One of America’s Top Breweries Has Been Pretending It’s a Winery for 25 Years

Nestled in the eastern foothills of California’s Santa Lucia Coastal Mountain Range sits Paso Robles, a city of more than 30,000 that is mostly known for its wineries. “Mostly” because amongst the chaparral landscape, part of the fourth-largest craft brewing company in America also resides. Having approached making beer and running a brewery like a winery for 25 years now, Firestone Walker Brewing Company continues to stand out in a crowded industry of more than 8,000 craft breweries.

A sprawling nine-point-seven-acre solar field was newly installed last year on the “estate” grounds. Every step cofounders David Walker and Adam Firestone have taken in these past 25 years aligns with how a generations-old family winery would do things. And it clearly works. We caught up with Walker to discuss these 25 years at the forefront of showing brewers a different path.

Firestone Walker

Gear Patrol: Congrats on 25 years, how does that feel?

David Walker: It feels great. You know, it feels like forever and the blink of an eye. The biggest evolution is seeing how the brewery is a sort of an extension of those 25 years and each building, each piece of equipment, each decision we’ve made, each person we’ve added is just sort of another brick in the wall. And it’s a great feeling.

Q: You installed one of the largest onsite solar arrays in brewing and your water recycling program has been at the forefront of the beer industry for a long time. How necessary are those steps, especially given your proximity to climate change-caused disasters every year?

A: I think there’s a number of things. First, it aligns with our personal desires and culture. I would say just about all the folks at the brewery are sensitive to climate change and, most importantly, live in the community that we produce our beers. For us to be good neighbors is reflexive to us. Plus, we’ve always run incredibly efficiently — brewers have done that for thousands of years. Most of the moves you make in order to achieve sustainability, align with prudence and efficiency and you recycle, reuse, repurpose all of those things. Obviously, we’re very lucky to be in California because of the abundant sunshine. So it’s sort of a no-brainer to harness that.

Q: Being located in wine country is one thing, but Firestone Walker has always taken an approach similar to how a winery does things. How much of a conscious role did that sort of operation play in how Firestone Walker operates?

A: Well, we were sort of born under the ears of a family winery. My partner, Adam Firestone, was running a third-generation family winery and that’s when we decided to start the brewery — our first facility was on a 40-acre vineyard. We were very impacted, obviously, by wine culture. We didn’t start a craft brewery as a disruptive counterculture brand. We started it as an evolution of our fascination with taking stuff from soil to glass. And it was very natural that beer was gonna follow the same evolution as the American wine industry had from the early ‘70s.

We saw everything through the lens of wine culture. We integrated wood into our brewery in very early days because we felt comfortable with wood. We blended. Brewers don’t traditionally set out to blend beers — winemakers have to, they’re at the mercy of fruit, vintages and a whole series of other things that we don’t have to cope with as brewers. We blended from the word go, DBA itself is a blend — it’s a blend of an English Pale Ale, one that went through primary fermentation in 60-gallon clean American oak wine barrels and the other stainless steel. So the very first beer we made was a blend. So the point is, we’re wine guys making beer.

Firestone Walker

Q: On that note, DBA just got a makeover. How did it come to be that was the first beer you brewed?

A: It was heavily influenced by English Pale Ales. Adam and I, we love those beer styles. So an English Pale Ale was natural for us. It also was a natural for the American palate in 1995. Americans had been somewhat disinterested when they needed something that had flavor, but those flavors had to be familiar enough and coachable. You couldn’t just knock them over the head with wild, hop-forward beer because you had to give them something that was drinkable and fresh but had material — something with friendly taste differences to light American lagers. An English Pale Ale did all of those things and the ruby red color just made a big difference.

We make a sublime beer in Pivo Pils, but we couldn’t have launched our brewery on the back of that. There was just no contrast, no visual contrast for a consumer who was still trying to discover what the hell these small breweries were doing.

Q: How do you think the American palate has changed over these 25 years?

A: God, it’s a great question. I think it’s become more adventurous and engaged. I think when we started, the American palate expected nothing. They drank beer for refreshment and good times. Since then, the American palate slowly realized, Hang on a second, I’m looking for flavor and complexity and provenance and local stories. Since you’ve started to layer on all of those dynamics, the American palate is what I call rapacious now. It’s chasing everything. You could say that American craft beer has sort of completely disrupted. Certainly the alcoholic beverage world, now you have a whole range of different beers and beyond beers that are sort of seeping into the market.

Firestone Walker

Q: Matt Brynildson has been your brewmaster for two decades. How has that consistency, along with the fact that he is one of the best brewmasters in America, helped Firestone Walker grow and evolve into what it is today?

A: He’s the vision for the beers. We’ve had a sort of continuous narrative, in terms of the way that we make beers and the style of beers. And this, once again, speaks to our roots in wine. Wineries tend to sort of grow: you create an estate and you create a beautiful vineyard and then you place a winemaker at the center of it and you hand them the keys. Matt, from a brewing standpoint, has the keys to the brewery. He’s obviously very connected to and aligned with what Adam and I like and see as relevant beers, but he’s not asking for advice on how to make them.

Q: 805, a beer that is sparsely distributed but makes up close to 60 percent of what you brew, has been your overwhelmingly most popular beer in the past decade. How has that played a role in your growth over that time?

A: It was huge serendipity. We never set out to create a brand of 805 scale. Truly we were curious craft brewers trying to make the perfect beer and develop a healthy brewery. When 805 caught the imagination of a broad range of palates, you know, our brewery just took off. The positive side to that was it was extraordinarily gratifying to see. The challenge with that is we had to build a brewery because it was our intention to brew every drop of that beer. We had to build a brewery to manage it and that was a huge capital raise. We now have a brewery that can cope with the future of 805 and can help manage its popularity.

Q: You had to unfortunately cancel the Firestone Walker Invitational Festival this year for the second time in a row. What do you see as the future of beer festivals and are you planning on having the Invitational comeback post COVID when things are safe?

A: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that without question we do. I can’t fathom life without congregating. I’m not willing to just say that was some weird social habit people had prior to COVID.

Q: For Firestone Walker on the whole, how has the past year been dealing with all this?

A: I think we’ve become a lot closer and we’ve had to all understand the virus and how it reacts and where our challenges are in terms of how we work — our work-life balance. It’s been sort of cathartic in some ways, in terms of helping us all understand the sort of stuff that’s necessary to work and to make beautiful beer and the stuff that’s unnecessary. So that piece has been a learning curve for everybody. We’re blessed we make beer and people want beer, so we’ve been busy the whole pandemic. I mean, because of things like not having the Invitational and not having folks come to our brewery, all the small-batch beers that we made that were just too small to distribute, we opened up a Brewmaster’s Collective, which is a membership program whereby you can sign up and get these beers. Once we realized we created this platform, all of a sudden, it’s like, okay I can now make even smaller batches of beer and even rarer offerings because we know that we’ve got a very definable amount of people who want it. We never had that sort of sniper ability before, it was always left to the smaller brewpubs. Now we can and it’s pretty satisfying.

Ryan Brower

Q: A few other breweries have recently launched these private memberships. Those smaller batches, tying into the whole wine theme, I think of vintners reserves and private label juice that only certain people can get. Do you think we’re gonna see more of these private clubs in brewing?

A: Yeah, I would hope so. You’ve got 11,000 wineries out there. And I would say, all operate clubs like this and the consumer should have access to these things. My hope is that small craft brewers can have all the same benefits as small wineries. Beers that we’re putting into our club, are breathers, designed for shipping and designed in many cases to be aged. It’s a no-brainer.

Q: America went over 8,000 breweries last year and is still growing. Do you think we’re starting to hit a saturation point? Or do you think there’s still room for more growth?

A: The small brewery, where you’re selling your beer direct-to-consumer is a very healthy model for a brewer. People can open up a small brewery in a small community, brew beer and make a great living — it’s a great lifestyle and they’re doing what they love. So people will continue to be drawn to starting breweries, I think, forever. I’ve said many times, there are 11,000 wineries in America, and they’re constrained by climate. I can see the 8,000 brewers continuing to increase for the reasons that I’ve just given you. I think it’s a different mindset that starts a brewery. I think it’s gonna be hard to start a brewery with a view of making it a half-million barrel brewery, but I think there’s a lot of people who will see it as a small family winery.

Q: It’s been a little over five years since Firestone Walker was acquired by Duvel Moortgat [which also owns Boulevard and Ommegang]. What has that experience been like?

A: It’s been exactly as we’d hoped it would be. The Moortgat family are phenomenal brewers and they’re a small family-owned brewery. When we set out to build this third phase of the brewery, we needed an ungodly amount of money to do what we needed to do, or at least it appeared that way to us. So, we set out looking for a banker and we came back with a brewery. They’re the majority partner but Adam and I still have a material shareholding and run the brewery entirely, without any sort of operational involvement. They’re great mentors, good friends. We make more beer than Duvel, so it’s a real partnership. Moortgat is 150 years old this year and for us, one of our main intentions was to build a brewery that would last for 100 years. And, this helps us do that.

Ryan Brower

Q: I don’t know if I’ve ever read or heard the story behind your vintage Land Rover.

A: Olivia, she’s the same vintage as me. Born the same year, so she’s bloody old. She came out of a farm up in Sacramento and has been lovingly restored. She was a gift for my fortieth from the brewery. So she has her providence at the brewery as well. I’m not a classic car guy so as long as she works, she’s restored as far as I’m concerned. I always keep an obligatory pair of running shoes in the back because often I’ve had to abandon her and run the rest of the way. We used to do this thing called Walker’s Wild Ride. When we make some pretty potent wild ales, we treated those ales with dramatic fermentation so we wouldn’t even transport those beers in brewery-owned vehicles. So we had elected Olivia to move them around. She’s part of the crew. My partner Adam Firestone has a Willy’s Jeep he calls Kilroy. Occasionally we get them both out.

Q: What do you love about craft beer right now?

A: It’s still the people, nothing beats drinking beer brewed at the brewery around people in the brewery. And I know that sounds straight out of central casting, but it really is not. We have 500 or so folks who are part of this brewery and it’s just really great satisfaction knowing them and knowing we all sort of share what we’re doing.

A: On the other side of the coin, what do you wish was different about craft beer right now?

Q: I wish the pace of innovation would slow down. I wish we could get back to drinking an English Pale Ale fresh off the cask and all would be well. But now, just keeping up with the consumer is the most difficult thing. And that just seems to be accelerating. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle and as much as the consumer is promiscuous, that retailer then has to keep up with the promiscuous consumer, the wholesaler has to focus on constantly changing priorities. And then the brewer is constantly trying to sort of invent new beer styles. Great, amazing beers are being forgotten, and in some cases, mediocre beers are being created.

Firestone Walker

Q: What beer do you feel is most representative of Firestone Walker the best?

A: It’s not tough to pick one. It’s DBA. That beer, all our hopes and dreams as brewers and of building a brewery and in what we wanted to do as brewers, is wrapped up in that beer. We wanted to celebrate traditional beers and that beer was made in a traditional way. It’s a balanced beer, which speaks to our happy contentment as brewers. I like to say we want to make balanced beers, beers people want to drink. I drink DBA as often as I can.

Q: Any wisdom to impart over these 25 years?

A: Breweries are living, organic extensions of the folks that are part of them. You’ve got to stay engaged. If you’re not engaged, they quickly change and they get sick. As long as there’s passion and curiosity and excitement in a brewery, it’ll always grow and be a fantastic place to spend your time.

The 14 Best Tequilas You Can Buy in 2021

Henry Phillips

This definitive guide to the best tequilas of 2021 explores everything you need to know about the world’s most popular agave spirit, including important tequila terms — such as blanco, reposado and añejo — how to drink it and a list of the best tequila bottles and brands worth tracking down.

There is perhaps no spirit as villainized or misused as tequila. In America, it’s all about getting trashed; glugging with cheap margarita mix; doing shots that are so unpalatable you need to assault your own tongue with salt and acidic lime; toeing the line between lit up and throwing up. At least absinthe gets to be the bad boy.

Incredibly, that’s just the tip of the iceberg for tequila’s problems. Seven out of every ten bottles are exported out of Mexico, and 80 percent of those end up in the States. Our drinking culture, with its collegiate attitude toward the spirit, has reflected back on the way the spirit is now made, and its place in Mexican culture.

“Americans did fundamentally change the industry in Mexico,” says Chantal Martineau, a spirits writer and the author of How the Gringos Stole Tequila: The Modern Age of Mexico’s Most Traditional Spirit. “By the time official laws defined tequila in the 1970s” — it must be made using at least 51 percent blue weber agave, and only in five regions of Mexico — “the spirit had already gained popularity in the U.S., to the point where producers in Mexico were having trouble keeping up with demand. They had to change how they made the spirit, which modernized and mechanized it,” Martineau says.

And so the bar for tequila was lowered. We became consumers, largely, of what’s known as mixto — tequila made using only 51 percent agave and 49 percent non-agave sugars, usually cane sugars. If we broke tequila, however, we can also fix it. Made with 100 percent agave, our picks are affordable, expensive, subtle, aromatic and everything in between. These are the best tequilas you can buy.

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Best Overall Tequila: Espolòn Blanco

reservebar.com

$28.00

Cutesy branding and bottle shape aside, Espolòn’s blanco (and reposado, really) is among the best values in the agave spirit category. It’s made without diffusers or additives (common tack-ons meant to make bad tequila palatable), it’s available everywhere and it hovers between $20 and $30, depending on where you live. It’s the ideal budget mixer, and it’s fresh and well-made enough to drink over ice with a twist of lime. 

Best Upgrade Tequila: Siete Leguas Blanco

drizly.com

$49.00

“This is the brand that basically all tequila is based on,” says tequila expert Chantal Martineau. “The distiller here back in the day was poached by Patrón, whose recipe is based on this one.” A nastier characterization of that is that it was stolen. Its blanco is made using a blend of stone-crushed and mechanically shredded agave. “But what’s really amazing,” Martineau adds, “is that it’s made like mezcal, using the fibers of the plant not only in the fermentation but also in the stills during distillation. That creates intense flavors and a rich, almost velvety texture.” 

Best Budget Tequila: Cimarron Reposado

drizly.com

$27.00

“I love making a margarita with a reposado. It brings more spice and an extra layer of flavor,” Martineau says. “This one is great for [cocktails], and it’s only $22. I don’t know why it’s so cheap: it’s very well made by a prolific distiller. Because it’s so mellow, it’s also the perfect pour for someone who thinks they’re not into tequila because of that one bad experience in college.” 

Best Blanco Tequilas

Of all tequilas, blancos offer the purest expression of agave, Martineau says. They are “unaged,” though sometimes kept in a vat for several months to settle. “A really good blanco should have, above all, a very rich nose and body of cooked agave,” she says. “Besides that, there are so many different flavor profiles. Some are really green and herbaceous. Some have chocolate notes. Pineapple in some, jalapeño in some. The best ones have really interesting finishes, too, like pepper or mint. You see why in Mexico they drink tequila with food.”

Fortaleza Blanco

reservebar.com

$50.00

“This is made by the great-great-grandson of Cenobio Sauza, Guillermo Erickson Sauza,” Martineau says. “He’s not allowed to use the Sauza name anymore –a Spanish corporation bought the distillery and its name in 1976 — but he still owns some of the original family lands. It’s 100-percent tahona-milled. Guillermo was going to do the same thing Patrón does, where they make a blend using some agave that was tahona-milled and some that went through the more modern mechanical shredder. But then he tasted the 100-percent tahona-milled tequila and said, ‘I have to sell this.’ It’s more labor-intensive. But there’s something about the shredder — it shreds the fibers of the agave and introduces more bitter flavors, whereas the tahona more gently presses the agave.” 

Siembra Azul Blanco Tequila

drizly.com

$43.00

“This is a relatively new brand, created by David Suro, who does a lot of grassroots agave activism. He came up with a tequila made in a very traditional way,” Martineau says. “He is also known for putting so much info on the bottle. You can trace the bottle back to the individual plants used, what field they grew in. He started Siempre Azul to do tequila right, but also as another way to spread this awareness. It’s a labor of love, and a way to put into practice this idea of making tequila sustainably and in a way that respects its history and its people.” 

Tequila Ocho “La Magueyera”

This is a collaboration between the Mexican Tequila Ambassador to Europe, Tomas Estes, and a prolific distiller in the highlands, Carlos Camarena. “The whole idea was to create line of tequilas that are approached the way wine is,” Martineau says. “There are eight tequilas in the line, each one made from agave grown on a different estate. You can taste one next to the other and see what terroir brings to the table for tequila.” 

Chinaco Blanco

drizly.com

$40.00

“There is a new distiller making this tequila, and a lot of people would agree that it’s not the same as it used to be. But I still like it,” Martineau says. “It’s made in Tamaulipas, the one state that’s completely separate from the rest of the tequila appellation. For that reason, it tastes really different. Its agave is also cooked in an autoclave for 12 hours, rather than the brick oven method.” 

Best Reposado Tequilas

Reposado refers to tequila that’s been aged between two and twelve months in oak barrels. “The amount of time makes a huge difference,” Martineau says, and you can expect different flavor profiles to follow. It’s also worth noting the color of the spirit. “I always raise an eyebrow when I see [a reposado] that’s really, really dark,” she says. “It suggests to me that maybe color was added. I don’t mind seeing a light aged spirit because 11 months is not that long to spend in a barrel.” A good reposado should maintain the agave-forward flavor of a blanco but it’s going to show some barrel: sweetness, vanilla, spice. According to Martineau, however, the best examples are not overwhelmingly influenced by the barrel. “Reposado means rested, not aged,” she says.

El Tesoro Reposado

reservebar.com

$57.00

“This is also made by Carlos Camarena,” Martineau says. “A lot of distillers are just happy to have a recipe that works; Camarena never stops coming up with new things. There are a couple ways to approach tequila, and he’s wanted to do all of them. This one uses agave ground by tahona, and is aged up to 11 months in Kentucky bourbon barrels.” 

ArteNOM Reposado 1414

caskers.com

$61.00

“Another brand that does some interesting projects,” Martineau says. “This one is a twist on estates. Instead of switching where the agave comes from, they used the same agave but had three different distilleries make it. This one is from the distillery numbered 1414.” 

123 Organic Reposado (Dos)

reservebar.com

$57.00

While most reposados are rested in ex-bourbon barrels, this one is aged for six months in new American white oak. It’s both USDA and EU certified organic. “That’s important,” Martineau says, “because some biologists and botanists are concerned about the high level of pesticide and herbicide use on agave, which have caused problems with the health of the soil in tequila regions.” 

Best Añejo Tequilas

Añejos are tequilas that have spent anywhere from one to three years in barrels. After three years, the spirit becomes an extra añejo, which is a rather new category, Martineau says. “Maybe I’m biased here, but I think [some] añejos shouldn’t be. A lot of distillers come out with one to complete their line but aging a spirit is a whole other ballgame, and not every spirit maker knows how to do it.”

Still, there are good añejos out there. They’ll have more color than a reposado, though Martineau warns that very dark ones could be doctored with additives. “I think of [añejos] as something you reach for with dessert,” she says. “You still want that cooked agave, almost pumpkin flavor. But on top of that, you’ll find other flavors, too.” For example, the chocolate notes found in some blancos become sweeter, like milk chocolate, after aging.

Aging influences the weight and texture of a tequila, too. “Once it’s been left in a barrel for this long, you should expect it to have an almost syrupy quality to it,” Martineau says.

ArteNOM Seleccion 1146 Añejo

caskers.com

$90.00

“Just like the reposado 1414, there’s a wine bent [here],” Martineau says. “The añejo is aged in used Loire Valley wine barrels, then spends an additional year finished in bourbon casks. The Loire Valley is known for its white wines, and the tequila takes on a lot of dried fruit flavor from the wine barrels.” 

Tapatio Añejo

caskers.com

$59.00

“This is a good standard for a robust añejo,” Martineau says. “It’s another Carlos Camarena brand. Though it’s an 80-year-old brand, it’s only been in the U.S. for a little bit.” It’s from the highlands, and it spends 18 months in bourbon casks. 

Pueblo Viejo

wine.com

$31.00

“This is an undersung tequila for sure,” Martineau says. “It’s quite a good value for an añejo, considering it spends 18 months in Kentucky oak. It’s brick oven cooked, and mechanical milled. You won’t find it everywhere in the U.S., but if you can, it’ll be very, very affordable.” 

ArteNOM Fuenteseca Extra Añejo

oldtowntequila.com

$220.00

“This one’s crazy,” Martineau says. “It’s aged nine years and is a blend of 85 percent liquid aged in American oak and 15 percent aged in French oak. It’s super concentrated, and the kind of drink I’d need to have with a cigar.” 

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An Epic Made-in Portland Chef’s Knife and 6 More Home and Design Releases

Welcome to Window Shopping, a weekly exercise in lusting over home products we want in our homes right the hell now. This week: a clever wireless charger, coffee beans doing good and more.

Steelport 8-Inch Carbon Steel Chef Knife

Steelport

Most American kitchens are tricked out with stainless steel knives. Here’s a thought: go high-carbon steel. It’s sharp as hell, and it’s what most of the pros use in their day to day. Since 2007, Eytan Zias has been running The Knife House in Portland, Oregon. Now he’s getting into the knife-making world with his new brand Steelport, which launched in March with a $400 8-inch chef knife. What’s with the high price tag? It’s a full-tang knife with 65 HRC carbon steel, which means it’s extra sharp and durable. The knife’s design is meant to encourage a pinch grip, the best way to hold a knife. As a sign of respect to the state it’s made in, the handle is made of Oregon bigleaf maple. And remember, this is not stainless steel, so don’t let this knife stay wet for long and always dry by hand. Bob Kramer, looks like you’ve got some competition.

Price: $400

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New Belgium Piano Keys Stout

New Belgium

Atlantans are a lucky bunch of folks — they’re the only people who can grab New Belgium’s latest beer, Piano Keys Stout. Made in collaboration with craft beer enthusiast Ale Sharpton (real name: Dennis Malcolm Byron), the 10 percent ABV imperial stout is brewed with cocoa nibs, and the whole endeavor is meant to increase diversity in the craft beer industry. Two dollars from every purchase of a case of Piano Keys will go to BrewGether, which uplifts Black people in the beer industry; and $1 from every beer purchase from New Belgium tasting rooms will go to local non-profits in Fort Collins, Colorado and Asheville, North Carolina.

Price: $14/four-pack

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Houseplant Seth’s Ashtray Set and Oil Lamp

Peter Novosel

Peter Novosel

Seth Rogen’s new cannabis brand Houseplant might only be selling its grass in California and Canada, but the rest of the nation can still get in on Seth’s housewares. When the brand launched, the ashtray set sold out fast. Thankfully on April 6, the ashtray set is being restocked in a moss colorway (missed out on a weed reference). The set includes an ashtray with a notch for your joint, as well as a base that can double as another ashtray. And just for fun, the set includes a beautifully designed vase.

Accompanying the restock of the ashtray set is the new oil lamp. The setup pulls triple duty, operating as a candle holder, match holder and ashtray. Everything is built into the green marble base, which sets the mood for sparking up.

Price (Seth’s Ashtray Set): $85 | Price (Oil Lamp): $260

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Humanscale NeatCharge

Humanscale

Humanscale

As much as wireless chargers are meant to make your life easier by minimizing how many wires you have, wireless chargers themselves take up precious desk real estate. Humanscale’s answer to this is the NeatCharge, a wireless charger that attaches to the bottom of a surface that can charge your device on the surface. And just so you’re not sliding your phone around the table like a madman looking for a charge, you can affix a sticker on the surface so you know where the charger is located.

Price: $149

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Brightland Digestif Kitchen Candle

Jill Burrows

Our favorite cult-ish olive oil brand, Brightland, loves a good digestif, or what you drink after a meal to help you digest. Except Brightland’s stab at a digestif isn’t an alcoholic beverage — it’s a candle. Meant to be lit after a meal to refresh your kitchen and not your stomach, Digestif is aromatherapy at its finest, especially for the company’s founder.

“The Brightland Digestif kitchen candle is extra special to me because of its fragrance notes and what they mean to me: Vetiver is a plant native to South India, and so Digestif’s vetiver and black pepper notes immediately take me to my grandparents’ home in South India,” Brightland founder and CEO, Aishwarya Iyer says. “The orange blossom and neroli notes remind me of California’s gorgeous natural bounty, so I feel like a part of my heritage, history and personal story is poured into each candle.”

The candles are made in collaboration with Los Angeles-based sustainable candle company Flores Lane, and it’s made with Brightland’s very own olive oil.

Price: $42

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Humblemaker Coffee TACA Blend

Humblemaker Coffee

For Autism Awareness Month, California-based coffee roaster made a blend for The Autism Community in Action, a non-profit that supports families raising children with autism. All proceeds from sales of the TACA blend go to the organization, one that has a special place in the heart of Humblemaker co-founder Bryan Marseilles, who has two children on the autism spectrum. This coffee isn’t just all about doing good — it’s a good coffee in and of itself with notes of dark chocolate, vanilla bean and caramel.

Price: $18

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Heath Ceramics Summer Seasonal Collection

Heath Ceramics

Since 1948, Heath Ceramics in California has been making exceptional hand-crafted tableware and tiles. For its summer 2021 collection, the ceramics brand is focusing on the color blue, or more specifically moonstone. According to the brand’s principal designer, Rosalie Wild, the moonstone glaze has been around since 1971, and its use in this season’s collection is a celebration of its 50th anniversary.

Price: $29+

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