Monthly Newsletter Archive

With all these trips, I start writing the newsletter in my head the minute we board the plane—capturing little moments and information into my memory so I can remember to include it when I sit down and start writing.

Even as I write this, I am still scared. Scared that by simply putting our announcement out for everyone to see, the universe is going to take our baby away from us again.

As we landed at 5:45 AM in Brasilia after a relatively uneventful Red Eye from JFK by way of Miami, I waited for those amplified butterflies to come to life in my belly. However, the only thing I felt this time was excitement.

Travel with us on our recent trip to meet our Costa Rican coffee producers & the 2023 SCAA Coffee Expo in Portland! After our last origin trip to Guatemala, both Erich and myself were beyond excited to get back to Central America. Was Costa Rica going to be similar? Different? Were we going to be safe?

In short, this coffee is all about women, supporting women, supporting women. As you may or may not know, we are a (proudly!) women-owned business. Therefore, we take March, Women’s History Month, quite seriously.

Every year, the Fall is a hyperactive few months of events and prepping for the holidays, the holidays are like being on steroids from November 15th to December 29th, and then the fun part of owning a small business is the end of year prep that we always seem to be squeezing into the last two days of the year.

We are wrapping up month number two with no newsletter, at a time when we couldn’t have more to share with you. It only seemed appropriate to take a minute while sitting in my back yard on this nearly perfect Fall Sunday morning, and say hello.

If we had a dollar for every time someone said to us, “I’ve always wanted to own a coffee shop!”, we probably wouldn’t own a coffee shop. Since this is a topic that comes up for us so often, we figured we’d give you a sneak peak of what a typical week in a coffee roastery & shop looks like for us.

For years, customers have been asking us the big question, “what about another location?”. Despite this seeming like the natural progress of the business, our goal over the last several years has been to build and create a strong and sturdy base.

I’m currently sitting outside at our stunningly beautiful hotel in Antigua, Guatemala, listening to what could be a Bed, Bath, and Beyond soundtrack of Birds and Other Relaxing Sounds and enjoying the quiet of the morning.

It seems like just yesterday the alarm was going off at 3:45am for Coffee Corral’s soft opening. I can so clearly remember my dad’s excitement and anticipation, and how proud I felt of him for perusing something new at fifty-five.

With our slow months coming to an end and the world starting to emerge from hibernation, we are taking it on as our duty to the coffee shops of the world to acknowledge ordering faux pas and questionable coffee shop etiquette that seems to be a growing trend.

February is an interesting time of year around here. The go to small talk at the register is always “how is business” or “have you been busy’? And for one month out of the year, that answer isn’t always straightforward.

As we wrap up 2021, we are taking a moment to reflect on the last year. Upon concluding 2020, nobody thought things could get any worse—right? But as a small business, 2021 held challenges that seemed to be the whipped cream on the Very Minty Mocha. While 2020 held unforeseen obstacles that nobody could have seen coming, 2021 pushed us all to the limit.

We know shopping for everyone on your long list can be a rather daunting task. Does Aunt Sally like a dark, medium, or light roast? Did your husband say it was the 2-cup or 4-cup pour over set? Did your daughter point to the yellow or red mug after all? It can be a lot, we get it. We’d like to think with the help of our trained baristas and this guide, we can make your lives a little easier!

We like to think of ourselves as exceptionally lucky. Every November we like to kick off the holiday season with giving back locally in two ways, our Annual Giving Tree and our Holiday Express Blend.

Aside from being a really unique and special little coffee shop on a corner embedded in the beautiful west side of Red Bank, our building is chock full of really cool history.

ICYMI, Fall drinks at a coffee shop are in a category of their own. By early August, the all-things-pumpkin fans start seeping through the door, sniffing around for any possible whiff of pumpkin in the air. Because we are a New Jersey-based coffee shop, in good faith I can’t make the change to pumpkin before Labor Day.

Coincidence? The brainchild as result to sitting around a table with a few friends and throwing out ideas? Mastermind? None of these. Which leaves you without the answer to the question that so many people have asked over the years…”Why the horse theme?

Six years ago, Karina took a semester-long position at Coffee Corral as a marketing intern to fill a requirement at Monmouth University. Long before the semester was over, I knew we were lucky to have her on our team and I was going to do whatever it took to keep her. Lucky for all of us, she has been the driving force of Team Coffee Corral ever since.

While I don’t play poker, I never lay all my cards on the table. So last month when writing about the new pathways, seating areas, and The Corral Garden; it would be very out of character for me to mention this month’s newest (and prettiest) addition to The Corral, the mural!