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The entrepreneurial spirit is percolating in the form of a unique, cold-brew coffee and a fancy bicycle.
Kara Eggebrecht and her husband Wesley Eggebrecht and their business partner, launched a Kickstarter campaign a few days ago to raise $7,000 to to start an ice coffee company called Tomo Coffee Co. About $4,000 will go for a distinctive, custom-made bike that will dispense individual cups of ice-brew coffee. The remainder will go for such costs as commercial kitchen fees, permits and product. They hope to begin selling their product in May.
Eggebrecht says the process for making the cold-brew coffee is unique. She said the coffee beans soak in water for up to 18 hours. Then the beans are filtered, creating the final product -- a concentrate.
Wesley Eggebrecht, Kara Eggebrecht and Alex MacKenzie
"It creates a less acidic, more flavorful coffee," she says.
She said a ready-to-drink, cold-brew coffee will be dispensed from the bicycle at area-farmer's markets like Eastern Market for $3 to $4 for a 16-ounce cup. The company will also sell 32-ounce bottles of concentrated ice-brewed coffee online that will make eight cups of coffee, hot or cold.
Eggebrecht says if they don't raise enough money, they'll forgo the bike idea for now and just sell the concentrated product online. As of Monday night, they had raised $1,645 on Kickstarter. The campaign ends April 19 at 1:30 p.m.
Eggebrecht and her husband, who runs his graphic design company out of the Russell Industrial Building off of I-75 in Detroit, along with their business partner, Alex MacKenzie, all hail from northern Michigan, and now live in Metro Detroit.
"We're really excited about this and to be involved in the community," Eggebrecht told Deadline Detroit.
She says that she and her husband are into the Detroit art scene, and the unique coffee and the bike are like art and are a "unique spin on coffee in Detroit."
To go to the Kickstarter campaign, click here.
