Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Weihong Zhang. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Weihong, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission the drives your brand?

At Blendin Coffee Club, we are dedicated to serve the world’s best coffee experience to our customers. Our mission is to inspire appreciation of coffee through high-quality coffee, inviting coffee culture, excellent customer service, and approachable education. Everyone in specialty coffee industry has one “magic” cup of coffee that opens their eyes to the world of flavors in coffee. I still remember my “magic” cup was a Kenya coffee. Bright and vibrant blueberry, sweet and rich milk chocolate notes overwhelmed me. I realized that I was drinking coffee all the time but not tasting enjoying coffee. That’s when I decided to open Blendin Coffee Club and trying to make Blendin a place for people to slow down and enjoy the flavors in coffee.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I came to United States in 2009 and finished my PhD in Biochemistry in 2014. I participated in a coffee tasting event that opened a whole new world to me. I didn’t know you specialty coffee could be so delicious with no bitterness. Then I start to learn about the craft of coffee. In 2017 I opened Blendin Coffee Club’s first location in Sugar Land, TX. We are a coffee shop, coffee roaster and a coffee training center. Our mission is to serve our customers the world’s best coffee experiences. We go to the coffee origin countries every year to source our coffee. We roast our coffee beans in house freshly every week. We also offer coffee workshop classes like latte art class and barista classes to coffee lovers.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think what helped us build the reputation in the industry was our laser focus on the quality of our coffee. One of the most important aspect of coffee quality comes from the farm. This is why our team is visiting the coffee origin country to source the coffee every year. Every time we visit the coffee farms we learn the new varietals of coffee, new processing of coffee and how they impact the coffee flavors in the cup. We also build a long term relationship with coffee farmers to make sure we have a consistent high quality coffee supply. At the roaster level, we are doing quality control on every batch of our roasted coffee. In the shop, the baristas and managers are trained intensively in the sensory skills to taste coffee and making sure our coffee beverage is with consistent high quality.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

A lot of our customers have been coming in since day 1. Coffee is a seasonal crop. Every two months or so we will bringing a new coffee from a different origin country. Sometime it is from Africa, sometime it’s an Asian coffee, and most of the time it is from Central America. The diversity of our coffee offering kept our customers interested and curious.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blendincoffeeclub.com
• Instagram: @blendincoffeeclub