Hello fellow coffee friend,

Happy Wednesday! This newsletter is coming to your way via a new platform, currently in testing mode, so if there are small cosmetic differences in the layout/presentation, now you know why.

Below are the highlights of this edition of the ACS newsletter:

• A feature post on Flow Coffee Roasters (subtitled A Love Letter to Colombian Coffees), a pop-up operating in the West End neighborhood of Atlanta, was published on the blog this week. Here is the accompanying Instagram post. This is a must-visit pop-up if you are looking for an incredible coffee tasting experience, or if you are into tasting something unique or eclectic from a seriously diverse selection of Colombian coffees.

• From the ACS events calendar: this Saturday, August 26, East Pole Coffee Co. is hosting an intriguing event — a free coffee cupping for Spanish-speaking guests. It is planned to directly follow their regular Saturday coffee cupping (in English).

• ACS is testing a new newsletter platform called Beehiiv (as mentioned in the last newsletter dispatch). There are two buttons below: Subscribe (if you forward this newsletter) and a specific referral link that’s customized to you with referral prizes. ACS is testing the following:

  • Refer 10 3 subscribers to the ACS newsletter, and you’ll get access to the ACS Encyclopedia (ACS will send you a digital link to an Airtable which profiles 160+ coffee shops on AtlantaCoffeeShops.com by various criteria. One can filter a coffee shop by location, services offered, coffee roaster, and a lot more; it’s available for purchase at ACS on a stand-alone basis but hasn’t seen much traction/adoption)

  • Refer 20 7 subscribers to the ACS newsletter, and ACS will send you a $25 gift card to your favorite local coffee shop (limited to the first 4 subscribers that achieve this milestone.

    UPDATE: In the spirit of referrals, please don’t send referrals to your alt email accounts; this is a test of genuine recommendations to friends and family)

  • More referral options will be shared soon (or reply to this newsletter to share your suggestions!). Depending on how this Referral test goes, ACS may adjust the milestones downward to make them easier to achieve.

Flow Coffee Roasters

One of the most interesting experiences that Atlanta Coffee Shops experienced in the first half of this year was a visit and exploration of the Flow Coffee Roasters pop-up in the West End.

The ACS feature post, based on a single physical visit spanning five hours on-location, as well as multiple conversations with the operators/co-founders of Flow Coffee Roasters, Daniel Borrás and Taylor Lafitte, is a recommended read in its entirety, but the key insights are:

• Experiences matter, and Flow Coffee Roasters provides an exceptional experience where you’d be able to sample from 13 (!) Colombian coffees on pour-over

• The extensive Q&A covers everything from current operations, to the co-founders’ sourcing of the coffees, to their aspirations with their venture

• The Final Say: “As ACS seeks to find and curate incredible coffee experiences, Flow Coffee Roasters—collectively in its roasting and pop-up operations—is a love letter to Colombian coffees. Indeed, Flow Coffee Roasters joins an elite group of other notable experiences that ACS has profiled over the years, including those at Academy Coffee, Meadowlark Coffee, and Belux Coffee Roasters.”

Testing Newsletter Platforms

From last week’s newsletter:

This test version of the ACS newsletter is coming to you via Beehiiv. There are several variables being tested:

1. How seamless is the delivery of the newsletter to your inbox? (This newsletter is being sent to some ~2,300 subscribers opted in to the ACS newsletter)

2. Will any of you take advantage of the Referral program?

There are so many other interesting features that Beehiiv has — and their blog is updated frequently with marketing tips.

If you have any comments on 1) or 2), please reply to this newsletter and let me know your thoughts.

Thank You!

Thank you for reading this newsletter (this is issue #38).

Have a great rest of your week, stay cool, and thank you as always for reading and/or sharing.

—Eugene @ Atlanta Coffee Shops (ACS)