Nebraska sucks less than you might think
Last week I had the pleasure of spending a few days with Jon Ferguson of recently minted microroaster Cultiva Coffee. “Nebraska isn’t quite HELL…” he told me during our email exchange about the possibility of my coming to Lincoln for a meeting of the minds and some roast profiling jujitsu. From the favorably edited version of it I experienced, Lincoln actually seems pretty great.
By “Hell” Jon might have been referring to the weather. I arrived in the middle of an intense heat wave that broke with a severe storm. Five years in Seattle and one in L.A. and I’ve all but forgotten what real weather feels like. Hail, lightning, ominous green clouds… I love it.
I’ve posted some pics from my trip over on flickr.
Jon is doing really great things with his coffee and his ace barista Tamara served me one of the sweetest shots of espresso I’ve had in ages, rendering me momentarily speechless. The quality of his single origin coffees will dispel any notion that you can’t achieve excellence with a strictly fairtrade/organic offering list. “Passionate” is a word that gets thrown around a lot to describe the zeal that infects coffee geeks, but its a fitting term for Jon, who (having done time in the Peace Corps) has his long-term sights set on deepening the definition of “sustainability” within our industry.
So in addition to thriving farmers markets and community supported agriculture, great music venues, good microbrew beers, awesome record stores and bookstores - Lincoln can also chalk up some world class coffee roasting.
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September 2nd, 2007 at 8:32 am
Thanks for checking out Lincoln.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Jasmine got stuck in a tornado when passing through Lincoln week before last.
September 12th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Those of us who live in Lincoln, NE are fortunate to enjoy Jon’s passion for coffee.
I am from the inland Northwest (Spokane, WA) and had really been missing some supreme beans. Cultiva has them! My daughter and I head to Cultiva whenever we can.
Thanks for the good vibes on Nebraska, too. I really dig it here!
November 17th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
I moved out to the west coast from Lincoln in 2002, but come back every so often to visit family. I’ve been mournfully ancitipating the drought of good espresso that comes with my end-of-year holiday trip back to Nebraska (I’m so spoiled to live near Ritual in SF.) Thanks for the pointer and fascinating link to coffee in my hometown. I will have to check this place out!
December 1st, 2007 at 8:30 pm
I’ve become a regular patron of Cultiva over the past several months. My step-daughter and her fiance live a few blocks from the original Stumptown in Portland, and I think Jon’s work at Cultiva is a least the equal of what Stumptown has to offer. He coaxes some amazing, varietal flavors from his beans. It’s always a treat to see what he has roasted.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Nebraska Sucks period! Nebraska is a police state where you can’t wipe your ass without getting pulled over. The state patrol is the worst; all they give a shit about is generating revenue. I think they need to change there saying from “to protect and serve” to “harass and molest.” All Nebraska State Troopers are ASS HOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 13th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I just read the previous comment about this “police state” and I just wanted to make it clear that I (Jon F.) didn’t leave this comment, and it sounds like ‘Jon X’ was pulled over on I-80 (the major interstate across the U.S.). A ticket sucks no matter which state you speed through, and it also has nothing to do with coffee, so why post the insult here?
October 4th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
hey tonx! just wanted to say thanks again for calling me an ace barista:D and to let everyone know that cultiva is growing! www.cafeindigo.wordpress.com
November 24th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I spent three months in Lincoln Nebraska and it was a terrible experience. It seemed that most of the people that I met were extremely ignorant. The funny thing is that they don’t have southern accents, so it is a bit deceiving. It takes a little longer to realize that something is wrong. There are only 2 million people in the whole state and there’s a good reason for that. The best and brightest flee as soon as they can. Not all the wonderful coffee in the world is worth dealing with such profound ignorance.
January 11th, 2009 at 3:31 am
to Jr. I moved here from Texas and why would Nebraska have southern accents. It’s called the “Mid-West”, instead of Y’all you have to say You Guys. Lincoln isn’t always the greatest town, but I would recommend checking out Omaha. It’s where all the population is and where most of the good stuff happens. Just my 2 cents!
January 15th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Lincoln NE is by for the most dullest place on earth. I moved here with my boyfriend a few months ago and I have been depressed ever sense. I wonder what the suicide rate is. There is nothing to do here, the people or clueless and out dated. This place is a waiste of civilization and should be taken off the map because no one will miss this town. I cannot wait to move back home. All these people know is Cornhusker wtf! thats basicly what supports there economy a fuckin football team. ITS DULL AS HELL HERE..and I advise no one to ever live here unless you want to die of bordem. I dont see how people even live here all of there lives, as soon as its time for us to pack up and leave,,IM OUTTA HERE FOLKS.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Lincoln is a terrible god forsaken place. The roads are one big pothole (not exaggerating, the stop lights are the worst timed I’ve ever seen, they have about 5x more cops than they know what to do with, everything is ridiculously overcrowded 24/7, half the city is run down apartments, and to top it all off; the weather is fucking ridiculous. I came here for school and I will not be returning to UNL for the next semester. I just cannot deal with the stupidity of the people here and the sad state of this “city.”
The wise would avoid Lincoln.
June 6th, 2009 at 12:25 am
Do not move to Lincoln. Omaha might be better but Lincoln is populated by small town people that are dumber than shit. They are about as dumb as dumb gets. They will treat you with contempt as soon as they learn that you are not from here. Run for your life. Screw the coffee. You can buy coffee anywhere. Lincoln will rob you of the time that God has given you to live on this Earth.
January 7th, 2010 at 12:54 am
First of all, the coffee IS amazing!! Second, I have lived in Lincoln for 2 years going to school. Yes, the people love their football and yes, there are a lot of cops here but what I have realized is people are just supporting their fball team. As for the cops, if you are nice to them they will be nice to you. For those of you who find it boring here, get a life and learn how to meet people and make friends. There are a ton of things to do here! You can go out and have drinks with friends, you can go to hockey games, go shopping, whatever you want! If the nightlife isn’t fun enough for you, go to Omaha, although the people there are very rude and pushy! I have found that the people in Lincoln are mostly polite and friendly. So before judging a place, get to know it a lot better before you make accusations like that!
January 21st, 2010 at 7:56 pm
i agree, this is the shittiest place to ever live unless your entire life revolves around cornholer football & driving over potholes and slanted roads. they dont even have a REAL mall here… well they will say they do.. but if you go there you know what i mean.
also, no yield signs at intersections which causes many accidents. if it snows you sit wondering where all your taxpayer money goes because they are not plowing the snow. they will let it sit unless you get over 6 inches (main streets also!)
and get this. these retards are trying to get FEMA to pay for the snow removal from the last snow storm…. REALLY?! i thought that is what we paid taxes for.
I have been here three years and do not plan on wasting another year of my life in this godforsaken place.
so make your own decision. you can come here for this mans excellent coffee, or you could just buy some foldgers and avoid the festering shithole they call lincoln nebraska.
February 25th, 2010 at 8:24 am
From my journal stats, which you can see to the right, I’d have to agree that there is something really wrong with Nebraska besides the states’ terrible name. My journal is nothing dull and covers a wide range of important topics, and has excellent info that is censored in liberal goof sites like Wikipedia and conservative goof sites like Conservapedia. I get his from all over the world, I get more hits from Inda then frfom Nebraska, in fact, I have NO HITS from Nebraska. How can all 2 million, or however many be so disinterested in the important things of life? A few other states also seem dismal from my stats, like Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. It’s understand that you’d get few hits from desert states with massive military bases however or places that are mostly farm land, but Las Vegas has a huge amount of people, so does Utah, and 2 million is nothing small. What will happen to these four states when the economy becomes super terrible? I hope it doesn’t turn into Haiti.
March 25th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Lincoln Nebraska is by far the worst place I have ever lived. I moved here in 2002 from Chicago (The wife said Give it a try if you don’t like it there we’ll move- Bullshit!!!!!!!!!! She’s from Lincoln) and have regretted it ever since. Having been in a military family I have lived in Virginia, Florida, New York, Illinois, North Carolina, Texas and Illinois. Nebraska SUCKS believe me and I will tell you why. The lights are timed from like the 70’s, there are no yield or stop signs in most neighborhoods - if you ask a city planner or someone why? you get the response Lincoln is a very larger city and it would cost a lot. Really? This is one of the smallest “cities” I have ever lived in and all those other places had yield and stop signs etc. Furthermore, the only thing going on in this state is CornShitter Football. That’s it nothing else, everything and I mean everything revolves around it. The fans are the WORST I have ever seen. They’re only happy if they’re pounding some cupcake 100-0 and even then the fans will bitch that some call was blown and they should have won by more. Hell, since I’ve lived here the CornShitters have never even really lost a game. Every time it is the refs or the BIG 12 or some other kind of bullshit excuse. These smae fans who don’t give a damn about basketball or baseball or anything else will hop right on the bandwagon of any CornShitter team that is winning. Before you say that’s bullshit I’ll prove it. When I first moved here no one gave a damn about CornShitter Baseball, they do ok for a couple of years and everybody is now into college baseball, until they are no longer winning. Then these spineless CornShitter fans hop right off the bandwagon. See - Volleyball, womens basketball etc. Hell, on the radio last night there was a damn show on the Lady CornShitters basketball team. I’ve lived here 8 years and have never heard anything about them, until now ofcourse. They will also be dropped by the faithful the moment they lose. They call themselves the best fans, ok try supporting a team like the Cubs or Bears or Bills etc. sitting through the snow and muck to cheer on a team which will probably lose. The people are ignorant as mentioned several times in other postings. I have heard more racial slurs here than I ever heard in Florida, Virgina, or even North Carolina. It’s truly all about who you know and how you are connected. I also know this to be a fact, as I have known people to get jobs simply becuase of who they knew. Yes this happens other places but I have never seen anything like ShitBraska. Myopic - need I say more! I’m stuck in this shithole because of the wife, if she ever comes to her senses and agrees to leave I’m outta here. There is nothing to do here - nothing. As for the coffee - please - this place sucks the most. Half the time your coffee is hours old and stale, the other half of the time it’s barely drinkable. I have tried everywhere in this town and it all sucks. If you’re considering moving here - save yourself some money - buy a camper, park it in the middle of a field, buy a home labotomy kit, put on your cornhead, beat your wife, drink a gallon of cheap beer an hour and you’ll actually be better off.