and enjoy the very best coffee taste in the world.

The taste was so unique that mesquite roasted coffee was shared with other coffee drinkers which soon began clamoring for more. And soon, enough The Mesquite Roasted Company was born.

[Bill Hodge is a rancher and coffee roaster living in Big Lake Texas and may be contacted at bill@mesquite-roasted.net. Timothy Gikas is a quality consultant, bed & breakfast owner, and web site software developer living in Fredericksburg Texas and may be contacted at tim@mesquite-roasted.net.]