Yolo County Coffee Company is a budding new business co-owned by Ryan Brand, who also co-owns Yoloberry Yogurt.
“We decided to open Yolo County Coffee Company as a complementary business,” Brand said. “I also have some prior experience in coffee.”
The store opened in December. Operating from Woodland, Brand reports that the store has been welcomed with open arms.
“Business has been going well,” Brand said. “We are still trying to get the word out, but we have our regular clientele.”
Despite the distance from campus, Brand says the shop is a popular study spot among commuters.
“We do get students that live in Woodland and commute and they like to come in here to study,” Brand said.
The shop does some advertising throughout the campus, but it concentrates mostly on its surrounding area.
“We do some advertising through sports teams,” Brand said.
As a company, Yolo County Coffee puts a heavy emphasis on quality.
“We focus on quality-sourcing coffee and putting time and energy into making things,” Brand said. “We buy from several different roasters to try to put together a great quality product.”
The company is invested in educating its consumers about the different coffees it carries. It is also a proponent of single-origin coffee.
“Single-origin coffee enables you to taste the quality of the coffee rather than having individual tastes get lost in a blend,” Brand said.
Single-origin coffee is a buzzword among big-city chains such as Blue Bottle in San Francisco, and Brand hopes to mirror that in his store.
“We’re all about how good coffee can be and paying attention to detail,” Brand said. “We try to interact with our customers to let them know what we’re about.”
EINAT GILBOA can be reached city@theaggie.org.