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Bestselling author A.J. Jacobs is no stranger to ambitious projects. In his 2008 book The Year of Living Biblically, Jacobs sought to live as closely to the rules of the bible as he could. This month he releases his sixth title, Thanks a Thousand, which chronicles his gratitude journey for a single cup of coffee—which we're happy to say, he purchased at Joe Coffee. We sat down with A.J. to learn how his project shaped how he thinks about both coffee and gratitude. A.J. at Joe Waverly Place. Photo by Christopher Lane Joe: What surprised you most about your coffee's journey to you, or what seemed the most incredible thing about it? A.J.: Before I answer, let me just say a huge, overflowing thanks to the folks at Joe. They were so helpful and open, I couldn’t have asked for a better partner on this journey. The most surprising part was just how many people it takes for me to produce my morning cup of coffee at Joe. I knew about the farmer and the barista, of course. But there are hundreds of people in between. The tasters, the the roasters, the inspectors, the importing company, the trucker—and the trucker couldn’t do his job without the road, so I felt I should thank the folks who pave the road. And the folks who paint yellow lines on the road so the trucker doesn’t veer into oncoming traffic. As I say in the book: It doesn’t take a village to make a cup of coffee. It takes the world. A.J. with some of the Guarnizo brothers. Were you aware of any difference between specialty coffee’s supply chain and that of, say, everyday diner coffee? Not nearly enough. I was delighted by the amount of thought and passion that goes into every step of Joe Coffee. For instance, visiting the roastery in Brooklyn was an eye-opener. I love that there are gadgets to measure the moisture level of the beans, and another to measure the bean’s stability. And of course, I loved visiting the small Colombian family farm where some of my beans are grown. I like that it wasn’t a big mega-corporate farm. It was eight brothers and one sister. Do you think you would have had this same experience if you’d written about shoelaces instead of coffee? I could have done a gratitude journey about shoelaces, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as delicious. My kids wanted me to thank everyone involved in making their s’mores, because they figured it would increase the number of s’mores around the house. But I chose coffee because it’s my version of s’mores: A huge treat. A.J. Jacobs and Joe's Director of Sourcing Ed Kaufmann You talked in your book a lot about how far to take the journey—and why you had to limit it to only 1000 thank-yous. Were there any people you felt were a stretch? My wife told me that thanking Beyonce was a stretch (I thanked her because her music kept the truck drivers awake as they drove the beans to the store). And maybe it was. But the point of the book is to embrace six degrees of gratitude. I wanted to show that thousands of people are involved in every little item in our lives, and we take those people for granted. Does it still feel like there are people you’ve omitted? Absolutely. I could have spent 50 years thanking all the people involved in the coffee chain. Plus, I sometimes put almond milk in my coffee (sorry Ed! I know you prefer it when I drink it straight up). So I could thank all the people on that chain too. I did get to thank the founder Jonathan Rubinstein, but I wish I’d had room to write a whole section on him. I love his passion for his customers and his coffee—not to mention all things Disney. Joe Coffee barista Chung Lee Was there any one moment of thanking somebody on this journey that you felt made the most impact or had the most meaning in the other party’s life? I don’t know if it had the most impact on her life, but I loved talking with barista Chung Lee. She said Joe Coffee clients are almost always friendly. But there are the occasional clients who place their orders without even looking up from their phones. They just hand over their credit card. They treat baristas like vending machines, not a humans. I realized I’ve been that jerk sometimes. So I’ve made a vow to always look people in the eye when dealing with them. It’s such a small thing, but it has such a huge impact on both parties. Humans were meant to connect face to face. I also remember calling the woman who does pest control for the warehouse where the coffee is stored. I said, "I know this sounds strange, but I want to thank you for keeping the bugs out of my coffee." She said, "That is strange, but thank YOU. We don't get a lot of appreciation around here." I felt like it was an anti-crank phone call. I felt like I was doing penance for my obnoxious calls in high school. If you get a bad coffee somewhere—are you still just as grateful? Ha! Well, it depends. If I haven’t had any coffee that day, I try to be grateful for, say, airplane coffee. But it’s a much milder gratitude. It’s like a decaf version of gratitude, to use a coffee metaphor. Has your gratitude journey rubbed off on the people around you? I’ve gotten wonderful feedback from readers. I spend much of my day thanking readers who send me thank you notes for writing the book. The danger is that they will thank me for thanking them for thanking me. It could be an infinite loop. A.J.'s book Thanks a Thousand is out now on TED Books.

As told by Ed Kaufmann, Joe Coffee Director of Sourcing. As we began roasting our own coffees here at Joe in 2012, of the earliest selections on our menu was purchased through a coffee exporter/importer called Caravela Coffee based in Bogota, Colombia and Chapel Hill, NC. The coffee was produced by a farmer named Wilmar Guarnizo in Tarqui, in the southern state of Huila, Colombia. We called it La Familia Guarnizo, and today, this family's farms are among our favorite to visit. When we first got to know this coffee, we instantly wanted to dig deeper in order to learn more about Wilmar and other coffees from this region. We learned that Wilmar’s family is part of a growers’ association called El Paraiso, which acts as a group to bring operating costs down. The association is funded by a percentage of revenue from the producers, so its member farmers choose to produce higher quality and sell it for higher prices to Caravela, whose exporting warehouse happens to be right next door to El Paraiso. Through our relationship with Caravela and El Paraiso, we have been exposed to a number of coffees from Wilmar and his extended family as well as other members of the association. We loved them so much that once we began roasting 100% of the coffee served in Joe cafes, these coffees made up a significant part of our menu. In 2014 I made my first visit to Tarqui and the Guarnizo family on behalf of Joe, a trip I now look forward to making every year to strengthen our ongoing relationship. The first year I visited the family as a green coffee buyer for Joe, I proposed we establish a fixed price contract where Joe would pay the same amount each year regardless of what the coffee commodities market was doing. The benefit of this is that the seller can count on a stable price for the coffee they produce, rather than be at the mercy of the ever-fluctuating market. The Guarnizo family includes ten siblings, each with their own section of small farms—all of whom all signed on to this original contract. Coffee plants on one of the Guarnizo's family farms My latest visit to the Guarnizos was this past August. Tarqui is somewhat remote—it takes about two days to get there from New York City. The nearest airport is in Pitalito, about an hour and a half away from Tarqui. The airport has a physical control tower but no one works there so the pilots flying small turbo-prop planes land by sight and radar as they see fit. Rory Gowan from Caravela met me at the airport and we went straight to one of Caravela’s purchasing stations in Pitalito to taste some coffees before heading out to our visit with the Guarnizos. The drive to Tarqui was easy except for a section of the road that was being repaired and reduced the highway to one lane with cars taking turns going through the bottleneck. When we arrived in Tarqui, we picked up Marisela Trujillo who is part of Caravela’s PECA (Programa de Educación a Caficultores) team. They visit producers regularly and offer technical consultation to help them raise their quality. We drove another 45 minutes up the eastern side of the central cordillera of The Andes Mountains and rolled into the field in front of Wilmar’s house. It sits on top of a hill like a bright green monastery, with his plastic-tarp-covered solar coffee-drying structure right next to the house, and his processing equipment behind the dryer. The view from Wilmar’s porch is a stunning expanse overlooking the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes. It was great to be back. Ed Kaufmann, Director of Sourcing, with just some of the Guarnizo Family Most of the siblings were there to greet us. We caught up the best we could through Rory, who was translating for both them and me. (My Spanish is ok but I think we both have a hard time understanding each other’s accents.) Wilmar talked about some of the changes he has made to his drying techniques which have allowed him to improve his quality. We had sancocho for lunch which is a typical Colombian soup served with rice, chicken (probably “prepared” that morning), yucca and corn. There were too many of us to sit at the table at once so half of us ate while the others waited outside and they took their turn. I always make the same joke: I slurp the soup broth very loudly like I’m evaluating it as I would evaluate coffee and I yell “NOVENTA!” meaning that the soup is a 90-point soup, very high scoring. It’s my silly way of complimenting Wilmar’s wife Tania for preparing such a nice meal for us, but it never fails to make everyone laugh and break the ice. After lunch, several of us hiked around Wilmar’s farm, Finca La Vega, and talked about different cultivars of coffee he was growing. It was a magical setting to be in while telling him how much our customers love their coffee back in NYC. We looked out over the patchwork green valley between the Central and Eastern Cordilleras and talked about the very low coffee commodity futures price, something that is having huge impacts on many coffee producers around the world. For many farmers, the price they are paid is in relation to this ever-fluctuating futures market, unless the producer has a fixed price contract with a roaster, which we do with them. I was proud of the work we had all put in to devising the contract years ago and the work they’ve put in to maintain the quality that we need and our customers are accustomed to. After we explored La Vega, we drove to Jose Javier’s farm, El Triunfo. We spoke with Jose Javier about coffee prices as well and he showed us his new drying structure that has a sturdy tin roof as opposed to plastic. It is stronger and provides more shade for slower drying which can be very beneficial for coffee quality. We all had a cup of coffee roasted by one of the brothers, Yimmy in a pan on the stove with a stick. It was delightful! We said our goodbyes and headed back to Pitalito to settle in for the night and prepare for the next leg of our journey home, already looking forward to next year’s visit to our partners the Guarnizos.