Over the years as we became more courageous, we dabbled in new ways to make money and promote Carpe Diem Coffee. One year we decided to have a coffee booth at the Bluegrass Festival at Thomas Point Beach in Bath, Maine. We figured it was close to home if we needed to re-up supplies (which we did) it was music we both enjoyed, and the view was pretty good. That one year we had access to a camper so that we could save money on accommodations. It was perfect, right? Well mostly it was.
Running a coffee booth at a well-attended festival is constant work. We posted that we would open our booth at nine AM, well before the fiddlers started tuning up. When we would raise our curtain, we would have a happy line of thirsty and a slightly hung-over coffee seekers. We had learned from previous shows to brew ahead to try and stave off that awful moment when consumption overtook production. We had a brewer that could brew three gallons of coffee every fifteen minutes. That brewer worked non-stop until about two in the afternoon when beer started ruling the roost.
We would have a few hours to catch up and replenish iced coffee supplies. The afternoons were mostly spent selling tall glasses of the stuff. Usually around four PM business would pick up again until the end of the day at ten when we would clean up, take stock of our supplies, and head for a much-needed shower and sleep. That was our favorite time of the day when we could lie down and rest. It was exhausting work and we both were beat. The challenge was to be the first to fall asleep since we found that we both snore to beat the band. After several nudges of each other we soon discovered that the entire campground was inundated with raucous snoring. Between the amateur picking and the professional snoring, it was quite a cacophony of sounds. But really, exhaustion always won out.
The next day meant an early run to the grocery store for cream, milk and ice…..oh, and beer. Armed with our new supplies we’d be ready to serve those who might have picked too late, or drank one too many.
That show was our favorite. We did it for several years until they stopped hosting the festival there. Even today we can be reminded of the festival by some person who frequented our booth and who remembered us. We were a little like the soup Nazi from Seinfeld. We had what they wanted and they were willing to wait for those long fifteen minutes when the consumption was out pacing the production. If you have ever met us you would know how we can keep an audience entertained. Although we are not apt to take the show out on the road ever again, we totally understand why food trucks are making such a splash now.
BLOG EIGHT
Over the years as we became more courageous, we dabbled in new ways to make money and promote Carpe Diem Coffee. One year we decided to have a coffee booth at the Bluegrass Festival at Thomas Point Beach in Bath, Maine. We figured it was close to home if we needed to re-up supplies (which we did) it was music we both enjoyed, and the view was pretty good. That one year we had access to a camper so that we could save money on accommodations. It was perfect, right? Well mostly it was.
Running a coffee booth at a well-attended festival is constant work. We posted that we would open our booth at nine AM, well before the fiddlers started tuning up. When we would raise our curtain, we would have a happy line of thirsty and a slightly hung-over coffee seekers. We had learned from previous shows to brew ahead to try and stave off that awful moment when consumption overtook production. We had a brewer that could brew three gallons of coffee every fifteen minutes. That brewer worked non-stop until about two in the afternoon when beer started ruling the roost.
We would have a few hours to catch up and replenish iced coffee supplies. The afternoons were mostly spent selling tall glasses of the stuff. Usually around four PM business would pick up again until the end of the day at ten when we would clean up, take stock of our supplies, and head for a much-needed shower and sleep. That was our favorite time of the day when we could lie down and rest. It was exhausting work and we both were beat. The challenge was to be the first to fall asleep since we found that we both snore to beat the band. After several nudges of each other we soon discovered that the entire campground was inundated with raucous snoring. Between the amateur picking and the professional snoring, it was quite a cacophony of sounds. But really, exhaustion always won out.
The next day meant an early run to the grocery store for cream, milk and ice…..oh, and beer. Armed with our new supplies we’d be ready to serve those who might have picked too late, or drank one too many.
That show was our favorite. We did it for several years until they stopped hosting the festival there. Even today we can be reminded of the festival by some person who frequented our booth and who remembered us. We were a little like the soup Nazi from Seinfeld. We had what they wanted and they were willing to wait for those long fifteen minutes when the consumption was out pacing the production. If you have ever met us you would know how we can keep an audience entertained. Although we are not apt to take the show out on the road ever again, we totally understand why food trucks are making such a splash now.