On Why I Do Things the Way I Do Them

Whenever I decide to write about a company, I reach out to them and let my intentions be known right off the bat. As part of this correspondence, I request free samples of their products. I take this approach for a number of different reasons. First, I have no funding for this project and I don’t know when that status is going to change. At this time, I am unable to devote any of my personal budget to what I’m doing here. Perhaps that will change at one point somewhere down the road. The odds are against it though.

The most likely scenario for getting this project funded is corporate sponsorships. I don’t know what form that's going to take because the last thing I want is for my content to be affected as the result of an agreement I have with someone else. I did that kind of writing at one point in my career and I hated it. My content would start off as honest and then become considerably less so as the sponsors sunk their teeth into it. I would never want something I worked hard to create to be split apart and sold to the highest bidder.

At the same time, I want to get to a point where I have funds available that I can use to buy coffee that inaccessible through other means. I have tried for years to add some international flavor to this project. Outside of a couple of Canadian coffee companies, I have been woefully unsuccessful. I want that to change. To make that change, I would need to get some sort of funding source to pay for at least the international shipping charges. I absolutely never planned for this blog to only focus on American brands of coffee.

Fundraising to me has always been something that has made me uncomfortable. I have consumed content from creators who have gone out of their way to pander and beg for as much money as they could. While I understand that's the way some people have to do business, I do not want to do business that way. For me, the more these creators pleaded for cash, the less I focused on their content. If I were to implement any fundraising protocols, I would do so in a way that readers wouldn’t notice. The requests for cash would not be frequent. They would come only in the event that a need presented itself.

I want the companies I contact and the people who read this blog to realize that I do not request products to slight anyone. That's the absolute last thing I want to do. I am not a fool. I am well aware of the fact that every coffee company is in the business of making money. I do not want to take cash out of their pockets. As soon as I can pay for the coffee I’m reviewing, I will do it in a hurry. I would want nothing more than for that to happen.

That being said, I do not want my intentions to be misconstrued. The act of providing me with complimentary products does not guarantee a glowing review. Granted, many of my reviews have a positive spin on them; however, I came to these conclusions on my own. The companies I’m reviewing did not provide me with the information needed to come to these conclusions.  Throughout my process, I will maintain my objectivity and operate with the utmost level of integrity.