A new decaf
A few years ago, I decided to put more focus on roasting good decafs. The market for decaf is relatively small and therefore often neglected. I felt that people would appreciate good quality and especially diversity.
The demand for decaf was at that point too small to offer multiple lots at the same time and keep them fresh. I decided to only continue with the most popular one, a sugar cane decaf from Colombia. That one kept selling well for years after.
Last year, This Side Up finally released their first decaf coffee: a sugar cane decaf from Ethiopia. Since the process is the same as my Colombian’s and the coffee has a much better story (it’s from the same producer as Limmu Kossa), I figured this could finally be a proper replacement. I’m happy to go live with this new coffee and hope you will also enjoy the Sheka Decaf.
The Shokunin Journal
With Shokunin I’ve always tried to stay true to my core values. It is my belief that honesty towards oneself is a foundation for personal growth. Similarly, in building my brand I feel like growth is only possible by being honest about the vision.
I’ve been using Instagram to share news about the roastery and to connect more easily with home baristas. I feel that the doomscroll and dopamine focus of such platforms does not fit the Shokunin brand. My dislike for social media is well known, and recently an idea popped up.
Over the past few months the website has been redesigned to make it more educative and interactive. I feel like it has become such a good platform for sharing updates and knowledge, that there is no need for social media anymore. The roastery is operating at maximum capacity, so the focus lies on sharing updates and not on promotions or marketing anyway.
From now on, updates on new coffees and developments regarding any of the projects I’m involved with will be shared here. I’m confident that it will give me more focus, and that it will show that social media marketing is not a requirement for a business. Feel free to leave a comment to share your thought about this!