As we prepare to open a franchised location in Cleveland, TN (facebook.com/Lasaters.Cleveland) I go about my day with planning, scheduling and forecasting for the coming weeks. I take a quick break to look through the Lasaters pages of Facebook and I am reminded how many challenges we've had as a company, from the beginning, and the successes that we've had this far. I wanted to share just a few pictures with you and hopefully blog about them all some day. There are many, many more to come, but here are just a few...
Bumper stickers.
We took a poll to find out who like what bumper sticker that we had designed a couple of years ago. While we never went forward with bumper stickers (yet) we did find out that most people liked this design the most:
Buttons.
A few years back some of the staff started wearing buttons of their favorite seasonal drink. Fun! Do you remember these?
The Great Flood of 2010.
Who could forget this? Well, if you weren't here in Tennessee, you probably heard about it on the news. Tennessee, specifically Clarksville and Nashville, were hit with a massive flood that ended many businesses and brought our regional economy to a near standstill. Our original Lasaters Coffee & Tea Store on Riverside Drive (facebook.com/lasaters.riverside) made it through this tough time though. Thank you to the owners, Ricky and Nicole Edwards, for putting in tireless efforts to get their store up and running again.
Gift Cards.
This was the first gift card that Lasaters ever had - notice the original logo? :)
Trip to Finca La Perla, Guatemala City and Antigua, Guatemala.
Lots to tell here. We were driving through a village to meet with a lower-elevation farmer when we passed these children. They were playing on a small concrete coffee-drying bed. When we showed them the picture that we took of them playing they were all-smiles! The above picture is the one we snapped next. :) Lots to share about this wonderful trip... one day. :)
Our first coffee roaster.
This awesome drum roaster was the beginning of REAL coffee for us! We've since upgraded to a much larger, fluid-bed roaster that is more efficient and won't leave the coffee tasting like smoke. :)
2008(?) SCAA World Barista Championship.
A couple of us have gone to a few Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) trade shows. The above picture is of a shot of espresso by one of the top contenders of the World Barista Competition. GOOD ESPRESSO! Some baristas are unbelievably awesome at their craft.
2008 World Tea Expo.
This is Anando Chatterjee and his wife (her name escapes me right now, but she is very pleasant). He is our contact in Kolkata India for all of our teas from the region of Assam, Darjeeling and Nilgiri.
Even snowmen like coffee.
Franchise owner Nicole Edwards and Katherine Rowe put up a snowman when Clarksville got a bit of snow. It makes it fun to enjoy working with good people!
Fluid bed coffee roasting.
This is a picture of our new coffee roaster at our old warehouse. We can now roast 38 pounds of coffee in 8 minutes. This thing is awesome! Anyone for a tour of our new roasting facility? :)
Ok, that's it for right now. I'd love to share more photos and stories in the future. We've got thousands of pictures that we've taken throughout the years and many, many memories. Thanks for being a part of Lasaters Coffee & Tea. We love you all!
-Mat Lasater
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