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Hello 2011!!!

A long overdue update…

Let’s begin with the Good Food Awards. The last we had updated on our site we were announced a finalist back in November. Well mid January we headed out to San Francisco to accept the award for Central Region Good Food Award Winner for our Los Lobos from Costa Rica.

Good Food Awards

Ryan and Luis accepting our award.

We were met in San Francisco by our Los Lobos producer Luis Alfaro and his wife. It was a great weekend talking with foodies passionate about being great at what they do whether it was making pickle brine or chocolate. The winners also had the opportunity to serve their products to the shoppers at the Ferry Market at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. One of the best parts of this experience was the comments we heard over and over again at the surprise that there was “good coffee in Michigan”. We continually heard statements like, “Oh, I’m from the East side” or “I grew up in Big Rapids”. And many left stating that maybe it’s time they came back to Michigan for a visit. Yep, I think it’s time.

Ferry Market, San Francisco

Serving coffee at the Ferry Market, San Francisco.

Check out not just the other coffee winners but the winners in the other 6 categories as well at the Good Food Awards website.

Lastly, February began with the Local First Annual meeting and first ever LocalMotion Awards. MadCap was honored to have been nominated for both the Mover and Shaker award as well as the Triple Bottom Line award. When all was said and done we were both flattered and honored to have been awarded the Triple Bottom Line award. The award recognizes businesses that are dedicated to people, planet and profit or the Triple Bottom Line. It gives us at MadCap great joy to know that our efforts to provide high quality coffee that tells a great story does not go unnoticed. Thank you Grand Rapids!

LocalMotion Awards

Trevor accepting the Triple Bottom Line award at the Local First meeting.

Hello 2011! What a way to start a year!

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2009: A MadCap Recap

So, on January 22nd, 2010 MadCap officially turned one year old.

I have to say that the last year has been an amazing adventure and the thought of trying to recap everything that’s happened is somewhat overwhelming. With that being said I will attempt to share with you all the great joys of this last year and those that we look forward to experiencing in the next.

First of all, Grand Rapids has been great to us! We love being downtown and we’re excited to be seeing all the efforts of those passionate for making this a great city. The acceptance we’ve received in how we are presenting coffee has been a great blessing and encouragement to us and has definitely made our first year an unforgettable one. So thank you Grand Rapids for your support and hopefully in the coming years we will continue to provide you with a great and ever changing coffee experience.

Secondly, we love our coffee community! Not just locally but globally. The relationships and camaraderie we’ve developed over the last year and half have been amazing. We definitely owe a lot of our education and success to the greater coffee community. Those that are constantly pushing the envelope both in how coffee is prepared and presented have impacted us greatly. We are especially thankful to those that have shown us it is as much about relationships as it is about the quality. In October we had the opportunity to host a Great Lakes Barista Jam and got to spend the weekend interacting with coffee professionals from five states. We entitled the jam “Coffee Talk” with the idea that more than just offering educational opportunities we could spend time discussing as a community how we could better make an impact in our industry. Hopefully those that attended were able to take away as much from it as we were. We are especially thankful to all those that contributed as instructors Jesse Crouse – Intelligentsia Coffee, Chris Demarse – The Coffee Institute, Edwin Martinez – Finca Vista Hermosa, Scott Lucey – Alterra Coffee, Chris Defario – The Coffee Institute, Ryan Knapp – MadCap Coffee, Talya Stader – Intelligentsia Coffee, and Colin Whitcomb – Alterra Coffee. We hope the coming year can be as rewarding.

Lastly, the thing that impacted us most as a company was the incorporation of our own Direct Trade program. Thanks to the hiring of Chad Morton half way through the year we were able to see the dream of doing Direct Trade as a small company become a reality. Chad’s experience in developing relationships with coffee farmers and his creativity in finding ways to get that coffee from origin has offered us an some amazing opportunities. Not only that but we have been able to purchase some amazing coffees! From Edwin in Finca Vista Hermosa to Ricardo in Helsar de Zarcero we have developed some great relationships. We are really excited about a recent coffee we purchased from Ellen Prentice and her farm Finca de Dios in Guatemala. Chad and Ben (our roaster apprentice extraordinaire) just returned from a week and a half trip of visiting our Guatemalan farms and had an opportunity to see some of the great things Ellen and our other producers are doing. With all that being said we are really excited about what the future holds for our Direct Trade program. Over the next few months we are sending our staff to farms in Costa Rica, Honduras and Kenya. We can’t wait for the new relationships and coffees we will get to experience in the coming year and hope to share them all with you.

Well that’s about as short of a one year recap as I can manage. In all reality that was just a tip off the iceberg of all the great things that have happened at MadCap in the last year. Thank you so much to all that have joined and supported us on this journey. We hope that you will continue to experience coffee with us in the years to come.

photo was taken by Terry Johnston

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Park(ing) Day and Street Fair!

Well all, it was an action packed weekend for MadCap. We got things going on Friday by sharing a parking spot with The Branch downtown on Ottawa. The Branch provided the sod and couches and we rocked the french presses. It was a great day chillin downtown in the middle of the street, sittin on couches, layin in the grass, sippin some pressed Harrar Longberry MAO. We met a lot of great people including the mayor of G.R., Josh from grnow.com, some folks from San Chez, and a lot of sweet coffee lovers. Much love to the folks over at Spout for all the wonderful frisbees they threw at us from their third story window. Anyhow, the whole purpose for G.R. participating in National Park(ing) Day was to promote green grand rapids. Be sure to check out the flickr pics from park(ing) day. Good times.
Saturday we headed down to the Eastown Street Fair to man the [evo] booth through out the day. Another great day full of local music, carni food and locals selling their various wares. Again, we met a ton of cool people, shared some [evo] and MadCap coffee, and passed out some MadCap flair. We were pushing our Harrar again. The more we work with this coffee the more it becomes my favorite of our offerings right now. Sweet, smooth and bright with those classic berry undertones from Ethiopian coffees that I love.
Be on the look out however, we are getting our El Salvador cup of excellence in the next couple days and it should be available from our website by the weeks end. Also, we are hoping to get the mobile cart up in front of the space by the end of this week early next week. We’ll make sure we give a shout out on here so ya’ll will know when to come see us.
Till next time. cheers

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Un poco piu

Things continue to progress in our little MadCap empire. Beans have been ordered, furniture is being selected, and Ryan and I have new hairstyles. We will soon be introducing a coffee cart to the stoop of our 98 Monroe Center location. If we have a machine, the beans, and the itch to sling ‘spro, then it seems most functional and rational that we get started. Of course, this is a great opportunity to acquaint ourselves with the downtown wanderers, professionals, and visitors that may boast an interest in our coffee preoccupation.

Some impromptu gratitude: Many thanks to the friends, family, and professionals that have made the experience thus far fun, creative, and inspiring. We are looking forward to pouring you the latte of a lifetime.

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New Grand Rapids coffee house owner plans to offer high-end drinks

Article taken from Grand Rapids Press, written by Chris Knape.

GRAND RAPIDS — A high-profile downtown corner will be home to an upscale coffee shop right
next door to, you guessed it, another java joint.
MadCap Coffee, 98 Monroe Center NW, plans to roast its own beans, host local music and emphasize
the quality and beauty of it drinks over the size of the cups they come in. It is expected to open in
October.
The cafe signed a lease for the ground floor and basement at the northeastern corner of Ottawa and
Monroe Center, which has been empty since Two Choppers deli closed in 2006.
Its next-door neighbor is Local Mocha, a shop Steve Sumners and his wife, Mary, have owned for
three years.
MadCap is the idea of Trevor Corlett, a former Cornerstone University student who left school to get
into the coffee business.
Before returning to Grand Rapids, he was a partner in Moon Monkey Coffee Company in
Bourbonnais, Ill.
If all goes as planned, MadCap will join more than 10 places selling high-end coffee within a few
blocks, including six on Monroe Center.
“For a lot of people, it seems pretty stupid,” Corlett said.
“I’m pretty aggressive in what I’m doing right now,” he added.
“Our vision and what we do with coffee is pretty unique to this area,” Corlett said. “I’m pretty excited.
Competition is kind of a good thing. It helps differentiate us from everybody else.”
MadCap’s plans are being hatched on the heels of the closure of Four Friends Coffee earlier this
month less than a block away.
The owners of burger and hot dog restaurant Johnny’s Lunch are planning another coffee shop in the
old Four Friends, 136 Monroe Center NW, by fall.
Local Mocha will adapt and, hopefully, survive, Steve Sumners said.
“It’ll definitely be a challenge, but I guess we have to continue to market that we are local and we
support many of the local businesses more than the other shops,” he said.
“We just hope that our regulars do continue to frequent our store.”
Corlett expects MadCap to stand out by offering a comfortable place to relax, roasting its own beans
and educating customers about the quality of coffee drinks, none of which will be larger than 16
ounces.
“The type of coffee we’re doing tends to be a little pricier,” said Corlett, noting he hopes to sell the
shop’s fresh roasted beans to some higher-end restaurants in the area.
“The great thing about coffee is it can be as complex or nuanced as wine or microbrewed beers
nowadays.”
Baristas will be trained to prepare the beverages, with some producing “latte art” — drinks topped with
decoratively poured steamed milk and froth.
Several former Moon Monkey employees plan to join him at MadCap, Corlett said.
“It was really important for me getting started from the moment we opened the gates that I had people
behind the bar that were trained and ready to go,” he said.
The storefront was renovated and the 1,500-square-foot main floor gutted after Two Choppers left.
The building is owned by VanderWeide Properties LLC, a company owned by members of Amway
co-founder Rich DeVos’ family.

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Fantastic progress…

MadCap Coffee
We have a location, kids. The deal was sealed yesterday on 98 Monroe Center. After countless wanderings, the occasionally intolerable Realtor, and lots of daydreaming, it was apparent that Monroe trumped the rest in location, character, and possibility. Dominating a bustling corner, we have a great store front which boasts a recent renovation. We are surrounded by museums, specialty shops, offices, restaurants, and the ever-functional Rosa Parks Circle.

The inside will be an absolute treat. Utilizing the exposed brick, [very] high rafter ceilings, and the few columns, we will create an environment for both relational development and personal discovery. Our bar is going to be huge- allowing the baristas ample room in artfully assembling each drink. One of our favorite parts is this peculiar hole in the floor. They offered to close up the 5′x6′ gap, but why waste a perfectly good chasm? We are going to use that gap for the viewing of the roasting process taking place below. Underneath the 1,500 sq. ft. of the store, we have a full basement. The basement will hold the roasting area, training facility, cupping room, and offices (Yes, there is a lot of boring paperwork that takes place. We don’t just live in a Bohemian utopia). We will also store our precious green beans with tender loving care after we have them ushered in from varying corners of the world.

When all is said, and the hammers have been swung, we should be opening our doors the first week in October. Make a mental note of this, mapquest the addy, and be there or be square.

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The End of the Beginning…

[ Cue “Show Me What You Got” Single] It is my sincere pleasure to introduce you to our endeavor. Considering our lack of acquaintance, we will need to run through a lot, so bear with me. We’ll hit up the personalities of this effort soon enough, but I’ll lay down the primary details first. We have loved our Moon Monkey Coffee Shop. She has served us well as she fostered the development of our skills. What can we say, though? It’s time to grow up. We are growing up and out. Ladies and Gentlemen, competition, and downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, we are packing up our passion, skills, and sarcasm to bring you an exceptional coffee experience in the form of MadCap Coffee Company [ and Bad Ass Roastery]. With confidence akin to that of our friend, Jay Z, I may say that we will own it. Opening day lattes and capps will be marked with tulips and triples, as will be the standard everyday thereon out. We want you to vicariously live through us as we build this shop from the ground up. We are fusing our life into coffee for the sake of its perfection. We believe in the personal, communal, and global purpose of coffee; our joy comes from sharing it with others.

Without any further deliberation, I’d love to introduce you to the [soon to be] faces of MadCap Coffee Company.
-We will obviously begin with Trevor Corlett. Owner, barista, and Godfather- this man is why we are all here. With eight years of coffee industry experience, our boi has the coffee and entrepreneurial skills to show. He taught himself everything about the business from roasting to machine maintenance. His managerial skills have been compared to those of Empire Records [needless note: Trevor possesses an nonsensical amount of 1990‘s movie trivia in his skull] , nonetheless his commitment to coffee and its application have guided us down the caffeine trodden path of coffee culture. A.k.a. If our lives flop, we are holding him liable. This weekend, he will be competing in National’s with Ryan Knapp. You can identify him by the seemingly impenetrable watch he always wears. Titanium alloy, perhaps…
-Ryan Knapp is the right hand man. His job description encompasses roasting, training, and dominating the bar. Ryan has only had this love affair for about a year and a half, but his potential is unrivaled. Trevor passed off roasting to Ryan last year, and he has thrown his heart into every roast since. Ryan is serious about coffee, and to his credit, he won’t let us forget it. He is always reading, researching, and blogging about how he may further the quality of our product. He will be competing along with Trevor this weekend at National’s, and he may be spotted by his illustriously authoritative beard.
-Laura Feldman has, up to this point, been the secret shift leader. A promotion is underway, so I will update you with her official function. Off the record, Laura is quite the mediating factor in this whole equation. She is calm and cool like no other, and she holds more than her own (could that be an expression?) behind the bar. She has been, and will continue to be, proactive in addressing environmental and sustainability issues within the community. Laura has a unique contribution to MadCap’s story. Through credit manipulation and hard work, this girl is graduating a year early to move to Grand Rapids and start the shop. Laura may be found if you follow an incessant complaint about the weather. Our Cali girl isn’t too fond of snow, wind, or drizzles. It’s a good thing she’s moving to Michigan.
-As for myself, self-description is never any fun. I will cordially introduce myself as Naomi, and leave it at that for now. I have the authority to do that. I am the one writing.

Please, stay in touch, friends. This is going to be a brilliant chain of events, and we want you there from beginning to end. Speak soon!
Naomi

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CAFE HOURS

Mon – Fri: 7am – 7pm

Saturday: 8am – 7pm

Sunday: Closed

Contact

98 Monroe Ctr NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

info at madcapcoffee.com

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