A few weeks ago, I had to pleasure of not only meeting Crooks and Coffee owner, Dianna Chandler, but also getting a peek at the roasting process that goes into our favorite coffees! So, today, I'm going to show you a quick peek at what we learned and saw!
Have you ever seen green coffee beans? The kids and I really enjoyed seeing the stock of beans that were still fresh and waiting to be roasted. Here you can see Dianna, the owner of Crooks and Coffee, showing us the batches that were to be roasted soon.
All of the beans that Crooks and Coffee uses are 100% Colombian beans which are freshly roasted and flavored. This is largely unheard of in the coffee industry and really sets them apart in their product line. I'm always amazed at the range of flavors we see each month in the monthly taster boxes. Which ones have been your favorites? Highlander Grogg might continue to be a household favorite around here, but it's even more special when you can see and meet the people behind the scenes. I also love that you can get the Colombian beans unflavored now, again, freshly roasted right in the warehouse.
This prized roaster is where all the magic happens and I also got to talk to Ben, the man who roasts all of the beans for Crooks and Coffee. Not only was Ben friendly and knowledgeable, but his passion for his work was completely apparent. He showed us the computer system behind the roaster that displays the process. They can set up the cycle the roaster needs to go on and continue to do other work while it gets to work roasting. Everyone in the warehouse seemed to be working like a well-oiled machine.
Here's Ben showing the kids more about the roaster and the beans. I was really happy they let us bring in the girls because I feel it's important that they also care about where things are made and who makes them.
As any of us in the internet world know, running a business isn't just about the physical product. With that in mind, here's Dianna recording and taking photos for Crooks and Coffee social media pages. I always love seeing a modern business owner at work. It's never quite a complete job. There's always something that we are opening up in our lives as a small business online, especially when running our own social media. In the matter of 45 minutes there, we were exploring the space, learning about the process and also managed to complete a handful of Instagram story posts, prepare this blog post, announce a new collaboration on another business's group and do an impromptu mini interview/behind the scenes on the VIP group page. I also must mention that we also had three kids with us inside the warehouse while getting to work. If you hadn't noticed, women-run businesses are pretty full circle with less hard separation than you might expect. But, it works, there's a flow and I'm always excited to show that behind the scenes too.
I hope you've enjoyed this quick peek behind the scenes of Crooks and Coffee today! I have been so blessed to be a small part of the team these last couple months and I am so excited to continue working on growing this amazing business. With that, I'm very pumped to announce that on Monday, June 25th, Dianna and I will be going LIVE on the Crooks and Coffee Facebook page at 8:30pm EST. I'm going to be asking her about how the business came about, how she decided to make mindful living such an important piece of the puzzle and more. I want to ask her YOUR questions too! Be sure to drop those questions here in the comments, or on a feed that will be posted on the Facebook page this week. We can't wait to chat with you all next week, but until then, I think it's time for a cup of coffee! (And Remember, you can save right now with code COFFEEBLOG at checkout!)
Thanks for stopping by!
Veronica
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Veronica is the blog manager for Crooks + Coffee, as well as the blogger and creator of Caffeinate then Create. She lives in Iowa with her husband, Randy, and their 5 yr old self-proclaimed pirate princess, Gabby. She loves to write, play board games and has a deep seeded love of Star Wars and coffee.
Such a neat process!!!