Larry's Beans

Jason and I are constantly looking for fun, free things to do around Raleigh.  I stumbled across a free coffee tour at Larry's Beans.  We went on September 24, and had a pretty good time.

We arrived to the smell of freshly-brewed coffee and a band playing.  Confession time: Jason and I don't drink Larry's Beans coffee, but we sure did that day!  We sipped some coffee and started off the tour by meeting Larry and hearing how he created the company.  Confession 2, we didn't take any photos that day (I know!  I was shocked, too!) so I got these online.

Then, we took the first half of our tour, learning all about how they roast their own beans.  The roasted a batch while we moved on to a coffee-tasting.  

We took a break and ate lunch.  That's right... free lunch... at a free tour.  Yep, they treat us well at Larry's Beans.  It was delish Greek stuff, pitas and cheeses and dolmas.  Tasty!

The second half of the tour was learning more about how they are an environmentally-friendly company.  I'm not the most environmentally-conscious person (I guess that's Confession #3), but I found everything they're doing very practical and logical.

They deliver in a vegetable oil shorty bus they ordered at an auction.

They bought these two buildings and only minimally remodeled.  Over on the far-right building, you can see a bunch of windows.  This is called a clear story, so they use less electric lights on sunny days and the sunlight heats up the building during the winter.

 So that's just a really quick synopsis of our coffee tour.  It was a fun way to spend a Saturday, and it was free!  I'd say that's a good way to enjoy life.