A Mid-June Update from the Warehouse

by Kevin Nealon June 15, 2017

Hi everyone,

It's been a little while. But, we're going to do our best to keep this blog up to date a bit more regularly from now on, and let you all know what's roasting and what's brewing here at Huckleberry.

May and the start of June have been pretty crazy months for us, but in a good way for the most part. We just wrapped up our busiest roasting month, have been tasting loads of coffees, some of which are destined for our lineup this summer and onward, and have added a few new folks to the team. Samantha will be working with the cafes serving our coffee, Josh is gonna be sweating out the summer with us in the warehouse, and Jessica and Laura will be brewing up coffee on Pecos St.

On the downside, we're losing Erin this month, and she'll definitely be missed. Erin's been with Huck for 3 years, starting out as a barista and wearing a ton of hats. For the past 2 years she's essentially been running the show for us at the warehouse (or back room at Pecos) and in wholesale. Coordinating orders, dealing with shipping snafus, blending, bumping D'Angelo on the warehouse speakers in the afternoon, you name it. Shep and I get to roast the coffee, but it hasn't gotten into your mugs without Erin for quite a while now. But she's onto a European adventure, and then new adventures here in Denver upon returning, so we'll have to make due with Josh ; )

On the coffee side, things are moving, and I think things have been tasting darn good. We wrapped up Wenago last week, and are running very low on Tana Toraja, Ethiopia Zelelu, and Burundi Gitwe Natural. All three of these will be gone in a few weeks, so hop on it if you haven't tried those yet, or want to brew a last little bit of any of those three until we (very likely, but not 100% certainly) bring them back in 6-9 months. And, it'll be around for a little while still, but Kanzu is tasting bangin' - fruit candy, maple syrup, and lemonade. It's my personal fave in our lineup right now.

One hand taketh away, and another hand giveth, or something like that. We've also approved and test-roasted some amazing coffees over the last few weeks, and are looking forward to dropping a few of these in the lineup over the next few weeks. We'll have a hella tasty washed Ethiopian after Zelelu sings its swansong for the year, and are prepping to roast two coffees from CoopeDota in Costa Rica - a washed lot from the cooperative as a whole called Santa Maria, and a limited release natural (our first from outside of Africa!) called El Cedral. I'm excited for both, and David visited this cooperative earlier this year. Click here to read up on that visit, and if you stop by 4301 Pecos over the next week or so, you might get a sneak peak of El Cedral on batch brew. Don't quote me on that, it depends on the day.

Last but not least, we just shipped our first pallet of fresh crop Ethiopia Ardi. This jammy natural from Sidama, Ethiopia is a perennial favorite for us, and this year's is as juicy and berry-forward as ever. While we usually take a little bit of time to roll out new coffees, I'm gonna hustle on this one. Unless that truck is insanely slow this coming week, we'll have it on retail shelves July 3 at the latest, hopefully a week sooner.

We'll keep you posted as we actually release these coffees, and there will be plenty more down the pipeline. We're sample roasting, cupping, test roasting, cupping, releasing, and cupping ourselves exhausted here in the warehouse. Until those releases, I'd recommend drinking up on the 3 that are on their last legs. Over and out.

Cheers from 2650 2nd Ave,

Kevin