Our Story
Do you ever wake from a dream and say to yourself "I have to remember that when I wake up!" In early 2022 Jesse woke with a vision of highlighting Maine coffee roasters across the state and together Amanda and Jesse Simko formulated a plan to make it happen. You could say Maine Cup was born from a dream. Cliche, but true.
For months we researched coffee.
Amanda located 20 roasters across the state, then 30, then 50, and now over 60 coffee roasters buried in web searches. Though we wanted to try them all, we knew that was nearly impossible as 90% of the coffee was not readily available to us, nor did we want to buy pounds of coffee at a time. That is when a coffee subscription product was created. We wanted to expose coffee drinkers to a new Maine coffee roaster each month - from the small batch roaster to the family-run business to the large batch roaster, all Maine roasters should be highlighted! Instead of sending an entire bag of coffee, we decided a smaller portion was perfect for someone to get a taste of the coffee (12-14 cups worth).
Meanwhile, Jesse immersed himself in all things coffee.
Whole bean verse pre-ground coffee. Pour-over verse Aero Press verse French Press, and so on. Light roast, dark roast, blends, single origins. Natural process coffee, hand picked, fully washed. With so much to learn there was plenty of content to share and to learn. As "typical" coffee drinkers we began to expand our overall understanding of coffee and how to make a good cup of coffee at home. We had to share it (ask our family and friends how long we can talk to them about coffee now).
Not only did we feel good about what we were learning, we began feeling more connected to the product we were consuming. But, meeting the roasters took that to a whole other level. We began bringing our cameras along to capture conversations with the roasters and also to capture behind the scenes moments.
Take it from us, meeting the roasters is just as fulfilling as having their coffee. We really enjoy chatting over roasting, asking questions, and listening to all of the good stuff they have to say. It is too good to keep for ourselves so we knew it had to accompany the coffee our subscribers receive.
Our first subscribers were part of our 2 month beta launch in February and March 2023. Our first public subscription began in April 2023.
Other milestones:
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Experience Coffee Beyond the Cup event series began May 2023
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Maine Coffee Digest, articles and images. Released September 2023
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First television segment, November 2023
Get to Know Us
We are entrepreneurs, parents to young children, Mainers to the core, small business supporters, storytellers, and much more!
You will find Amanda behind the computer, orchestrating details of the business, and keeping all things organized.
Jesse holds more of a physical presence. You can find Jesse talking at events and conducting the roaster interviews.
The mission of Maine Cup is to support Maine’s coffee roasters, enhance the coffee culture in Maine, and inspire coffee drinkers as a whole to widen their experience of coffee while supporting small businesses.
