Joe + Barb DeSouza · Palm Coast, Florida

A lifelong love of coffee. One perfect storm.

Stormy Monday Coffee Roasters began long before our first bag was sold—with Brazilian coffee roots, New England coffee culture, a tiny home roaster, and a dream that waited patiently for the right time.

Joe and Barb DeSouza holding a bag of Stormy Monday coffee — Joe + Barb DeSouza · Founders

Meet Joe + Barb

From New England winters to Florida storms.

We’re Joe and Barb DeSouza, New England transplants who moved to Palm Coast in 2004—just in time to be welcomed by the rowdy greeting committee of Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne.

We both grew up visiting Florida with our families and later vacationed here with children of our own. Like good New Englanders, we always knew we would move south someday. After a few more winters with more than 100 inches of snow, we decided there was no reason to wait until retirement.

Chapter 01

“Coffee has always been in our genes.”

Where it really began

Brazilian roots. New England coffee culture.

Joe’s grandmother grew coffee in her backyard in Brazil, and he grew up enjoying excellent Brazilian coffee every day. Barb’s mother jokingly ran the “neighborhood coffeehouse” from her Maine kitchen, where friends and neighbors gathered around an endless supply of coffee and homemade treats.

In New England, independent micro-batch roasters were part of everyday life. Good coffee was never an occasional luxury—it was simply a daily requirement.

Chapter 02

1990s

Learning the craft

From green bean to cup.

Our roasting journey began in the early 1990s, when Joe completed intensive coffee-roasting training with Equal Exchange, a worker-owned fair trade cooperative that works directly with coffee growers. There he learned the entire process—from understanding green coffee to creating a finished cup.

Soon we were roasting at home with a tiny machine that sent plumes of smoke out an upstairs window all winter. In those early days of the internet, weekends became quests to find green-bean suppliers for our experiments. When we could not find beans to roast, we visited every independent roaster we could find.

We dreamed about the coffee company we would open “one day.” We wrote business plans, printed cards, and even owned the domain ultimatecup.com in the late ’90s. Yes, losing that one still hurts.

Chapter 03

2018

Stormy Monday arrives

The dream becomes a business.

Raising a family moved the dream to the background for a while, but the love of coffee—and the search for the ultimate cup—never left. In late 2018, the timing finally felt right, and Stormy Monday Coffee Roasters was born.

We opened an online shop and set up our tent at farmers markets in Palm Coast, Marineland, and St. Augustine. We loved meeting fellow coffee lovers and soon saw Stormy Monday coffee travel across the country and beyond—to the Bahamas, Haiti, and even India.

Chapter 04

Today

The perfect storm

A new chapter is brewing.

Life grew busy again in 2019 when two of our children got married. Then came 2020. As the world shut down, our plans for growth became plans for the future. Our public presence quieted, but we continued roasting for local customers, churches, and businesses.

Now everything is converging into what we like to call the “Perfect Storm”—the name of our most popular signature blend. We’re expanding our online presence, serving our local community, and introducing more people to our precisely Electro-Roasted™ coffee.

Why coffee matters

More than something we drink.

Coffee is part of how we live. Friends meet over it. Plans are made over it. Big decisions, first dates, business deals, comfort, laughter, and quiet moments all happen over coffee. It creates a reason to pause—and an opportunity to care for the person across the table.

Passion for coffee

We roast in small batches and pursue the flavor, aroma, and character that make a cup worth savoring.

Compassion for people

We believe coffee is at its best when it brings people together and makes room for conversation and community.

Roasted differently

Our carefully controlled electric process delivers consistent flavor without burning natural gas or propane in the roaster.

What comes next

A coffeehouse built for community.

Our long-term dream is a café with on-site roasting—a place where “Passion for Coffee · Compassion for People” can live under one roof, and where people can find a moment of refuge from life’s storms amid good stories, laughter, and the aroma of fresh coffee.

Taste our story