John Jacobson, the owner and co-founder of DOS Coffee & Wine,leads me to a huge room with a bar and long tables down the center. John sits down for a split second before offering me a drink. He comes back, with a glass of cold brew for me as well as his own. The coffee is strong, perfectly sweet, and deliciously cold. At this shop, there’s so much more to that cup than just a pour, so John pulls out a chair and sinks into his story. “We’ve owned DOS for about six years,” he says. “Relampago for about 2 1⁄2. We opened Dos and Relampago because we obviously like coffee. We were trying to open a place that we would like to go to.”
That’s a goal that John and his wife Julie have certainly achieved and exceeded. Roasting around 600 pounds of coffee a week, John and Julie are going the distance to provide a specially-tailored coffee bean that leads to an even better cup of coffee. But that’s a lot of work to add onto owning two businesses, so why choose to roast their own beans opposed to buying them wholesale? “My wife wanted to start DOS, the science-y part of it, that is,” says John. “It was all her.”
After selecting the type of bean, there are a few simple steps that are taken to achieve the desired taste that DOS and Relampago are known for. They must select the perfect amount of roasting time suitable for each bean and then let the dry heat work its magic.
John’s favorite coffee beans come from Ethiopia and Guatemala but he explained that like every earth-grown thing, coffee beans have a schedule – a harvest schedule, if you will. Though they’re in the right season now, John and Julie can’t always get their hands on their favorites, so research must be done to find the right beans at the right time.
Even though the seasons change, the couple’s love for St. Augustine and their desire to provide good food and drinks to the community won’t ever change. “We’ve lived here for 22 years and we’ve stayed here,” John said. “I feel like we’ll be here for a while too.”
Learn more about DOS Coffee by visiting www.dosbar.com. Photography by Brian Miller.
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