Psychedlic Explorations Result in Stumtptown Coffee, Dolcezza Gelato Partnership

photo by Dolcezza.

Portland-based Stumptown Coffee Roasters is planning to open a Washington D.C. satellite training lab inside the factory headquarters of one of the company’s wholesale clients, Dolcezza Gelato & Coffee.

“We’ve been itching to share this news for months, and it’s finally time,” Dolcezza announced today. “Stumptown Coffee Roasters, our dedicated coffee suppliers, have now become our roomies.” The company added, “Through a series of small miracles, an empty plumbing-ready production bay in the factory became Stumptown’s training lab instead of an additional row of gelato machines.”

(related: Radio Broadcasts a Sweet Patio, Craft Beer and Stumptown Coffee in Austin)

Dolcezza opened the factory, which also represents its fifth D.C.-area retail location, late last year, expanding its focus on handcrafted gelato with ingredients sourced locally and sustainably. While Dolcezza’s other cafes had a multi-roaster approach, Dolcezza singled out Stumptown to help lead the coffee program at the new headquarters.

(related: D.C. Roastery Vigilante Coffee Opens First Public Outpost in Hyatsville)

Inside the coffee lab at Dolcezza.

In an announcement today, Dolcezza owner Robb Duncan detailed the long-running partnership between the two companies, which began with his own “classical ego-death experience” and ayahuska-inspired “psychedelic explorations” in the jungles of Peru:

I found myself moving into a small house on Upper Division Street in South East Portland with my brother and his lunatic girlfriend, [name redacted], whom had just returned from a failed Alaskan go-live-in-the-bush-connect-with-mother-nature experience [sic]. The house we moved into was right up the street from where Stumptown would eventually open their first coffee shop. I’ll never forget my first experience at Stumptown. On a less intense degree, but in the same vein, that first experience paralleled the jungle experience with the other plant, one plant(s) being the components of ayahuasca and the other being coffee. It was a paradigm shifter and changed how I approached coffee. Every detail of the experience was taken into account, the machine, the music, the pastries and obviously the coffee. The espresso, creamy, sweet, bitter, bright, chocolate all unfolded on my tongue and blew my fucking coffee train off the tracks.

For its part, Stumptown is double stoked about the ongoing partnership:

Stoked!! RT @dolcezzagelato: Dolcezza + @stumptowncoffee : a new partnership, a decade in the making. http://t.co/OLeIWWRiTN

— Stumptown Coffee (@stumptowncoffee) November 4, 2014