2025 Reflections: Growth, Grit, Partnership
As we step into 2026, I’ve been looking back on our first full year since opening the doors to our coffeehouse and roastery in Barronett, Wisconsin, in August 2024.
Simply put, 2025 was a year shaped by learning as we went, growing together, building meaningful partnerships, and showing up with a whole lot of grit.
Our Growth
One thing I’m especially proud of: we tripled our gross online coffee sales compared to 2024—thanks in large part to an incredible community of online customers from across the United States. That strong and growing online community has allowed us to stay rooted in quality and intention.
Our Team
This year, I stepped fully into the Head Roaster role, and I had the privilege of training Carmen Wenger as Production Roaster and Katie Fischer as Café Manager. This team shows up every day with curiosity and consistency. If you haven’t yet, I’d encourage you to tune into the podcast to meet them and hear their stories. Click here to listen.
We also launched version one of Bear Lake Coffee School, a three-day program designed to equip baristas and managers with the tools, confidence, and perspective needed to run successful cafés. If opening your own shop is a dream you’re holding on to, we’d love to help you take that next step. We built this framework to support the launch of Double Cup Coffee in Chicago, and we will be leveraging it to support others in the years ahead. Let’s talk—whether you’re dreaming of opening your own café or looking to train your team on best practices for running a coffee-first café.
Quality took center stage in 2025
We were honored with nine medals at Golden Bean North Americas in October and earned an invitation to compete in the World Series, a meaningful benchmark of excellence among our peers. At the same time, Coffee Review recognized our work with 12 of our coffees scoring 93 points or higher, including five coffees scoring 95 points—a level of consistency we’re incredibly proud of. It was great to see one of our coffees earn the #31 spot on Coffee Review’s Top 50 Coffees of 2025.
Giving Back
In 2025, we gave back 2% of our revenue, along with our time and use of our space, to support the people and community behind our coffee. This included donations to the Superior Lobe Chapter of the Ice Age Trail, Coffee Watch, our local fire department, community events, and monthly gatherings for families and caregivers through ADRC (Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs) because building community means showing up in more ways than one.
Doing Our Part to Reduce Carbon Emissions
In the past year, our solar array produced 16.2 MWh of clean energy, directly reducing carbon emissions—the equivalent impact of planting 300 trees (a small forest). We made this power available to customers passing through our Tesla Destination Charging Network, extending the benefits of clean energy beyond our own operations.
Proudly Serving Partners
We’re deeply grateful for our growing community of Proudly Serving Bear Lake Coffee partners—from cafés and food co-ops to local businesses and friends near and far. We’ve building something strong together, and while there’s more work ahead, we are thankful that you believe in us as much as we believe in you.
A special thanks to our growing Proudly Serving community, which includes Cheese Louise, Coco and Maple, Double Cup Coffee, EMPORIUM Boutique & Art Studio, Hay River Storage Solutions, Island City Food Coop, One Ship Coffee, Stabel Kernel, Stone & Oak, Wakes Setters, Shell Lake Lodge and Wenger Distributing.
We can’t wait to brew even more exciting coffees your way this year—we’re just getting started. Thanks for brewing with us in 2025, and here’s to all that’s ahead.
With Gratitude,
Founder & Head Roaster
Licensed Q Grader | CVA Certified | SCA Roasting Professional
Coffee With A Purpose ®
