In my 30 years as a writer, journalist, and marketer, I've written about (and for) a lot of different businesses. One of my favorite marketing projects involves blogging about coffee for an online coffee store and independently run cafe in Albany and Troy, NY, called The Daily Grind. They're a family-owned coffee retailing business that has been roasting their own coffee beans at their Albany cafe since 1976, and they've had a Web site since 1996--which probably makes them one of the first cafes and coffee retailers to take the plunge into the new world of e-commerce and Internet marketing. In my mind, the Internet didn't start to catch on until 1995 or so, so you got to hand it to small businesses that hopped onto the bandwagon before it even was a bandwagon. If anything, the Daily Grind helped create the bandwagon that other cafes, coffee shops, and coffee retailers hopped on to! It's also interesting that they've endured and apparently thrived in the ensuing years, in spite of the fact that competition has increased, the economy has had a lot of peaks and valleys, the coffee market has become more fragmented, and restaurants tend to have a higher-than-average failure rate. My impression is that the Daily Grind has done well over the years because the owners know how to run a small business, treat their customers and employees well, and care about quality. If you're not from New York's Capital District, you can get a good flavor of what their cafe and coffee roasting business is all about by visiting their recently updated coffee website. By the way, the excellent website design was done by a company I work with, on occasion, called Tech Valley Webs.
I'm not the kind of coffee blogger that can tell you how to use a Chemex coffee maker or the best ways to make French press coffee because I mostly use a Keurig coffee maker at home. The thing that really fascinates me about coffee is the many benefits that it offers. It provides an extra jolt of energy that most people need first thing in the morning and helps you stay more alert, responsive, and aware--all of which can be extremely helpful in everyday life, especially in work situations. There's also scientific evidence that coffee consumption may reduce one's chances of getting certain diseases, including some types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease.
Coffee isn't perfect and it does negatively affect some people, but if you do not have a sensitivity to caffeine, then, for most people, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. The benefits of coffee also include the way it brings people together. Life just wouldn't be the same if you couldn't meet a friend for a cup of coffee at a local cafe or restaurant. The role coffee plays in our lives is huge, and that's the focus of this blog.
BTW...This is the third coffee blog I've created, which may mean that I'm as addicted to coffee blogging as I am to caffeine (JK!). On my other coffee blogs, I examine several topics of interest to coffee lovers, including the following:
- How Much Caffeine is in a Cup of Coffee?
- Top Ten Reasons to Drink Coffee in 2013
- Buying Coffee Online
- National Coffee Day
- Coffee Date Tips
