Bikes, Las Termopilas, and a missed opportunity

This last month has been fairly productive around Olympia Coffee.

Sam attended the Nicaraguan Cup of Excellence panel as a Cupping Judge. This was quite the experience for Sam as well as Olympia Coffee, as we have started to create more of a global awareness to our commitment to quality coffee. Being a small coffee roaster comes with it's challenges, and one of those is sourcing quality coffees that normally are reserved for larger companies with more funding options.

On this trip Sam was able to meet with the owner of Las Termopilas. This coffee was the number four Nicaraguan Cup of Excellence winner last year and we were able to purchase a bag of this nice coffee via a partnership with Cafe Imports and a few other quality minded roasters.

This year Las Termopilas did not make the COE but the coffee is still quite nice and we have created a direct trade agreement with the help of Jared Rennie of Noble Coffee Roasting and Cafe Imports. This is a great event in the history of our company, and one that has significant meaning to all involved. Make sure you try some of this coffee when it arrives.

We started delivering to our wholesale accounts in Downtown Olympia Via a very cool Dutch Delivery Bike. We worked with local bike purveyor Larry Levine, of Oly Bikes to purchase this bright orange delivery bike. We then outfitted the bike with Panniers from Clever Chimp of Portland. The bike is way faster than the van, and we do not have to find a place to park! This thing is cool. So cool in fact that the local paper picked up the story. We like bikes and of course the exercise and the environmental benefits are a plus as well.

Ok, so times you win, sometimes you lose........ and in this instance we lost. Olympia Coffee was participating in the recent Nicaraguan COE auction, and was bidding on a lot with our past bidding partners as mentioned above. Unfortunately for us there was a communication break down during the auction and we missed the opportunity to purchase this coffee, bummer.

The good news is that somebody won this lot and somewhere in the world they will get to taste a great coffee. If you read this blog and you won the lot, maybe you could just send us a bag, as a conciliation prize?

Make sure if you are in Olympia, Passing through Olympia, thinking of coming to Olympia, that you swing by our Roasting Works and Cafe, we would love to show you around.