Marketing & Communications Manager Mark Overbay was born on a U.S. Air Force base just outside of Jacksonville, AR. After his father’s tenure as an air traffic controller ended, the family moved to Jackson, MS, and then to Kingsport, TN, where he grew up in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Mark received degrees in English and Philosophy from Davidson College, where he played a bit of golf between studying, intramural basketball, and shifts at the college library. He spent his summers during college teaching golf and working with kids at North Carolina’s Camp Sea Gull; and he studied abroad at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, which also allowed him to explore much of Western Europe. While living in New Orleans during the summer after graduation, just as he was preparing to pack his bags for graduate school, he decided to take a job with YES! Magazine in Seattle, WA, where he enjoyed a year of great espresso before becoming a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Zimbabwe. Upon returning to the United States, Mark settled in Washington, DC, where he held positions including Senior Communications Analyst at the national office of the American Diabetes Association; Staff Writer at The Advisory Board Company, a healthcare research and consulting firm; and Communications Manager at the United Fresh Produce Association. A regular at murky coffee for years, he left DC for Durham to join Counter Culture in March 2006, and continues to say it’s one of the best decisions he has ever made.

Q: What coffee are you currently drinking?

This time of year, I start every day with an iced Americano made with either Espresso Toscano or Espresso Aficionado. I’m also really enjoying the fresh crops of Finca Mauritania, Finca El Puente, and Koke … basically whatever is fresh and in season.

Q: Choose your favorite coffee and brewing method.

This is like choosing a favorite genre of music, piece of art, or type of apple – impossible. However, I love the elegance, simplicity, and effectiveness of the French press. My favorite coffee, at this very moment, is Finca Mauritania—so sweet!

Q: Who at Counter Culture Coffee would you most like to arm-wrestle, and why?

Can I arm-wrestle the printer in my office? It needs to be taught a lesson.

Q: What is your favorite book?

Another impossible question! Harold McGee’s On Food & Cooking is indispensable nonfiction, but then again, so are Orwell's essays, all Thoreau, and John Berger’s Ways of Seeing. In fiction, I truly love Dante’s Inferno; Milton’s Paradise Lost; Hemingway’s In Our Time; Achebe's Things Fall Apart; and many books by people such as Vonnegut, Faulkner, Joyce, Harper Lee, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty … I have to stop now, because I haven't even touched non-epic poetry yet.

Q: What keeps you busy outside of work?

Even though I’m an only child, I have a large extended family that I try to keep up with, which is both fun and time-consuming. I spend a lot of time reading and hanging out with the great new friends I’ve made here in the Triangle. A casual, small dinner party of 4-6 people is one of my favorite ways to spend an evening.

Q: Share an interesting fact you've learned about coffee while working at Counter Culture Coffee and name the person from whom you learned it.

I have and continue to learn so much here every day. Peter Giuliano is a walking coffee encyclopedia, and because he’s so passionate about what he does, his knowledge is truly contagious. I like to just walk into a room while he’s talking, stop, listen, and walk out knowing something profound and significant about coffee that I never knew before. The different flavor profiles exhibited by different coffee varietals, such as Typica and Bourbon, is certainly one of the most fascinating subjects that I have learned about.

Q: When you were 8 years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A ninja, jet pilot, or a professional bicycle freestyler.

Q: If you could beam yourself anywhere in the world for your lunch break, where would you go, and what would you eat?

While the new picnic table and deluxe umbrella are very nice, I’d love to return to the Spanish coast, just south of Alicante, and lunch on grilled fish, fried artichokes, blood oranges, pan-roasted almonds, and local wine. I might have to call in “full” for the rest of the day after that meal.

Q: Which Counter Culture Coffee customer is most likely to see you outside of work (i.e. where do you like to hang out)?

Shade Tree, Whole Foods Market, and Foster’s Market in Durham are regular stops. I’m also a member of The Weaver Street Market Co-op and stop by 3Cups whenever I can.

Q: Mark, you’re known around the office as quite the foodie. Since you dig on local, seasonal produce and we’re in the height of tomato season, please tell us about your favorite tomatoes—which heirloom varietal must we try at the farmer’s market? How do YOU eat the perfect tomato?

Heirloom tomatoes, like old heirloom apple varieties, are highlights of my life. Some of my favorite tomatoes are Cherokee Purple (smoky and sugary sweet), Pink Brandywine (mild, gentle flavor with low acid), Green Zebra (tangy!), Black Prince (sweet, juicy), Pineapple (large, meaty, fruity), German Stripe (large, soft, juicy, and very sweet), German Johnson (mostly sweet, with a little citrus tang), and hyper-sweet Sungolds, which I eat with every meal this time of year. My friends John Soehner of Eco Farm and Alice Pruitt and Stuart White of Bluebird Meadows grow some of the best heirloom tomatoes in North Carolina.

Great tomatoes are best enjoyed unadorned and sliced thick. Occasionally, I like to add few granules of salt just before eating. The end of tomato season is always sad for me, but it means that apple season is right around the corner.

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