2017 is coming to an end. And as much as we’re sad to see it slowly drifting away, we’re also excited, because we know that 2018 will kick ass! But first, let’s see what 2017 brought us … 

It’s a really busy time of year at GOAT STORY at the moment, but we manage to get a cup of coffee brewed now and then. And that’s when the chit-chatter in the office starts. The other day we sat down over a nice cup and started talking about new projects that we have planned for 2018. And we quickly got stuck in the past, because 2017 was sooooooooo much fun!!!

#1 The Milestone

To start, we need to travel even further back in time to the year 2014 when we launched our first coffee product, a uniquely shaped coffee mug that paid tribute to the goats that discovered coffee. Fast forward three years to 2017 and we’re celebrating an important milestone (or rather a MUGstone) - on December 4th it was 3 years exactly since we launched this project on Kickstarter and today almost 150.000 (yes, that’s one hundred fifty thousand!!!) GOAT Mugs are now bringing style to coffee drinkers around the world in 95 countries.

GOAT Mug was our ticket to ride, as it brought the community closer to us and opened a whole new world of specialty coffee.

#2 The Festivals

After we discovered the specialty coffee community that was introduced to us with GOAT Mug, our heads started spinning because we truly and honestly fell in love with coffee. We started paying close attention to the beans we used and wanted to discover all the shades and tastes a coffee bean has to offer. We tried all possible coffee brewing devices out there, but something was missing … so we decided to make one ourselves.
In the year 2016, we fine-tuned the concept and created GINA. After a huge buzz this smart brewer made in the international media, we launched a Kickstarter campaign and the specialty coffee community was impressed. Very impressed. GINA raised over half-million dollars in the campaign and that’s when the real work started - making a finished product and delivering it to our backers. But we’ll write about that a bit later … 
When coffee lovers discovered GINA, they wanted to see it in person, even before it was mass-produced. So we made a plan to show off this beauty in coffee festivals around the world. Budapest, London, Ljubljana, and New York … those were our venues that were true highlights for our small, but dedicated team of coffee aficionados. We must confess that it was a true pleasure meeting coffee lovers from all around the world. And what’s more, people knew who we were! A small start-up from a small country was making tracks in the international coffee scene … amazing!

Through taking part in coffee festivals we learned that the coffee community is a friendly one and we now have coffee friends in every corner of the world - from everyday coffee drinkers to SCA certified trainers, to baristas, other coffee companies, and roasters. We even teamed up with a few micro-roasters to offer our festival visitors the best coffee experience possible.
Bottom line - we took part in four coffee festivals in 2017 and every single one was a highlight of its own.

#3 The Calendar

You know, we’re a varied bunch at GOAT STORY … but our common passion is what bonds us. It’s the passion for a good cup of coffee, passion for great design, passion for perfection, and … passion for art. 
So we asked ourselves, how to connect them all in something truly special. Something related to coffee, but not a coffee prop itself. With the help of 12 aspiring artists from around the world, we made it happen and it turned out to be one of the highlights of 2017 for us - the COFFEE ART CALENDAR for the year 2018. We planned it as a surprise for our backers and community, but it turned out to get noticed even outside of the coffee community.

The Calendar is proudly showcased in our office and will remind us of all the highlights of 2017. But no event in 2017 was bigger than the one that happened on December 15th …

#4 HELLO GINA!

We intentionally left the best for last … HELLO GINA! We're super excited to have you here!

We had fun times when we saw her grow up into a big girl that is capable of making the best cup of coffee out there and even a few bad moments when she misbehaved like a stubborn kid that won’t budge. But it was about time that she explored the world. So we are super happy to wrap up 2017 with an epilogue par-excellence. GINA was shipped.

It will be a happy 2018!