Muertos Coffee

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I posted a couple of weeks ago on my 2018 goals. I think I'm good with those and will lock them in. But looking back on 2017, there is a lot I have learned and a lot more I still need to learn.

I have been pretty much a die hard v60 user since I started brewing manually. I love that brewer. I love the idea of the spiral and that it requires more skill to use than others. I'm going to start serving at an outdoor farmer's market and had to reconsider my choice of brewer.

Its been a little over a month since I have posted a blog. I know I don't have a rabid audience, but still, I want to be consistent. This is where I work out most of my business. I will say that I have one pretty good excuse for not posting...I had a baby. My second girl arrived on 11/8. I have worked on coffee stuff, but just haven't had enough time or brain capacity to post. With the end of the year approaching fast, I figure I should start working on what I want to accomplish in 2018.

For my birthday a while back, we went to a new BBQ place (it was disappointing, so no free plug for the place). After dinner, I noticed a little bakery that was advertising coffee so we stopped in to try it out.

I have been trying to figure out who I am as a business. I know what I like to do and who I want to be, but I don't know how to put that together in a package and sell it. Customers want to know who the business is because most people invest in other people, not in businesses. I have had people come up and ask me about my company and I just don't have that elevator pitch yet. I need to know who I am before I can tell someone else. With that, I have had on my heart the idea of starting a YouTube show. I have always loved video and did some work there in a past life. I don't know what it would be, but will most likely be some sort of extension of this blog. With all that, I decided to contact my cousin and have a cup of coffee to discuss the possibility of the show.

I've been serving my cold brew for a few months now and thought it was time I shared how I make my cold brew, and recommend how to make your own cold brew just as good.

I've been thinking about my work lately. I don't think I realized how lonely it would get starting a business. Its not just that I do everything by myself, but that every decision, every move, every effort is just me...I'm a social person, so this is hard for me. I want to change this, but I'm not sure how to go about it...

I ran a social media discount at the gym this last weekend. I offered 20% to anyone who would post a picture and tag Muertos Coffee. Overall, it went really well...I did not get the results I expected, but I might have ended up with more.

I'm going to be trying a few more "firsts." My very first promotion and some re-soaked beans. Not sure how either of them will go, but this is my plan.

I am in the process of purchasing my next bag of coffee. It's a huge deal, because it is a major investment. It will literally clear my bank account out. I need this coffee to good...and not just pretty good....it needs to be Damn Fine. I love this, but it's hard. I only have 100g of 4 different coffee to make my decision on. These are the things I'm wrestling with....

It's late tonight and I know I'm not going to get to write at all tomorrow, so I want to get this blog down. Sorry, there aren't any pictures, mainly just working through how important customer service is. Here's why this is on my mind...

I've served coffee a few times and secured the rest of August, so I have 5 more weekends of serving. I'm feel'n really good about it which has spurred some questions. Am I profitable? Am I on track for getting a new bean before I run out? Is this building my business?

I know I missed my blog post last week, I apologize for that. To be honest, I was in the throws of a panic attack. Seriously...my chest was all constricted, I couldn't sleep, felt like I couldn't breath at times...sucked a lot. Why was I freaking out, you ask? Because I was about to cross the threshold and put myself out there. May sound silly, but that is the fear that stops 99.9999999999999999999999999% of people from taking their life from one place, to a better place. Looking back on it, that fear helped prepare, but there was no need for a panic attack.

The time has finally come. Time for me to get of my cave and interact with people in real life. hopefully we stay away from those tricksy hobbitses, precious.

I subscribe to a company called Deathwish Coffee. I reviewed them a long time ago. The coffee was not to my style, but I like the company. I like what they have been able to achieve and how they approach it. I was reading through one of their emails and actually stopped to notice their blog is called "Fueled By Death." I was like, "well, crap." There goes my hashtag and all my ideas around "life fueled by Muertos." So, I needed to come up with a new line and I think I have a good one (if it's not, that sucks because I just put it on 500 business cards).

I have defined my life by events that have changed me. We all have experiences where we were one person before and different person after. Becoming a father was probably the biggest mark on my time line.

We got back from California this weekend, and I failed pretty hard on my coffee plans. I was going to hit all 3 of my favorite coffee shops and barely only made it to one. We got in much later then I expected and just got caught up in trying to do everything we planned that my coffee trips got pushed to the back and then fell off. I did stop at Better Buzz, though. I really like this shop. This was my first time getting a pour over here. They had awesome equipment, but I wasn't a big fan of their technique. I call it the fill and empty. The barista was doing 2 things at once, so she would fill the v60 then go do something else while it emptied, then repeat a couple of times. I'm not a fan of this. Also, for $4.30 for 12oz cup, I feel like I should get a little dedicated time. I'm super bummed I couldn't hit the other 2 shops. We hit a couple of other places. One was a little cafe for breakfast that literally offered over 10 different types of coffee in air pots....

We pretty much head to Encinitas every Memorial Day weekend. This is one of my favorite trips. One, because I love the beach. I could sit on the beach all day long. Two, the food in San Diego (and surrounding towns) is awesome. And three, my little beach town has 3 amazing coffee shops.

My wife and I were invited to a little party out in Downtown Gilbert. It was a crazy long drive, but well worth it. It is like a little piece of Radiator Springs right in the middle of Arizona, minus the talking cars. I love this little street. If it wasn't an hour drive, I would spend a lot of time there. We were sitting out on the patio of one restaurant and I was longing to be at the BBQ restaurant across the street. Then I realized there was a little coffee shop across the street. It was getting late so my wife googled when it closed...I had 4 minutes before it closed. I hesitated for a  moment, but the walk signal turned on the cross walk switch to go and I made a break for it.

Since cold brew coffee is all the craze these days, and I had a bunch of coffee left over from my test batches, I figured why not give it a try. Plus, living in Arizona, a cold coffee option is a must or sales will drop almost too low during the summer months.

This is going to be a bid of a short blog post, because I am working on a little video of my taste test. I think what I will focus on here is the biggest lesson I learned. That is regarding the Millard reaction.

I have arrived at the conclusion that I need some help to get this business up off the ground. I have a habit of getting stuck in my thinking and need someone to bring fresh ideas to the table. So I reached out to a buddy of mine. We go quite a ways back. We worked together back when I was doing indie-film. I picked a place called Tim Finnegan's...having just listened to the song Finnegan's Wake, how could I not go here.

I had someone laugh about my "black death" coffee a couple days ago and it confused me. I was like, "what are you talking about?" He said, "yeah, you have skulls and stuff." I knew what he meant and I knew I wasn't going to change his view of my logo right then and there. All I could do (and can do) is love those people and share with them. So, that's what I'm doing here.

I purchased my Behmor from Seattle Coffee Gear. It was kind of a no brainer (no this is not an endorsement). They didn't charge tax or shipping...AND they gave me a free 1 lb bag of green coffee beans. It was the best deal. Since I didn't have to pay for those green beans, I put them to good use in testing my new roaster.

Now that I have a new roaster, I'm doing research to understand it better. This of course will result in me blogging about what I have been learning. Please weigh in and add your thoughts to the comments section. The first aspect I have been learning about is the Turning Point.

I thought this would be a good time to give a few updates on how this year has started off. I would say, in the realm of microscopic sized companies like myself, it has started off pretty strong.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge fan of Fox Concepts. I think they just do everything right. When I heard that there was a Fox Concept restaurant that had a coffee shop incorporated, I had to go. I got a nice gift card from my manager for Christmas and I was only going to use on The Henry. My 7 year anniversary was at the end of February and my wife and I agreed we would just go have a nice dinner. I capitalized on this opportunity to try their coffee shop too.

It's been a while since I did a beer blog. For some reason, I just haven't really had any beer experiences worth blogging about. We had an opportunity recently, so we capitalized on it. It was my 7 year wedding anniversary this February and we decided we would hire a babysitter and go out. We hit The Henry (review to come) and then went to Sleepy Dog Brewery.

It was getting late in the year and so my family and I decided to make a last minute trip up to Flagstaff to play in some snow before it all melted. It had been raining for days, but the weather app on our phone said it would snow that day. Sadly, it did not. Instead, we got rain...lots of rain. Since we had to wait out the storm, I used that opportunity to check out a coffee shop I have been wanting to try for a while, Firecreek Coffee.

I know I'm not ready to start brewing coffee, but I do want to make it out to a farmer's market soon. When I do finally make it out there, I will need to have something to sell from. So, I took my cheapskate creative juices and put them to work.

It was a sad day when I tried to open the door and found them all locked. I could see through the windows and noticed the ladders and though it was just some re-modeling. That wouldn't bother me a bit. I could work right through some construction noise. But, it was a tear down only.

I have posted a couple of times about my trip to Old Town Orange. This last December, I decided to video the experience and try my hand at a Vlog. I had fun. There is nothing like watching video of yourself to give you very honest feedback. I have a long way to go in the way of great video content, but I think I'll get there. Check out the video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXdeBGkTI78 If you care to read the posts pertaining to Old Town Orange you can read about my first trip to  Portola Coffee and a bit of research I did after seeing the Bunn Trifecta  at work.

I think the world is starting to become a crazy cool place. Integration with technology has become possible for every day items...like a kettle. It seems strange to want a kettle to be integrated with tech, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes.

My family has this nasty habit of going to Disneyland once a year. I've tried to kick it, but my wife's a junkie and now my daughter's hooked, so I don't see a light at the end of that tunnel. In a compromise, we go to Old Town Orange the night we get in. There is a BBQ shop that is really good and Portola Coffee. My first experience was reviewed here , but my barista used my favorite v60. This last time I went the barista brewed on the Bunn Trifecta.

 Looking ahead to 2017, I want to include as many new coffee experiences as possible. One the best ways is to try new shops and meet new people. Everyone does it a little differently. I take all those little nuggets of experience and continue to develop my own way of doing things. That being said, I thought it would be good to look back at my top 3 shops of 2016.

Sitting here trying to think of something to write about, I realize I am kind of in limbo. I haven't had a lot of new coffee experiences because of the craziness of the holidays and I don't have any grand plans for the future....wait a second...that's terrible. How can a business not have plans for the future? I need some goals.

In the early stages of starting a business it is just as much about the people invested in its success as it is about the business. I don't have stock holders, but (hopefully) I do have a few people that want to see me succeed. So, until I do have stock holders, I figured I would share how my company did in 2016.