I blinked and now it is mid march - what happened?! Time flies when there is a space to build out, conventions to prep for, and events to participate in! All while keeping the ball rolling on Kickstarter production. Let's talk about what has happened in January and February.

The Roastery

Our new roaster is up and running (finally)! Say hello to our Mill City 15k roaster. This beautiful machine is our first roaster that we can truly call ours. Previously, we have been renting machines to roast coffee on and now, thanks to your support, we own our own machine! (We attempted to get our own machine sooner, but that is a tale for another day) I'll let Ethan dive into the intricacies of this machine with you all in another blog.

Installing the roaster was a mighty task. Roasters require ventilation and gas - both of which involved scheduling with our contractors (Shoutout to Johnny for being such a legend). The gas line was the most elusive problem to solve. After we got it to run, we discovered that our unit was not getting enough gas pressure to run the roaster, and to solve that was going to cost a hefty fee. Thus, we opted to swap out the burners in our roaster to operate with propane instead of natural gas.

Now we are finally back on track and no longer traveling between multiple locations to roast coffee. This means we can get fresh coffee ready for you all in a more timely manner, and at a better quality with the newer machine.

The Tavern

Our tasting room, of which we lovingly call "The Tavern", is open officially! We now have an espresso machine, espresso grinder, and an ice machine. Whilst we are still putting together various aspects, we can now brew any of our signature roasts for all the adventurers that travel to see us. You can also pick up our various merch and coffee roasts from us in person to save on those shipping fees. Please feel free to stop by and say hello should you find yourselves in our area! 

A New Member Joins The Party

In addition to the new upgrades at the HQ, we have also welcomed our latest addition to the team: meet Keaton, aka Axi! They will be aiding our quest to deliver our finest beans to the mortal realm. Axi has been helping us pack/ship orders as well as run our booths at various events. Look forward to seeing them around as we continue to grow. You can read more about them on our about us page!

Back to Black

This year we are proud to sponsor Back to Black, a GDQ event hosted by Black In A Flash! Black in a Flash is a community for Black speedrunners of all levels to convene, grow, work together, and uplift each other in their speedrunning journey while raising money for charity!

For this event we released another collaborative roast "Spiced Reset" - an event themed version of Barbarian, as well as an exclusive event tumbler! A portion of all sales was donated to the event charity Race Forward.

By the closing ceremonies, Black in a Flash raised a total of $53,242!

Genghis Con

Our first convention of the year was a local favorite: Genghis Con! This tabletop centric event is one we look forward to not only because it's hosted right here in Denver (technically Aurora), but we get to share this event with some of our favorite vendor buddies. This event saw the official debut of Axi and was the first one to feature the printed prototype of our one shot adventure! We got some excellent feedback from those that saw us at the event as well.

We also provided some of our coffee for the hotel to serve vendors! This was a mixed bag experience. The coffee was intended for vendors initially, but was consumed by all. When the coffee ran out (because we only brought enough for vendors), some adventurers were not too thrilled. We also couldn't brew it ourselves, the hotel had to do it.

Hopefully next time we can organize a better way to get our coffee for brewed for everyone. Thank you to everyone who had kind words to say for our Paladin roast!

Kickstarter Updates

Don't worry - there has been a lot of work behind the scenes to keep the ball moving on Kickstarter. We are currently in our window when we expected to begin fulfilling orders - and are hoping to begin doing so soon. There have been a few hiccups that have pushed back order fulfillment, all of which we have posted on our Kickstarter page.

First, coffee bags. We submitted our bag designs for production immediately following the end of our Kickstarter in December. The bags did not go into production until late February. Thankfully, to make up for the extended delay, we are getting expedited shipping from the bag manufacturer. As soon as the bags show up at our location, we can begin roasting the new coffees!

Secondly, the Grand Brewl has undergone some playtesting and is nearing the final stages before we send it off to be printed. We have also had some additional art for the adventure, and the reception to the prototype has really filled our cups. We can't wait to get it into the hands of backers!

Thirdly, plushies have experienced the biggest delay. Production has yet to go underway for them, as our manufacturer gave us a new quote that was drastically different from the initial quote that we received prior to our Kickstarter. Best yet, we got the pricing increase... after we sent out surveys. So, we had to find a new manufacturer or lose a lot money — we chose the former. Thankfully, we found one and are moving forward with development once more. Look forward to more updates on that front soon!

Meanwhile...

There are plenty more updates to share with you all in March already, including new merch, collabs, and events! Thank you all so much for reading about our happenings, talk to you again soon!