Small-batch coffee, all-in-one cocktail mixers and scratch-made breads and pastries are among our recent local favorites.
by Marilyn Hawkes | photography by Angelina Aragon
Small-Batch Coffee
In search of the perfect cup of coffee, Phoenicians Blake and Pashlee Beal bought coffee beans from local roasters to grind and brew at home. As their interest grew, the couple began to source green coffee beans and manually roast them in a cast-iron skillet and a popcorn popper. In 2019, the couple launched Beal Beans and began sourcing and roasting beans from small plantations around the world, including farms in Tanzania, Indonesia, Mexico, Honduras and Peru ($15, 10-oz. bag; $39, 2-lb. bag).
“Our goal is to source from farms where the workers are being paid a livable wage, are using sustainable practices around water and not using pesticides,” Blake says. The husband-and-wife team have a booth at Uptown Farmers Market, where they sell freshly roasted beans and serve pour-over coffees and cold brew while educating their customers about coffee. “We’ve ruined a lot of Starbucks drinkers,” Pashlee says. In October, the duo is set to open a roastery and café in the Sunnyslope area.
All-in-One Cocktail Mixers
Jake Graves has been slinging cocktails professionally for more than a decade, most recently at Rise Uptown Hotel. Last year, he launched The Twisted Botanist, a company that makes floral- and herbal-inspired mixers for craft cocktails and mocktails. The former bartender has developed a host of interesting flavors, from prickly pear-jalapeño and raspberry-hibiscus to lavender-honey and cucumber-rose-sage ($22, 17 oz.).
Each bottle makes between eight and 10 drinks. “Our mixers are very nicely balanced,” he says. “We already include a citrus component, so you don’t need to add anything except ice and a spirit.” Graves also makes an Old-Fashioned infusion kit ($20) with all the fixings for 12-14 cocktails. Add your favorite bourbon or whiskey, shake and let it steep for 24 hours. Graves’s brick-and-mortar location is due to open in September.
Scratch-Made Breads and Pastries
After a cousin gave Phoenix native Bryan O’Connor Jr. a copy of author Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread, he “fell down a rabbit hole, hard.” O’Connor Jr. worked as a cook at night and zealously baked bread on his days off. A veteran of Roy’s Restaurant and Tarbell’s, he ultimately founded Copper State Bread in 2020, selling his selection of breads and pastries – including sourdough ($8); multi-grain sourdough ($11); plain, chocolate and cinnamon croissants ($5); fruit bars ($5); and buttermilk biscuits ($3) – at Uptown, North Scottsdale and Ahwatukee farmers markets.
Most of O’Connor Jr.’s wares are made using his active sourdough starter, which is the tangy secret to his success. “The starter adds a tremendous amount of complexity to the dough, taste-wise,” he says. Copper State breads have a crisp, thin crust and soft crumb, and his croissants and other pastries are delightfully light and airy. Throughout the fall, O’Connor Jr. plans on introducing sandwiches and rotating breakfast items to his growing farmers market menu.
