New Atlanta coffee roaster brings community and art back to coffee

Atlanta, GA – Can you experience amazing craft coffee, and truly unique local art, without the often times fancy, pretentious, and exclusive circumstances and atmospheres that surround the two? Docent thinks so, which is why they hope their laid back approach towards both, and their new roastery (hopefully) opening in October, will help make local craft coffee and art more approachable, accessible, and inviting.

Located in the Old Fourth Ward, Docent’s roastery will occupy the building in which Café + Velo currently resides. Like it’s predecessor, Docent will have a retail coffee and café component open for breakfast and lunch. In addition to serving many of the same popular menu items adored by Café + Velo patrons, such as fresh in-house baked croissants, sandwiches, and toasts, Docent will also be adding a few of it’s own additions like acai bowls, vegan options, a wider variety of coffees, and extensive tea program.

Born out of a desire to intertwine the creative communities that coffee and art have traditionally helped create and foster, Docent’s goal to bring craft coffee and local art to a wider audience begins with its acknowledgement (and intentional avoidance) of a lot of the clichés that they believe dissuade many people from whole-heartedly embracing (or even trying) specialty coffee, and/or exploring their local art scene.

“Our goal is to bring community back into coffee, and share with as many people as possible all of the positive experiences great coffee and art can bring to people’s lives ”, says the company.

“We’re pretty pumped to be serving the communities of Atlanta (and beyond), and we hope Docent gives us the opportunity to further promote craft coffee on a local and national scale”, says roastmaster Nolan Hall

Similar to its namesake, Docent wants to guide more people toward not only new and more approachable experiences with great coffee, but great art as well. Each of their ten current coffees feature a local artist’s work (and website) on the front of each bag (R.Land, Kyle ‘BlackCatTips’ Brooks, and Sarah Emerson to name few). This, in conjunction with individual artist pages on their website and a series of curated events and shows featuring their label artists, is just one of the ways Docent attempts to use their business as a promotional vehicle for the local art scene.

With online sales of their already ten different offerings nationwide, and having been somewhat quietly served in retail locations around town (and local events via their mobile barista cart) for a few months now, Docent’s brand of affordable quality, approachability, and community is beginning to resonating with businesses and customers alike. Yet the fledgling company is already facing an unexpected challenge.

One of the company’s investors was forced to abruptly leave due to a personal emergency; taking a significant amount of capital that was intended for the business with him. Unfortunately for Docent, this occurred right before the small roaster they custom built themselves began to show signs of an early death, but after they had committed to the lease for their retail space. Now faced with the unexpected financial obligations for both a new coffee roaster, and a lease, Docent realistically acknowledges the hurdles, “When you’re passionate about something, you sometimes have to roll the dice...especially when you have no other choice”.

In an effort to make up for the unexpected loss in capital, Docent has started a Kickstarter campaign http://kck.st/2PpRwkL aimed at raising the needed funds. “We look at it as our ‘present loss’ is our future customers’ gain”, says the company, who has worked hard to structure their campaign to not only reward backers with a lot of the same things they would be purchasing in the store, but also is offering packages and items exclusive only to the Kickstarter. “

Docent Coffee will (hopefully) be located at 381 Edgewood Ave. SE. Serving coffee, tea, baked goods, and made-to-order light fare from 8am-3pm T-F, 9am-3pm Saturday and Sunday.

Kickstarter - http://kck.st/2PpRwkL

For more information/images email info@docentcoffee.com or visit: www.docentcoffee.com | social media @docentcoffee

An art-lovin' Atlanta-based coffee roaster that aims to bring community back to craft coffee.

381 Edgewood Ave. SE
Atlanta, GA 30312

This release was published on openPR.