Meet Kelsey/Troy Artes/Karnes | Co-Creators

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kelsey/Troy Artes/Karnes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kelsey/Troy, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
When we looked around at the world of flavored coffee, we saw so many boring options: vanilla…hazelnut….vanilla-hazelnut. It contradicts the choices that we see people making in the rest of the food & beverage spaces. People like interesting food trucks, craft cocktails, and craft beer. We wanted to take those sensibilities and put them into the world of coffee.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
As mid-career professionals, we both craved an outlet where we could find creative ways to use the skills and knowledge that we had developed in our day jobs.

We tested hundreds of bad cups of coffee on our way to developing the line up that we have now. Most of those failed flavors used some type of artificial flavoring or oil of some kind. In the end, we realized something that we had kind of known all along: real ingredients taste better. Duh. After that, we came up with some other rules to guide our experimentation. We do not make any novelty flavors. Everything has to taste good. Finally, we make coffee, so everything that we make tastes like coffee first and foremost. With that framework in place, our creative process progressed quickly.

Our best selling flavor, Golden Milk, has turmeric, ginger, honey powder, and black pepper. It’s an ancient recipe that we configured to work well with coffee. The turmeric draws people in, and the flavor profile keeps them sipping.

Spice Road, our most aromatic flavor, takes inspiration from Indian cuisine. It has garam masala, coconut, and ginger. A pot of that will fill your place with amazing aromatics. We get feedback that it’s chai-adjacent, which people find interesting and delicious.

People have a lot of fun with Bubble Gum. They tend to give us a skeptical look at first because it sounds so weird, and they think it will be overly sweet. Instead, they get a much different experience. It smells so much like bubble gum, but the flavor profile leans much more towards coffee. So many people say, “Hmmm….this works. I don’t understand why it works, but it does.”

Finally, we had fun working with beet powder for our other two flavors, Ruby Slipper and Red Espresso. The beet powder does not have an overwhelming flavor. These taste much more like regular coffee than our other flavors, but they bring a visual component because they brew red. Ruby Slipper, which uses a drip coffee ground, turns pink if you use milk or cream. Red Espresso, which uses an espresso ground, makes the most beautiful and fun pink lattes.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Great question! In no particular order:

We really like Mint & Serif for a coffee shop. It’s over by Wadsworth & Colfax. They have a beautiful space, support local artists, and are great human beings.

The tacos at Los Carboncitos rule.

We always have great meals at The Yabby Hut. It’s basically a crawfish boil place with a couple of locations. The seafood is good, and it’s so much fun to eat a hands-on meal.

Temaki Den at The Source has great Aburi-style sushi.

The Greenwich kills it, especially their clam dish.

Everyone knows about Red Rocks, and any visitor to Denver should go see a show there. In town, though, Mission Ballroom is a great place to see a show.

I hesitate to let people know, but if you are looking for a day trip, the put Buena Vista on the list. You get to avoid driving I-70, and it’s beautiful. We especially like hitting up the hot springs out there.

Cooper Lounge has some of the best cocktails in the city, and it’s a beautiful space to spend some time.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We want Weirdo Coffee to demonstrate how to make time for creative pursuits, how to take risks, and how to dedicate energy to solving problems. So, shout out to our kids, who we hope will find something that sparks their motivation.

Website: www.weirdocoffee.com

Instagram: @weirdocoffee