Cold Brew Love
A creative on a journey to find himself again
Written by Marcos Cruz
Creative at VBAT
Did you ever think about making your dreams come true?
People that meet me know me as a creative person working full-time as a graphic designer at VBAT. They also know that I’m passionate about coffee. Last year these two different worlds collided resulting in the creation of a very special project.
It all started in February 2016 with a very inspiring trip to Guatemala. Staying there for two weeks and working as a volunteer in a coffee farm was an extraordinary experience which gave me a lot of insight about the real coffee world. Ultimately it also created a spark of “I’ve to do something about this passion for coffee”.
Inspired, I came back to Amsterdam and fully immersed myself in the creation of a new project focused on one of my favourite coffee drinks, Cold Brew Coffee.
Cold Brew Coffee is a coffee beverage brewed in a cold process. It uses coarsely ground roasted coffee infused with cold water and the brewing time takes up to 24 hours. This brewing method is slow and as a result you get a super smooth and sweet coffee drink. An ideal Summer refreshment you can drink together with ice or even ice and milk.
After months of hard work I noticed that I learnt a lot of things along the way. Through this process I’ve learnt about plumbing, carpentry, brewing systems, drafting systems, coffee suppliers, coffee roasters and even people from the Kamer van Koophandel (where you register your business). At the end of this process what was truly fascinating was that I realised I was not only a graphic designer that knows how to build brands but for the first time I was also the maker of a brand.
The Strum Coffee Brewery was ready to start.
During the last Summer every weekend when the sun was out I cycled with my coffee ‘bakfiets’ bike around Amsterdam selling this delicious coffee refreshment. This experience was great and challenging. I became a salesman not only because I was selling a product but mostly because I was selling a product that most of the people never heard about. The reactions were great and some people really fell in love with my coffee drink.
With the project running in full swing I suddenly became extremely busy with the “not so cool” side of having a business like schedules, planning, suppliers and administration.
At the end of the Summer and after having a great time doing this I knew that I needed to stop.
I realised that I’m not a businessman. I realised that I am creative and a maker which made me really proud of what I had achieved.
But most important I realised that making your dreams come true is just a journey to find yourself again.
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written by Written by Marcos Cruz, Creative at VBAT
edited by Connie Fluhme, PR at VBAT
