Welcome to almost Spring! We have many projects happening across the company and our early-year customer counts and sales have been strong. As we continue through spring and summer we will be focused on making sure our existing processes are running well and our spaces are kept up. If at any point you see an area of the company that needs attention, please don’t hesitate to speak up.
Origin Travel – After a busy month all Stone Creeker’s are back home safely from Central America. Employee Trip #2 in the 2023 harvest returned home a few weeks ago. The team had a great time with our partners at San Miguel Coffees, per usual. Shout out to Melissa, Karen, Happy, Patrick, Hannah, Silken & Celeste. It was a special week in Guatemala. We did our Antigua lot selection for Ring of Fire & 3 Volcanoes. We also picked up a special lot from Huehuetenango that we plan to feature in our Medium Roast Summer Seasonal slot. If you missed the IG reels we made while we were there, you can check those out on our IG profile. Drew is also working on a larger video project about the employee trip that he hopes to finish in the next few months.
The following week Drew and I were in Costa Rica working with our new partners at Sonora Coffee and CECA coffee – https://www.instagram.com/p/CpvW3NMDLkN/. We spent one day visiting farms and mills and the 2nd day we spent the day hunched over the cupping table cupping 70 + lots of coffee seeking new coffees for our Reserve and Small Batch Line. After 6+ hours of cupping we narrowed it down to a table of 12 coffees and in the final push we selected three reserve coffees and two small batch coffees that will be arriving in Milwaukee in May. The coffees we have selected are either Naturals or fruit-forward Anaerobic Honey’s. Among the five we purchased, two of the Reserves are Gesha’s – we are excited to share these with you everyone early this summer. (See below)
Pay and Performance Season – As most of you know March is one of the three months per year that the whole company does our Pay and Performance Reviews. We have worked hard to be sure that every role in the company has a Craft Rubric that attempts (it’s not perfect) to define what it means to succeed in all the jobs at Stone Creek. We did this work so everyone knows what the expectations are. Having clear expectations for your work eases uncertainty and helps build paths to success. Additionally, we all complete the CoCo rubrics. Our 13 core commitments are the bedrock of our teams and our work. Those folks at Stone Creek who love the CoCo’s and work daily to manifest them in their work and relationships thrive here. Enjoy the time you have together working on building lasting relationships built on trust and mutual care.
Whitefish Bay Cafe Build Update – We are deep into the design phase of our Whitefish Bay Cafe. We have received a variance from the Village to build a 4-season porch on the east side of the cafe and will be going to the Architectural Review Board tonight to hopefully get approved for our exterior design. We have a handful of other permits to complete before we start the construction phase of the project. We hope to be doing demolition in the space in late April and digging the foundation for the new 4-season porch in May. The interior build will start in June and we are planning to be done with that work by the end of August. We do not have an open date set yet but are thinking it will be sometime in September. Please email teams@ if you are interested in helping open this new cafe.
- Bakery Facts – Fun Facts about our talented and hardworking bakery crew.
100% of our bakery is scratch-made! - Our croissants, once rolled, end up with 96 layers of butter, and 98 layers of dough, for a total of 194 total layers
- We hand shape over 1800 individual bread items a week. Almost 500 bagels and over 1300 brioche.
- Our danish and croissants are mixed and laminated with European style butter with a whopping 83% fat content.
- Lavender, Vanilla, Bergamot, Pistachio Cardamom, and all seasonal syrups are made in our Bakery.
- At any given time there can be up to 10 people working on the floor in the Bakery, each working on entirely different tasks.
- We go through 350 lbs of butter and 800 lbs of flour a week.
- The Raspberry Danish is our top selling item by price. We sold over 2665 Raspberry Danishes last year compared to 1591 Wild Blueberry Muffins, 2123 Super Scones,
- In Fall and Winter of 2022, we made 76 gallons of Peppermint Syrup and 213 gallons of Pumpkin Spice Syrup.
- Last year we made 849 gallons of vanilla.
With the ongoing growth in our bakery products we are in the planning phase to expand the bakery later this year! More to come on that soon as we finalize this plan.
Spring and Summer Coffees – Wow! Wow! Wow! We have A LOT of great coffee on the water (that is coffee speak for coffees that are on a boat coming to the US from origin). See a few highlights below:
– Oak Barrel Ecuador Reserve – Launches 3/16 (Early contender for Drew’s coffee of the year)
– Key Lime Ecuador Small Batch – Launches 3/23
– Strawberry Fields Decaf Colombia Seasonal – Launches 3/30
– The Good Land ½ LB Short Run – Launches 3/30
– Mystery Ethiopia Small Batch – Launches 4/29 – (waiting for final lot selection)
– Carbonic Maceration Gesha Costa Rica Reserve – Launches 5/18
– Sonora SL28 Natural Costa Rica Small Batch – Launches 5/18
– Sonora Natura Gesha Costa Rica Reserve – Launches 6/15
This is a classic “fun don’t stop” situation.
Be sure to grab a taste of each of these special coffees! It makes great creative and chemical fuel for the work ahead. On we go, coffee in hand.
Eric Resch
Managing Director
eresch@stonecreekcoffee.com