Eau Claire Coffee Club Brews Community in Every Meetup
for roughly a decade, aficionados and coffee-curious individuals alike have explored the nitty-gritty of the third-wave scene
“I think the heart behind it has always been getting more people to see the huge world that is coffee, and what it can be,” Jesse Burgin said of Eau Claire Coffee Club.
Since about 2014, Jesse Burgin and Colin Carey — self-described coffee nerds and longtime locals — have steadily cultivated the growing community of coffee aficionados and coffee-curious folks alike.
The movement to recognize coffee as an artisanal product — with diverse craftsmanship — is recognized as “third-wave” coffee. It largely emerged in the 2000s, though Eau Claire was a very different place 25 years ago, and wouldn’t truly see its specialty coffee scene begin to blossom and thrive until well into the 2000s.
That’s why Coffee Club started out at Colin’s house, and even before any kind of formal organizing, was just two friends geeking out over coffee. Jesse and Colin simply enjoyed finding new roasters and sharing them with each other, exploring the specialty coffee world.
There's something special about seeing someone who's only had gas station coffee or Keurig coffee come in and try a fruity, natural coffee for the first time. Just seeing people experience that, not knowing coffee could taste like that ... Sharing that with other people is why we love to do Club. –Jesse Burgin, co-founder of Eau Claire Coffee Club
Slowly, they invited other friends to join those hangouts, and an email list would eventually reach wider – outgrowing the available space of Colin’s home and finding a place at Volume One and The Local Store. There, Coffee Club grew further, with people from all ranges of the coffee-knowledge spectrum joining in.
Coffee Club has spotlighted a range of roasts and processes — getting as deep into the weeds as spending an entire hangout talking about the effects temperature alone can play on a roast — with no shortage of topics in sight.
Coffee Club made its return after something of a hiatus, to its most regular location: SHIFT (615 Graham Ave., Eau Claire). (Both Jesse and Colin formerly worked at SHIFT, with Colin playing a significant role in SHIFT’s early years as its manager.)
This past Saturday, Oct. 11, Coffee Club explored two distinctly different coffees (a natural processed Costa Rican and a washed Guatemalan) from California-based Dune Coffee Roasters.
Ben Ellsworth, a UW-Eau Claire student and barista (in his hometown, not in E.C.), has attended two Coffee Clubs previously. Ellsworth said he doesn’t show up with specific expectations – he simply enjoys the kind of community it’s formed and “the experience of having truly excellent coffee.”
“This will be a way for me to explore new coffee I haven’t heard about, or (a) new method that I haven’t heard about,” he said.
Ellsworth’s experience at Coffee Club speaks directly to what its co-founders hope folks get out of it.
“There’s something special about seeing someone who’s only had gas station coffee or Keurig coffee come in and try a fruity, natural coffee for the first time,” Jesse said. “Just seeing people experience that, not knowing coffee could taste like that… Sharing that with other people is why we love to do Club.
“You get to experience a huge world in every cup. Every morning, you get something special,” he said.
Over the years, Coffee Club has ebbed and flowed alongside Jesse’s and Colin’s lives, with some seasons allowing for more meetups than others. Still, their love for the specialty coffee scene has never faltered and they plan for regular meetups to continue at SHIFT, quarterly.
The kind of community that can be built over a cup of coffee is accessible to just about everyone, and Coffee Club simply acts as the bridge to connect others in the Eau Claire area.
Keep up with Eau Claire Coffee Club online via Instagram or Facebook.