I’m lucky enough to live right by Stumptown at the Ace Hotel, which is where I purchase my coffee for home.  Although I enjoy the coffee, I’m also quite impressed by their packaging.

Like all things I drink, coffee is a pleasure and an education: the drink unexamined is not worth drinking.  In the past [pre-Stumptown], I would purchase beans, take them home, place the beans in an airtight container, throw away the bag that had the estate name on it, thinking “I’ll remember what I purchased,” and of course would forget every time.  Stumptown’s packaging not only gives the date of roast on the bag, but comes with a removable mini-spec sheet, a card detailing: on the front- location, elevation, varietal info and flavor profile; and on the back- more specific grower and site information.

The spec sheet allows me to keep track of what I’m drinking, helps me repurchase the estates I like and avoid the coffees that aren’t suited to my palate, and above all, teaches me something about what I purchased. I keep the little cards in the cupboard where I keep the coffee.  Education is the best marketing. Every time I open the cupboard, there are those cool little cards, telling their stories and reminding me where I purchased the delicious coffee.  Brilliant marketing collateral / form follows function.

Portland is a city filled with many fantastic roasters, Stumptown’s packaging is that helpful key differentiator, which makes them standout.  Not to mention, with every purchase of a bag of beans you're offered a free small cup of French press brewed coffee from their rotating roster of estates.  I usually forgo the free coffee, only because I order an espresso to drink there when I get my beans for home, but it’s a nice perk all the same.

Anthony Garcia
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