Stumptown Coffee Roasters At Wormhole Coffee Chicago!
We’ve been carrying beans from Stumptown Coffee Roasters for a few days only and you have really responded, no doubt. So much so, we doubled our order to meet demand. We can see why you’re flocking, we flocked, too; and will continue to flock to spiritually nutritious beans like these absolutely anytime. Yes, we will.
In addition to being vurry popular within the friendly confines we proffer you here at Wormhole Coffee, Stumptown is getting nods from all directions, but is still fairly hard to procure in the Chicago area–obvi. You can also pick it up at Heritage Bicycles, a fairly new and happy-making fusion of cafe and bike shop that we could do with more of, and will. So, we mentally connected with Jon Feldman, Stumptown’s director of operations, based in NYC. Without technical assistance and using the power of the collective mind trust that resides daily here at Wormhole, drinking coffee and disguising themselves as customers, we connected with Mr. Feldman to get the latest on Stumptown for you. And posterity, of course.
Stumptown & The Wormhole
First, Chicago. “We’re really having fun with [the] coffee [scene] in Chicago,” says Feldman. “We have team members from there. The food scene is fantastic, as well, and we’ve had a lot of people reaching out to us about [bringing Stumptown Coffee to Chicago].” Obvi. “We decided to partner up with Heritage Bicycles and while we were there, [we] went around to some of the better shops in town,” remembers Feldman. “We walked in Wormhole and were pretty much immediately blown away by the Delorean, then we were blown away by our drinks. We met with a few members of the team, dropped off some coffee, and told them to get in touch and I think it was Otter who reached out to us not too long after about having us as a guest roaster.”
The goal in Chicago isn’t to sign up a slew of accounts, says Feldman, but to find solid partners who want to be serious about coffee and have fun at the time–right up our alley here at Wormhole. “I like the Wormhole, it’s just fun by default. You walk in there and it’s so unpretentious, about getting back to the basics,” he says. “It’s a great example from my perspective of how to do things at a high level but make it really approachable. It’s possible.”
Quantity AND Quality: It’s Possible
Stumptown carries wholesale accounts distributed in NYC, Philly, Boston, and Washington, D.C., but the majority of their wholesale accounts are in their hometown of Portland, Ore., and up/down the West Coast. Portland is home, more so as we speak. “As we continue to grow, lot of exciting things happening in the company,” says Feldman. “We are moving into a large HQ space in Portland, which we’ve never had before. It will give us a tighter handle on operations.”
That’s important, because “we want to grow with integrity,” says Feldman, noting it’s in Stumptown’s DNA. “We will never change the principles that matter: how we source our coffee, for example.” One of those principles is to buy raw coffee beans from farmers with whom they can work with directly,” he continue, referring to the sometimes misunderstood, often misused label, direct trade. When well-concepted and -executed, it can be a game changer for the farmer and those of us who like mightily fine coffee, which comes from mightily finely treated coffee beans, of course. “[Stumptown has] formed and maintained relationships with a number of farms abroad; almost all of our coffees are direct trade,” says Feldman. “We’re going to these farms and working to make sure the products are consistently good quality product year after year, and making sure the people we’re working with are well taken care of, are paid a good price, have the equipment they need, including ideas and philosophy behind growing they need. That will never change about us.”
The other thing that won’t likely change is that Stumptown doesn’t buy any coffee beans that fall under the 85-percent mark when cupped and scored. “We’re never going to deviate from that,” says Feldman. In addition to the beans, Stumptown has an active wholesale program that works to support retailers and/or shops with equipment and training. “We’re excited that we can feel good about growing and not feel we’re going to compromise the quality of our product. “It’s about having fun, being passionate about what you do and connecting with people. Wholesale is kind of an awesome thing if you think about it, helping change the conversation about what quality coffee is all about,” continues Feldman. “We take a lot of pride in what we do. The amount of detail and scrutiny that goes into making sure we have great coffee is unbelievable.”
Product For The People
Open up, don’t be snooty, says Feldman, a long-time sommelier and restaurant operator. “The public is becoming more and more aware of quality coffee. Why would we want to [stop people from] people changing their methods or what they buy? We collectively really need to make [specialty coffee] approachable.” It seems you’re finding Stumptown Coffee fairly approachable here at The Wormhole and we appreciate that. We’ll be featuring Stumptown throughout the month of April in the year 2012, as supplies last. Double that order!
FYI’s on Stumptown Coffee:
Stumptown Coffee Roasters: “Our Coffees” Roasting Philosophy! Brewing Guide Find them on Facebook and/or Twitter.
