Hello dearests,
Holy Time’s Flyin’ Batman! We cannot believe we’re at the end of 2022. This year has been filled with some downs, a little plateauing and lots of ups, and overall we could not be more grateful for all the support and love we’ve gotten. To top it off, we’ve been nominated for a Sprudgie (in the “Best Coffee Writing” for Namisha’s article Jaago and Smell the Coffee) which has been a lovely ribbon to wrap this year up! Our brand has grown entirely organically, so taking two minutes to vote would help us out big time and we’d really appreciate it!
I. Products
1. SOFI 72
This has definitely been our shining star this year — it’s the product we have worked the hardest on, and is the result of years of research, testing, experimenting, trial(s) and lots of errors. We have been overwhelmed by the feedback, are still stocked out and haven’t been able to keep up with demand… which is why our plan for 2023 is to streamline and increase our manufacturing capabilities, tighten up logistics, and hopefully have some exciting news by the end of Q1 2023! Please join our waitlist to keep up to date with SOFI news.
2. The Coffee Journal
This was our first-ever crowdfunding campaign, and we were naive about the nuances of crowdfunding going in. We put in a ton of work, however, and we are really chuffed about its success and how the story of Indian coffee has made its way to over 16 countries (WHAT!) worldwide! The Coffee Journal is a really meaningful product to us, and you can now buy it on our website here.
3. Drinkware
What a year for our drinkware project! First off, you can now order beautiful cappuccino cups on our website. We started in January with our handmade cappuccino cups made in Pondicherry. After a remote partnership that was unsustainable in a Covid world, our dreams were (temporarily) dashed. We’re starting to believe everything happens for a reason because in August this year, we stumbled upon a local pottery studio, Zarava and collaborated with them on an even more beautiful 2.0 version of the cups. We also have a BTS video for those of you interested in what goes down in the making of these beauties.
II. Content
YouTube
This year has been a wild ride for us on YouTube. We hit 10k, did an awesome giveaway and have grown an engaging, loyal and dynamic audience and community. It’s been fun-filled, but it hasn’t been easy so if you haven’t already subscribed, please do! You have no idea how much impact that has on the algorithm. We have loads of exciting content planned for next year as YouTube is a core focus for our business. To get you pumped, here’s the last video we put out about ‘coffee tings’ that excite us for 2023!
Writing
While a lot of our content is in video format, we are big fans of the written word too. From Namisha:
“Writing has always been a secret passion and it’s taken a long time to overcome a lot of second guessing and self doubt to put my words (and so much of myself!) out there. It’s been such an honour to be published in some of the biggest global coffee publications — 25 Magazine, Sprudge and The Coffee Magazine! So, to be nominated for a Sprudgie and be recognised by peers has been the most delightful icing on the cake and a perfect way to end this year. It would mean the world to me if you voted for my article because this journey, like everything at Aramse, has happened entirely organically.”
Newsletter
THIS! It’s a bit meta talking about our newsletter on the newsletter, but we put out two newsletters now — a weekly, and a monthly! We have grown to 1225 strong now and can’t wait to see where 2023 takes us!
III. Subscription (🇮🇳 only)
To be very honest, the subscription hasn’t gotten a lot of love from us this year and we promise that that’s about to change. We are in the process of training a new team to improve both logistics and customer service so you should be seeing a marked improvement on both fronts in the coming weeks. We’ve also added a handful of really cool features, some of which are already live:
Next Order Date - You can now see exactly when your next order will be processed.
Low Balance Notification - A red status bar when you login is a clear reminder to recharge your account.
‘I Want Coffee Now’ Button - Click on this if you’re running out of coffee or just want some more and we’ll queue your next order up the following morning.
Pause Subscription - You can now pause and unpause your subscription at any time from your account preferences.
Gifting - We’ve significantly improved this process making it much easier to gift a subscription.
Admin Panel Upgrades - We’ve made massive upgrades to the backend which is arguably the heart of this entire experience. The recommendation engine and queuing systems are what allow us to find and ship coffees that are right for you, and while you won’t directly interact with these changes you’ll most certainly feel it from a UX point of view.
Bug Fixes - We’ve squashed several bugs and also made the entire site quicker and snappier.
That’s it from us here at Aramse. Thanks for joining us on this journey to brew aramse. Happy New Year and see you in 2023!
Namisha & Raghunath