Shantyboat Hymns Limited Release Blend

Shantyboat Stories is a collection of short stories painter and writer Jim Draper has been working on with friend and editor Lynn Skapyak Harlin in her writer’s workshop on a shanty boat on Trout Creek in the historic Springfield neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida, for the last 10 years.

Shantyboat Stories paints rich tapestries of life in the South, spanning from Draper’s childhood in Mississippi to his life and career in Florida, to his second home in Appalachia. Draper explores human nature and nature without the humans under the drapery of Spanish moss, the guidance of his black nanny “Pie,” kayaking between mangroves in the Everglades, and the sweet tannins of southern swimming holes. Each story born and reared on Harlin’s shanty boat.

“Then I saw it. Everything I expected, and more. Plywood. Tin. The Shantyboat. ‘Be careful.’ The voice bellowed from under a khaki hat. Tight white curls framed her face, a Renaissance painting. A patron, an angel, a saint. Pack of cigarettes in one hand and a burning smoke in the other. The image chronicled some Medieval ritual. A scene not of this world. A Myth. Lore. Biblical…What was supposed to be a gang plank looked more like a death trap… ‘I’m not sure about this.’”

In this collection, Draper transports readers back and forth in time to see the nearly forgotten South of mid century Mississippi through the eyes of a child, flash forward to an accomplished art professor finding radical naturalism in an unexpected Florida neighborhood.

When I asked him how a coffee could best represent this work, he said “Black as hell. Lots of deep dark earth and water. Sweet and dark like a good swimming hole, surrounded by cypress trees.”

I immediately thought of Brazil, our darkest coffee, slow roasted just shy of second crack, when the caramelization is just past it’s peak. It also has a bright fruit flavor that roasts to a jam quality reminiscent of rhubarb pie. As for the cypress tannins and how sweet they make the water, this flavor rushed into my cheeks when he mentioned it, my own childhood memories of sweet cool swimming hole water on hot Florida days rushing through me. It’s a familiar sensation I experience every time I sip our lightest roasted coffee from Ethiopia.

“The water felt silky, tasted sweet. A dark tea steeped with oak leaves and pine. Palmetto. It protected me from the hand that pinched my nose and dunked me backwards. It wouldn’t let harm come to me.”

This blend, like Drapers exquisite tapestry of stories about The South, a primary character, is a complicated combination of contrasts. In coffee terms, it doesn’t make sense. You don’t mix light and dark roasted beans because they break up differently in the grind. But the proof is in the cup. Maybe it’s because even our darkest coffee is still technically a medium and not brittle like a true dark, or maybe it’s the magic of nature that transcends human understanding. Sip on it while you read the book and let us know how they pair.

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Draper's Substack