With the scorching El Paso heat and summer break in full swing, the city is becoming less interested in sitting down at a café for a hot cup of coffee. A solution to combat this situation may be found in a little treasure through a business alliance of El Paso coffee shops.
In a collaborative effort, seven local coffee shops launched the El Paso Coffee Passport, a new campaign to attract caffeine lovers despite the summer conditions.
This idea involves a passport-style booklet containing blank pages for stamps to be placed to help ramp up sales from the participating coffee shops: Savage Goods, Synaxis Coffee Co., Café Con Leche, Unbound Café, Mas y Menos, Casa Cafetzin Coffee Roasters and Viejo Coffee. The passport offers 25 percent off purchases at these locations. Once all the stamps are collected, participants will receive a tote bag from the location where they initially purchased the passport.
Experienced barista Tori Hernandez emphasizes how wonderful she believes this idea is and expresses appreciation for the collaboration.
“I thought this idea was super cool. I think coffee culture in El Paso has grown and is still growing for the past five years,” Tori Hernandez said. “They are all doing amazing work. It’s all collaborative. We all want El Paso to experience coffee and that is what the passport is doing.”
Anabel Hernandez, a local barista and one of the main organizers of this group effort, shared her thought process and how the project took about a year to execute.
“We structured it to generate excitement for coffee in El Paso. We wanted this to be full-blown El Paso, from the making of the passport and tote bag to the cafés that we chose,” Anabel Hernandez said. “Everyone has their own style, their own specialties. So, I did want to put in that variety.”
The Coffee Passport is not only said to be an innovative and fun experience but holds greater meaning. The passport is generating excitement among coffee connoisseurs to go and support their local coffee shops.
“That was the main goal, to be able to create community, to be able to check out these different selections in these different locations,” Anabel Hernandez said.
By encouraging the consumer to explore multiple local spots, it helps generate more movement and interaction across the different cafés in El Paso while also boosting support for local coffee shops and creating a stronger a stronger sense of community. The coffee passport carries the potential to grow into an annual tradition that celebrates connection and collaboration for years to come.
Kahri Reyes is the audience and engagement editor and may be reached at [email protected].
