Starting Adventurer’s Coffee Co. was (IS!) a dream come true, but it’s been a stressful climb all along. There’s several points where you look at starting your own business, particularly in the United States (or so I’m told), where you sigh and say “Well, should I really keep doing this to myself?” And, I think, at least in my case, the answer is yes.
The dream — for lack of a better term — when starting Adventurer’s Coffee Co. was to start a company that cared as much for its people as it did its product, and its money. Greed is such a compelling force in the business world, and it always has been. It drives our political structure. It drives our corporate structures. Hell, it drives our personal lives, too. The thing we have to do, as responsible business owners and people of Earth, is take a step back and realize how bad greed is. Sorry, Milton Friedman, greed is a bad thing. His viewpoint on greed and mine are two different ones, and his point is well-placed, but his verbiage is incorrect. Greed is not the motivator; Drive is the powerhouse. Greed is a vice that leads us to place our desire for money — simply a tool — over others. Drive, alternately, is a powerful tool that can push you to the stars. Drive is what got us all where we are today. Driven people are who built the foundations of the world.
Alas, I digress. The world of coffee is much the same as others, but we wanted to find a niche. Adventurer’s is this brainchild of three nerdy guys who wanted to capitalize on escapism. We had a really crap cup of coffee one day, not even sure the brand, and decided that we could do better. We bought a bag of green beans online, and then we set out to buy a roaster. First, we just used an air popcorn popper, and it worked! Well, once we figured out that we could do it, we started honing our art. That was February of 2019. We opened the storefront and roasterie in October of 2019, and we’ve been sailing — albeit on choppy waters — ever since.
For all the challenges we faced, getting licenses, financially, structurally, utilities… all those things don’t compare to the brunt of this situation we’re up against with COVID-19. It’s really been challenging. We’re limited to curbside orders only — online orders for the bagged stuff — and we still get to roast full time. Thankfully, we have a very supportive customer base, and each and every day we have those faithful customers coming by. But if we didn’t, we’d be in deep trouble.
If you’ve ever found yourself interested in trying some coffee that’s roasted in small batches with love and care, give us a shot. We’d love to make you a return customer.
T.G. Neal 