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It was almost three years ago when I sold Loam Coffee. I started Loam in 2015 and ran it for five years. Feeling burned out and needing a change of pace, I broke the company into two pieces and sold each part. With great relief, I moved on and threw myself into other endeavors and startups. But I couldn’t shake Loam Coffee.
While "local" is a hot buzzword it can be a bit deceiving. We love our local coffee shops, local restaurants, local bike shops, and so on. But in a truly globalized world the word local is often misleading and misunderstood. What even does local mean?
Last week I ran into one of our loyal customers. He periodically orders 1-2 bags at a time and has done so over the past year. In the course of our conversation he paused and said, "My favorite cup of Loam Coffee ever was the Boondocker I had last May." Last May? I thought. What was different about the Boondocker back then versus the Boondocker now? Everything.
We all know that coffee and mountain bike racing go together like ... well, coffee and mountain bike racing. We caught up with Loam Coffee Ambassador and Yeti mechanic Shaun Hughes who came off another successful Enduro World Series season wrenching for EWS champion Richie Rude as well as Cody Kelley. The questions we were dying to ask was what life was like on the road this past race season and of course where and how coffee was part of Shaun's routine. Ready? Let's start this ...
Roasting coffee is ultimately a creative and artisan endeavor. It is a skill and trade that predates the current trend of the explosion of micro-roasters. "Back in the day" many people simply roasted their own coffee at home. You can read accounts of fathers roasting their coffee early in the morning as the smells wafted through the narrow streets of the Italian villages they called home. The only thing that has changed is the technological advancements and sophistication of our machines and the better quality of coffee that is being grown in places from Colombia to Ethiopia to Vietnam (well, maybe a little more changes than that, but you get the point).
Ahhhhh ... bike parks. Who doesn't love them? They are popping up all over the place in the US and Canada, Europe, South America, and more. If you're a mountain biker who loves lift-assisted runs, big bikes, hi-fives, big air, and lots of stoke then bike parks are the cat's meow. Leading up to the opening weekend of Whistler Bike Park this year it was fun to watch social media blow up in anticipation. Count-down timers, re-posting pics from last season, pics of tuning bikes, yearly passes purchased, and the excitement was tangible.
