Ten Years

Today, Arizona Coffee is celebrating ten successful years online! This site began as a humble little list of coffee shops, which I then expanded to cover coffee news across the state.

My first post on Arizona Coffee was on March 26, 2005. It wasn’t much. More of an announcement.

Somehow, the site grew and became popular, and I consider myself extremely lucky to be Mr. Arizona Coffee 🙂

Now, in its tenth year, the site receives more traffic than ever and helps people find excellent coffee in Arizona. That has always been the primary goal of the site: To help people find and explore great coffee from local independent coffee shops and roasters. The ways that people find destinations online have changed in these 10 years. Sites like Yelp hadn’t become popular yet, and the ones that were out there didn’t have an expansive database.

Also, let’s be realistic, coffee wasn’t that amazing in Arizona ten years ago. Now, we have so many amazing coffee shops that the average person has their pick of cool places to visit that also serve great coffee.

I’m lucky in that I have an amazing coffee shop no more than 5 minutes from my front door. I remember that I used to drive 20-30 minutes just to go to a good coffee shop. For those that don’t know, I live in the Scottsdale area. So, from my front door I can get to a half dozen really great coffee shops in about 15 minutes.

In case you hadn’t seen it, check out the list of coffee shops in Arizona which I update often.

One of the earlier goals of this site was to keep a handy list of coffee shops that provided free WiFi. Ten years ago everybody thought they could charge for WiFi, which may have worked for some people, but I never wanted to pay. So, my list of coffee shops identified the ones with free WiFi. Today, it’s almost an afterthought. Of course every coffee shop provides free WiFi. If they don’t, nobody would visit! I bet in another 10 years your average consumer will have figured out how to use their cellular data plan and people won’t care about WiFi as much.

On that note, there are a lot of awesome coffee roasters here in the state. It seems that coffee has really grown up over the years, and the sophistication level risen as well. This isn’t exclusively an Arizona occurrence. The coffee industry has changed dramatically over the last ten years, in positive ways.

Here’s a list of coffee roasters in AZ.

Over the years, Twitter has risen, Facebook has declined, and Instagram risen above them all. It seems I often share photos on Instagram, and then forget to share them here. Consider the social media sites an extension of this site, perhaps.

Where would I be without the amazing sponsors I have on Arizona Coffee. Thanks to all of my past, and current sponsors for helping me keep the lights on! I really appreciate your support. I want to help grow the coffee industry in Arizona, and couldn’t do that without your help. Special thanks to current sponsors who include ROC2 (Roastery of Cave Creek), Press Coffee Roasters, and Coffee Trafficker.

In these ten years, I’ve also made some awesome friendships (personal and business) which I value immensely! You know who you are.

Another major development in the last ten years is mobile. Mobile now accounts for more than 25% of the traffic to Arizona Coffee, and is a big reason I made the maps showing coffee shops. I can’t tell you how often I’ll be driving around and stop and look for coffee shops near me.

So, what’s in store for the rest of the year, and for the next ten years? Lots! I’m working on a new set of stickers which I’ll be able to hand out, I have lots of upcoming videos. Plus, I’m always exploring the state to share the best coffee destinations. I realized a long time ago that I can’t compete on quantity with the local newspapers. So, I’ve been focusing on quality articles, and quality reporting. My focus is to help you find great coffee experiences in Arizona.

I’ve also really enjoyed connecting people through this web site. I get lots of emails from people looking for advice on starting up a coffee shop, or selecting a coffee roaster, or baristas looking for their next job. You can always email me at chris@arizonacoffee.com with any questions.

So, here’s to another ten years of publishing! Thanks for being a reader!