What Makes a Coffee Shop Great? Great Coffee.

Novo Coffee Roastery Tour and Tasting 

Over the weekend, my wife and I went to a coffee tasting at Novo coffee. Novo coffee is a coffee roaster and wholesaler in Denver in the Rino district that's been around since 2002. They were recommended to me by the president of our Chamber of Commerce because if you partner with them they will train your baristas! I’ve been trying to connect with as many people in my community that are in both the coffee industry and comics industry to get a better understanding of what I'm getting myself into. A couple weeks ago I spoke to my city’s Chamber of Commerce and they set me up with some good resources. I’ve gotten my paperwork submitted to register with the state and get all the necessary documents for sales tax and whatnot so I can start the online shop already. While operating the online shop I’ll be trying to learn more and more about both industries and immerse myself in coffee and comics. 

As I talk about my Coffee and Comics concept, one of the things that I hear from a lot of people is if a shop has horrible coffee. Not often have people been telling me of a place that has great coffee. It seems as though when someone talks about a coffee shop they like, it’s more about the uniqueness or experience. I feel like the coffee industry has shifted a little bit in terms of no longer seeking good coffee, but instead something to show as content in our lives i.e. a very cute Instagrammable coffee shop at the expense of drinking shitty coffee.

Novo had fun coffee menus and signage throughout the building.

A topic of discussion that I had with the president of the Chamber of Commerce, who was a previous coffee shop owner, was that great coffee is important. That’s when she recommended Novo coffee to me, I did a very quick search on Google to check them out and saw that they have a few locations. They also had workshops and tasting tours available that they host at their roastery, so I thought it would be fun to go on a tasting tour with my wife. With both of our parents in town it was a great time to take advantage of the free babysitting and go on a little coffee date. Honestly it was a fun experience that also provided us with valuable information. We got to look at a potential wholesaler that we can partner with that could provide us with our coffee as well as you know just going on a little date.

So on Friday we went down to the Rino district in the Denver area. Very cute community, very cute area, a few cute buildings on the street. Upon arriving we were introduced and told to ask as many questions as we had. It was great to see other people who wanted to open a shop that also chose to tour Novo. When we started the tour, the first thing we learned about was where they get their beans from, but more importantly how those beans are processed. There are four different ways to process beans, we got to see 3 of those 4 at the roastery. If you haven’t seen beans before they’re processed they sorta look like peanuts and have an earthy smell to them.

At the end of the tour we got to do a coffee cupping and learn about coffee tasting

After that, we got to check out their amazing roasting machine, which is one of the most green conscious machines. One thing that I particularly liked about Novo coffee is that they roast to order, instead of roasting huge batches of coffee and storing it for who knows how long. Seeing the process was awesome, the machine they have can roast around 50 pounds of coffee in 15 minutes. Bringing us to learning about roasting levels. The light medium ones have the most flavor whereas the dark roasts lose that flavor because it’s being roasted longer/out of the bean. I had the complete opposite understanding, thinking the dark roast had the most flavor of the bean, so learning that little bit of tidbit information was great. We also saw their nitro coffee process which I’ve never had before and got to taste it. As soon as I saw all the nitro coffee canisters I had the idea to start a nitro coffee cart and post up in front of some comic shops; might be a good idea to promote the online shop too.

All in all, it was a very good tour to go on to learn the process. It’s nice to know that there is a local roastery in Denver that is well-established. I’m going to do a little bit more research and see if there are other coffee wholesalers available to get a deeper understanding of the coffee aspect of this business. One thing that I will need to figure out is, do I want to be a barista? Does my wife want to be a barista? Will we be able to hire a barista? These are all things to think about and they both make me nervous but really excited for the future.

We got to pick a bag of coffee of our choosing at the end of the tour, can’t wait to try it!

When's The Shop Launch?

Since I’ve had numerous people on Threads ask as well as friends and family, “When is the shop going to launch?”

I figured i’d write this post. The answer is soon, I hope at least. I was trying to find a CPA/Business Advisor who could help me with registering the Coffee and Comics business here in Colorado, but I was unsuccessful. Instead I went with the same team my business partner and I use for Resin Refinery/Chronicle, our web agency and start-up, who is based out of Texas. I just got that filing sent out and am waiting to hear back.

Why am I going through all of this and registering the business? Well I don’t want to just start selling things online without any regards to what I need to do for taxes and then come tax time, get royally screwed by the IRS. So to eliminate the chances of that happening, I’m taking the time to handle all of that from the very beginning. Plus if I want to open a brick and mortar shop down the line, I’ll already have the proper paperwork setup.

There are two main “goals” I have with operating as an online shop right now; spread brand awareness and raise funds for an actual shop. If I execute a well thought out plan, I can go to a bank and use that data to show there is an interest and an extra channel of revenue besides coffee and comics. Should I be successful with that, I would hope that I can get a loan to start this shop for real. The online shop is only the beginning and there is so much more to go.

While launching and then operating as an online shop, I plan to learn as much as possible for this business. There is a workshop in September that will help me with writing a business plan, hopefully by then I can have a few months of data from the online shop. So in the meantime I will need to find a coffee wholesaler to partner with, a comic shop to partner with or just start building my own inventory of comics and maybe even start looking for a site location.

Finally, the shop. I don’t want to get stuck with boxes and boxes of apparel should I not be successful and can’t sell anything. Instead of doing that, I want to do limited drops in which I’ll only put up a few items at a time. My hope is to build excitement for each drop and entice people to purchase and rep the brand. I’ll be posting on social media about the limited drops but I’ll be using my newsletter as early bird access. So as a way to build an email list for when the brick and mortar shop finally launches, I’ll announce that subscribers to my newsletter will get alerted of the limited drops first and then social media the next day. The limited drops will help me with not having to front so much money at the start of this project. You know the saying, you need to spend money to make money, well I'm kinda running low at the moment so I have to be very careful with how I spend my money right now.

Here is a look at how a Limited Drop post on social media would look like.

Besides apparel, what else will be in the shop? Right now I’m working on custom comic bookmarks and stickers. The bookmarks have become quite fun and therapeutic to create and have been well received on Threads. There will be a few on there at the time of launch, I will continue making them depending on how they sell. There is a second design I have worked on that I included on the print screen I got. The design is of the saying “Just One More”, as in “Just one more comic” or “Just one more cup of coffee”.

Stickers + limited drops of hoodies and shirts will be available on the shop.

That design will be available on shirts as well as the canvas tote bags I’ve been creating. In Colorado, they have been going after the use of plastic bags at stores, making you pay for them each time. With a reusable bag you can go about your shopping business without having to worry about paying for plastic bags. I also want to make these bags or cheaper versions of them for comic shops to purchase on a wholesale basis to sell in their own shops. I’d even be open to shops paying for their own screen and I’ll print their logo on one side and the coffee & comics brand on the other. All of this will develop as time goes, I'm not sure if it’ll lead anywhere, but here’s to manifesting it into existence. 

These bags had the designs drawn on, but the bags will be screen printed from now on.

Thanks for following along on this journey and be ready to subscribe to the newsletter when it’s ready! Don’t worry, you won’t be spammed. I plan to only do 1-2 emails a month; to give an update on where I'm at with the business and announce the limited drops. 

Review: X-Men '97 #1

Finally I got to reading Marvel’s X-Men ‘97 comic run. Currently there are 3 issues out with the 4th issue releasing on June 26th. Since the animated show having ended, I’ve been putting off reading these issues as a way to expand the relevancy of X-Men ‘97. The first season was so good I didn’t want it to end. The comic certainly isn’t a 1:1 exact match to the show but it does share some similarities. 

Now initially I was unable to get issue 1 when it first came out and was pretty bummed. Instead I opted to just get issue 2 with hopes of finding the first issue somewhere else. A week or so passed and I decided I wanted to get another copy of issue 2. I went back to the shop and they had the reprints of the first issue available! I was stoked, picked it up along with the extra copy that I’m going to use to create some custom bookmarks.

Reminder of how these blog posts go:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover

Unfortunately as I mentioned previously, I was unable to get the first issue, but I did manage the second printing of it. Overall I like the cover, the colors, the sunset mood, it’s all great. The only thing that makes it seem a little out of place is Jubilee drinking a beverage and eating popcorn. Had the setting been within the mansion, then I think that would make a lot more sense. But it just makes her seem a bit out of place cause the rest of the X-Men are all striking a pose. The little bits of detail like Gambit’s card aura and Bishop’s purple veins were sweet little additions.

Pretty fun action packed intro that made me question if this was actually going on…

Story

So the main question that a lot of people had with this is does the animated show have any tie in with the comic run? As of right now, I can’t really tell. From what I’ve seen on social media is that this is all leading up to where the show starts. So it kind of makes sense, since the little overview message at the beginning states that we know Henry Peter Gyrich has attacked Professor X. 

Then we jump right into it. I was really surprised because I thought the comic was going to be like a retelling of the animated show. But not quite. There is some good action that starts off with Wolverine breaking formation and trying to take on Magneto by himself. He is tossed aside like a ragdoll. The entire mission is a failure as Cyclops also struggles to keep control of his team and take down Magneto. Jean ends the Danger Room session because she is worried someone will get hurt. 

Right away we get an understanding that the X-Men are having a tough time trying to keep it together and clearly lack the leadership of Professor X. Cyclops and Wolverine are fighting, while everyone else doesn’t know who to follow. At this point the main plot of the story takes place, Dazzler has been kidnapped and it was caught live on TV. The X-Men meet up with Rogue and Gambit to take on a terrorist group of Friends of Humanity. They end up rescuing Dazzler just in time for her to perform the memorial concert for Professor X. We get our first introduction of Valerie Cooper as she shows up to arrest the Friends of Humanity punks. Wolverine though is suspicious about an agent named Denti, I wonder what that’s all about. 

Wish we got more of Wolverine and Cyclops fighting…

The rest of the issue pertains to more struggles of leadership as well as Jean unable to get some time alone with Cyclops to let him know she’s pregnant. Storm can obviously sense there is something wrong with Jean and opts to stay behind instead of going to see Dazzler perform. Jubilee ends up taking Bishop while Storm goes to comfort Jean. 

Absolutely loved the fact that Wolverine and Cyclops go head to head and fight. They clearly have a bone to pick with each other, I just wish we got to see more of it. Cut to the performance of Dazzler and we encounter another group trying to take her down or kidnap her. Luckily the X-Men are there, Bishop, Jubilee, Rogue and Gambit all spring into action to help out Dazzler. They end up getting away and we find out they were working for Mister Sinister. Who then punishes them for trying to apprehend Dazzler in such a public space. 

Mister Sinister ends with saying he needs to enlist some new help. Who will it be?...

Overall 4 / 5

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Rate, Review & Collection Apps

I don’t know if you’re like me, but I am someone who really likes to review and keep my stuff in order and organized as much as I can.

It seems like we live in the gold rush of apps right now, everyone is rushing to develop their own app, whether it’s needed or not. Over the past couple years there have been quite a few apps developed that really help us to rate, review and organize our goodies. For instance, one app that I use quite a bit for my comics is called Comic Geeks, one of a few that I use to keep track or rate & review things.

Visit the Comic Geeks website or download on the app store!

I haven’t tried other comic apps but this one does a very good job of making it easy to collect & input your issues into the app. What I really like about this app is that its database is pretty big. Of the 150 comics I’ve inputted, only a few didn’t come up in the app and required me to input manually. It’s great because it includes information such as the authors and illustrators involved as well as all the variant covers available for some comics. When collecting issues, I tend to gather a stack at home and then once I have about 5-7 comics gathered, I open my app and start inputting them. 

One of the newest features, I’m not sure how new it is, but recently I’ve come to notice that you can now scan the barcodes on your comics and it’ll search its database for the comic! Of the 20 or so comics I tried out, it was able to pull up all of them, some did require a bit of scrolling. It has come in handy lately because I purchased two mystery boxes last month, so I have a total of 72 comics; DC and Batman comics that I need to go through and sort and add to my collection. Even the older comics it was able to pull the information, for instance one was from 1992, two years after I was born and had no problem finding it. The major pros from this app is the ability to mark whether you have a comic, want it, or have read it. I love going in my app and marking comic books I’ve read and adding new ones to my wishlist, though my wallet doesn’t. Comic Geeks does have a social aspect to it, that I occasionally post on. For instance, whenever I finish a review on my website, I post it on Comic Geeks. But other than that I don’t really go searching for other people or check out my feed that much. For now, Threads has done a good enough job to fill my feed with comic geeks like me.

Internet Movie Database, visit the website or download on the app store!

For my movies and tv shows, I like to use IMDb which is an Internet Movie DataBase. I recently started reviewing my movies in the past year. Though I tend to use this app almost daily because I’m constantly looking up voice actors from shows or looking up where the content is streaming. Instead of using Google, this is my go to app for searching for movie or tv information. I do wish I had created an account from the very start so that my recommendations were a bit better, although since I’ve started rating and reviewing more, my options have improved quite a bit. Overall this app is kind of a good way to keep track of everything that I’ve watched, since there are a multitude of streaming platforms now.

Now this might be a bit controversial but I kind of want a social aspect to the IMDb app. For instance seeing what my friends are watching or if they could send me direct recommendations in the app. I have looked up some other apps like Letterboxd which seems to be exactly that, movie and tv reviews from a social aspect. Though I am not sure if I want to start a new app and abandon what I have on IMDb. 

Visit the website to check out their collectibles or download on the app store.

One app that caters more towards the collector nerds is the Funko app. With this app I keep track of all my Funko collectibles. Besides keeping track of your own collection, you can make separate collection lists as well as a wish list. Oftentimes I come across a collectible that I like and I’ll just put it in my wishlist rather than just buying every single one I see. I’ve found out that’s the fastest way to run out of money without getting what you want first. It also has a scanning feature that makes logging your collectibles really easy. Simply scan the barcode on the box and it pops up the right product information for you. It also has some additional information sometimes for collectibles that are on the market right now and if the prices are changing. Ideally I’d like to look for an app that keeps track of all my collectibles, for instance I have a few Transformers that I would like to log but since it’s not a Funko product, I’m unable to.

Download Chronicle from the app store! or visit the website for more information.

The final app that I use is one that I’m shamelessly going to plug into this, but it’s one that I developed with a buddy of mine called Chronicle. As a parent now, I need something quick and easy to keep track of what I’m smoking. Easy things like what I like or don’t like, products that give me a bad reaction, or strains that are good for one thing but make something else difficult. For instance when I smoke certain types of strains, I can’t really focus my eyes on reading some of these comics. Especially if it’s one of the more wordy ones, but on the flipside, I can be extremely focused while doing something else like designing, building or doing yard work. 

The main reason I use Chronicle is to keep track of products that really help me with my appetite. I’ve struggled with my appetite over the years and cannabis helps jumpstart it while also reminding me to take a break during the day. I’m unfortunately one of those creatives who just kinda gets a little bit too busy and in the zone that I’ll forget to eat. I will go an entire day without eating sometimes. Chronicle launched last year on the Apple App Store and have started to gain traction in users. There are a few things that we would like to improve over the next couple months; like partnering with more companies to have their products in our database so users can have the ability to scan a product and review it, right then and there. This is the best experience that we could ask for, at the moment if the product is not in the database it needs to be added manually(sorta like the comic geeks app). So if you’re from Threads or follow me on Threads, you’ll see some of these features get fleshed out in real time. Hopefully we will build some more relationships and improve the effectiveness of our scanning feature.

That’s pretty much it in terms of my collection of apps that I to use to keep track of collections, rate and review or just organization. There are some new ones out there that I want to try, one of my followers mentioned Sequel App that helps you keep track of movies, shows and more like games, books and audiobooks. I’m always on the lookout for apps to use especially since I can take some of those experiences and compare them to our own. What are things to avoid or things that annoy users and make sure we don’t commit the same problems. What’s something you love about an app but also has something you hate too? Let me know on Threads or below in the comments!

My Most Used Apps

1. Threads

2. Comic Geeks

3. Pinterest

4. Chronicle

5. IMDb

6. TikTok

7. Instagram

8. Discord

9. Funko

Review: Blood Hunt Issue 2

Ok I know I said I was only going to collect Deadpool and Wolverine WWIII and also the Poison Ivy run that started last year. However, this new Blood Hunt run is only 5 issues (if you don’t include the separate titles) and since I got started with the Free Comic Book Day version it was a no brainer. I’m not sure what it is with vampires but I love them! It might be growing up watching Blade 1-3, Underworld, Twilight, Van Helsing and more.

I stopped at my local comic book shop on Thursday intending to pick up issue 3 of X-Men ‘97 but I saw Blood Hunt issue 2 sitting right next to it. I think what has been drawing me to it besides the story is the art. The covers featuring Avengers and other superheroes slicing up Vampires is fucking dope. I do wish though that I got a wrap-around cover again like the first issue I picked up. It’s a shame we don’t get wrap-arounds as much anymore but I totally understand the need to market the next books and such. Reminder of how these blog posts go:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Cover

Once again, another cool cover featuring our superheroes going toe-to-toe against some vicious looking vampires. The background looks to be set in the city with our heroes at the top of a building with vampires climbing up the walls. Captain America, Captain Marvel, Vision and Iron Man are all fighting vampires off and it looks super awesome. My favorite part of the cover is Captain Marvel because it looks like she punched the living shit out of a vampire!

Brielle, daughter of Blade, decapitating suckers

Story

So we left off on the last issue (SPOILER WARNING) if you haven’t read the first issue of Blood Hunt, save this blog post and come back after reading. But at the very end of issue 1, we discover Blade being the mastermind behind the vampire invasion and he stabs Dr. Strange right through the chest. It was absolutely EPIC. 

We get quick looks at Thor being strung up by chains and the stake still through his head(another epic illustration). Scarlet Witch seems to be incapacitated and T’Challa has been converted into a vampire! Blade, having control over his vampire minions, orders Black Panther to fetch his prize, as well as sends his bloodcoven to find the girl; both of these we don’t know what they are, yet I think.

Now I have no prior knowledge of Blade comics or lore, but he has a daughter(Brielle) according to the first issue. This time she has linked up with Dracula in New York City, and he is talking down to her for risking her life to fight off vampires for humans. There is a sweet action shot of Brielle slicing a vampire’s head off.

We now encounter some heroes who are trying to link up in Uptown. Tigra and Hunter’s Moon, two heroes I’m unfamiliar with, are looking for Dr. Strange when they happen upon Spider-Man, though he says he’s the other Spider-Man. Not sure what that means. 

They discover Clea and a vampire Dr. Strange after being led by Dr. Strange’s astral self. 

The issue finishes off with some dope fighting scenes and the Avengers coming thru and whooping butt. Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man and Vision all show up to help Dracula against Blade’s bloodcoven. Megrim is taken down by Vision, Captain Marvel smashes the shit out of Bloodstorm 1 with a flying punch. The fight continues with the Avengers overtaking them to the point that the bloodcoven teleports to escape.

Our heroes are able to take a breather, but right as they let down their guard, one of them turns…! We’ll talk about this reveal in the next post. Can’t wait for the next issue!

Oh no! Who is turning into vampire??!

Overall 4 / 5

Artwork was dope, so that’s good to know the quality didn’t dip after the first issue. I will say though the story kind of felt a little empty in a way. It was a bit of a different take on the first issue in which we get a grouping of a heroes against vampires but we didn’t really find out anything important to the story. We’ll see how this next issue goes.

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