I’m probably weird, but instead of measuring a year’s passing on a January 1 to January 1 calendar, I do it from Groundhog’s Day to Groundhog’s Day. With all the hulabaloo surrounding Christmas and New Years activities, sometimes time seems to get altered a bit with so much attention devoted to outside the realm of life’s normal daily routine.

That’s not the case with February 2nd. For some reason, it sneaks up on me every year, making it perfect day to use as my internal yearly clock. Plus, it’s taken a month to dig out from the end of 2009!

Year 1 Highlights

• First and foremost, thanks to all of you who have enjoyed Blacksmith Coffee and supported our launch and growth!
• It’s been quite a year at Blacksmith Coffee Roastery and we’ve been truly blessed and overjoyed with the reception Blacksmith Coffee has enjoyed among both our wholesale and retail customers.   Technically, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary in November, 2009, but we had our hands full with Christmas to stop very long to reflect on that.  Premium coffee enthusiasts can now find us in about 40 grocery stores around the state.
• The feedback we’ve received has been wonderful.  Thanks to all of you who have taken time to share your kind words and compliments!

Blacksmith Coffee Roastery in 2010
New stores

• We have a lot on the plate for the coming months. First and foremost on the list is adding more retail stores throughout the state of Kansas and the Midwest offering Blacksmith Coffee. We are thrilled to be adding many new independent groceries over the next few weeks and months.  As you know from previous posts, I believe the grocery store is the lifeblood of the small town and so we are thrilled and honored to have Blacksmith Coffee in so many independent grocery stores.  However, as times change, many larger communities (like Salina) no longer have an independent grocer, so…..
• For our customers in Kansas who shop at Dillon’s grocery stores, if you’d like to see Blacksmith Coffee on your store’s shelves, be sure to let your store manager know very soon! This month Kroger is going to be considering adding your favorite Kansas coffee to Dillon’s shelves.  On that same note, we have many customers along the I-70 corridor in NE Kansas who enjoy shopping at Hy-Vee stores.  If you’ve never been in one, they are outstanding grocery stores.  As an employee-owned company, they do an excellent job of listening to their customer’s requests, so……..tell your Hy-Vee store managers you’d like them to carry Blacksmith Coffee.

Expanded coffee offerings.

• Two exciting coffee developments are coming soon….expanded Swedish coffee offerings are first on the plate.  Also, this summer I’m going to break down and we’ll begin offering some limited flavored coffee varieties.   More details will follow.  In case you’re wondering, Pomegranate will NOT be one of the flavors we offer!

Expanded Selection of Brewing Equipment and Coffee Accessories

• If you were here for Hylningsfest or have been in the shop for brewing demonstrations, you know how fun coffee brewing can be.  One of our goals in 2010 is to expand the selection of brewing equipment and coffee accessories.  We’re really excited about this and will be offering in-store “brew before you buy” type demonstrations.

New Website Look and Feel

• I’ll admit it – our website stinks!  Very soon we will be completely relaunching BlacksmithCoffee.com to make it much easier for our great customers to learn about coffee, find locations to purchase it, and even purchase coffee and brewing equipment online.
• Also, you’ll begin to see some changes to our labeling as we move to streamline our packaging process and make it easier to read the labels, identify ground from whole bean, etc.
• We’ve had many requests for a physical (read: not internet) catalog and that will be available this spring.

More Internet Connectivity

• As busy as things have been, I’ve neglected writing blog posts frequently. That’s been a real bummer as things happen and then you think, “I wish I would’ve written about this ahead of time!”  From here on out, we’ll shoot for a weekly post and see where it leads.
• Higher quality posts online. One thing I regret is that there hasn’t been time to create higher quality content online this past year.  Things like brewing videos, how-to info, that sort of thing.  We’ll strive to improve the quality of the blog posts so that they’re more than just an outlet to announce new coffees.
• Regular tweets @MarkGalloway. I like Twitter, because it’s quick and efficient. From here on out, I’ll be updating our goings on at Twitter. If you aren’t following us on Twitter already, you can do so when you go to: http://twitter.com/MarkGalloway Or, if you’d like to get Twitter updates delivered to your RSS reader, the feed is here.   We are also on Facebook,  though the majority of our updates are from Blog posts.  That is a good way to stay updated if you’re on Facebook a lot.
• Sometimes, there are interesting things to say about Lindsborg and the Smoky Valley that aren’t really coffee related, but worth noting.  If you’re interested in reading about any of it, you can do so at DalaCowboy.com

Fundraising Efforts

• To all the nonprofit organizations and causes that selected us to help with your fundraising efforts, in 2009, thanks! We are honored to have helped schools, churches, galleries, museums and other civic organizations raise funds with their own custom labeled coffees. We are already working with several groups on custom branded coffees and fundraisers for 2010 and are so thrilled to be able to combine great coffee with great causes! If you are interested in learning more about custom branded coffees for your organization contact Nancy @ 800-576-5280 or email fundraisers@blacksmithcoffee.com

Again, thanks to you all for your fantastic support!  We look forward to a great 2010 and making Blacksmith Coffee Roastery the staple of the Kansas coffee connoisseur. By the way, Phil saw his shadow this morning, so we can look forward to six more weeks of wonderful, cool, coffee drinking weather!