The title of this blog came from a discussion earlier this week between myself, Al and Joe about us turning one today. Joe's summarised our first year doing this roasting thing pretty well and I actually like the fact that we still feel this way.

We start new things, we have no idea where we'll end up, but we trust that we will work it out along the way and be all the better for it.

This week we roasted 490kg of coffee, our biggest week ever, what a way to finish our first year.

I strongly believe that just starting is the most important thing you can ever do. Nothing brilliant ever comes to be from being planned to within an inch of it's life. In fact, all that you end up with is a slightly hollow, wooden 'thing' that inspires no one.

If I had to choose a group of people to spend every single week flying by the seat of our pants with, it would be this lot. We're missing Jess, Lindsey and Super Sam (Wade) from this photo - getting everyone in the same place at the same time is about as likely as Kobe learning to pack coffee. Although, that would be pretty useful.

Thank you every single one of you for being a part of this, you are Odd Kin and you are all the reason we've already done things we could never have dreamed about.

We sat down in 2020, with the world burning down around us, to start extracting this idea from our brains and getting it down on to paper. One point, that above all else we kept being drawn to is that for us, this is all about the people.

Creating connections, building relationships and giving a little lift to those around us is what gets us out of bed in the morning.

We've honestly got to hang out with some of the best people this year - from start-up coffee shop owners who had that excited glint in their eye that we know so well to people wanting to switch their coffee offering up and team members who couldn't believe our coffee actually tasted better than Costa or Starbucks.

Our wholesale fam is growing each week and we can't thank you enough for putting your trust in us, being a small cog in your business is such an honour. We have absolutely loved meeting and working alongside you all.

We've also started to send out more and more coffee to you lovely people at home, thanks to everyone that's stumbled across us online and liked the look of what we do. Each order puts a real life smile on our face and it's a joy to have sent coffee all over the UK and to some slightly more exotic locations in Australia, USA, Norway, Czech Republic and Slovenia!

We hope you enjoyed those tasty old beans of ours.

You keep us busy, you keep us on our toes and keep us doing what we love. We promise to keep getting better and continuing to make your day a little bit brighter.

I've spoken a lot about our team here and thought I'd finish by finding out their thoughts on who our next recruit should be...

"If you could choose anyone in the history of the planet to join our Odd Kin fam and work alongside you in the roastery each day, who would it be and why?"

Jess - Harry Potter, so that once a year, probably in late spring, the Dark Lord would come to do him in and a massive adventure would ensue.

Rama - Robin Williams. He’s one of the funniest people to have ever lived and he cared so deeply for humanity. He’d be a caring colleague and a real laugh to work with.

Joe - Simon Sinek, to save me watching his 'Start With Why' YouTube video on a weekly basis. 

Lindsey - Probably Steven Bartlett, because I feel like we would have some really interesting conversations with him that would just open up our minds to a bunch of new things. 

Super Sam (Wade) - Stephen Fry, so I could be hit with all sorts of knowledge throughout the day, come home to Kim and pretend I was this all knowing being.

Kev - James Hoffman, so I can learn from him hahahahaha

Al - Without trying to be too emotional it would be my Dad. He never got to see how far I'd progressed in my career and I'd love to be able to show him what an awesome job I have and the best mates to work with.

Keep being awesome. We'll do our best to be awesome too.

Stay easy,

Sam & The Odd Kin Fam

 

P.S Happy 1st Birthday to my lovely little boy Nelson, you are a total legend.

P.P.S For anyone wondering - I was at the birth last year, not putting beans in the roaster. Family always comes first.