2023 AT A GLANCE

THANK YOU. Thank you for another fantastic year. For another year of supporting Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, the farmers we work with, the vendors and organizations we partner with, and our amazing team members. We couldn't do it without you all! We strive to do better each year to serve you, our communities, and our employees.

With the end of 2023, we wanted to recap the year and the strides we made to better your coffee experience, whether by visiting our cafes or shopping with us online!

So keep reading if you want to hear some things we are proud of:

We launched "Baby Bird," our cute VW coffee truck, at the beginning of the year. This allowed us to offer our coffee at various public and private events throughout San Diego County - including two San Diego staples - the San Diego County Fair and December Nights! We look forward to seeing where Baby Bird will go in the new year. If you want more information on how you can have Baby Bird at your next event, send us a message here: Baby Bird

We were 100% back at Origin this year, and it was so good. Jacob, our coffee buyer, visited our Direct Trade Partners in Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, and Ecuador. The best part is that two Team Members got the opportunity to join! Joe, one of our coffee trainers, tagged along in Guatemala, and Zack, one of the Roasters, was able to visit Colombia! You can read about Joe's visit on the blog here.

These trips are so important to us. They are where we continue to build our relationship with the producers, the farmers, the land, their communities, and more; where we get to see, touch, taste, and collaborate. We have worked with some of these producers for more than 10-years and we are very proud of it. It’s relationships like these that help us serve some of the finest coffee in the world. Coffee that wins awards and leaves all of us wanting more!

With that, we had 4 coffees reviewed by Coffee Review that received scores of 94 pts and above! Read more about the coffee on Coffee Review.

In April of this year, we were delighted to announce we were a 2023 Good Foods Award Winner for our Cerro Azul Geisha. 

This unique coffee is from our Direct Trade partner, Colombia Granja La Esperanza, and received the highest cupping score from the Good Foods Awards! "The Good Food Foundation is founded on building connections, celebrating excellence, and empowering businesses, producers, growers, ranchers, makers, and more so that we all can continue to share "the kind of food we all want to eat: tasty, authentic and responsible."⁠ - Good Food Foundation

We participated in Padres Pedal the Cause again this year, but this year, we had 18 participants, from team members to toddlers. It was wholesome, charitable, and a fantastic event, joining us together to help accelerate cures for cancer. Team Bird Rock raised $2,795!

In 2023, we raised over $2,000 with our 6 Cause Coffees for the following organizations: Surfrider San Diego (Earth Day), Paddle For Peace (Juneteenth), The Center San Diego (San Diego Pride Month), Project Waterfall, Friends of Los Niños (Latinx Heritage Month) and Grateful Peoples (Naughty + Nice Blends).

Simultaneously, we had countless weekend donations to local businesses and nonprofits, continued to sponsor the local schools around each of our cafes, continued our yearly partnership with Blue Heart Foundation, and became a 2023 sponsor for Paddle for Peace. This year we were extremely honored to be awarded thier Local Business of the Year award.

We continued spreading love and affirmation via our Love Letters postcards and Gratitude journals in each cafe. This year, our customers wrote hundreds of handwritten "Love Letters" and dropped them in our little red mailing boxes, where we stamped and delivered them to people throughout the USA! Over the year, each of our cafes spread gratitude through Grateful Peoples Journals - further connecting people, reflecting on the good and the bad, and spreading positivity. These journals have been so well received by our beloved customers, and this year, we furthered the partnership by donating a portion of our proceeds from our Naughty and Nice blends to Grateful Peoples.

Each year, we are proud to participate in our community by donating to various nonprofits and events. Whether that's by being a yearly sponsor, providing raffle prizes and/or coffee for events, or creating a Cause Coffee with a portion of proceeds donated to an organization we choose. Seeing how we can make a small impact on these organizations doing incredible things is a joy!

Lastly, this year we were eager and excited to get our Public Cuppings back up and running after a few years hiatus! Now they are back and better than before! You can reserve your spot and join our Coffee Buyer, Jacob, for a cupping class where you will learn about the cupping process, explore multiple coffees and their flavor profiles, and learn about coffee’s origin stories and processing techniques. It’s the perfect experience for home baristas, coffee nerds, and curious-minded folks! If you’re interested - you can see what is available here: Cupping Classes

None of this would be possible without YOU. From the bottom of our hearts we are eternally grateful you choose us for all your coffee goodness needs! See you in 2024!

Love,

Bird Rock Coffee Roasters