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Lucas Tulcan Washed Colombia

Happy Monday friends, and welcome to another blog post. I'm stoked to announce that Smooth Coffee Co.'s inaugural offering, a Washed Process coffee (read up on what Washed Process means here) from Colombian producer Lucas Tulcan, is now available for your enjoyment.

Through my sensory review process I found that this coffee enjoyed a little extra time in the "development" stage of roasting. This brought its sweetness, acidity, and body into balance, hitting on some darker, richer notes while maintaining a soft mouthfeel and mild acidity.

One of the key differentiators in how I intend to market my roasts is focusing on sensory descriptions instead of flavor notes when communicating what these coffees are roasted to taste like. Flavor is extremely subjective and I've found tasting notes on a bag can be really polarizing, turning people off of a brand or an origin because the cup they brewed didn't taste like what the bag said it would. Turns out, brewing good coffee is pretty tough.

Instead, I'd like to offer up descriptions and resources that offer a compass, or a set of metrics, by which the people who taste my roasts can compare their sensory experience to the one I intend for them to have with any given coffee. Is your brew tasting muddled or drying? Try a little less coffee. Is your brew thin and acidic? Try grinding a little finer. Does your brew taste like the sweetest, most comforting and delicious cup of diner coffee you ever had? Well, for this Washed Process Coffee from Lucas Tulcan, you've nailed it.

If you would like to pick up some of this delicious coffee please email me at noah@smoothcoffeeco.com, or DM me through Instagram @smoothcoffeeco. My refillable containers fit 4oz of coffee at a time, and personal containers are always welcome. HMU!

Business Updates

In other business news, there isn't much of any. No response from the bank regarding a loan, no follow up on any potential investor conversations. I did have the chance to make the acquaintance of some local startup-minded people who I'll be meeting with this week to brain dump and talk business strategy with, and hopefully that leads to finding a more sure-footed path forward. In the meantime, here are my ongoing thoughts.

I could keep in a holding pattern until I find a way to raise the money to either be eligible for a loan or find a private investor who believes in me, my roasts, and my vision, roasting coffee 42g at a time in my sample roaster until that time comes. I could then pick up a 7 or 12 pound roaster and immediately dive into the world of wholesale and retail coffee roasting, trying to land accounts and service cafes like Ad Astra Bread Co. in Monterey who does 100-125 pounds of coffee per week.

I could also dial back the vision a bit, maybe do some crowdfunding and small private sales, provide direct-to-consumer local retail sales and wholesale to smaller programs like Foolhardy and Rudolfo's Cafe with a 1 or 2 lb roaster and operate with a cottage or home enterprise license. This would drastically limit my initial earning potential, but perhaps would be more sustainable while working on my family's food truck park business and having a full time job.

I would love to be able to sustain myself off of coffee right away, but figuring out how to make that happen is going to take some time. In the meantime, I'll keep busting out these little 4 ouncers and just try to earn back the cost of the coffee I bought in the first place.

TTFN

That's all for today friends. Thanks for reading as always, and if anyone has 10 g's they're tryna offload, or is just tryna pick up some tasty bean, hit a homie up. Peace and love<3

Cheers,

Noah