Ranch Life

Life on Zaca Creek Ranch is much like life has been on the beautiful Central Coast of California for generations. It's all about the land still largely undisturbed. It's still about grazing cattle on the grass nature provides although, we must admit, the cattle now share that pasture with some forty alpacas and llamas. Our days are dictated in large part by those animals — feeding the horses, checking fences, gathering and doctoring a sick cow or calf. The ranch boasts a varied topography of rolling hills and deep oak canopied canyons. The opportunities for hiking or riding are endless. It's a good example of the Central Coast of California as it existed hundreds of years ago and will stay that way if we can manage it.

Our choice is to maintain the pastures in their natural state, not clearing the native oaks for any non-native or irrigated crops. The Ranch provides for the cattle and camelids that roam the hills, and it is all circular.

In the late afternoon when hills begin to reflect the orange and blue hues of the sun setting to our west, we get a breeze off the coast not far to the southwest. It reminds us that Zaca is minutes from the cold waters of the Pacific splashing along the rugged Gaviota Coast. That’s when we are reminded of how lucky we are to live “where the land meets the sea," a place where the vaquero tradition lives and helped spawn a new tradition--los vaqueros de las olas. Cowboys and surfers, less different than you might think, bound by a common love of this land. 

We created Zaca Coffee to capture the natural and authentic lifestyle we all enjoy on the Central Coast. We hope you enjoy your coffee, and will come visit us some day on the Ranch where our blends were first “born and brewed.”