Hello world,
Just a quick update on our adventures in eliminating single-use waste. Last month the goal was to extend our reusable bags to our local wholesale partners to whom we deliver. A critical mass of them signed up and so far it's been a hit (according to them). We're proud to say that so far so good when it comes to the reusable bags for coffee. We've been encouraged by the number of other roasters who have reached out about our program. Maybe we're starting a movement? We'd love to have a more coffee-specific solution when it comes to these (a degas valve, maybe something easier to pour?) but we've been very happy with these bags so far. And so have our wholesale partners! (photo is from Found Coffee...go check 'em out!)
The next step is to try to get rid of at least some of our paper filters in our shops. That's been hard. I haven't remotely been impressed with metal filters. We tried a number of them, including the gold filters that people rave about, and so far it just makes for a muddy coffee. We're testing a ceramic pourover option in our Santa Monica store. We get a surprisingly clean cup out of it. We'll keep playing with it. If that goes well, expect to see those in all our shops next month. We'll also start experimenting with a tablet-based system instead of printing out tickets which should help with both eliminating waste as well as keeping organized. So stay tuned.
Thanks for listening!
- Bobby