001: INTRODUCTIONS
Does the world need another specialty coffee company?
If its mission is to simplify the expensive and laborious coffee ritual so we can enjoy more time with loved ones. Then yes, more of that, please.
But this brand story doesn’t start within the specialty coffee industry.
PLEASE rewind your VHS tape to a simpler time and allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Tyler Way. Born and raised in the greater Detroit area, I was fortunate enough to “summer” in Charlevoix, Michigan, better known as “Up North” to most folks in the Midwest.
My summer birthdays were celebrated up there. As a baby, I was bathed in the kitchen sink until I was old enough to “shower” in the lake.
My dad was born and raised in Charlevoix. My mom was a “fudgie” and spent her childhood summers there. Both of her parents were born and raised there before they eventually bought what would become known as “The Cottage” in 1964 from its original builder.
That cozy, single-story summer home became the heart of their family, hosting decades of memories.
Fast-forward a few decades to the 1990s when, each summer, “Camp Gramp” brought me, my older sister Sumer, and cousin Kasey, together for a week with no parents allowed.
Run by my Grandpa Deano and Grandma Joyce, it was a family version of summer camp, full of dramatic games of “mean” croquet, basketball clinics, golf lessons, tennis matches, DIY putt-putt courses, questionable sailing adventures, boat rides, bike treks, board game battles, nightly bonfires, and animated bedtime stories.
Just down the beach on Lake Charlevoix, my other grandparents had “The Lake” property.
What was once marshy land that my dad’s dad purchased a long, long time ago eventually became a family and community gathering compound.
Over the decades, the property welcomed RVs parked by aunts, uncles, and cousins, becoming the site of endless family potlucks, celebrations, and my favorite ritual: afternoon coffee.
Like clockwork, pots of coffee were brewed one after another while aunts and uncles gathered on the porch with various treats, and if I was lucky, Grandma Jo’s pecan rolls.
As much as we can appreciate these moments, we all know they don’t last forever. Which is why it’s so important to hold onto them, not in the sense of living in the past, but so that we can live in the present to form new memories shared with others.
Nearly a decade after I discovered this 35mm film slide in a box full of inherited film slides, this photo of my late Grandpa Dawson became the genesis of Cottage Coffee.
In 2016, my Grandma Jo had just passed away. One of the inherited items I received was her and Grandpa Dawson’s cases of film slides. While sitting on The Cottage floor sifting through an endless amount of slides, I came across this one, stopping me in my tracks. I held it up in the light and snapped a photo of it with my phone.
There was something about this image that stuck with me. It wasn’t just because it was a younger version of Grandpa, but it was the feeling of being transported into the photo, fully immersed in his moment of drinking coffee with whom I assumed to be Grandma Jo, who was taking the photo.
The red mug couldn’t have been any more perfect, either.
Not to mention, it was Grandpa Dawson who gave me my first sip of coffee.
It might be one of my earliest memories. I was sitting up on a kitchen stool in their old house on top of the hill that led down to “The Lake” when he gave me my first taste of a hot cup of black coffee.
Cottage coffee is a culmination of these memories.
My goal with this endeavor is to encourage and enable others to create their own memories, starting with the simple act of sharing a cup of high-quality coffee with loved ones, regardless of their brewing method or where they find themselves.
You won’t have to be at The Cottage to feel like you are.
