Our Blends

Six blends, all roasted under the My 4×4 Experience label. Tap any bag to see it in the store.

There’s more in the store, including sample packs and teas.

How a Guy Who Didn’t Like Coffee Started a Coffee Company

Coffee didn’t become part of my life until I was about 38. I was working at an investment firm in Houston that had an incredible coffee machine, some kind of proprietary setup that used little packets. It was amazing. Then I got laid off and went from the Ferrari of the investment world to the Volkswagen. The fancy machine was gone, replaced by a standard coffee pot of coffee that sat there all day. So I bought a Keurig for the office.

That’s where coffee started to matter, though not because of flavor. It was about slowing down. I’d walk in and get stopped five times by world-ending crises before I even made it to my desk. So I’d drop my backpack, head to the breakroom, catch up with the people there, pick my brew, and carry a cup back to my desk to ease into the day. It gave me control of my morning and slowed down an unnecessarily hectic start.

I changed jobs and took the routine with me. I still didn’t love coffee. One morning, mid-brew, a coffee conversation started and I said so: “I don’t even really like coffee.” Someone asked why I drank it, then. That made me stop and think, and the answer was the routine. Coffee wasn’t about the taste. It was about the pause. But somewhere in that pause, I started to actually think about what was in the cup. I began to appreciate it, and then to enjoy it. The routine I’d built to slow my mornings down turned into something I looked forward to.

“Coffee wasn’t about the taste. It was about the pause.”

Then camping became a big part of my life again, and coffee came along. It felt natural. Camping is simple: nature, survival, and everything has a reason and a purpose. But I was making my morning cup from a K-Cup, or worse, instant, with no idea how coffee got from a plant to my cup. I didn’t like that. So I did what any red-blooded guy who watches too many van-life videos would do. I bought a Stanley French press from Amazon, then a grinder, and went whole bean. I became one with my coffee. Together we were invincible.

Once I understood how coffee became a drink, I started buying better coffee and traveling the world through my cup. Then I really did travel. I was looking to go somewhere new, and it ended up being Colombia. It wasn’t about the coffee. It was just a coincidence. I liked it so much the first time that I went back. And not the Colombia most people picture: not Medellín or Cartagena, not Bogotá or Cali. I ended up in Risaralda, in the heart of the Coffee Axis, the Eje Cafetero. On my second trip, an opportunity presented itself, and I happened to be standing in Colombia when I said, “Let’s do it.” That was the beginning of My 4×4 Experience Coffee.

It makes sense when you think about it. What vehicle helped make Colombia one of the great coffee countries on the planet? The Willys Jeep, the workhorse coffee producers used to move product and supplies up and down the mountains of the Coffee Axis. I wrote about that in Willys Jeep in Colombia: The Coffee Region’s Obsession.

Now it all seems to come together: Colombia, coffee, and Jeeps. A slow morning with a good cup, the trail, and the Jeep that helped put Colombian coffee on the map. It’s all one story, and it’s why this coffee is built for early trailheads and long drives home.