Category: Drink

The first time I walked into Windsor Homebrew Supply Co., I didn’t know the difference between a hop and a hopper. I mean, I love a tasty craft beer as much as the next Costa Mesan, but I had no idea how it was made. My husband, however, had recently taken an interest in brewing at home. He had been talking about it forever, and I wanted to give him a gift that showed I’d been listening. A friend told me about the greatest little homebrew shop right here in Costa Mesa, just off Randolph Street. “The owner is so friendly,” she said. Sure enough, I stepped into Windsor and my lack of hoppy knowledge was all but forgotten…

There may be no one more more excited to launch a business than the three guys behind MoonGoat Coffee. On a recent afternoon, I Heart Costa Mesa caught up with the founding trio — David Yardley, Martin Stern and Mark Evans — in a Santa Ana warehouse. The digs are acting as the temporary base of operations until MoonGoat’s Weststside Costa Mesa HQ is ready. These guys? Beyond ecstatic. Quick to laugh, new ideas popping up seemingly on the fly, eager to explain their coffee-making process — they had it all. In short, MoonGoat Coffee is going to be a Costa Mesa hometown coffee roaster and coffeehouse along Placentia Avenue. Supplementing the brews are food and live entertainment. And, given that area’s dearth of such places, this spot appears poised to have a big effect on the Westside corridor…

Costa Mesa is a study in contrast. Artistic, yet unpretentious. Independent, yet connected. Cozy, yet cosmopolitan. And just when you think you’ve got us pegged as the family-friendly city with that small-town feel – we open up a big ol’ can of Culture and all bets are off. Because while we may be home to some of the cutest, little, ocean-kissed neighborhoods ever to grace a mesa, we’re also rockin’ world-class theater, live music, award-winning restaurants, action-sports industry, SCP, OC Fair and soon the OCMA – to literally name just a few. We’re so packed with culture, our city limits are fit to burst. But until recently, there was one missing ingredient in our cultural cocktail, a key point of omission often used to separate the cultural wheat from the chaff: Costa Mesa’s distinct lack of a brewery.

We thought we’d seen all Costa Mesa has to offer, we really did. But then we found ourselves sitting at a long, shiny counter watching co-owners – Roxanne Golkar and Bradley Reitler – quite literally milk almonds. (You don’t see that everyday.) The painstaking process involves raw ingredients, a blender, and an udder-like sack – called a ‘nut-milk bag’ – used to hand-squeeze the contents and release the pure, creamy end-product.

Wilson Coffee has all the depth-of-flavor you want from a nice, organic brew – with none of the acidity, bitterness or burnt-notes we’ve (unfortunately) come to expect. Adding sugar or milk almost feels like a sacrilege; the rich bouquet invites you to drink it black.