More people are incorporating CBD into their regimen for its reported benefits. Its applications are wide and varied. Many modern spas offer CBD as a topical add-on you can incorporate into your massage. There are CBD oils, creams, and lotions you can apply yourself. There are capsules and tinctures.
Another common way to receive CBD is by consuming foods and treats we already love. CBD can be infused into smoothies, pastries, candy, and basically anything your heart desires. CBD and coffee is becoming a more widely available combination, much to the delight of both CBD and coffee enthusiasts.
Al Mortada is an enthusiast of both. With his Austin-based CBD coffee company, Ott Coffee, he is able to share both of these passions with the world.
Planting the Seeds of a Passion
Mortada, who founded Ott Coffee at the beginning of 2019, has had a longtime passion for coffee. The spark was ignited in a way many of us can relate to: by drinking coffee before and during work.
A passionate coder, Mortada would spend hours in coffee shops, working on his computer. He found coffee helped him reach that highly sought after “flow state” where he could be sharp and focused, since coding takes a high level of concentration.
An entrepreneur at heart, Mortada would often come up with ideas to improve the world. For his first venture, he created a design to help with hand-eye coordination. Another of his big passions is boxing; he wanted to market a contraption to help boxers with hand-eye coordination. This headband attached to a ball by a tether allowed boxers to practice certain moves, and people at various boxing gyms took interest.
Mortada’s self-professed mistake, however, was that he spent too long in the design phase. At a certain point, one of his competitors came out with a similar product.
When it came to Ott Coffee, Mortada wanted to do things differently. As soon as he could bring a quality product to the market, he did, rather than getting hung up on design. Since then, he’s been all over Austin sharing his brews.
Ott Coffee Beans
I’m always amazed at connoiseurs, of coffee, wine, or any product with flavor, who can taste the subtle notes. Mortada recently visited Colombia to see some of the farms he sources his beans from. He drank a lot of black coffee to fuel him on his journey, and soon became accustomed to detecting the subtle layers of flavor in different beans and roasts. For coffee specifically, it seems the key to reaching this level of connoisseurship is to become acclimated to drinking coffee black.
There in Colombia, Mortada learned more about the entire process, from farming the beans to picking, drying, and roasting them. Currently, Ott Coffee mainly offers these smooth roasts from Colombia, but Mortada plans to acquire beans from other countries with volcanic-rich soil, as well.
The Headquarters: Barrett’s Coffee
Barrett’s Coffee had always been one of Mortada’s favorite places to do computer work. So when considering a roaster to partner with, Barrett’s was the first place that popped into his mind. Why not work with a place he already knew, loved, and spent much of his time in?
Even though Mortada is the founder of Ott Coffee, he doesn’t consider it a “solo venture.” The collaboration is a huge and extensive one and a whole team is involved: the farmers, broker, roasters, CBD producers, chemist who infuses the beans with CBD, and even Mortada’s sister who designed the brand logo.
Other Austin CBD Companies
You can purchase Ott Coffee on the business website or at Wheatsville Co-op.
Other local brands that offer CBD coffee are Cuvee Coffee, which makes canned nitrogen cold brew blended with hemp oil; Lazydaze Counterculture; and JuiceLand, where you can purchase CBD as an add-on to your hot or iced coffee. Even Willie Nelson has recently debuted his own line of CBD coffees and teas, called Willie’s Remedy.
To learn more, visit the Ott Coffee website.
@theAustinot wants to know:
Have you tried CBD-infused coffee?
