The launch of Opo Coffee

Opo Coffee is running a pop-up cart every Friday, 8-11am at 314 E. Howard Ave. in Decatur until construction is completed on the new roastery location.

For the past four years, East Pole Coffee Co. has been our roasting partner supplying Taproom with coffee to use behind the bar and on the retail shelves. Started by Taproom alum Jared Karr, East Pole has steadily grown to be one of the top Atlanta specialty coffee roasteries and is even expanding this year with additional retail locations.

With a fond farewell, this week we’re transitioning away from East Pole to welcome our new wholesale roasting partner… Opo Coffee!

Opo Coffee has been a personal project of mine that is the culmination of my last 16 years in the coffee industry, applying lessons learned after starting several Atlanta coffee shops, having founded and run Taproom for the last eight years, and having coached and consulted for dozens of coffee shops in the Atlanta area and around the world. At its core, Opo has a holistic mission “to use specialty coffee to make a positive impact on people’s lives throughout the world.” When fully launched later this year, the Decatur location of Opo will house operations for a roastery, a full retail cafe, and a coffee training lab. While Opo Coffee is its own separate entity, it will always enjoy a special status as a sister company to Taproom Coffee.

From Opo’s coffee origin trip to Honduras in March 2022.

The Opo launch team includes familiar faces: Jenny Burrell (previous Taproom store manager) as Director of Marketing, Chris Avirett (formerly of Thrive Coffee, with a short stint as a Taproom barista) as Director of Coffee, and Trey Boden (who has assisted with Taproom branding over the last few years) as Creative Director. It’s been an absolute joy to work with this team on Opo, and it’s so much more fun - and higher quality - than when I launched Taproom on my own in 2014.

For more details about the launch of Opo Coffee, keep an eye on the official Opo website, follow @opocoffee on Instagram, and follow my personal blog that I try to update more regularly than the one on this site.

This week at Taproom you’ll start enjoying Opo Coffee on bulk drip, in espresso drinks, on nitro iced coffee, and in bags of coffee to take home. Our initial lineup of coffees includes: “Upside”, a blend of Guatemalan and Brazilian coffees; “Ramirez Estates”, a red honey process coffee from the Dominican Republic; “Sweet Lilly”, a washed Ethiopian coffee; and a Swiss Water Process Decaf coffee from Peru.

Living Wage for US

We’re proud to announce that we are part of the launching cohort of companies to carry a Living Wage for US certification, as a Leading Living Wage Employer! In keeping with our certification, we are making a public commitment to pay our employees living wages based on real costs of living in our area. Every employee at Taproom is assured of wages and benefits that make “coffee shop barista” a truly sustainable career choice.

I love that we get to offer every barista at Taproom in their starting year:

• Total wages (base + tips) of $22-$26/hour

• Paid breaks

• Reliable schedule: published 3-4 weeks in advance, no doubles or “clopens” as a rule

• PTO accrual

• Meal benefit for every shift

• Monthly fitness benefit

• Monthly book benefit

• 401k with employer matching

I want my employees to not worry about being able to afford to pay bills. They should feel free to grow a family or buy a home or pay down debt or travel the world without breaking the bank or losing their jobs. And more than that, I want Taproom employees to all have a healthy work/life balance and to actually enjoy going into work everyday, even if it’s to “just” sling espresso and bus tables.

This public commitment is, of course, simply one step in a very complex understanding of job sustainability and worker satisfaction. But it’s not insignificant. Joining with Living Wage for US is also showing that we support their efforts to raise awareness of living wage issues across all industries.

Taking care of our employees like this comes at a real cost. While I’d like to think that Taproom is so uber-successful that we can indiscriminately increase pay and benefits anytime, the truth is that coffee business margins are always slim and I’ve always poured back our profits (after paying back all of our debts) into initiatives like this to make sure everyone shares in the success of our community coffee shop.

So at this time, we’re doing one of our periodic, modest menu price increases. They’re still in line with what you’ll see elsewhere, and if it’s noticeable at all to you, hopefully you remember the level at which we’re dedicated to taking care of our staff. As always, I’m thankful for every one of our customers and for each person who comes alongside us in this journey!

Cafe Reopened!

We have officially reopened some of our indoor cafe seating! You’re welcome to come spend time indoors with us as we slowly transition back to more normal cafe operations. Here are some things to note:

• Our seating capacity is limited to allow for more distance between tables.

• Masks are not required but are strongly recommended for any unvaccinated customers.

• Orders may be placed in-person at the counter.

• Mobile ordering for pickup is still available through the Odeko mobile app.

• All orders will still be served in disposable serveware. We hope to reintroduce in-house ceramic soon!

• Please enjoy our outdoor “parklet” seating! We have added tables and chairs, extended the wi-fi, and added greenery to our outdoor patio.

Eight months into COVID

Today marks exactly eight months since we first adjusted Taproom’s service model because of COVID-19. Needing to adapt quickly to a changing world, back in March we pivoted to a closed cafe, mobile app ordering, curbside pickup, and local delivery.

Image from Atlanta Business Chronicle article

My son doing online learning.

And how have we done since then?
Well, it hasn’t been easy. On top of all the restrictions we all face due to transmissions risks, Taproom simply hasn’t been able to be the bustling community hub that we usually are. We can’t have events, we had to severely limit our food menu, and people can’t just hang out and work from the inside bar and sip on a pourover coffee or a beer. Personally, I’ve had to balance parenting and schooling with all of my business responsibilities. I’d love to be working every shift at the shop to help out and to save on labor, but it’s impossible when I also have to facilitate online learning for kids at home, tag-teaming with my wife, who also works a full-time job and manages a staff.

Financially, Taproom has survived. Early on, we got a PPP loan from the federal government, which allowed us to comfortably keep paying our staff normal overall wages even as baristas had shorter shifts. Unfortunately, our coffee bar at Mount Vernon School had to shut down permanently due to COVID, so we consolidated everyone into one crew and we were actually overstaffed, with fewer hours to go around. As the months have worn on, our sales have slightly declined and we’ve tightened our belts as much as possible.

The biggest thing we’ve seen is the incredible outpouring of support from our community. We routinely receive words of encouragement in-person or online, and you all have shown us dedicated support in the hugest way by continuing to be your go-to spot for daily or weekly coffee-related needs.

Encouraging notes from customers!

What’s next?
For now, we will do another little pivot. As much as we love providing convenient curbside pickup, it becomes increasingly more difficult to maintain when our “pickup lane” is filled with parked cars (those are legitimate parallel parking spots, after all), and as our drink runner also has to juggle taking orders at the door and handing finished drinks to walk-up customers. And as the weather cools down heading into the winter, it will occasionally be unbearable for people to stand in the cold or rain out on the sidewalk, waiting to order or pick up a drink.

So to try to solve these issues, as of Tuesday, 11/17, all pickup and in-person ordering will now occur indoors, though we will still strongly encourage all customers to use the Odeko mobile app to order ahead. We realize that many will be hesitant to come inside a store, especially with COVID cases rising, but we have made every effort to ensure the safety and comfort of everyone at Taproom through this transition. We’ve listed out the precautions we’re taking to minimize transmission risks. With this new service format, you can zip in and out with self-pickup of mobile orders, and Taproom baristas don’t ever have to cross physical paths with customers.

If you live within a 3-mile radius of Taproom (we’re generous with that limit), we are still offering FREE home delivery of coffee beans, iced coffee gallons, and cartons of oat milk. We run deliveries every Tuesday and Friday afternoon.

When will we get back to normal coffee shop life?
I don’t know. Nobody knows for sure. All we can do is take it one day at a time and continue to serve you the best way we can, given the circumstances. As much as it’s within my power to promise, Taproom will be your consistent partner in the coffee journey of life. We’ll get you quality drinks and beans quickly and efficiently with a smile in our eyes, and we’ll make every effort to keep our staff and our customers safe throughout these COVID times. Thanks for all of your support, understanding, and encouragement!

6th anniversary project updates

Our 6th Anniversary Community Projects were a HUGE success!

Total Funds + Goods donated or pledged:
Over $4000!

Here’s an update on each project:

1. The Giving Soup Kitchen: We committed $1 per transaction during our anniversary week, and donated $1290 to Staplehouse Restaurant for the soup kitchen they’re running for food service workers!

2. Kirkwood Cares: We quickly sold our 150 coffee bags that had Kirkwood Cares stickers on them, and donated $1500 from those sales to install a pump and foundation drain for a local neighbor!

3. Embrace Refugee Birth: We received about a carload of baby item donations for Embrace to distribute to local refugee mothers!

4. COVID-19 Relief Fund: We sold enough Iced Coffee gallons during anniversary week to donate $550 to the Friends of Refugees COVID-19 Relief Fund!

5. Letters to hospital patients: Over several weeks we received hundreds of letters from our local community and mailed in to us from all over the nation from the More Love Letters community. The letters were given to inpatients at Emory Decatur hospitals.

6. Ethne Health: We made a $420 donation for translation services for patients. The funds came from our “Just Brewing You” competition.

Letters for hospital patients

Home repairs for local neighbor

Donations for refugee mothers

6 Years Old, 6 Community Projects

Taproom 5th anniversary party in 2019.

Empty cafe under COVID-19 restrictions.

This week Taproom celebrates six years of being in business! Our anniversary tradition is to do a huge blowout with our annual Rock-Paper-Scissors competition - drinks, catered food, swag, prizes, and giveaways. It’s an excuse to gather our friends and family together and celebrate the fact that we’re alive and kicking and an active part of the community.

Unfortunately, this year we can’t enjoy our usual anniversary party. We’re just taking it one day at a time trying to make curbside pickup and local deliveries work while we practice social distancing.

But there’s still much to celebrate! Our community rallied around us, continuing to buy coffee, loading up on gift cards, sending goodies and notes of encouragement, and even offering personal loans. Because of all of you, we’ve stayed in business and we’re weathering the COVID storm fairly healthily. We’re on good enough footing to not just pay our bills, but to keep spreading the love to others in the community.

So here’s what we’re gonna do… To celebrate six years, we’re doing six community projects.

We have contacted all the partnering organizations and are firmly committing to the financial project goals. If you are interested in pledging a matching sponsorship or adding to our fundraising efforts, please contact us or contribute using this link.

1. The Giving Soup Kitchen: Staplehouse has been temporarily converted into a soup kitchen providing meals at no cost to food service workers who cannot currently work due to COVID-19. We will donate $1 per transaction that takes place at Taproom in the first week of May (Friday 5/1 - Thursday 5/7). The more people that order curbside pickup from Taproom that week, the more we’ll donate towards the soup kitchen.

2. Kirkwood Cares: A sweet couple that lives nearby needs a new water heater and pump. We’re committing our revenue from 150 bags of coffee to pay to get that installed at the home ASAP! We’re sticking 150 Kirkwood Cares stickers on our retail coffee bags today, and once we’ve sold them all we’ll know we’ve raised enough to replace the water heater.

3. Embrace Refugee Birth: For the next 2 weeks, we will accept donations of specific baby items that will go to refugee mothers in Clarkston. Click here to see the list and then drop off your items at Taproom no later than Sunday, May 17th. We will collect all the donations and deliver them to Embrace.

4. Relief Fund: Partnering with Friends of Refugees, we are contributing to a relief fund that assists refugee families who have suffered job loss or illness due to COVID-19. Funds go towards food boxes, rent, or other urgent needs during the current crisis. For the fund, we’re committing our revenue from any gallons of Iced Coffee purchased May 1-7.

5. Letters to hospital patients: In partnership with More Love Letters and Emory Decatur Hospital, we're getting people to write encouraging and uplifting letters to hospital patients who cannot receive visits from their loved ones due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Write as many letters as you'd like! We will send batches of letters to the hospital every week, at least through the end of May.

   • Instructions to those writing letters:

     • Letters may be typed or hand-written.

     • Focus on the positive.

     • Avoid talking specifically about COVID-19, illness, or death.

     • Avoid politics, religion, or personal information.

     • Address the letter generically: "Hi there," "Greetings to you," or something similar.

     • Close the letter anonymously or simply sign your first name.

     • Drop off letters in-person at Taproom any hours we're open, or mail them (NOTE: We are no longer accepting letters at this time)

   • When letters are received by Taproom:

     • If sealed in an envelope, letters will be opened.

     • All letters will be checked for appropriate content before passing on. 

     • Though there is no stated risk or reports of transmission through mail, our staff will wear masks and gloves while handling letters.

     • We'll collect all the letters and pass them on to our contact at Emory Decatur Hospital to be distributed appropriately.

6. Ethne Health: Ethne Health has been conducting COVID-19 testing as part of their healthcare services to primarily the refugee population in Clarkston. As one would expect, language barriers can be a hindrance to effective communication during patient visits to the clinic. Taproom is committing to fund one week of interpretation services for the clinic, which would serve an estimated 30 patients coming to receive COVID-19-related services. We’re funding this project with competitor buy-in fees for an upcoming home coffee brewing competition (announcing details soon!).

Hope

Today is Easter. In my home, this is everyone’s favorite holiday of the year. We wake up with hearts full of joy and greet each other with “He is risen!” (and respond: “He is risen, indeed!”). We usually attend our church services, exchanging the same greeting and reminding each other of how the One we worship is alive. After church, we usually invite over to our home a rowdy gathering of close friends and family for our traditional Pascual Easter Feast. It is a potluck feast with only one rule: Bring your favorite food. Homemade bread. BBQ wings. Ice cream. For me: Mom’s Filipino eggrolls. We celebrate with this feast, pointing to the wedding feast of the Lamb, told at the end of the Bible… the ultimate celebratory feast. We can imagine that all of the best foods - all our favorite foods - would be served at such a momentous celebration. Easter is a day filled with life, love, and laughter. It’s a day filled with HOPE.

Last week I had an interview with a local publication, telling Taproom’s story through the COVID-19 crisis. At one point the interviewer asked me: “What’s your hope for the future?” I paused for a second, asking him to repeat his question. My hesitancy was not because I didn’t have an answer, but because an immediate answer was brought to mind, purposefully memorized, ingrained as my automatic response to the question, “What is our only hope in life and death?” The short answer: “That we are not our own, but belong to God.” In the interview, I hinted at my hope not resting in a business, in financial success or failure, or even in my physical health. My hope in the business crisis is the same as my hope in life and death: It all belongs to God. In the end, He will prove himself to be in control, to be victorious. Easter is the epitome of celebrating a victorious God who is not thrown off by the most challenging of adversity - not even death itself.

But wait… How is Taproom doing?

The business is actually doing very well through the crisis. Our community rallied around us in an amazing way, snapping up gift cards, continuing to buy coffee drinks and bags of beans, and tipping our baristas through a virtual tip jar. Because of that consistent outpouring of support, we have been able to stay in operation and not lay off any staff. We’ve only slightly reduced our evening hours and cut out most of our food program, and yet our overall sales have remained at sustainable levels. We are not currently worried about our chances of emerging out the other side of this dark tunnel as a healthy company and staff. I am grateful.

What does this mean moving forward?

I have always seen myself as a steward of what God has given me. I am entrusted with a business, finances, employees, customers, and moments of people’s lives. I hope and pray that as the COVID-19 crisis continues, I will continue to steward all of that well, for the glory of God. Taproom will keep serving cappuccinos and lattes. We will keep passing bags of East Pole through car windows curbside and dropping off gallons of iced coffee on Kirkwood porches. We will support other local businesses, industry friends, and our community heroes, with coffee and financial donations. And we will continue to spread a message of HOPE, for now and for the future.

On this Easter I am still filled with inexpressable joy. Even though our Pascual Easter Feast today was only attended by a Mom and Dad and four little Pascuals, we still chowed down on Frosted Flakes, homemade bread, Honey Buns, and eggrolls, pointing towards an even better feast to be had in heaven. I hope and trust in a God who is in control and who will always prove himself faithful. In Jesus Christ, we saw the despair of a Good Friday death turn around in a miraculous Easter Sunday resurrection. May we all rejoice in hope, be patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Alyssa Heads to Nationals!

Photo by Elizabeth Chai for Sprudge Media.

After placing 4th at Preliminaries in Atlanta in October, and then an incredible 6th place at Qualifiers in Nashville in January, our amazing veteran barista and Taproom store manager Alyssa Bell is set to compete at the 2020 USCC Brewers Cup Championship, to be held in Orange County, CA, February 21-23, 2020.

The competition will be live-streamed on the USCC Facebook Page, and Alyssa competes in the second slot of the first day of Brewers Cup competition.

Photo from the Glitter Cat website.

This is Alyssa’s very first season competing, though she has served as a competition volunteer and judge in past seasons. She was accepted into this year’s Glitter Cat Barista Bootcamp, a barista training program focused on providing coaching to members of marginalized communities.

In the most recent issue of Barista Magazine, Alyssa was mentioned in an article about the Nashville Qualifiers, along with a photo of her presentation to the judges.

We’re so proud of you, Alyssa!

That Time I Attempted A Guinness World Record

Photos by Willis Norman.

It was random. A little ambitious. A little goofy. And for some reason, nobody was surprised.

On 2019 Guinness World Records Day last week, I attempted to break the world record for “Most coffee beans moved with chopsticks in one minute”. Don’t ask me how that became an actual Guinness World Record - I have no idea. Some Italian “serial world record breaker” got 48 beans, back in 2017. I figured… out of all the world records out there, I had the most relevant experience in chopstick use and coffee beans, so why not try to be the new champion?

Here is a summary of guidelines from Guinness:

• One hand behind your back.

• You can only move one bean at a time.

• There are specific dimensions for the saucer the beans start on, the coffee mug they get moved to, and how far apart the saucer is from the mug.

• The chopsticks and your active hand start flat on the table.

• Moving more than one bean at a time is a disqualifier.

In order to attempt the record, I had to officially apply to Guinness World Records three months ago. After weeks of waiting (I could have expedited my application for a fee, but that seemed a bit much), I got word that I was accepted as a legit world record attempter - for that specific record, on a specific day, at a specific location and time.

So I had to practice. On my first try, I used my kids’ plastic chopsticks at home and I moved 8 beans. Later, I went to Walmart and got a guidelines-conforming set of “commercially available wooden chopsticks” and set out to find the right techniques to get even remotely close to the existing world record.

Here are tiny tricks I figured out over days (and weeks) of practice:

• It was easier to “scoop” a bean out of the saucer than try to pinch it with the chopsticks

• It saved time to keep the chopsticks firmly next to each other the entire time, rather than separating them and moving them apart and together at all.

• Moving the bean all the way to the mug took too long - it shaved off time to “toss” it a few inches away from the mug

• Getting into a rhythm was key. I couldn’t waste time fishing for beans or dropping any.

And with those techniques, I got up to 47 beans in practice - one away from the record!

When it was crunch time on the big day, I got the crew from Smugs Fitness to be our official timekeepers - they went above and beyond and yanked the huge interval countdown timer off their gym wall and made it the world record clock! One of our baristas, Ras McCart, was the videographer, ready to submit slo-mo evidence to Guinness. We even set up stations at the bar where spectators could try to do the same challenge and win some prizes from East Pole Coffee Co.

I did pretty poorly the first few attempts. Even though I do a lot of public speaking and have done various competitions, something about going for a Guinness World Record gave me the serious jitters!

The crowd was great. Everyone cheered and counted enthusiastically as each bean went from saucer to mug. We turned up the music to get me in the zone. I live-streamed the whole thing on Instagram and Facebook. The highlight was a tiny fan who brought in his own homemade sign to root for me!

In the end, the challenge was too great and I maxed out at 44 beans, on my second-to-last attempt. Even though we could have kept going until the record was broken, we called it a day and wrapped up after about half an hour. We had to keep cranking out the cappuccinos, after all.

I’ve decided I can’t let the record go that easily… We’ll try it again next year!!! But here’s what we’ll do differently next time: On 2020 Guinness World Records Day, we’ll have several people attempting to break different records, we’ll take over the whole shop for several hours, and we’ll keep going at it until someone comes out on top. We’ll make it bigger and better and invite out the whole community. So go peruse the crazy list of records out there, pick one you think you can break, and let me know that you’re in. I’ll keep practicing my chopstick skills.

Foster Care Awareness

Today is the final day of National Foster Care Awareness Month. I know the calendar is full of arbitrary “National So-and-So” days or weeks or months, but to be honest I was a little bummed out when we got to the end of the month and I didn’t see many people in my social media feeds post or talk about foster care.

In Georgia alone, there are approximately 13,873 children in foster care as of February 2019. If we look just in Dekalb and Fulton Counties, we see 1,732 children in foster care. There are an additional 1,151 children who would call these counties home, but who have been placed outside of their respective home counties for a lack of available local foster homes.

Kids can enter into the foster system for a number of reasons, with the top two catalysts being neglect and abuse.

From childtrends.org:

“Children are placed in foster care when a child protective services worker and court have determined it is not safe for them to remain home. Displacement from their family and disruption of their usual routine and familiar surroundings is traumatizing for many children. Children in foster care need strong relationships with caring adults, a network of social support, and services to cope with the challenging circumstances of home removal. Children who are older, are a racial or ethnic minority, have special needs, or suffer from a behavioral or mental disorder are more likely to experience multiple foster care placements and stay in care longer.”

Personal friends of ours with their foster daughters, featured on wellroot.org.

While my own home is not available for foster placements, my family has supported foster families through providing clothes or baby equipment, cooking meals, or babysitting a family’s other kids when they have to attend court or take a foster child to a medical appointment. My church beats the drum for local foster care, we’ve assisted many couples in the journey of becoming foster families, and we regularly host a foster & adoption support group. As a community, we can ensure that children in the foster system can more healthily weather seasons of family disruption.

Ultimately, the existing needs for foster families (and adoptive families!) are 100% solvable, if only more individuals and families would enter into this with us. If you have a healthy, loving, stable home environment with an extra bedroom, chances are you’re a qualified candidate for being a foster family.

I know that word doesn’t get out much on this issue. That’s why I’m chipping away at the mountainous problem through this blog post and some tiny action steps at Taproom.

On Friday, June 7th and Saturday June 8th we’re hosting an info table for Wellroot Family Services, a great organization that helps to train and support local foster families. Drop by and say hi to a Wellroot representative, ask any questions, and find out how you can start the journey to get involved in the foster care system. That whole week we’ll also be accepting donations of diapers and wipes to be given to local foster families. (We’ve had friends who have had zero notice when social workers dropped off a newborn at their house… these kinds of donations are life savers in those moments!) As a small thank-you we’re giving a free beverage to anyone who drops off a donation.

You can find out more about the donation drop-offs and the info table on our website event page.