New Green Coffee Crops

Check out our new arrivals and prices at Green Coffee Beans

Riddle to Compete in WBC

Matt Riddle, the U. S. Barista Champion, informs us that he will be competing in the World Barista Championships in Berne, Switzerland. The contest takes place on May 19-21 2006. See the World Barista Championships dated Friday April 14, 2006.

Of Logos and Slogans

We recently remembered the origins of the Coffee Bean Hut logo in What's in the Hut? and how it gave us visual recognition.

After six years of searching for a voice to go along with the company face, we have finally found a slogan that echoes how we feel about our product. Coffee: Attitude in a Cup!

It now graces the footer of the Coffee Bean Hut Times blog.

As always, Happy Roasting!

World Barista Championship

Think the word "passion" is a hollow coffee marketing hyperbole? Check out The World Barista Championship site to understand what folks do to become the World Barista Champion. If that doesn't require passion, nothing does!

If you want to know more about Matt Riddle, the new U.S. Barista Champion, check out Matt's bio at Intelligentsia Coffee.

We're impressed, Matt! Keep it up.

Coffee Terms

Casting about for a fun subject for the blog, something informative, stimulating and lasting, I thought about compiling coffee term definitions from the web and putting one on the site daily. Whoa! The volume of coffee term definitions out there is immense. There is simply not enough time to give adequate homage to all this fantastic work. Why don't I post a term, and you let me know how it affects your senses and sensibilities? With or without clinical definition.

For example, billiedove asked in her comments on the Royal Coffee post (April 10, 2006, )about "smokey" as it relates to a coffee taste.

Our Favorite Lady

Back in 2000 when Coffee Bean Hut was a lonely kiosk in Grants Pass Oregon and we first discovered the internet, this picture of our favorite lady, Ginny, was posted on the Hut Hoopla page. Ginny is still with us and is still our favorite lady. Now she does more than make a killer latte and make you want to linger over it longer than you should, with her friendly chatter; she heads up our Quality Control team and instills the passion of coffee afficionados with every order she fills.

We thought you might like to see Ginny today as she goes about her work, but alas, she's a blur. Don't worry, we're laying in wait with the camera for the precious moment we know is coming.

What's in the Hut

What's in the hut? Coffee Bean Hut's green coffee beans, of course! Thousands of pounds of the world's best crops. But who could see that when as a new internet business in 2000, we were without form for most of our customers.

One solution to our brand identity crisis was to create a logo! A face for our product.

I contacted Russ Hicks at Sandell's Business Printing in Sparks, Nevada, and told him the problem. He contacted a graphic artist he knew and she came up with what you see here--on the first draft!

I remember Russ and the artist were poised for round after round of changes, perhaps even a complete concept makeover, but when I opened the envelope and saw the little shack with the coffee bean leaning inside the doorway, I knew Coffee Bean Hut had its face.

I've had people say the bean looks like a surfboard, that we must be located in Hawaii, and I sure can see why. It was worrisome lest people think we only sell Kona, when we actually sell a broad selection of coffees from Africa, Asia, middle and South America, Indonesia. Indeed, wherever coffee beans are grown.

Thankfully, this fear has been allayed, as for six years the logo has accompanied every shipment of ours and customers have relayed their pleasure with it (not to mention the beans.) The questions we get now tend to be, "Hey, you're on the internet. When are you going to animate the bean?"

We love the idea, so . . . perhaps soon.