Stoble Updates!

This has definitely been a year for the books. As we head out of 2020 and into the new year we wanted to update you all on what there is to look forward to in the near future with Stoble! With our doors opening right around the corner we wanted to give you a more in depth sneak peek of what you can expect these upcoming few weeks and this year in general. From an expanding drink AND food menu made up of handcrafted and locally and humanely sourced products, to our building getting its finishing touches and populated with furniture, lighting fixtures, a rooftop fireplace and many other exciting things, to virtual tours of our workplace and signups for private offices and desks, to even more thoughtfully sourced coffees roasted right in our building, there is a lot to be stoked about. 

Cafe Updates

As we move into the cafe we will be afforded a huge, luxurious space. We can’t wait to welcome you in and provide an atmosphere where you can come in just how you are and grab a tasty drink and even some treats. Entering into a new space means new drinks too! While we will still offer our classic staples and syrups, we will be bulking up our menu a bit. Some in particular to look forward to are our blended lattes, spruced up with your choice of syrup hand mixed with La Flor de Michoacan ice cream. No joke, these will probably knock your socks off. We will also have a variety of hot and iced teas, matcha!!, tea lattes and pour overs highlighting our different ethically sourced coffees. We cannot wait to start serving and  getting to know you this year!

Kitchen Updates

The Stoble menu will offer a variety of breakfast and lunch options inspired by local seasonally sourced ingredients.  Our menu will be approachable for any and all dietary needs be it gluten free, vegan, paleo and even the glutton who’s sole mission is to satisfy their daily cravings.  We will be sourcing locally from farms such as Comanche Creek Farms, GRUB Farms, Pyramid Farms, and more.  We will also only source from farms who humanely raise their animals such as Rancho Llano Seco, 5 Dot Ranch, Pedrozo Dairy & Cheese Co, and more. 

Mornings will feature Camina pastries, Stoble baked goods, toasts with avocado or house made jam and ricotta, as well as Açai bowls.  We will also offer more complete breakfast dishes like our breakfast sandwich and seasonally inspired ‘Morning Bowl’ with pinquito beans from Rancho Llano Seco, toasted quinoa, kabocha squash, braised greens, farm fresh egg, and guajillo salsa.  Lunches will offer a variety of soups, salads, and sandwiches as well as our ‘Lunch Toast’ with brie, Prosciutto ham, salad greens, and roasted garlic aioli.  We look forward to expanding into dinner offerings in the coming months as well. 

Building

Stoble’s downtown Chico coffee shop and co-working space will finally be wrapping up in early 2021! With a number of unforeseen obstacles, and the new challenges associated with closely following all COVID-related regulations, progress was much slower than we had hoped. Our team has spent equal hours over the last two weeks of 2020 resting and relaxing with family in celebration of the holidays and prepping the space for operation. As soon as we get approval from the city, we greatly look forward to serving you warm drinks and tasty treats directly from our doors!

Here are some things you can keep an eye out for the next time you are walking (or driving) by:

• Our roaster is officially installed and fully operational!! It is located right inside the set of windows to the right of the front door. See if you can catch the Cooper and Alex (aka the magic of Stoble) in action over the coming weeks! 
• Our stunning custom light fixtures made locally by Alex Marshall Studios are all installed and adding warm, cozy feels throughout the space!
• The furniture has been assembled by our team, but is currently hiding out in the basement. Some of our comfy lounge spaces will begin to make their appearances in no time!
• Quite possibly the largest, custom, live-edge table you have ever seen, crafted by Bidwell Wood & Iron, will be finding it’s home in our coffee shop adjacent to the bar soon! 
• We’ve got wallpaper and murals on the way too!

Roasting

We’ve got new coffees arriving now! Over the next month or so they’ll be in our rotation. We have new single origins from incredible coffee farmers in Guatemala and Rwanda. Our new double origins are coming from farmers in Colombia, Peru, and Ethiopia. 

This year we’ve deepened relationships with some farmers and importers, and we’ve just begun relationships with farmers in the last month as well! 

LATAM: Our newest Latin American single origin is coming from Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Flora Ramos is a gifted and resilient coffee producer of 30 years working on her farm, Las Gemelas. Ramos’ wet milled coffee we bought is made up of Caturra, Bourbon, Catuai and Pache varietals. Medium bodied, its aroma is complex with notes of decadent chocolate and citrus fruits. Ramos’ coffee has flavors hinting of light colored fruits and sweets like pear, white chocolate, candied nuts. 

AFRICA: Just as we were beginning to sample coffees for a new East African single origin offering, our importing partner at Royal told us about some delicious coffees coming in from an excellent farm in western Rwanda. We sampled every lot available to us from KivuBelt, a fairly new coffee farming enterprise employing about 400 coffee farmers operating around two different processing stations, and we eagerly purchased 5 bags from Lot 2 at the Murundo mill. A lighter-to-medium bodied coffee, on the front end it carries citrus flavors of lime and grapefruit with a syrupy, cherry and chocolate finish. 

FLAGSHIP: Ah, this glorious coffee! Combining two coffees we love to make one delicious body of yum; designed to taste good brewed any way with all things cream and sugar added. Kicking off this year, we’ve got a new, delicious Ethiopian portion from Bedhatu Jibicho in the Gedeo Zone of Ethiopia. Jibicho has been growing organic coffee on her farm for 50 years! Jibicho’s naturally processed, berry-forward coffee provides a bright side to the richer, chocolatey Colombian coffee which makes up the majority of our Flagship double-origin. 

DARK: Our newest Dark double-origin coffee includes a new Fair Trade and Organic Colombian coffee. The Colombian comes from a cooperative with 22 members offering Caturra, Castillo, and Colombian varietals from their own farms and mills to make a delicious, balanced blend of coffees. Stoble’s Dark will continue to bring out the medium-to-heavy bodied, dark chocolate with a hint of pecan and dark berry fruitiness we all love! 

DECAF: Friends, decaf coffee can be delicious. At Stoble we look forward to sampling several water processed decaf options to find the tastiest coffees for you. We sampled some freshly arrived Peruvian and Ethiopian Fair Trade and Organic coffees this Fall, and we are excited to roast a Peruvian coffee made up of a few varietals from APROCCURMA, a cooperative of 125 women producers; and an Ethiopian naturally processed coffee from the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative. These coffees combine to make a warming, medium-bodied, sugar cookie-sweet afternoon or evening beverage.

Sourcing Transparency Update

We are beginning to develop sustained relationships with coffee producers from Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia. Katia Duke in Honduras has grown delicious IHCAFE 90 coffees these last two years that have made sugary sweet LATAM single origins from her farm, San Isidro in Copan, Honduras. 

Luis Jose Valdes from Caldas, Colombia grows a fruit-forward caturra varietal we roasted earlier this year. We plan on buying from him again in 2021! 

We’ve also purchased 3 different lots of coffee from METAD coffee producers in Gedeb, Ethiopia! 

As we work with our importing partners at Royal, Ally, and Primavera, we are hoping to continue to support particular farms and mills who practice holistic, ethical farming and employment as they grow delicious coffees. Know that as we grow as a business after this first year and a half of roasting coffee, we are still working on our traceability and coffee transparency goals of 

• Continuing to learn the complexities of the coffee market and find ways to address systematic imbalances
• locate and work with producers who share our values of paying sustainable wages to their workers
• To promote the producers and co-operatives we work with

This year alone we purchased ~ 11,450lbs of green coffees! 

Workplace Update

After months of home offices commandeering breakfast nooks, she-sheds, and coffee tables many of us are looking for a new place to perch. For those of you eager to set up shop in our cafe or our co-working floors this season is finally on the horizon. We are looking forward to inviting all interested parties into the co-working space for personal tours once we are in a lesser Covid Tier, and are currently creating a virtual tour until that day arrives. We’ve had over 100 requests for memberships between all levels of our offerings and have gotten to know so many of you over DMs and email threads, we cannot wait to put names to faces. For the time being we’re getting offices polished, desk and chairs assembled, printers installed and all the wifi you could ever want! As the months progress we will roll out our memberships for use of the shared space (Dedicated Desks, Hot Desks and Community Memberships, respectively). Take a peek on our Social Media ( @stobleworkplace on Instagram) for the most up to date behind the scenes peeks.

As a team the anticipation to meet all of you and serve you is at an all time high. We are so thankful for your support, love and encouragement. You mean the world to us and we are so excited to get to share more of Stoble with you soon. As always, if you have any questions about any aspect of Stoble feel free to reach out! We truly believe we are all better together so having a community like you all has really made our year! Happy New Year, here’s to a new year and new adventures!