Owner of Coffee Seasonings
Daliah Torrez and her husband developed the idea for their business, Coffee Seasonings, a few years ago when they moved from Denver to Alamosa to buy land and raise livestock. Daliah has always enjoyed the atmosphere that comes with a coffee shop, from the friendly baristas to the ability to connect with community members in a cozy spot; one of her hobbies used to be hopping around to various coffee shops in Denver and deciding which ones she would return to. During these coffee shop expeditions, one thing she almost always noticed was the lack of natural coffee flavor offerings. “Not everyone likes their coffee black but that doesn’t mean they should have to mask the entire drink with artificial flavors that take over.”
To solve this problem in her own home, Daliah started making her own natural coffee seasonings using a dry blend of spices she had in her cabinets. What’s unique about her coffee seasonings is that a lot of the flavor profiles are inspired and developed from her upbringing and familiarity with red chili, chimayo chili, hatch chili, cacao and other spices influenced by her and her husband’s northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado roots.
Daliah started offering her coffee seasonings to family members and house guests, and the response was positive so she and her husband (who has a sales background) figured out ways to start selling the product directly to the consumer. There was a low barrier to entry thanks in part to the Cottage Food Act, and they had a good amount of knowledge from doing business at the local farmers markets — Daliah also works with the Farm Park Team in The Valley (San Luis Valley), an organization that helps develop best practices and marketing efforts for local markets so that they can be successful.
In fact, Daliah learned about RMMFI while at the farmers market and quickly joined the San Luis Valley Idea Lab followed by BLBC. “Working and seeing other entrepreneurs succeed has been our biggest inspiration and support.”
The next phase for Coffee Seasonings is developing new packaging and getting their products into coffee shops, followed by grocery retailers. You can find more information at coffeeseasoning.com
