Feb Farmer's Market and other Random Thoughts

This last farmer's market was a much better experience then last month. I learned a couple of key elements and have started thinking of things I need to start working on for upcoming months. Lastly, an update on the restaurants I've been trying to to get to sell my coffee.


As I stated, this farmer's market was tremendously more successful. There were a couple of key factors outside of my control that contributed. More vendors showed up, which has more draw, and the restaurant did better. Our market seems to live off the people waiting for a table and those who finished eating and meander through the vendors after eating breakfast. I sold all 3 of my 1 lb bags and about 10 cups. Yeah, I know that isn't going to get me to quit my day job, but there were some other positives. The best part was that I got to talk to people. There were a lot more people willing to stop and talk to me about coffee. What is the key to this? Samples. I got a lot of strange responses, like "I would never drink this, but it's good," but I actually sold a few of my bags purely off a 1 oz sample. The tricky thing was, I couldn't find hot sample cups in stores, so I was using like kids mouth wash paper cups....not the best. I had one leak right on a lady's very clean white shoe. So I need to figure that out a little bit.

It was hot this last Saturday too, which got me thinking about what I'm going to do for summer. I definitely have to pull the cold brew back out. I need to work on my cold brew though. I don't think I like the 7:1 ratio I was using. I think I want to use like 11:1 or maybe even higher. I also want to come up with my own signature drink. I'm thinking of something like a Mexican chocolate, cayenne and mocha. Could be awful, could be fantastic.

I've also been trying to get a couple of local restaurants to take me as their coffee vendor, but I'm not having a lot of luck. I've given them samples, I've followed up multiple times....noth'en. I'm really not sure how to go about it. I'll keep looking for local mom and pop shops to work with and maybe one of them will want to use my coffee.