It's a wrap and it has been a blast! Wait - Advent hasn't really started yet, what do you mean it's over?! While you're just starting to enjoy one of our best products, we're done. Done with the design, the production, the roasting and with the additional support.
We give you an exclusive look behind the scenes of the 19grams Coffee Advent Calendar 2020.
What happens so that everything is on time and who is involved?
The 19grams Coffee Advent Calendar is a 100% handmade product, therefore the stickers on the cans are not exactly straight. Sometimes there is too much coffee in the boxes (no, too little certainly never ;) ) and unfortunately sometimes a box is missing (Sorry! Please report, we will send it to you!). This year we have set up the Advent calendar for the 7th time. The edition 2020 is therefore also so special for us, because this year there are a whole 24 different coffees from 24 different origins - all coffees are Single Origin Arabica coffees.
The preparations start early, because 24 different great coffees want to be found. Our roaster, Anthony, outdoes himself with it every year. It takes months until all the coffees stand. Our most important promise is to let you taste only fresh coffees. And every coffee is sampled beforehand: Anthony asks for samples, and then it's a matter of roasting and pre-testing it - all in small batches in our sample roaster. Then we go shopping. Because we take only the best coffees for our Advent calendar.
But actually we are with the coffees already at the end of the production chain - or better in the middle. First, of course, the design is coordinated. To ensure that it is not boring for you, we always develop it further. The design is crucial, because only then you, the coffee drinker, will enjoy everything from the right place. Then coffee texts are written - this can sometimes take time - because not all farms can be communicated with equally well. We attach particular importance to the fact that you can get a picture of where the bean comes from and how it was processed until it comes into your cup.
Once the finished product finally arrives with us, there's a photo shoot where everyone is present! But the packaging also includes our iconic boxes! These are embroidered with the numbers, filled and inserted. Again, literally our whole team is involved: this year, even our baristas, because due to the Corona Crisis, our cafés are closed. The Corona crisis has made us tighten hygiene conditions: All our helpers have always worked with mouth guards and gloves.
Time, of course, always works against us in Specialty Coffee. To get the bean into the box and the box into the cardboard, in the shortest possible time from the day of roasting until December 1 or 24. Because only when everything is freshly roasted, our Advent calendar smells so wonderful!
The weeks in November will be particularly exciting for us, because now it goes already to make the calendars ready for shipping: We are a small team and have to start early. Therefore, you get your shipping info also very early and know exactly when everything goes out! With the shipping partner we trust, we have sent this year several thousand calendars around the world.
At this point we would like to thank everyone who made the Advent Calendar 2020 possible: New and old project managers, designers, coffee farmers, producers, our roasting team who roasted day and night, our design and social media team, our partners, magazines who find our advent calendar as awesome as we do...
And you, that's right, you! Because you drink every day this great coffee from a unique, 100% handmade product. We look forward to your feedback and suggestions for improvement, so that the 8th edition will be truly fabulous!
