People of Northwest Arkansas
The People of Northwest Arkansas is an award winning podcast celebrating the power of storytelling by providing a platform for individuals living in Northwest Arkansas to share their unique and inspiring life experiences. We believe that every person has a story worth telling, and through our podcast, we aim to amplify these voices through thoughtful interviews and engaging storytelling.
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People of Northwest Arkansas
Roasted with Purpose: Amber Dietrich’s Confident Coffee Journey
Amber Dietrich, founder of Confident Coffee, shares her journey from corporate logistics to building a thriving coffee business in Northwest Arkansas with a unique vision for the future. Her passion for quality coffee and community shines through as she navigates expansion while staying true to her vision.
@ConfidentCoffee
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2241892/support
Danielle, have you had your coffee yet this morning?
Speaker 2:so I kicked it off with some tea okay and then now I brought to the studio coffee, brought your coffee. Yeah, I like to do an espresso, I do a double like pod, like a coffee pod and an espresso pod when I really need like a pick-me-up you're like ready to go? Yeah, yeah, just watch as I progress, I'll start shaking yeah, start shaking too much caffeine.
Speaker 4:I know, actually there's never enough, yeah.
Speaker 1:I can do a lot more too. This is never enough coffee. I think it's no surprise to anybody that watches our Instagram, listens to us us, knows us personally that we really like coffee, and so of course, we had to have Amber from Confident Coffee in here, one of our favorite coffee shops and coffee roasters here in Northwest Arkansas Hi thank you, welcome to the studio, and you didn't bring any coffee with you today to drink personally.
Speaker 4:Listen, I have the mom cup in the car right now.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. When you say that, do you mean like an actual mug?
Speaker 4:Yes, I'm one of the crazy ones. That has no lid.
Speaker 2:So my husband does that and I've seen videos about the people that just go with the uncovered cup.
Speaker 1:Yes, you just don't care anymore. Just do not care.
Speaker 2:Are you like driving like? Go with the uncovered cup.
Speaker 1:Yes, you just don't care anymore. Just don't do not care. Are you like driving with the mug holding?
Speaker 2:it 100%.
Speaker 1:yes, I'm like visualizing this right now.
Speaker 2:I would get so mad at my husband, though, because I'd go and be like where are all the coffee mugs at? And then I'd go look in his car and they're like all piled up. Oh my gosh, that is so amazing, gosh, that is like, at least bring it in. Yeah, bring it back in. Elliot, come on. He's, like you know, once a week creating a little collection, all the things that, like I my kids and my husband like hoard in their spaces.
Speaker 1:I'm just like horrified, oh my gosh. So elliot's is coffee but you're good at taking yours in.
Speaker 4:No, I'm terrible at taking my name.
Speaker 2:See, this is your personality yeah, this is the personality of the and is your car like spick and span? No, See yes, this is I'm telling you no.
Speaker 4:that's why anytime I have to take an employee somewhere, I'm like just ride and look at nothing.
Speaker 2:Look at nothing.
Speaker 1:Don't look at the floor, Just get in. Look at the ceiling only.
Speaker 2:I love that we know this about you, because it tells me so much already. Isn't it funny how one thing can tell you so much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And one thing about you is that you couldn't do the coffee because you would spill it all over. Well, she knows.
Speaker 2:I'm a chronic like I miss the mark. I'm just always like Spilling yeah, and you have white on and I always wear white. You do. That's funny.
Speaker 1:It's a tragic thing that I keep choosing those two, you know, yeah for sure. Well, and Amber is obviously amazing and I'm super excited to have you on the show. And we met back in 2020, I think, when you first opened Confident Coffee and I started following. I came into your coffee shop and I was standing in line like so excited, like excited, like, oh, I get to finally try this coffee made, you know, and roasted by this woman who looks really awesome. And then we met and it was so it was just like a kismet experience and then we've become friends since then. So I'm pretty excited to talk to you today and introduce you to our audience as well, and so we'll just kind of jump in. The thing we like to ask all of our guests from the get-go is, like what brought you to Northwest Arkansas? And so I know that you're not a native, but why don't you tell our audience, like, where you're from and what brought you here?
Speaker 4:So I am born and raised in Michigan in a very small little village called Muir, like population 700. I graduated high school from there, went to Central Michigan for my bachelor's degree and kind of took my first job with JB Hunt, moved to Detroit and then moved to Mishawaka, indiana. Back to Detroit, I met my husband, who works for JB Hunt as well. At the time we had known each other for a couple of years but hadn't worked together in the same proximity. When I moved back to Detroit the second time, that's when I kind of got to know him a little bit better. We started dating. It was like, well, I don't know if this is going to work out like both of us dating and working at the exact same place.
Speaker 4:So I left JB Hunt. He actually received an opportunity to move down to Dallas, texas. So I went with him down to Dallas and we lived in Dallas for 13 years and then back in 2015, 2016, he actually received another opportunity here in Northwest Arkansas to come to corporate and to take on, know, take on the next challenge in his career. And so we were in a place where, weirdly, everything lined up for that move to make a whole lot of sense and we left Dallas, sold our house and came here.
Speaker 2:Nice. Yeah, we've been here since 2016. We like almost lived in Dallas and moved here at like the exact same time. Almost lived in Dallas and moved here at like the exact same time. Oh really, yeah, that's cool, I think. I mean I grew up there, but I moved back from college, I guess 2007, and then in 2017 oh yeah, we were basically living the same life.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:I knew this was going to be a great.
Speaker 2:That's funny so you came here, you came back here and then sorry, I interrupted. You keep going. Oh no, you, you. You got into the world, you're in. Now everything kind of changed when you move back here yeah, it was weird because this move wasn't for me.
Speaker 4:You know, this move was for him, yeah, and I didn't really know what I was going to do when I got here, you know, I had came. My career has been really amazing, like very fun, very challenging. I've had a ton of opportunities, I've learned a lot, I've experienced a lot and at first I was scared to come here because where I was born and raised, like it was so small and I didn't know a lot about this area and I was scared that I was scared to come here because where I was born and raised, like it was so small and I didn't know a lot about this area and I was scared that I was taking. You know it's hard to be in Dallas, texas, and it's like, during the 20 years that this place is exploding, by the way, I mean, there's so much growth, there's so much opportunity All of a sudden you live in a place where, three miles away, you can go to the opera and in my mind I was, like, is this a big mistake for my life? Like am I taking a lot of steps backwards to, like, be back in Muir Michigan? I think that was like a legitimate fear at the time and we my husband's like, let's just go there, let's like I really didn't even know the area and and so we came. We did like a typical weekend tour and I was like, oh, this is nice, okay, this is not.
Speaker 4:Whatever I was making up in my mind was not what the reality was and I was like, okay, I see actually a lot of things about Michigan that I like here and really can appreciate, but there's still that feel of like a city, but almost it. I hate to say this because I love Dallas and there's so many things about it that I really appreciate. But I feel like the one of the best parts of northwest Arkansas right now is that it feels like so alive and that it is growing and that there are opportunities. And like all the time I'm talking to people cause we'll talk about coffee or we'll talk about bakeries or we'll talk about whatever, and I'm like you guys, there's so many people moving here, like there's so much opportunity here, like just start, just do something.
Speaker 4:There's so there's still so many things that there's room for here, oh yeah, and so I think that's a big difference and to me I talk to people about do you want to live in a place that's growing and living, or do you want to live in a place that's dying? And I feel like we very much live in a place that feels very alive, that's growing, that's exciting, that people are moving to and that we're getting new things all of the time, and I feel like that's really enriches my life. I hope that I'm doing that as the owner of Confident Coffee like enriching other people's lives as well and just like kind of talking to people and hopefully encouraging them, because I've lived in both. I've lived in Michigan when everything was dying. I've lived in Dallas when everything was growing, and I think that it's a unique perspective just to be able to say, hey, I've lived through both.
Speaker 1:And we're very fortunate to be here in Northwest Arkansas. Absolutely, I agree so much. What kind of led you into the coffee world? Were you involved in coffee roasting in Dallas, or was that something that you picked up here in Northwest Arkansas?
Speaker 4:No in Dallas. Everything that something that you picked up here in North West Arkansas no in Dallas. All of everything that I've done and what I was doing in Dallas is very relevant to where I am now, but it was never in coffee, so I had been. Like I was saying, my background education is in logistics and supply chain operations. Pretty much every role that I had leading up to moving here involved some aspect of a startup, whether if that was a new warehouse being built or a new account that I started, or I was one of the few people that started Amazon in Texas. I was part of a five-man team that built the first facility there. Every little job has kind of led to something that was being built for the first time.
Speaker 4:Leading up to this, though, for about a decade I worked very specifically in specialty food. I had received a phone call one day out of the blue. It was a gentleman and he's like hey, there's a group of people from Farsaba, israel. They're very interested in talking to you about starting a company in Dallas and I was like OK, is this like a prank? Like people from? Israel.
Speaker 4:And at the time, the initial pitch was kind of like an Etsy, an online marketplace, but it was more for like the craft of, say, shoemaking or butchery or making watches, like things that are very unique talents or industries that we kind of see dying out, and like the idea was like, how do we preserve these ways of creating and making things? But as we sat and talked, like there was no real way to make a business out of this, it didn't seem like a real path to anything. But one of the things that in researching, we found was that there was this real demand for specialty foods and the markets were very underserved. There are artisans and there were makers, but like connecting the dots to the actual consumer, like it's very hard and challenging to do. And so we were like what if we create an online marketplace, but it's all for specialty foods, it's all for local makers or local purveyors and we do the logistics. And so back in 2009, we created, the company was called Artisone and it was this online grocery store. So we were very much ahead of our time, by the way, and you could go online and you could shop. So you would get your local meats from your butcher, you would get, say, chocolates from chocolatiers, you would get coffee from coffee roasters. You get everything that you are looking for. You could order online and then we would go and pick up from all of those different stores, package it all together and deliver it to your house. And so I had started that. Like I said in Dallas, About a year later we moved to Chicago not physically moved, but moved the company into Chicago, Illinois.
Speaker 4:We launched Chicago and then, around 2015, I opened Artisone in Denver, Colorado, the largest artisanal food company in the United States, and had perfected the logistics to where. I mean. Honestly, it was so awesome. You could go on in the morning, at 8 am, the website would show you everything that you could purchase that day and have delivered that evening, between 4 to 6 or 6 to 8 or 7 to nine, and then, at, say, 1 pm, when we knew, like, okay, we can no longer do same day. It would repopulate an entire different customer experience and it would put you into okay, here's what you can do for tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon, Like we worked with recipe developers who we had hundreds of recipes and you could just select a recipe and it would put all the ingredients that you need into your cart, you could check out that recipe.
Speaker 4:We would assume that you have some things at the house like, say, I probably have salt, I have butter, I have things like this, and so we would intentionally put that at the bottom of your cart, so like if you were like, hey, you need these meats, these cheeses, this olive oil. Here are the purveyors, here's how you can purchase this and these are listed down here. If you need them, check them and we'll bring those as well. So it was really fun. I mean, I met so many people and traveled the world and ate so much good food, drank a lot of great wine, and it kind of led me where it's relevant, into coffee now, because this was like 2008 you know, living in Dallas, specialty coffee really started or the third wave of coffee the late 90s, early 2000s, so you know, 10 years before that. But this was like a big movement in Dallas in 2008. Like you're actually starting to meet roasters and talk to people who were going to Origin and they were meeting farmers. They were talking to customers about specialty coffee and what does that mean and why is it different, and like trying to connect the story back to the producers, to connect the story back to the producers, and so part of being an artisan like a big part of that was actually highlighting these roasters that were in Dallas or Chicago or Denver and like telling their story to consumers and explaining this is what they're doing and this is why this is important and this is why you should purchase their coffee. So that part was relevant. But like I didn't see myself ever being a coffee roaster or owning a coffee company, you know for me, I started, um, so I was 14, almost 15, again living in Muir, Michigan, and I started as a dishwasher and we didn't have a lot of money growing up and I needed money and also I wanted to work.
Speaker 4:I think I love working. I know there's lots of people who would love to be doing other things, but I genuinely love working and I was like I want to have my own money and I want to be able to do some stuff and so I started dishwashing and eventually was promoted to Monday night, Tuesday night waitress, because those were the worst shifts and I don't know. There was something about restaurant life that I actually really loved and enjoyed and so in the back of my mind all of these years and I did that for 10 years. I put myself through college. I even post-college. I had a lot of debt. I had credit card debt and obviously tons of student loans. And so I even when I was working at JB Hunt on the weekends like I was working at Logan's Roadhouse. Back then it was like a new concept and I was like a waitress.
Speaker 4:I was a waitress and a bartender there and would put all that money on just paying down debt and I just feel like for the longest time I was like you know, I really think I just want to own like a really amazing breakfast restaurant. Like even to this day, I think, in a weird way, I kind of am doing that.
Speaker 4:but not really a little bit. But in my mind I always saw myself with this like kind of small, very eclectic breakfast restaurant that people like wait outside to like in line forever to get in and it's like small and cozy, maybe like 32 seats, nothing like crazy ever to get in. And it's like small and cozy, maybe like 32 seats, nothing like crazy. And in in my mind, coffee played an important role in this restaurant because I was like I want people to be like I don't know what they are serving there for the coffee, but it is amazing, and like, as you're waiting in line outside, we would come and like serve the people coffee and I don't know like this was the thing that I thought I would end up doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, still could happen it still could happen, it still could happen I mean, I see a lot of parallels with what, how it is, though I mean you serve breakfast we do serve breakfast and it is very eclectic. Like it. It the ambiance and the vibe in your coffee shop is definitely different from the other known coffee houses in town because they all have their own feel yeah, right, yeah, definitely you definitely have your own feel and it is eclectic. I like it. It is cozy. We like to go work there yeah, the best seats the food's good too.
Speaker 2:You get gluten-free. I think I got like a gluten-free muffin we do.
Speaker 4:We could do more gluten-free, though.
Speaker 2:I think we should I like this, different specialty, things like I like when I go and it's like oh, a rose coffee yes, you know, I'm all about that kind of stuff I love that I'm the target market, like my husband goes in everywhere in black coffee. I'm like that is so boring. But hey, but he you know he likes to just taste the bean Like he.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's not boring, maybe I'm just too cliche or basic because I like the lot the flavored lattes Flavored lattes are great and they do a lot of great like drink of the month sort of thing, especially at the coffee shop that's in Rogers, and so she has multiple coffee shops throughout Northwest.
Speaker 4:I know how many do you have? We have two right now, okay, and we just recently announced that we're opening a third in fable. Wow, that's exciting. I know it's exciting, I'm excited what's that?
Speaker 2:like growing from one to two. Is it like when you have like I don't know they say, when you have kids like one is like oh my gosh, this one needs all my attention. And then you have two and you're like all right, Like okay, I can do two, and then three. You're like may as well just open four, five, six, Like what is that? Like I kind of think maybe you nailed it, I did. I feel like that, Like it's just so crazy. At that point You're like let's just go for it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like, let's just go for it. Yeah, like we're already balancing a thousand plates. Yes, okay, I think we learned. I will say this for people who are in this kind of boat or have one or thinking about two or three or four, I will say you know, we opened our first and it was I didn't know which way I wanted to go. So a cool thing is that I have really good guy friends in Dallas who are roasters, who do a lot of business, and they only have one shop and I think they're.
Speaker 4:I'm very interested in different models and like how different people approach their business. And you can see, even in northwest Arkansas you have different roasters who've taken very different approaches. They'll be just in Fayetteville or they'll be just in Bentonville, and then you have companies like myself that are in all of the cities and I always wonder, like, which model is smarter? Is it like the one really pour everything you have into it spot and then really work on, say, maybe, grocery, grocery or, you know, home delivery, or you know direct to consumer through your website? Is it the model that you have a touch point in all of the cities?
Speaker 4:And I think this is unique to Northwest Arkansas as well, because owning the shop, I meet a lot of people and and you you have to be listening to your customers. It doesn't mean that you have the means to do more than one shop. But in Johnson specifically, I was having people driving down from Rogers and Bentonville and they're like we really need something in the north. Which is funny because, like living in Dallas, you're like okay, I mean in the north, in the north, okay, but there's people in Bentonville who are like I never leave Bentonville and there's people in Fayetteville.
Speaker 4:They're like I never leave Fayetteville yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of one of well, kind of I'm not gonna lie, I'm really thankful that you opened a shop up in Rogers.
Speaker 4:I will go to Rogers. That's where I feel like people like you kind of almost it is one area and but yet when you own a business, like for me, I just, I think you, I really think I for this specifically you're, you're in many places. I mean, you have to have these different touch points. I don't know that it works the same way here that it would somewhere else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 4:So in the beginning it really was a strong case for, like, am I going the one shop only? And it's like, I hope you guys come and see us, but if you don't, I understand. But I think you just have to be realistic about where you are and what your, your area is about. And the longer I lived here, the more I came to understand that it needed to be me that changed. It wasn't going to be me trying to force customers to do what I wanted to do and and I'm I'm happy with those decisions actually. So that's where I think too.
Speaker 4:I also, you know, last year we tried working in Springdale. We were in downtown Springdale. I opened a shop there with Social Project Brewing. He had a space there which used to be, I think, bike rack brewing before COVID hit, and for us it just didn't work out. And at that point I was like, why am I trying to do a third shop? Different things come across our table. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn't make sense. Things come across our table. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4:In this case it was an easy opportunity to try, but I don't know that it was ever the right next move for us, and so what also was tough is like really saying, okay, this is not a fit for us, it's not a fit right now. We went from three shops back to two shops and I felt like I was forcing something that maybe didn't need to be forced, and then I told my entire team that we will not open a new shop in 2025.
Speaker 2:And now you are. We, 100% are now doing this.
Speaker 1:Never say, never. So true, never say, never, never say, never, never say never.
Speaker 4:And I'm like okay, guys, guys, I know I said we weren't going to do this, but we are, but we are I'm sure they're so excited for it, I think
Speaker 4:they are excited, it's fun, like there's lots of opportunities. That's the thing. You know I I never wanted to build a company. That's just about me, you know. I want to build a company that is adding value in our community and that is creating opportunities for people who otherwise would not get these opportunities, and part of that everything takes a lot of time and I talk to a lot of people who I think aren't realistic about that, like how much work things take and how long things take. But for me, the goal is to be very smart.
Speaker 4:I don't want to be making decisions for the sake of ego and then, losing everything that I've done along the way, but I don't want to play so safe that we're missing opportunities to do stuff, especially with really good people, when those opportunities arrive. Yeah, and so it was hard to to talk to somebody and and to see how, wow, this could really really be a win-win situation for my team and for the people I'm working with. And just say no for the sake of saying no.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so where do your beans come from? You travel to? Yeah, I do travel. I was like yeah, yes, yeah, but not so.
Speaker 4:The intention when I started confident coffee was really to be traveling to origin A lot in the beginning and to create these connections with the farmers and to build my program that way first. But I started, I incorporated Confident Coffee in December 2018. So really at the end and got my spot in Johnson in January 2019 and my roaster in March and started selling in April January 2019 and my roaster in March and started selling in April. And then at the time I was working back, I was just going to be a roastery in Johnson. My Rogers shop was going to be my first coffee shop actually, and I had worked with John L Hunt's team and they were breaking ground on Pinnacle Heights and so I was like, okay, this is a couple years out, this is probably really good timing.
Speaker 4:I had envisioned a completely different space for Johnson. I did want that spot. I wanted it to be that retail facing type location, not just like roasting somewhere hidden in a warehouse. So I wanted Johnson to be something really different. I wanted it to be a roastery but that customers could experience in a different way. I had envisioned that I would have like credenzas in the space and they would have different brew equipment on it and customers could come in. And in my mind, I wanted a different buying experience as well, and this still could happen someday and we could easily do this in Johnson. But I wanted customers customers to be able to come in and buy 24 grams of a coffee and like take that coffee, go over to like a workstation, you know, work them through like this is how you should grind this. Do you want to try a V60 pour over today? Do you have you ever made a French press before you know? Or here's an air press and the. This is how you do this method of brewing coffee, and I think it's really fun and interesting. I've never seen this anywhere in the world and I've looked for it everywhere I've ever been. And so I was like, if this is something that I'm thinking about and looking for, like I think customers would really enjoy this type of experience. And so the thought and the process was that Johnson was going to be ultimately this and my cafe was going to be Rogers.
Speaker 4:And at that time, that was when I was thinking about the model, like will I only ever have one shop? I was working in downtown Dallas. I still had tons of, obviously friends and connections with things that were happening there, and AT&T had put the world headquarters in downtown Dallas and they were working on creating this really fun global campus, almost like a New York City Times Square vibe courtyard, and then there was going to be a food hall and a secondary level that would be high-end sushi, steak stuff like that. So I was traveling back and forth to Dallas and working on this project. So I was traveling back and forth to Dallas and working on this project and I had taken my first sourcing trip to Costa Rica to basically start the back end part of it, and the intention was to continue to keep traveling while working on this project and slowly building Confident Coffee Really just a truly roasting company, wholesale retailer and then, two or three years down the road, open a shop and then, like everyone, covid hit and every single thing that I was working on really died overnight, and so, even fast forwarding, we're five years past COVID.
Speaker 4:I've traveled, obviously, to Costa Rica. I've traveled to Brazil. I have a direct trade relationship with a husband and wife out of Guatemala, but they also showed up at my shop. I have not been to Guatemala yet. My trip there was canceled. So my intention is to continue to travel and to spend time on farms and to build that, but you know, we just weren't able to travel for so many years to so many places.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and then it was really changing my focus of I'm going to be a roastery in Johnson to maybe I'm going to be a coffee shop in Johnson. Yeah, you know, people were, I just didn't, I didn't see it evolving and I didn't see the idea being a business. But I could see where cafes were still having success in customer pickup and and I knew, like things in Dallas weren't going to happen. It was just like everything, nothing was going to happen. Nothing that I was working on was real anymore, and so it was just taking stock and like, here I am, what is real? Well, what's real is I have a location in Johnson and I have to pay rent and what can I do to somehow generate revenue and to maybe just approach this thing a different way and get it going?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then here you are today, and here we are today. It's funny hearing the evolution of everything. Yeah, and then here you are today, and here we are today. It's funny hearing the evolution of everything.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So now that you do have your coffee shop, yeah, I'm curious what is the most popular order?
Speaker 4:On a latte. Okay, this is the number one. I also think it is just so interesting. Everyone does this. This is not a unique drink, by the way. Every coffee shop has their version. Everyone does this.
Speaker 2:This is not a unique drink, by the way. Every coffee shop has their version of Onalatte.
Speaker 4:Yes, so it's vanilla honey, cinnamon. Sometimes you'll go to a shop and they'll do nutmeg instead of cinnamon, but this, for whatever reason, is a crowd favorite. It's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:My favorite. It is your favorite. Yes, for whatever reason. Is a crowd?
Speaker 4:It's one of my favorites, my favorite, it is your favorite.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my creamer at home is literally vanilla honey and one of the local syrup makers makes a little syrup with that. Like.
Speaker 2:I'll do it myself if I don't have time to go to the shop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, you should buy her beans, then I do. I do too.
Speaker 2:I do. Yeah, we like to do all the different kinds, like we do pour over French press pod drip. However you want to make the coffee, it can be made in my house.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited just listening to you talk about that kind of experience, that coffee experience. That's unique, that it doesn't exist anywhere else. And I'm like my wheels anywhere else and I'm like my wheels are turning. I'm like, yeah, let's make this happen, amber come on, let's go, let's go, it's go time it's go time.
Speaker 1:I'm ready to go. I think that there's something interesting about an experience for people. You know there's coffee. Every coffee shop is an experience. You know what, what it looks like, the feel, the smell, the brand that you walk into. I mean the seats. I think I've told you a million times how comfortable your seats are in Rogers. They're my favorite place. I mean it's probably why nobody leaves and they all sit there and order like 10 cups of coffee and work for, you know, several hours at your coffee shop because it's really comfortable. But I think that having something unique like that would be really cool to see eventually where can you buy the beans?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, so okay, we're jumping all over the place. No, I was just thinking about it, because you're like we'll use.
Speaker 2:Like you were saying, you need to buy our beans, because I do go to your coffee shop. Where can I buy them? Can I buy them outside of the shop?
Speaker 4:yes, okay, awesome. So right now we are in a program with a group of other you know local roasters and we're in 75 Walmart locations oh within three states, so you can find us in Arkansas, missouri and Kansas.
Speaker 4:They carry our Guatemala, our Mexico and our Colombia. A lot of this program is going to basically be reset, so there is a possibility that we'll gain some extra SKUs, that we can do some shelf space and potentially be adding more to that program, at least in the state of Arkansas. I don't know if this will expand beyond that or not. We'll find out soon, like in the next week or two. That's exciting. We also have a really great offering at the co-op in Fayetteville, Okay, and so that was the first retail location that we were in. They have a really fun coffee buyer there and he's really into trying different things that are in our portfolio, and so I feel like that's probably the most fun place that you can find some of our stuff, because he has unique offerings from us there. Otherwise, we're just having retail bags that you would buy at the coffee shop.
Speaker 2:What's your favorite, Like what is the owner drinking every day?
Speaker 4:Black coffee out of the mug. Listen, I know I'm supposed to have black coffee, but I like cream with my. I like half and half that's wrong with that.
Speaker 2:No well, it's a little faux pas.
Speaker 4:There's a little judgment. What kind? Of beans, though, I will say this I will say this is where I'm picky. I don't. I really love natural coffees and I like fruity coffees, okay, and so if I so, if I'm doing a fruity natural, I only want it black. Okay, I don't want anything. I don't think milk goes well with that. It changes the flavor in almost like a acrid way to me.
Speaker 2:I agree with you I don't like it at all. Yeah, I've experienced that too. I'm like, nope, no, give me the chocolatey. Yes, the don't like it. Yeah, I've experienced that too. I'm like, nope, I don't give me the chocolatey. Yes, the like meat, like the breakfast roast with the cocoa.
Speaker 4:I want milk with that, or yes that's where I feel like we do a lot. My specialty is medium roasted coffees. If I'm doing all of my naturals, I always do light roasted. You should, that's my opinion. That's to highlight the whole reason that you bought this coffee right. I'm not trying to roast these like beautiful attributes out of the coffee. My columbias, my mexicos, my guatemalas are all a nice medium roast and of course you, I like that. They're also crowd pleasing in that you can serve a big group of people and if there's 50 percent that really like black coffee, they'll enjoy drinking it. But if there's 50 percent that like cream or you like sugar, that drinks really well too. For me. Like I make the argument that when I put cream in my coffee, it enhances some of those flavors that I'm looking for. Like, when I'm drinking it black, I'm not necessarily tasting chocolate.
Speaker 4:I add a little half and half and I'm like boom, there it is yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:So I've experienced that multiple times.
Speaker 2:I think that's why my husband likes to drink it black. He likes modern coffee. He likes that fruity, floral, even like citrusy notes, like yeah, and I think that well, he tastes. He's in the wine business for a living, so he likes things in their pure form. So he, he thinks what I'm doing is like crazy. Yeah, he's like what are you? You're ruining the coffee? Yeah, but I don't put sugar in my coffee, I just do, I just like half and half, and then that's it but not a whole lot.
Speaker 2:you know, have you seen that picture where they have the different colors of your coffee? Yes, I'm always like in the lighter side, but some people it's like my mom drinks it like 75% creamer. I'm like that's not right mom, it's like white.
Speaker 1:It's like the color of your shirt. I know it's cream. It's basically a splash of coffee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a splash of coffee. That's all it is, that's my kids.
Speaker 1:They like the flavor of coffee with a lot of cream, so I think balance is good. I want to ask a question because I didn't get to ask it earlier. Tell us, kind of, the story behind the brand and coming up with the name Confident.
Speaker 2:Coffee. I think that that is very exciting. We meant to ask that from the beginning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we should have asked that at the beginning, it's fine.
Speaker 4:I tell everyone it confident coffee exists because that is how I felt, like I had. We don't have the time to go into all of the backstory, but there's many things that I worked on that, for whatever reason, didn't come to fruition, and some of those things are good, some of those things are bad. But I did get to a point where I found myself. I told you guys, I always thought that I would kind of own something and, yes, maybe that was a breakfast restaurant or that was just something that I knew that would be mine and that I would be working really hard to make successful. And when the company that I was working to grow and to develop before Confident Coffee didn't work out, I mean I was pretty devastated.
Speaker 4:I had poured my whole life and heart and soul and thoughts and being into this thing, thinking it was going to be something really amazing, and sometimes it's really put in your face that this is was going to be something really amazing and like, sometimes it's really put in your face that this is not going to happen. And I had talked to a lot of people I had, I was already in coffee and I thought maybe this isn't for me and I just need to do something different. I had a lot of people that were like hey, you're really good at roasting, you're great in coffee, you're in a bad situation, but like don't quit coffee. And I sat with it for a long time and I'm like no, I actually genuinely love coffee roasting. Which is weird because, like you don't expect to be somebody that's in like your late thirties, 40 years old, and you're like I have a master's degree in supply chain and logistics, but I think I'm just going to go ahead and be a coffee roaster.
Speaker 1:I love that so much.
Speaker 4:And so I started talking to people and I was like you know what I it's okay to say I am good at roasting Like I am good at and you know what I do love coffee, and I do love what I'm doing.
Speaker 4:And the first attempt and approach didn't work, but that doesn't mean this isn't right for me. And the more I talked to people and the more I thought about it, I was like no, this is the right next move, like I just need to do something that is mine, that I have control over. Yeah, and I feel really confident about this. And I just kept saying the word Like every single time I was talking to somebody, I'm like I don't know how to explain it other than I feel confident. And so then I was like huh, would it be weird to name it confident coffee roasters? And so I started like just googling, like I'm surely somebody has picked this name or it's trademarked, and it wasn't like. So I was like I don't think this is a coincidence. I think this is what this is supposed to be and so that's how confident coffee was born.
Speaker 2:That's amazing that's a great way you just got to go that. You can't ignore that, that gut feeling. Right, that's how Confident Coffee was born. That's amazing. That's a great way it just came to you. You just got to go with it.
Speaker 1:You can't ignore that gut feeling right, that's a great way to kind of wrap up this episode too. Yeah, that's really awesome. There's so many things we could talk to you about I know.
Speaker 4:And if you are listening to this episode.
Speaker 1:We appreciate you listening to all the things we're talking about and we encourage you to go check out Confident Coffee. And if Amber is there, she's this you know little blonde lady running around doing a million things. Find her, say hi to her, give her a hug, thank you, get to know her. She's also a runner, which we didn't get to talk about like the things you do, because you know. You know I love hearing about people's lives beyond just you know, like the one. There's more than just one thing that we do, but it's really great to have you in the studio. Thank you for being here and thank you for supporting our podcast.
Speaker 4:We really appreciate you for supporting us.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you for caffeinating us for real though.
Speaker 1:So anything else you want to say to the audience.
Speaker 4:Just that. I appreciate everyone in our community and we've received a lot of support and a lot of love and that goes a long way for all of us here that are trying to do something and it's noticed and it's appreciated.
Speaker 2:Awesome, and where can they find you online? Can you give your handles?
Speaker 4:Yes, we're on Instagram and Facebook at Confident Coffee. I don't do a great job at social media. Everyone tells me, but we are there. So if you do reach out or you DM, you are getting my attention. I do handle all of our accounts. So at Confident Coffee, Nice, Thank you yeah thank you guys.
Speaker 2:Hey, thanks so much for listening today. If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing to the podcast so you never miss an episode. You can also follow us on Instagram at peopleofNWA. Thanks so much.
Speaker 3:People of Northwest Arkansas with the two Daniels produced by me, brock Short of Brock Entertainment. Please rate, review and like us on any podcast platform where you listen. For more information about today's guests and the show, please check the show notes. Thanks for listening.