Even before anyone knew why Jay and Kristen Ruskey mysteriously died in their sleep on February 8, the shell-shocked team at Frinj Coffee was hustling to ensure that the tragedy would not trigger the company’s demise.
Just eight days after the Frinj cofounders passed — and nearly a month before authorities announced on March 12 that an accidental carbon monoxide leak caused their deaths — the press release about new executive roles seemed almost too fast for those in mourning.
But the more important message was clear: Frinj would survive, carrying on the Ruskeys’ groundbreaking quest to make Southern California a world-class region for growing coffee.
“It was quite a gut punch to all of us,” said Frinj cofounder Andy Mullins, an early coffee farmer in Temecula and the company’s first investor who went from board chair to CEO last month. “Losing your founder, especially someone like Jay, creates shockwaves not only inside the company but in the market in general.”
That’s why Frinj management moved quickly to protect the company’s future. “We’ve focused as a team on how we can stabilize the company but also communicate as much as we can to all the networks of supporters and fans,” said Mullins, noting that everything was going very well in 2025, with 65,000 pounds of coffee picked. “We had our best harvest last year and are now busily processing the results.”
Indeed, according to Mullins — and Ruskey, before he died — Frinj, which began in 2017, was very much ascendant again, following a couple years of typical startup turmoil. There was an investment that fell through, leading to outsized loan obligations, which a crowdfunding campaign nearly covered. But then came a lawsuit from a former employee, so the company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2024.
Over the next year, they settled the suit and raised $3 million. “That gave the company the capital to settle the Chapter 11 process and have the operating money to reposition the company, which we did beginning last June,” said Mullins.
As part of that reorganization, Frinj ended their lease on the Ruskey family property in the hills of western Goleta, which is known as Condor Ridge Ranch and home to their innovative farming company, Good Land Organics. While the family plans to continue farming the coffee and selling beans to Frinj, the headquarters were moved south to a much larger processing facility in Ventura, close to the three Hobson Family Farms properties that are home to more than 19,000 coffee trees.
“We’re really committed to this, and like the idea of having the processing facility within seven minutes of the largest farm that Frinj has in its network,” said David Armstrong, who spearheaded the coffee project for the Smith-Hobson family and is now chair of the Frinj board. “We’re actually trying to work out where Frinj is more involved in our production on the growing side. We’re trying to make it more of a true partnership than just being a supplier of coffee.”
The current Frinj network is about 45 farms from San Diego up to San Luis Obispo, down from the peak of more than 70 a few years ago. The 2025 harvest pulled from 24 of them, amounting to about 5,000 pounds of sellable coffee.
Much of that is sold as green beans to coffee roasters across the state and world. “That has been one of our continuing and strong performers in terms of revenue,” said Mullins. Frinj’s recent debut at the Dubai Coffee Auction, which Jay and Kristen both attended, is only increasing international attention.
The company continues to pursue hospitality relationships, particularly with The Steward Hotel in Goleta, where it is the in-room coffee, and at the Ventana Inn in Big Sur. “That’s growing slowly but coming along quite well,” said Mullins, noting that there will be a botanical line of coffee syrups coming out next year with a line of teas also in the testing phase.
Montgomery is still developing a direct-to-consumer, tasting-room-like experience at one of the Hobson Family Farms in Ventura. “We have a 3,500-square-foot farmhouse that’s vacant that we would really like to see become a hospitality center for tasting and to provide a full immersive experience,” he said, explaining that the nonalcoholic beverage may appeal well to the younger, health-obsessed generations more so than wine. “We may have a broader audience, perhaps, but that same kind of experience.”
The Dubai debut sparked dozens of serious inquiries from people wanting to visit anything related to Frinj. “We really think there is an international opportunity to create something unique here,” said Montgomery, whose farms also grow the uncommon citrus species and tropical plants that the Ruskeys championed in Goleta. “We’re aiming at chefs and connoisseurs who are the influencers. With this project being 60 miles from downtown L.A., we have a real opportunity to create some energy.”
On the farming front, Frinj offers 13 different types of coffee tree varieties that they fostered over the years, sold through Terra Bella Nursery in San Diego. They’re seeing a good amount of interest from vineyard owners right now, as the wine industry slumps.
Creating, developing, and sustaining new farms and farmers was probably Jay’s strongest suit. “He was our agronomist,” said Mullins, who’s engaged farming experts to help fill those voids. “We’re just beginning to rebuild. That’s going to take time. It will never work exactly the same way. Essentially, it will require a team of people to cover all those bases that Jay built over a 20-year period.”
Friends of Frinj such as Kent Bakke, the retired CEO of La Marzocco, and renowned coffee expert Lindsey Bolger, who worked for Keurig for 15 years, are reengaging as well. “These people are stepping up their game to be more vocal,” said Mullins, who is excited to bring Frinj to the World of Coffee in San Diego next month. “You’ll see the whole team repping Frinj and rebuilding those communication pathways.”
But with the Ruskeys so entrenched in the soul of the company, the battle will probably always be a bit uphill. “We will never be able to replace Jay, even though we’re trying to have different people do what he was doing,” said Montgomery. “The big part of that was just his warmth of personality, his friendliness, his willingness to help people out at the drop of a hat. He was just a wonderful person, and affected a lot of people, as we’re finding with his passing. That’s the really tough part.”
See frinjcoffee.com.
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