SACRAMENTO—
Beer fans have pub crawls and wine connoisseurs have winery tours. Now, Sacramento’s artisan coffee scene is hosting the city’s first ever Caffeine Crawl.
On Saturday, September 6th, coffee lovers will be biking and driving a designated route around Sacramento to be able to tour the city’s coffee shops. Although the tour is Sacramento’s first event of its kind, the event is the 24th crawl hosted by The LAB, a beverage marketing and creative firm based in Kansas City and Portland.
The jittery tour will include a start at one of three different locations, Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters, Old Soul Co., or Insight Coffee Roasters. Fans will then be able to head to several other participating coffee shops, Temple Coffee, Fluid Espresso Bar, Pachamama Coffee Bar, Shine Coffee, and Son of a Bean Coffee House. Each of the shops are planning presentations to show why their shops and styles are unique.
Coffee shops in many large cities have various marketing and networking techniques. According to Benza Cox-Lance of Insight Coffee, cities such as Atlanta, Washington D.C., and even London, England, reward customers for buying their coffee from multiple shops with “Disloyalty Cards,” stamp cards that work for several shops instead of just one. Although this is not done in Sacramento, Cox-Lance was very clear that Sacramento’s coffee roasters have a very friendly and local approach to business.
“In bigger cities, [specialty coffee shops] are certainly not as close as in Sacramento. It’s very positive here the majority of the time,” said Cole Cuchna, Temple Coffee’s Director of Education. “If anyone steps over boundaries, the relationships are close enough to talk it out, but very rarely does that even happen.”
The Caffeine Crawl will conclude with an after party, hosted by Temple Coffee, where guests can finish their day with more great drinks and a raffle for prizes.
Tickets fro the Caffeine Crawl cost $25-$32, and are expected to sell quickly. Price is determined by if you are biking or driving the route. You can buy tickets to the event by clicking here.