A few years ago, my friend Rebecca Hurlen-Patano gifted me a painting of a golden bird flying against a turquoise backdrop. It’s called “The Seeker” and it hangs on the wall right above where I’m typing this now. Alongside my road bike and a leather bag my dad gave me years ago, it’s one of my favorite things I own. I’m not sure why Rebecca thought this particular painting fit me, but I do know why I like it. It’s vibrant, a little abstract in a way that suits me, and inspiring. The colors, for me, are very much the color and feeling of summer in this area. Fields turning gold, hawks soaring above, blue skies for days, and heat that just bakes you, but you love it after the long, cold winter and wet spring.
The name, too, feels good to me. “The Seeker.” Terry and Rebecca, who founded DOMA and whom I worked alongside for years, seemed to be always in pursuit of “better.” Always seeking. We share this and it’s one of the built-in traits of DOMA that I love. Keep searching out ways to source better coffee, be a better company, take better care of our accounts and customers. On an individual level, I’m seeking to be a better husband, dad, and friend. Perfection ain’t it, thankfully, because perfection isn’t attainable. The constant pursuit of it, though, is where growth is, and growth is good. But enough of that soapbox. It’s not my job to wax philosophical, which is good, ‘cause I’d get fired if it was and I’d deserve it.
Summer Lovin’ 2024 is about to launch and it’s a good coffee. You’ll be hearing plenty from our team about ways to brew this at home and in your cafés over the next few weeks/months. It’s a clean, lively Ethiopia. Tastes great hot or cold, which is what we love in our summer seasonal coffee. Stay tuned to all those social media platforms and such for information, visuals and guides on what we recommend you do with this coffee. (Yeah, yeah: “drink it.” But, more specifically, some great ways to brew it.)
The POINT of this particular piece of writing, though is taking me a lot of words to get to is that artwork, The Seeker, was painted by Coila Evans, of Roundup, Montana. Coila was showing some of her work at a local show put on by Jeff Weir (good friend to DOMA, rad artist and all-around good guy). I love that piece Coila created so much that for the last few years I had turned into a broken record every time we were looking for a new artist to work with us on one of our seasonal releases. “Get in touch with Coila.” “Can’t we work with Coila Evans?” “If you f@5#$s don’t call the artist that painted The Seeker I’m going to flip this table over ” . . . things like that. Fast-forward to today and it is my absolute pleasure to write that Coila Evans has created a truly unique Summer Lovin’ piece for us. And no tables were harmed in the process. Although she did break her foot during the time she was working on this, but that’s gotta be unrelated to anything I did. We took her work and through some weird blend of magic, science and industry that is well beyond my understanding, converted it into a digital image and then into a stunner of a can wrap.
“The Seeker” hangs over my desk, and now “Elaine,” the original longhorn on our Summer Lovin’ label, is hanging happily in our Coffee Lab. Starting on June 21st and running through the hottest months of the season, Summer Lovin’ will be available for all to enjoy. So visit us online or stop into the roastery and grab a drink and a can. This summer’s coffee is just about ready for you. We hope you love it as much as we do.
Cheers,
Muir