One of the reasons we started the Coffee Compass was to bring attention to the many quality-focused cafes that are currently flying under the radar. Granted, the coffee scene in New York or London doesn’t really need the press, but the American heartland is filled with a growing number of committed baristas at craft coffee shops that deserve to have their story told. Depending on how their Kickstarter campaign goes, Flatlands Coffee in Bowling Green, OH might be the next one.
Husband and wife team Ben and Cassy Vollmar have been planning Flatlands Coffee for several years now. Like this coffee blogger, Ben had an epiphany at Intelligentsia Coffee a number of years ago that showed him the potential of specialty coffee. The experience inspired the Vollmars to bring a new type of coffee shop to Bowling Green, a charming college town in Northern Ohio. Flatlands plans to use coffee from a variety of regional roasters, selected through a cupping process similar to Craft Coffee’s.
At Flatlands Coffee, you can know you are always getting the best coffees available. We will regularly cup seasonal coffees from several outstanding roasters to select the best coffees and will frequently host cuppings that are open to the public.
The Vollmars are turning to crowd funding to help cover their start up costs, and have put together an impressive set of rewards for their backers. So check out their Kickstarter page and consider helping this couple accomplish their dream.
Just as lottery tickets are a tax on people who cannot do math, I’ve become more and more convinced that most crowdsourcing efforts (a la Kickstarter) are simply a tax on people who don’t understand business loans or venture investing.