Holiday Gifts

There is no escaping it folks, the holidays are quickly approaching and if you're like me, you've still got a lot (re: all) of gifts to pick up for family, friends and colleagues.

As many of you already know, coffee makes a great gift--it isn't too pricey, most folks love it and you might even get to share a cup with a friend!

This is just a quick message to let you know we've got you covered for all types of holiday coffee gift giving; here are some suggestions:

--Holiday Blend, 12oz Bags: You can get single Holiday Blend bags in any quantity you like and give them as gifts or add them to a larger gift basket. Holiday Blend is $9.00 per bag and all of our other coffees are also available for around the same price.

--Holiday Gift Boxes: Attractive boxes containing three 12oz bags of fresh roasted coffee wrapped in burlap for $30. The standard box is a mixture of Holiday Blend and some of our other popular coffees but you can request specific coffees (and grinds) if you choose.

--Wholesale Gifts: If you have a ton of gifts to give for corporate gifts, or large quantity purchases, contact Stephen at 804-516-5213 or stephen@blanchardscoffee.com for wholesale rates that can apply to individual bags, gift boxes or custom orders. We can package coffee in any size bag from 1oz to 5lb and we're happy to customize your order with specific messages, your company's logo etc.

You can purchase Holiday Blend or Gift Boxes here, or feel free to contact us directly.

Holiday Blend, 12oz Bag

Grind Preference

Whole Bean Drip Grind Coarse Grind (Press) Fine Grind (Espresso)

Regular or Decaf

Regular Decaf Option 3

Holiday Gift Box includes 3 12oz bags of assorted  fresh roasted coffee Grind Preference

Whole Bean Drip Grind Coarse Grind Fine Grind (Espresso)

Regular/Decaf Options

Regular Decaf 2 Regular, 1 Decaf 2 Decaf, 1 Regular

RVA Love, Burundi and Ho Ho Holidays

Goodness gracious, there are so many great things happening at Blanchard's Coffee Co.!

RVA Love
We start with an homage to our city, the city we love, the city where we have proudly roasted for nearly EIGHT YEARS; Richmond, Virginia, River City, RVA.
We've been struck by how much RVA pride is out there so we teamed up with RVANews and our visual guru, Page Hayes, to develop a coffee just for our fair city--RVA Exclusive Blend.

Inside that sleek package, you'll find a most excellent blend of Central American and East African coffees that evokes flavors of sweet tobacco, chocolate, black currants and salted caramel.

You can find it at RVANews, several retailers around town and right here!

Grind Preference

Whole Bean $9.00 USD Ground $9.00 USD Option 3 $9.00 USD

Caffeinated?

Regular Decaf Option 3

Burundi
Just like last year, we found a most excellent cup of coffee in the Burundian AA Washed and we simply couldn't resist the urge to bring it to you! In the cup, the Burundian is full bodied with luscious and almost salty tart, dark fruit notes--think cherry preserves on brioche. Much deeper in flavor than more coastal East African coffees and sure to please the palate of folks who appreciate a complex cup of coffee.

You can order it here!

Grind Preference

Whole Bean $9.00 USD Ground $9.00 USD Option 3 $9.00 USD

Ho Ho Holidays
We don't like to be one of those companies who start the holiday season seemingly right after the previous holiday season ended, but, it looks like we are. We do want to shout out for our Ho Ho Holiday Blend early though, because it makes an excellent gift and some people like to plan ahead.

In addition, our Holiday Blend is perfect for corporate gifts, client gifts, gift baskets etc. and we're totally willing to be flexible to meet your needs! We also offer Holiday Gift Boxes that include Holiday Blend and two other coffee selections.

If you're interested in pre-ordering Holiday Blend or Holiday Gift Boxes, please contact Stephen Robertson at stephen@blanchardscoffee.com and he'll be happy to walk you through all the options!

Dominican Republic Jarabacoa Limited Edition

If you couldn't make it out to our open-house at the end of June, you missed a great party! We'll post some pictures soon so you can see all the folks hanging out at our new Roast Lab.

That party was an unveiling of sorts for our newest coffee--Direct Trade Dominican Republic Jarabacoa. We worked with a great importer, Josiah Hernandez, to bring this lovely island coffee to Virginia where it is featured by several small-batch roasters. Josiah has worked for some time, hands on, with a group of five farmers in the Dominican Republic to increase crop quality, consistency and overall sustainability. Additionally, he has increased the amount of money farmers are able to earn for their crops by facilitating direct trade deals with roasters like Blanchard's.

For such a special coffee, we decided we should give it a special presentation. For the Jarabacoa's release, we commissioned our Chief Roaster and Artist in Residence, Seth Bauserman, to design a special label for the bag. What he came up with was so great that we switched gears and decided to change our packaging all together. We have made a limited run of Blanchard's Coffee Co. logo glass jars and had Seth paint 48 unique art-cards for an ultra-limited edition run. We also had prints made of some of his work for the rest of the jars.

There are still few original signed and numbered cards which are painted with the coffee itself, and we'll have them and the print jars for sale until they run out.

You can order them right here from the BCC Blog so get yours today!

Dominican Republic Jarabacoa :: Art by Seth Bauserman

Options

DR Jarabacoa Jar with original art by Seth Bauserman$30.00 USD DR Jarabacoa Jar with an art print by Seth Bauserman$20.00 USD DR Jarabacoa 12oz Bag$15.00 USD

Open House!

Happy Summer Everyone!

Despite the fact that today will be one of the hottest days of the year thus far, I'd like to talk talk to you, briefly, about coffee!

As many of you know, Blanchard's Coffee Co. moved from its long-time home in Westover Hills a few months back. We've spent the past few months getting settled in to our new home at 700 Bainbridge Street in the Historic Manchester District.

Though we miss our friends and neighbors in Westover Hills, it is great to be able to stretch out our arms in a much larger, well-lit and ventilated space--a space of which we are quite proud. The larger space allows us to grow more comfortably and feel great about inviting our friends and loyal followers to visit anytime.

With that said, we'd like to invite you all to our Open House event on Wednesday 27 June 2012 from 6-8:00pm. We're going to do some roast demonstrations of our new Direct Trade Coffee: Dominican Republic Jarabacoa. We'll also have some delicious refreshments provided by Hartmanda Bakery, Shyndigz and Dixie Donuts. There will be coffee tastings and other drinkables as well. 

Bring your friends, your family, your coffee-loving neighbor--and feel free to forward this email to anyone you think might enjoy coming out!

We'll be launching our Limited Edition Packaging for the Dominican Republic Jarabacoa, 50 of which include original art by Seth Bauserman--Chief Roaster and Artist in Residence. We'll also have any of our coffees available to buy and take home.

You can RSVP on our Facebook Invite, or just show up--we like to keep it informal!

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email or give me a call--I look forward to seeing you all!

804-516-5213
stephen@blanchardscoffee.com

Exciting Times at Blanchard's Coffee Co.

Hi Coffee Friends!

Blanchard's Coffee Co. is all abuzz (pun intended) with excitement!

Here are a few of the fabulous things going on in our world:

We moved in! We are officially fully operational in our new location at 700 Bainbridge Street down in the historic Manchester District and we couldn't be happier with our new digs. With that said, we'd love for you to to come visit us; we'll give you a cup of coffee if you do. If our doors are open (which they usually are from 9:00am to 2:00pm) just stick your head in, say hi, take a look around and ask one of us what we're brewing. We might bend your ear about our new favorite coffees but at least you'll get a free cup!

The South of the James Market is well underway and its busier than ever! We are so happy to be a part of it for the fifth straight season and we're excited to see more and more patrons every single Saturday. If you come out to visit us and we've run out of something, please accept our apology; we've simply gotten to the point where we don't have room on our truck for any more supplies so we'll brew and sell everything we can but we're nearly to our limit.

Guatemalan Huehuetenango is BACK! We've missed this lovely coffee in the off season and we're very excited to have the first bag of the season arriving Wednesday of this week--we'll get it up on the website as soon as possible and all of you wholesalers are welcome to order starting today!

Jarabacoa Dominican Republic releases SOON with a limited edition option available for the first fifty customers featuring original art by our Chief Roaster, Seth Bauserman. The nifty piece is painted with the coffee it depicts! The jar is reusable and we encourage you to re-fill it often.

We're planning a grand-opening shindig here at the new BCC Roast lab--are you interested in coming to join us? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter so we can get an idea for how many people might come out.

Finally, do you use Foursquare? If so, be sure to check in when you visit us at SOTJ or the Roast Lab--there are great specials for you at both venues.

Thank you all for continuing to be loyal Blanchard's Coffee Co. fans. We're proud to roast for you and we've got lots of bit things in the works!

Moving Things Around

Where the heck are we?
If you are a die hard Blanchard's Coffee fan (which you totally should be) you've probably heard tell of our leaving the 5047 Forest Hill Avenue location we've inhabited for so long.

Well, we were supposed to be fully operational in our new space by March 5th but, as is often the case with projects involving construction, we had a few hiccups and decided it was best to push the whole thing back one month. That brings us to the end of March and we are DEFINITELY moving--we sort of have no choice because we have to get out of the way of Taza so they can begin their transformation of the 5047 Forest Hill Space.

Starting in April, you'll be able to find us at 700 Bainbridge Street in the Manchester District of Richmond. Our space is coming together, we're meeting (and caffeinating) our neighbors and we're eyeing that Legend Brewing patio with thirsty mouths!


Also on the subject of moving, you may have noticed some changes to our coffee display at Martin's Food Stores if that is where you buy your BCC coffee.
Martin's is undergoing some shelving changes, one of which affects our location in the coffee isle. Where we used to occupy a section of the bottom shelf in most stores, we are now moving to the far left end of the coffee section on the bottom three shelves. The coffee selection should remain the same. If you run into any problem finding your favorite coffee at Martin's please find a manager at the store to help you and, as always, feel free to contact us for help.

One final "moving" note--be sure to swing by Ellwood Thompson's Market to check out the newly opened Ellwood's Cafe, now moved into the main Ellwood Thompson Market space since their take-over of the old Blockbuster space. They're featuring an espresso specially designed here at BCC to their specific espresso machine. They're brewing several of our coffees, including the Clover brewer, and they've got an AWESOME fresh juice and smoothie bar that you simply MUST check out.

Finally, since you were so kind to read our blog, go to our website and use the coupon code BLOGZ for a discount on any order--including our shiny new coffee brewer section!

Blanchard's in the News!

It seems there is a lot of reason for us to be in news lately; here are a couple of our favorites!

Relay Foods wrote a really nice piece about us recently--it was super flattering, especially since the writer isn't a coffee drinker!
http://blog.relayfoods.com/meet-our-vendors-blanchards-coffee/

Hills & Heights broke the story of our impending move to the Manchester District with this article that was later aggregated by several other online publications:
http://hillsandheights.org/2012/02/01/blanchards-coffee-roasting-moving-to-manchester/