School spirit may have never tasted so good.
A pair of Biola alumni in the artisanal coffee roasting business have teamed up with the university to launch the Biola Blend, a specialty blend of beans that’s now being served on campus and sold online.
The coffee collaboration with Rose Park Roasters — founded by Andrew Phillips (B.A. ’03, M.A. ’08) and Nathan Tourtellotte (B.A. ’04) — made its debut at the university’s 117th birthday celebration on Feb. 25 after weeks of conversation, taste-testing and voting by current students. To help select the beans, a group of students from the Biola Coffee Lovers Club visited Rose Park’s headquarters in Long Beach, California, for a cupping and inside look at the company’s bean sourcing and roasting process.
After the coffee connoisseurs selected two finalists, the broader Biola community voted on the winning blend of beans — along with a tagline: Grounded in Truth Since 1908.
Sporting a custom red label, the blend features medium- light roasted beans from growers in Brazil, offering “a balanced profile with bright acidity, subtle fruit notes and a full-bodied finish.” It’s served on campus in Common Grounds and available to buy at biola.edu/biola-blend.
For Phillips, who served up thousands of cups of coffee during his days as a college student, returning to Biola with his own business’ beans is a special opportunity, he said.
“I was an assistant manager at Common Grounds,” he said. “So to offer something at Biola is a real fun experience for me.”