Coffee Column

I've been working on a concept for a newspaper column for a while now, a regular (perhaps bi-monthly) column written by yours truly wherein I discuss certain and specific issues and subjects related to coffee, as both a commodity and as a cultural talisman of sorts. There's a good deal more to the basic concept for the column than I'll share here, but I have submitted the loose proposal to a handful of publications, including the Herald Times Reporter here in Manitowoc/Two Rivers. A few have expressed some interest, and I need to follow up with them.

The basic proposal I submitted to editors included elements of the following outline:

The specific topics that can be culled from the general subject of coffee are expansive and varied enough that there is no danger of undo repetition or staleness, and it is a subject that virtually everyone has at least some interest in, either as a casual consumer of coffee in their daily routine or as passionate aficionados

Besides the ever-interesting, albeit obvious subject of all of the various coffee producing countries and geographical regions (and what each specific region imparts to its particular coffee in terms of flavors, aromas, body, etc), other topics under the same umbrella include processing methods (and how they affect the final product); the cultural impact of coffee from both consumer and producer perspectives; the modern coffee culture as its own unique entity; and even the always fun drink mixology itself. We would, however, focus primarily on the different coffees from different regions and estates and what interesting and unique attributes they all have to offer.

We would not, of course, engage in any overt advertising or Stumpjack promotion in any of the columns.

I must give credit where credit is due, in that my idea for a coffee column was sparked by Todd Haefer's "Beer Man" column, which appears semi-regularly in our own HTR, among other publications in the state. Haefer does a great job with his column, creating a nice mix of opinion with factual information, in a well written and informal format. His column is one that I regularly look forward to reading in the newspaper. So, I thought, "beer column...coffee column? Of course!" And given my background in both coffee and writing...well, there you go! We would not, of course, mimic Haefer's excellent column. My style of writing is much different than his and I am not interested in talking about varieties of coffees alone, as Haefer does with beer by discussing a single particular beer each column.

I'll keep you abreast of what, if anything, develops with this. But it should be fun!