Sopapillas

It's good to know I still retain some of my Spanish-speaking instincts. Yesterday amid all the SOPA/PIPA huff, I kept thinking people were talking about sopapillas. What's so bad about fluffy fried pastry drizzled in honey and powdered sugar? I mean, are we really gonna go all artery blockage police on a little dessert? My brain works in mysterious ways. For some reason a few weeks ago I had a phrase stuck in my head, every few minutes it would just float through my subconscious and trigger strange images. Wanna know what that phrase was? It was 'mutton bustin.' Go figure.

Back to SOPA/PIPA. Did y'all read about it? It makes me nervous to think that congress was considering limiting our online freedoms. I see where they are coming from with the piracy stuff, but aren't criminals going to be criminals and find a way around such legislation? It seems to me the real people to suffer will be you and I when we try to upload a funny photo to our Fbooks and we're blocked. What would I do if I weren't allowed to upload pictures of baby hedgehogs curled up in measuring cups? That's a big part of my day right there. I do have to split my time between the hedgies and really pedantic articles making fun of people with poor grammar and spelling. It's terrible, I know. It's my release. Yoga doesn't cut it for me I guess.

I was thinking about the internet and how much capability we have because of it and how truly revolutionary a thing it is. I opened an advertisement via Colter's Facebook page. The parameters I put on the ad made it so that it reached 34,653 people. Isn't that crazy?! 34,653 people that never would have known we exist. Of those 34,653 people Colter is now Facebook friends with 94 of them and I only opened it an hour ago. Jeesum crow. Those intarwebs shore is powerful.

Then I googled "coffee" to see what happens. Because internet search engines are powered by terms and also need to be powered by money all terms are up for sale. The word "coffee" will produce the highest bidder first. Sbux is apparently the highest bidder on "coffee." Big shocker, I know. But then scrolling down it gets a little deeper. You'll find something I'm sure Pete has an app for on his iPhone as well as the websites for Folgers and Gevalia. Of course the search yields 1,090,000,000 results. I don't even know how to say that out loud. As the pages go on and on the results get more convoluted. It really does go to show, however, that the internet is an incredible tool and it brings together so many people, industries, small business and hedge hog enthusiasts. It has revolutionized the coffee business, I know. Has it affected your industry?

Part of the reason I was brought into the position I hold is to take advantage of internet resources. I recently found a grant we may be able to apply for to get our baristas certified by the Barista Guild of America. How sweet would that be?! Albeit, incredibly nerdy but pretty sweet nonetheless. Plus, our coffee nerdiness is part of our charm, right?

Speaking of nerdiness. We have two new Roaster's Reserve coffees debuting today. We are going to be more regular with rotating our Roaster's Reserve and I have a hunch it's going to be on the monthly. The plan is that each showcased bean will be a single origin microlot. That sounds like Greek, I know. Basically it means that our RRs won't be blends (single origin) and will come from a very small and extra special batch of coffee (microlot). Prepare to be dazzled by Organic Papua New Guinea and Organic Brazil! I've only tried the Papua New Guinea and I liked it a lot. Light roast, buttery, a teeny bit lemony. The Brazil smelled amazing when it was being roasted and I look forward to trying it. I especially look forward to Brazil because I have a real thing for Central/South American coffees. They're like chocolate.

So, for today, come try our new coffee and appreciate freedom. And a joke:

Sherlock Holmes and Watson went camping. They pitched their tent under the stars and went to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night Holmes woke Watson up and said, "Watson, look up at the stars and tell me what you see." Watson replied, "I see millions and millions of stars" Holmes said, "And what do you deduce from that?" Watson replied, "Well, if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of them have planets, it's quite likely there are some planents like Earth out there. And it there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life." And Holmes said, "Watson, you idiot, it means somebody stole our tent!"

Har. Har. Har.

I have an absolute favorite joke of all time. In my single days I would tell it as a conversation started with the fellas. It's a bit off color and has some swearing in it but if you come in understanding those truths and would like to hear it, ask me at the shop sometime and I'll make ya laugh.


For now, later.

So this is the new year

2012 is already a week old! Who moved a mountain this week?! I didn't actually move a mountain but I did win a sweet game of dominoes! Celebrating simple joys, ya know.

As life mellows out to a business as usual pace, we're still enjoying hustling and bustling at the shop. Now that the holidays have come and gone all the tasks I assigned myself to do, "once New Years is over," have jumped on my back. Busy is good though and it's shaping up to be a solid 2012 for Colter. Starting with new t shirts! Head Cheese sprung for the nice ones! Shout out to one of our very favorites, Chance, for talking him into the squishy squish 25/25/50 American Apparel blend (for at least one of this year's shirt styles). They really are better. I tell him these things but he just blames my blatant Libran qualities, smiles, nods, and asks about getting a quote on BeefyTees. If you see the Head Cheese in the shop would you please happen to loudly mention to your companion that you like your nipples too much to have them be chafed off by a BeefyTee? I've already won the battle but this is a war on frugality. Some things are just worth paying for. Decorative throw pillows? You can probably get those at ShopKo and leave Pier1 out of it. If you try to go to Target for a pair of jeans that you want to make your ass look like the gal's at Fawn Boutique you're in for an unpleasant surprise. Speaking of determining when to spend money for quality versus spending money on pointless shit, on Colter's Facebook Newsfeed this morning there was a Jimmy Choo coffee holder for $175. No one ever needs a $175 coffee sleeve. Really, no one should need a sleeve. It is a convenience some prefer but should not be listed as a basic necessity requiring fulfillment. If you are considering in investing in a piece such as this, call me immediately. I have many other ways to spend $175. Finally, toothbrushes. Get the nice one.

Anyway, back to t shirts and Colter projects. We're actually going to have a couple of shirts to sell this year and with our fancy pants new website and online shop (www.coltercoffee.com) we can sell them online and hopefully actually sell some this year! Be on the lookout, we should be debuting our first 2012 Colter shirt in early February. It says "naked" on it if that blows any whistles.

I'd like to start seeing some reader/customer participation on the blog. I know my opinion and I know how I'd like to run the world (namely, the coffee shop) but I'd really like some input on how we're doing and I feel like this is a good forum for that. So, starting now I'm gonna ask a question in each entry that will help me tweak the goings on at Colter and fix the stuff SweetiePete is screwing up. Don't worry, I blame him for everything.

So, to kick it off and carry on with the theme of today's entry; would you wear a Colter shirt? In my head we are definitely a hip enough spot to be represented by a tee and people obvs are gonna wanna represent us in said tee. I don't always live in reality though, so help me out. A super soft, trendy and even a little edgy tee shirt. Yay or nay?

See you next week. Or tomorrow! Whichever comes first. Sundays always bring a lot of people so I'm sure I'll have stories abounding for the next entry.

Hasta pasta