A beautiful day in coffee paradise
River Cow had quite the month!
We launched our Shopify store over Labor Day weekend, immediately sold out of Full Caff, restocked inventory, and slung cold brew at local markets to meet some new customers.
Two weeks ago we found and committed to the Austin Coffee Festival. And WOW, was that worth it. We got to meet so many new faces who share a similar passion: Damn. Good. Coffee.
We essentially dropped all River Cow projects to focus on getting ready for this event, which had 4,000+ attendees. Did we have a clue what we were doing? Not particularly. But we absolutely made the most of it.
The Two-Week Sprint
Great. We’re signed up for the biggest event that either of us has ever had to plan for. As two non-planners, we did what we do best, and we winged it. Fake it til you make it, right?
We’ve been selling at local markets, so we had the starting necessities of a booth. However, we definitely needed to spruce it up to be ready for prime time.
We got to designing, planning, and ordering all the items you would (probably) expect for an event like this. Banners, stickers, business cards… a stuffed animal cow in an inner tube, ya know, the essentials.
Next up: inventory and samples. We needed a TON of both, but how much? Using some basic math (the only math we know), we estimated how many attendees we’d have, how many would sample, and ultimately how many would buy. We placed our inventory order and ensured we had plenty of RIver Cow to go around for our fellow coffee enthusiasts.
Stickers and business cards showed up Wednesday before the event. Banners followed on Thursday. Alright, things are coming together and not delayed. Phew.
There were also some fun behind the scenes items that we had to procure for day-of, including a sanitation station. If you see me, feel free to ask about it. You’ll probably see a shiver run down my spine. It was the bane of my existence, but cleanliness and safety come first.
The Weekend of Austin Coffee Festival
With our booth set up the morning-of and everything (surprisingly) going off without a hitch, we hung tight until the doors flew open.
Promptly at 9 a.m., in came our newest and soon-to-be-closest friends. Most had courageously exchanged their morning rituals for a caffeine-induced frenzy around the Festival floor.
We did our best to hold down the fort, tell our story, and pass out samples like mad men to our eager and intrigued customers.
As two guys who’ve been deep in the cold brew world for years, it’s always fun to meet people who are still fresh and new to cold brew.
There’s plenty of opportunity to educate people about the sheer amount of caffeine in cold brew. A common misconception is that “cold brew” is the same as “iced coffee”, and an unassuming drinker could accidentally 1.5x-2x their caffeine intake. The extra caffeine is an incredible feature if you’re looking for it, but it’s important that people know what they’re getting into. As cold brew enthusiasts, we feel it’s our duty to help the general public drink responsibly.
We love the opportunity to show that cold brew is an incredibly smooth coffee experience: less bitter than regular coffee and super low in acidity. Seeing folks' live reactions to cold brew is always entertaining and energizing. It’s the little things for us.
Also, based on the # of cups we had left after the weekend, we gave out around 1,200 samples over the two-day festival. That’s a lot of 2 oz samples.
A few highlights for us:
- Sharing decaf samples with folks who fundamentally disagree with the concept of decaf (look, we get it). And THEN seeing their reaction to the level of flavor that is packed into River Cow Decaf cold brew.
- Converting some “hot-coffee-only” drinkers to the beauty of the cold brew world. Yes, a couple even walked away as customers.
- Getting to chat with so many interesting, ambitious, and motivated people.
- Getting to share the story of why we are here, what we’re trying to accomplish, and how we believe we can improve peoples’ daily rituals.
Onward
It was a hectic two weeks, but we would do it all again. The people, the coffee, and the vibe* created an unforgettable experience. *Note from author: I used to hate the word “vibe”. It took some persuading, but I’m finally on board.
Austin Coffee Festival was an absolute blast. We’re confident that we found some lifelong customers too.
We’ve got a lot of exciting things planned for the rest of this year, and we can’t wait to share them with you. Stay tuned here – our Cattle Club will be the first to know!