There's a lot that goes into naming a company. It needs to be memorable, unique, and relevant, while also conveying the deep meaning and values that you want your business to be known for. All these characteristics were going through our minds in 2018 when Trent, Joel, and I were sitting around a table sipping coffee planning one of the biggest decisions we would ever make in our lives. At this point, we were all committed to setting our degrees aside to pursue taking over the coffee industry together. The next step was to come up with a name so that we could start marketing and building hype around what we were doing. After quickly throwing out a plethora of cheesy coffee puns we decided that we needed a name that was more meaningful, elegant, and timeless; that's where the name Moravian Coffee comes in.
In the 1400s a man by the name of Jan Hus began to speak out about the corruption of the Catholic Church in the region of Moravia (this region is in what is now the Czech Republic). He was martyred in 1415, which sparked a movement where the followers of his teachings began to call themselves Hussites. The Hussite movement is what eventually inspired Martin Luther and led to the Protestant Reformation over a century later. Over the next 300 years during the explosion of Protestantism, a branch of the Hussites eventually became the Moravians. In 1722 a man named Nikolaus Ludwig Von Zinzendorf opened up his estate and allowed for these "Moravians" to meet underground to avoid persecution by the Catholic Church. This eventually became the first true Moravian community and the inspiration of our company namesake.
The Moravians stood for two main principles: Prayer and Missions. As we were learning about these people we were not just inspired by the values they stood for, but also by how radical they were in acting out these values. For example, they established the first-ever 24-hour prayer movement of continuous prayer that lasted over 100 years! On the mission's front, they would sell themselves into slavery just to preach the Gospel to slaves, and would also ship their caskets to where they were going because they knew they were willing to die for their cause. The Moravians are credited with being some of the first-ever Protestant missionaries and can be traced back to the evangelization of both Oklahoma territory and the Caribbean. Trent and I have deep familial roots from Oklahoma, while Joel's father is from Trinidad, so we can all three truly say that the Moravians played a huge role in us being who we are today. From people like Martin Luther to John Wesley we hope to be just a few more people on the long list of names that the Moravians have inspired.
So what does all this have to do with a coffee company? Well, we stake our company on the same two values of prayer and missions that the Moravians did. Our long-term vision isn't just to be a coffee company but to be a movement that brings positive change to nations all over the globe. What that looks like right now is continuously praying for the direction of our company, donating 10% of our earnings to different missions organizations, and taking any chance we can to leave the country to serve those in need.
We would love for you to join us in this movement as we strive daily to embody the mantra of the Moravians. "Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him."
- Carson