Hidden Gems: Meet Johncie Thomson and Mike Bowen of Mythic Goat Coffee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Johncie Thomson and Mike Bowen. They share their story with us below:

Mike Bowen is a native of Arizona and a proud supporter of small businesses. His love for coffee began as a child when he would sneak sips from his mom’s coffee mug while she got ready every morning. This blossomed into his first gig in the industry as a Barista at a local Mom and Pop shop in Phoenix called Mama Java’s. After learning the tools of the trade and fully immersing himself in coffee shop life, Mike moved on to work in multiple fields within the industry; barista, wholesale delivery driver, manager, apprentice roaster, as well as sales. Mike even helped a few coffee shops open from the ground up, training new baristas, and setting up shops with a proper working flow and quality ingredients.

Aside from coffee, Mike has owned and operated two successful companies; a recording studio and corporate lighting/sound business, for the last eight years. Unfortunately, with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, both of these companies have been frozen until further notice. Rather than waiting for things to turn around, Mike and his absolutely wonderful partner, Johncie decided to test their resilience and take matters into their own hands. Combining their deep love of coffee with their passion for creating wonderful guest experiences, they built the company you see before you today.

Johncie Leigh Thomson is a fun, passionate, hard-working, and kind-spirited woman. She is deeply driven by the need for equality, compassion, protection, justice, representation, and humanization for all. A woman of action, she is an organic organizer and volunteer with Vote Save America and local AZ campaigns. To keep her soul singing, Johncie spends time with the humans who make her better, the rescue animals that make up The Farm, and talking sports with anyone who will listen!

Professionally, Johncie is a seasoned bartender and has been featured on several radio shows, news segments, and magazines over the course of her career. After garnering the attention of senior executives as a bartender, she was promoted to Corporate Beverage Manager, training and establishing some of the most successful bars in the state. Presently, Johncie is also the lead sales rep for PHX Beer Company while also promoting Mythic Goat Coffee and rolling out our distribution program.

We launched Mythic Goat together on September 1st, 2020. Everything about our company is handled by the two of us (website design, sales, roasting, packaging, shipping, etc…). We strive to be sustainable, community driven and have a really good time loving life.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
So far, so good! Like anything one tries to do independently, there are absolutely obstacles along the way. Creating an E-commerce space for a product like coffee in a market that is completely saturated was probably our biggest step to overcome. In a “click-buy-ship” world, we found we needed to stay true to our vision while creating a brand that is exciting to set us apart from the rest. Online marketing and social media are incredibly useful and can bring success in the form of more traffic on your website. However, smaller companies like Mythic Goat simply do not have the budget to compete with better-known brands on the same scale. So being creative and genuine with our brand has become the best method for us in regards to community reach and retention.

Zero ego, all-inclusive, true to ourselves.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Mythic Goat Coffee strives to be sustainable, accessible, and always true to who we are and what we represent. Our goal is to provide you with the absolute freshest coffee by hand, roasting in small batches every week. Ensuring the coffee you buy from us hasn’t been sitting in a container or on a shelf for two months waiting to be packaged. Most of our orders are roasted and shipped within 48 hours, allowing for the coffee to degas and arrive fully rich and ready to enjoy.

On the packaging side, we aim to be fully sustainable by using 100% compostable packaging. Our coffee bags, labels, and (most) shipping parcels are 100% compostable. Other companies are using foil bags, plastic liners, etc… which immediately go into the garbage adding the world’s waste problem. Knowing that the industry is saturated with single use trash, we chose to be different and invest in sustainable packaging wherever we can. We also compost 100% of the coffee ground we use while making large batches of cold brew for distribution.

All of our coffee is roasted by hand, using only our senses. No computer systems, automation, or shortcuts here. We listen to the coffee as it roasts, watching for the coffee to reach its perfect level of roast profile, and pull the coffee once it is at its peak.

Mythic Goat partners with our local community, as well as our friends/affiliates around the country. We have an affiliate program called our G.O.A.T.S, where we partner with artists, E-sport competitors, and other content creators. They get a custom discount code to share with their own communities, and in return they receive discounted coffee, swag, and compensation. In addition, we feature each of them on our website with links to their content. We also help fundraise and donate our products to local charities and recreational groups when the opportunities are available. Coming up in November, we are setting up a free coffee stand for a golf tournament for Mikey’s League. A group created to provide inclusive sporting leagues for kids/adults with disabilities. We also just recently created a custom blend for the local band Katastro to sell while on tour!

We love music, art, life, animals, and being outdoors (not always in that order).

Who else deserves credit in your story?
We are truly fortunate to have fostered many amazing relationships over our lives. Between our friends and family in multiple industries we have had so many opportunities to collaborate and grow. To anyone reading this who knows us personally… THANK YOU.

Our professional networks have been crucial in allowing Mythic Goat to grow with great enthusiasm. We are just so thankful to any and everyone who has given us a chance and tried our coffee! Whether it be our customers who have bought our beans online or local businesses that have linked arms in collaborations or carrying our cold brew.

Lastly, our chief coffee supplier, Gino. Without him and the amazing relationships he has cultivated with farms all around the world, we wouldn’t have had this opportunity. His knowledge and assistance as we came to launch has been invaluable. We want to thank Gino for his friendship. We also want to thank all of the farmers who work for a living growing and harvesting a treasure that is a part of so many daily rituals worldwide, 24/7.

Contact Info:

• Email: mythicgoatcoffee@gmail.com
• Website: www.mythicgoatcoffee.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/mythicgoatcoffee
• Facebook: facebook.com/mythicgoatcoffee

Image Credits
Janna Nicole Photography David Hagen Media