2019 was a tremendous year for Carabello Coffee. We were finalist in the SCA design lab competition, we traveled to Honduras with Coffee Kids, we moved to a new space and expanded our cafe seating, and celebrated 10 years of roasting with a Gala; we're so grateful for it all. It couldn't have happened without you supporting our mission of Coffee and Compassion in Tandem.
We wanted to take some time to share all the major highlights in detail about this year. There are a lot of moving pieces to this business that sometimes get overlooked or we simply forget to share on social media. We have an incredible team that makes all this stuff happen. So here’s to 2019, a great year of growth for us and we’re looking forward to 2020.
We hired our first COO, Emily Shinkle earlier in the spring. She comes to use with years of experience of running businesses. She is organized and has helped each member on our leadership team to be more effective in their jobs while assisting in solving problems that they couldn’t see because of being in the role for so long. She is a big picture person and comes to the table with an open mind and fresh eyes that helps all members see new ways of doing things. She’s helping us collect data to better understand you all and how we can serve our guests and wholesale clients better. She has built the wholesale relationship program, for those that are wholesale clients of ours have seen several of our people in your businesses or churches this year to get to know your needs better and frankly, be more relational with you all. We’re incredibly grateful for her and all that she brings to our team. We’re so happy to have you around Emily!
Honduras Origin Trip with Coffee Kids. This year we were invited to go to Honduras with the folks at Coffee Kids. They showed us all the work they are doing with the next generation of coffee farmers. We got to meet the youth they are investing in at UNIOCAFE, a coffee co-op, that pairs youth with each other (building their network) and mentors. These young people go through a program that teaches them about business, farming, and collaboration. We spent a lot of time with the youth in the program but didn’t feel that connected with them until after we shared the Carabello story with them. Once we shared our story with them, it was a very different atmosphere in the room. We got to connect with them on a different level. We found many of the youth are believers who feel that God is calling them to do similar work. To see God working in their communities was the best part of the trip. It was an incredible week of seeing all the work they are doing there. We hope to join them again in 2020 for another trip. Read more here
Limited Release Coffee Packaging was a Finalist in the SCA Design Lab Competition. Every year, the Specialty Coffee Association hosts the Coffee Expo. In 2018 we created new packaging for coffees served on our Analog Coffee Bar. We spent roughly 6 months on this project, making sure that the packaging would reflect the quality of coffee in them. We got the email to submit the packaging to be on display at the Expo. We submitted it and to our surprise, we were selected as a finalist in the competition. This meant that our packaging was on display with other reputable companies like, Blue Bottle. It was great exposure for us a company because we aren’t known nationally like other companies. We assumed people liked it because someone walked off with one of the boxes that were on display.
Galentine’s Tasting at Analog. This year we launched a new event for all the ladies! Anna Self wanted to do a gal pal event for all the ladies in her life that wanted to celebrate with each other. She worked with Austin on drinks and created the atmosphere that welcomed women of all walks of life to come together. With the help of Natalie, they created a fun event that was a hit! We plan to do this again in 2020 since you all enjoyed it so much!
First Annual Latte Art Throwdown This year we hosted our first throwdown! We’ve always wanted to do this but never had the manpower to take it and run with it. Anna Self and Emily Shinkle organized the whole event. Our staff were so hospitable with all those who walked through our doors. It was a full house of some of Cincinnati’s best barista’s competing against one another. We had amazing judges; Keaton Neely of Rohs Street Cafe, Melis Aydogan of Ruya Coffee, and Caleb Stanko of FC Cincinnati. It was a great night of friendly competition and community. We loved getting to host this event. We had amazing sponsors who donated great prizes. Fun fact, our beloved Rachel Diaz drove from Bowling Green, Ohio to compete and won second place. Shortly after, she applied for a barista position and moved here to work with us! Read more here!
Shawn-Adam at Analog. We’ve been working hard at adding more of our people to the Analog Bar. This year, we added Shawn-Adam to the mix. He’s been with us for a few years now and you all love him a ton. He wanted to work on his craft and had been in talks with Austin and David Holman about how to make that happen. Well, this year he has accomplished that! He’s created numerous drinks, hosted events and introduced a lot of our cafe regulars to the Analog bar, most of which had never experienced that before. We are so excited to see Shawn-Adam continue to work at the Analog Bar and creating a space for you all to come and enjoy.
Coffee Mixology Class added We have teaching coffee Education classes for several years now and this year, we added a Coffee Mixology class! This was so much fun for Austin to spearhead. Everyone always loves what we create at Analog and wanted to know how to do this themselves. We created this class for just that purpose. This class allowed participants to create 4 or our signature drinks at home. They even walked away with recipe cards and their own coffee mixology kit.
Decade of Roasting Gala This year we celebrated 10 years of roasting. Wow. We can’t believe this little hobby has turned into a business. We now have 20 employees, 2 cafes with different experiences in one building, roasting that has just moved to a new building because we outgrew our old space, an ever-growing relationship with Luis in Nicaragua, and being a safe space for the Newport and Cincinnati community. We decided to turn that celebration into a way to give money to one of our favorite organizations, The Mercy Kids. On a Monday night, we gathered 200 people in a room to donate to this amazing organization and celebrate the milestone of our business. We ended up raising 15K! We surpassed our goal for 10K which is because of you guys. Read More Here!
HQ- At the beginning of the year we began discussing moving to a new space because we were quickly outgrowing the production space at 9th Street. We had a couple spaces come and were ready to move on purchasing a building but it fell through. Then we saw a for lease sign on a building on Saratoga St. We toured it and knew this was the space we needed. So we signed the lease and moved in the offices and coffee to the space. In October we moved the roaster over to the building and have had operations going since! We call this space HQ. You can find a large portion of our team over there working.
Monmouth Room With the roaster moved to 1024 Saratoga Street, that gave us the opportunity to FINALLY offer more seating in our cafe. We know space is tight most days and we are now thrilled to have more space for you guys to bring your friends and family too. The Monmouth room has a large farm table, perfect for meetings with large groups, a couch with a BEAUTIFUL mural on the wall, and working spaces for individuals that overlooks Monmouth St. We can’t wait to see what memories you all create there!
