Traveling Bard Coffee serves Lakewood Ranch and surrounding areas

Growing up, Lakewood Ranch’s Nathan Russell spent time with his mother at Starbucks taking in the ambiance and drinking his frappuccino.

He said it was the smell of coffee he remembered creating a “warming atmosphere.” 

Russell said he likes the concept of a coffee shop where coffee serves as a gathering place for people and a mediator for people. 

He decided to become a barista some day. 

So in 2021, when Russell was attending Florida State University majoring in finance, and hating it, he remembered his passion for coffee and wanted to see where it could lead.

He started interviewing coffee shop owners to understand all that it took to be a business owner in the coffee industry. Russell decided to apply to the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship at FSU. 

After being accepted, Russell bought a small coffee roaster and started roasting coffee in his apartment. 

He brewed a dream into reality. 

Russell started Traveling Bard Coffee with the concept that a fantasy character was traveling the world looking for the world’s best cup of coffee.

Photo by Liz Ramos

It wasn’t long before Russell realized he didn’t know much about coffee and the industry. 

Russell said his go-to cup Starbucks drink was a caramel macchiato. He recalled going to a coffee shop in Sarasota asking for a caramel macchiato and the barista told him he wants a caramel latte instead.

“That’s when I first realized, there’s a whole world I just don’t understand about coffee,” he said. 

He went to previously-named Serenity at FSU and even after being told the espresso machine wasn’t working, Russell said he ordered a cappuccino, to which he was again told the espresso machine wasn’t working. 

“From there, I got James Hoffman’s “The World Atlas of Coffee” to learn about the origins and I started learning about coffee farming,” he said. 

Russell and his Traveling Bard Coffee cart started traveling around Tallahassee and later returned to Lakewood Ranch to travel around Sarasota, Manatee and surrounding counties. He set up shop at farmers markets, served beverages at weddings, and found other venues and pop-up events where coffee would be a hit. 

On Aug. 7, Russell had his cart at the Lakewood Ranch Library from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Russell said he hopes to develop a partnership with Manatee County where he would be able to set up his cart at the library once per week. 

Russell also is working to shine a light on the impact the coffee industry can have in other countries.

He said after conducting research and learning about coffee farmers struggling to maintain their lifestyle, not having many rights and protections, and receiving low pay for their product, Russell switched his approach. 

Russell said he went from wanting to provide a variety of coffee from a plethora of areas to dedicating time and research on where his coffee is sourced and ensuring those farmers are fairly compensated. 

“I want to make sure they’re working on a living wage farm because the supply chain of coffee is very important from the farmer to the importer, the roaster and the barista,” he said. “It’s making sure every character in the supply chain is being paid well for their work.”

He traveled to Puerto Rico in 2023 to help film a documentary in which he interviewed local coffee farmers and construction workers about the importance of coffee in the every-day life of Puerto Ricans. 

“They drink coffee all throughout the day, and coffee is what brings the family together,” he said. “When you’re heading over to someone’s house, that’s sort of the courtesy thing in Puerto Rico, to make a cup of coffee. That was cool for me to see because coffee is something we adapt from other cultures.”

Russell also has partnered with Neighborly, a nonprofit with a water program that provides water purification tablets to people in Nyeri, Kenya so they can have access to safe drinking water. When people purchase a bag of Neighborly Blend coffee from Traveling Bard Coffee, the proceeds go toward the nonprofit’s water program, which Russell said is rewarding.

When asked if the raveling bard of Traveling Bard Coffee has found the best cup of coffee in the world, Russell said there always are new coffee flavors being created, so the best cup could still be out there to be discovered. 

Russell said the coffee industry is seeing innovations more from coffee farms rather than baristas as farms experiment with co-fermentations. 

“I’m always finding something that surprises me,” he said.