Hi all, how are you?
I’ve been fielding a lot questions lately that usually go like this: I want to buy 5 lbs of Stoop Sitter but your website says it sold out. Do you know when it will be available again online?
My quickest and simplest answer is this: As of this moment in time, I do not know when I will have any coffee, blend or otherwise, definitively available for sale on my website.
I mean, real talk: there’s coffee available for sale on the site. (Go ahead. Check. I’ll wait) And if you need or want some coffee, you should check out one of the options that’s currently available. But I can not, and will not, say or guess that maybe something might be available for online sales, next week, or the week after that, or the week after that, and so on.
But why????
I, Charlie Biando, am currently in the middle of a utility line hell-scape and have no way to power my roaster at my roasting space. Thankfully, I’m able to roast out of a friend’s place one day a week, an hour and 45 minutes away from where I live. As such, I can only roast a certain amount of each coffee, because that roasting time and roaster capacity is so hyper limited. For context, prior to moving to PA, I was roasting 3 days a week, 9-5PM. I now have one day and it’s a 12 hour day….
I earn my income by supplying small markets and cafes with coffee who earn their income by selling my coffee. Accordingly, I have to prioritize sales to these folks. I don’t say this begrudgingly. There are so many roasters in the US and in the world. I’m so grateful to be able to work with folks, who have stuck with me through thick and thin. Because maintaining these relationships is important, these wholesale partners have 1st dibs and place orders with me on Monday. Whatever is left over, is then listed on the website each Tuesday. Stoop Sitter, Happy Lamp, and Flavor Drinker are most account’s bread and butter. As a result, they sell out every week.
I wish I could roast more. I literally can’t.
But I have to note, 99% of the time, I have a good deal of single origin coffee available for sale on my website. That coffee is tremendously good and so seriously worth a shot. I like to joke with folks that as the owner of a coffee company, I’m like the parent of coffee kids and like any good parent, I don’t play favorites. And to some extent this is true. There’s no reason to start and maintain a small business and make virtually no income for all the work you do if you don’t love what you do. And I love all my coffees. But these single origin coffees are top notch coffees. If you haven’t tried them, I highly recommend you remedy that right away. I understand that you love Stoop Sitter. But you might also really love La Colina.
I don’t know where it all ends. I’ve been doing this altered version of my business since June and it’s driving me NUTS. I like the country side of PA but not so much that I want to drive 3ish hours through it every week. I’d rather bike to my roasting space. I’m grateful that Ben Pierce at Pitch Pine Coffee has a day available for me to work out of his space but I hate loading 150lbs bags of raw coffee into my ever-breaking Subaru. I want to make it rain in 5lbs bags of Stoop Sitter for whoever, wherever. What a wild rain that would be!
When the roastery is up and running again, trust me, you’ll know. I’ll hire some spammy text service to let you know and ask for donations/contributions. I’ll create such a big coffee exhaust smoke signal. I’ll buy a megaphone and scribble some wild message about the situation on a sandwich board that I’ll wear and walk around with and loudly get the word out to the people with, around time square in new york, as well as city hall in philadelphia, by the bean thing in chicago, and most certainly directly in-between those guys that throw fish at pike place market in seattle… I’m gonna get the message out to you, you’ll be made aware. But in the meantime, I hope this post gives you some clarity and potentially necessary context around this situation and that it resonates with you.
Thanks,
cb/btc