No Foolin'

Welcome to the inaugural blog post for Smooth Coffee Co, a startup coffee roaster in Monterey County whose mission is " Making modern coffee accessible to anyone."

My name is Noah, and if you're reading this you probably know me already so I'll skip the intro. Suffice it to say that I love coffee, I love people, and I love people who love coffee.

These blog posts will serve to keep you informed of the progression of this project as it grows, as well as a place for me to reflect on the growth of my business and keep track of my week-to-week goals.

My goal will be to post weekly, on Monday mornings, with at least 2 categories to update you on. I hope you feel encouraged to comment here or engage through social media on these topics, and if you ever have a question or want more information on any topic discussed here or otherwise, please feel free to contact me through Instagram or via email at noah@smoothcoffeeco.com.

And with that, let us begin.

This week in Smooth Coffee...

Packaging and Labels

One of the values I'm instilling in Smooth Coffee is sustainability. One of the ways I am going to accomplish this is through choosing truly compostable retail coffee packaging. Compostable coffee bags, especially on a national/international scale, are extremely prone to greenwashing simply because they require commercial facilities to be composted and these facilities are few and far between; only around 5000 of these facilities exist in the US, with the majority accepting only yard trimmings. Non-compostable coffee bags also are not recylable anywhere due to the liners that come on the inside of these bags.

So, to live up to this value of sustainability, I'll be utilizing rigid cardboard tubes from Papertube Co., and compostable stickers from Greenerprinter for Smooth Coffee's retail packaging. You can see examples of the package sizing as well as the first Smooth Coffee Co. sticker below.

These containers are untreated, food-safe, and will be printed with vegetable and soy-based inks. The stickers are printed with the same kind of inks and use a compostable adhesive that can break down in ambient temperature. This means that, after a container has been refilled (a local service we will offer from the getgo) or reused for its useful life, it can be composted at home making this a far more sustainable option than any lined coffee bag. They also look rad, and will look even cooler once packaging design is completed.

We are fortunate in Monterey County to have an extremely modern waste management program. But employing the most responsible practices possible to minimize our waste footprint will always be top of mind at Smooth Coffee, and this is the first way in which we are actualizing this value.

Complete home composting testing will take place once the fully printed versions of these containers arrive in a couple months, along with online guides for best home composting practices and other ways the containers can be used at home to reduce purchases of less sustainable materials and home goods.

The Samples Have Landed, pt.1

Some of the most time consuming legwork for starting up this roastery will be selecting initial coffee offerings. Over the past year I have been developing a sensory review protocol/procedure that will serve as the foundation for Smooth Coffee roasting operations. This protocol is a moderately time consuming process, requiring 3 rounds of sensory review with at least 3 days between reviews. I want to start with 4 offerings this August, two of which will be blends of 2-3 origins, so there's a lot of work to do and I am STOKED for it.

This week we're going to start exploring 5 samples from Burundi, a washed coffee from Ethiopia, and an offering from a regionI've never heard of before: Flores, one of the lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. The flavor notes from the importer describe the Flores offering as having notes of "toffee and cocoa with mild fresh coffee cherry flavors. Tart citric acidity and fruit-like sweetness." I rarely see Indonesian coffees on the market as it is, so having the opportunity to taste a coffee from this subregion is really exciting to me! Next week we'll talk about first impressions of these coffees, some nerdy details on the roast profiles and where they're going next, and lastly go into the thought process behind choosing the next round of samples.

Money Matters

Last week I submitted for an SBA loan. There is nothing to report on yet, but this is truly the first major step to acquiring the resources necessary to start this business. I will be setting up some kind of pre-sale of coffee in the future to help build funds to kickstart the product cycle, so keep an eye out for that on Instagram sometime in mid to late Summer. In the mean time, I will keep you apprised of how the loan process is going and, hopefully soon, how soon my roaster will be landing on my doorstep.

TTFN

Thanks so much for reading. I cannot wait to get some coffee in your hands to try and have you along for the ride. Talk to ya next week!

Cheers,

Noah