The Story of Sheep Shite Coffee Co...

An Oral History Treasure

Being primarily of Irish and English descent, we are always curious about the history and events of Ireland's and England's pasts.

One summer, a friend visited the islands and brought home an interesting and - not surprisingly - disturbing piece of oral history...

As the Story Goes

When coffee was introduced to Ireland in the mid 1660s, it was incredibly well-received. So well-received was it, that it became nearly impossible for supply to keep up with demand — bear in mind that the global economy was much slower moving at that time and the best coffees have generally always come from the same places.

Rather than disappoint their customers and lose their footholds in a competitive marketplace, some merchants embraced the situation and tapped into their... eh... creative ingenuity.

Insert Sheepish Grin

Uh. So. The sheep.
While sheep and goats have been native residents of Ireland for at least as long as humans, and notwithstanding the main influx of sheep from other parts of the world during the 1800s, sheep were introduced into Ireland in larger numbers for livestock herding in the late 1500s - just a generation or two before coffee.

The point is... not very many people knew a whole lot about sheep.

So if a coffee merchant was in Ireland and happened to know a sheep farmer...
Or perhaps better yet, if a coffee merchant in Ireland was a sheep farmer...

Here's Where It All Comes Together

Literally.

You see, coffee beans have a unique, recognizable size and shape.
Most people who know what a coffee bean looks like can tell that coffee bean apart from just about every other item they encounter regularly...

But if you were Irish in the middle 1600s and new to coffee beans, you wouldn't know a coffee bean from sheep shite.
In fact, you wouldn't have recognized either of them if you saw them.

That's right. Dried sheepy-poo looks remarkably similar to dried coffee beans. According to what we hope is apocrypha, merchants in Ireland used to borrow from a plentiful supply of sheeps' doody to cut their coffee and help keep up with relentless demand.

The Burning Question

Is it true?

We don't know.
After hours of research and dozens of books read, we're hard-pressed to find resounding affirmative confirmation of the story. So, we're crossing our fingers it's just centuries of orneriness passed down through oral tradition. That said, the possibility of the veracity of this oral history still exists, if for no other reason than the sheer volume of other nefarious activity that the history books can confirm... ew.

Our Commitment

Of course, we couldn't possibly love coffee like we do, learn about a story like that, and not also commit ourselves to the delivery of safe, pure coffees that are friendly to both people and the environment.

SO, our motto is simple — All Coffee, No Crap.