• FOLLOW us on Twitter HERE! and "FRIEND" us on Facebook HERE!

Help us Do More than the Minimum, Keep Kickstarting Cocoa Cinnamon!  GOAL Let's Go As Far As We Can In These Final Hours! Put your name on the kickstarter list with just $1.

Final day only!

Anyone who puts in $1 - $24, in addition to the reward listed, you will get our special Beaker Backer Personalized Badge as a sign of your taking part in our great experiment!

Anyone who puts in $25 or more will get a BackerRoboto personalized badge!  ...well, because we love robots! This is in addition to the stated reward.

And while you're at it, take a look at our new limited edition rewards!  If you've already pledged, you can add one to your current selection by increasing your pledge the amount of the new reward and making a comment so we know.  If you don't, you might regret it.

We so appreciate your support and help to keep spreading the word right through to Monday at 2:47 PM.  Help us finish with a GRAND FINALE!

Thanks a ton for having fun.

Leon and Areli

NEW LIMITED EDITION REWARDS!

Bound Custom Journal: Bound Memo. Design your own from a wide range of content. Hand-made to order in Durham, NC and fits in your pocket. Perfect for a day out at Cocoa Cinnamon to sit and write your thoughts about life in. :D

The Tecui T-Shirt front will have this image, with the words "with Cocooa Cinnamon" smaller on the back.  Yes, the compasses are out of wack.

The Franco limited edition poster is available in English and Spanish, and will be signed by the artist and numbered.  Check out the many shows he has around the triangle on his site!  Not "You can't step in the same river twice," but "Don't step in the same river twice!" Thank you Heraclitus!

English Language Poster below!

Next up is the tote bag sewn in Durham by the amazing ladies at Seam Happy (@seamhappy) with The Tecui "Earth" design and a side pocket for your coffee cup!

Elijah Leed of Liberty Arts (http://elijahleed.com) has made these beautiful sipping chocolate home tray sets with spaces for and including six Mark Kozma (http://markkozma.com) hand made ceramic sipping chocolate cups and one carafe, six organic spices from us, and six small, serving spoons.  Finished item will include all that is listed and have a special Cocoa Cinnamon mark!

Here's one of the sipping chocolate cups.

Just imagine this at your house (and in our shop)!  Imagine pics below as a complete specially made set using the items above +!

Thank you Milton for hosting the tasting and taking this picture!

That's it folks! Get them while they last!  And be sure to tell all your friends so we can make Cocoa Cinnamon the amazing place we all want it to be.  We're on a tight budget, so every single dollar will make an impact!  Even one dollar says that you're on the team.

And Remember, Don't Step in the Same River Twice!

Our Goal

To grow from our mobile bikeCOFFEE into Cocoa Cinnamon, a brick and mortar coffee, chocolate, spice and tea lounge in the heart of Durham's DIY district!With two weeks to go we reached our minimum goal necessary to get funding!  For us the $20,00 represented getting into 420 W. Geer with the bare minimum but would enable us to open our doors. 

We have until April 9th at 2:47PM to push forward and move beyond the minimum!  Please help us reach for and even past $30,000!  This will enable us to open in the kind of way you would want - with outdoor seating, covering and sidewalk cafe dividers, a commercial dishwasher, purchase paint for interior walls and poly for bar and tabletops, a chocolate tempering machine, improved interior lighting and exterior sign lighting.  These kinds of items will greatly improve the customer experience and help Cocoa Cinnamon be what it should be from day one! 

Carpe Durham put it nicely HERE!

Thank you so much for checking out our project!   Please help us spread the word to kickstart our DIY business and take community engagement to the next level!  Check out our fun and tasty limited edition rewards on the right of your screen for all levels of contribution. 

We very much appreciate any and all support! 

Reward Update! Sneak Peak into our progress on handmade mugs by Mark Kozma!

We've been playing with shapes, sizes and colors.  Here are a couple that are getting close! Exciting!  They'll have the Cocoa Cinnamon logo on one side and the word backer on the other - this version limited to Kickstarter backers only.

ABOUT Cocoa Cinnamon

YOU may have seen or heard about us out and about on bikeCOFFEE or setup as a mobile version of Cocoa Cinnamon!

• at the DtownMarket and Motor-Kokyu Brunch. oooh.  yumm.

• Riding bikeCOFFEE & brewing coffee on a trade fair flat screen in Japan. Say What?  Things you've got to do to get your Kickstarter Video done!

• At markets and events, sometimes even Fullsteam Brewery, with chocolates and coffees and teas, oh my!

• At weddings, brew festivals, the Scrap Exchange, just about everywhere!

We are amazed and awed by the incredible and diverse group of people who have already become part of the bikeCOFFEE/Cocoa Cinnamon family!

It’s been our dream since before bikeCOFFEE  to create a community space around coffee, chocolate, spices and teas called Cocoa Cinnamon.  Call it whatever you'd like - coffee shop, lounge, public house – you know what we mean, that indescribable place that you can depend on as your home away from home.

We've received a lot of thoughtful and humbling attention, like:

Alysia Angel on Yelp -  You were friendly, sweet, engaging and you gave me a banging Sumatra...pourover that squeezed a little tear from my coffee lonely eyes."

Fred Armisen after Portlandia performance - "This is good. This has got something about it...You really are the bikeCOFFEE people..." said in person about our Middle Eastern Iced Coffee.

Carrie Brownstein @Carrie_Rachel tweeted Feb 23rd after Portlandia performance: "In Durham, someone in a Mexican wrestling mask delivered me coffee by bike at 10PM. Thanks @bikeCOFFEEdrm.  More Portland than Portland!" about @cocoacinnamon's bike.

Meredith Stewart on In For Good wrote:  "Leon and Areli...have a great passion for their craft and skill in conveying it to others....In addition to being experts, [they] were just as interested in learning as the rest of us."

Victoria Bouloubasis in the Independent Weekly: "Their raw cacao balls can be grated like nutmeg in cooking...Slabs of "tabla," or thick, fractured sheets of chocolate, dowse your taste buds in a flurry of flavor."

Carpe Durham - "The Moctezuma (hand poured American coffee with dulce de leche and organic cayenne) was sweet and rich with a shocking bite from the combo of cayenne and the heat of streaming coffee. 

So What is Cocoa Cinnamon all about?     Here's how we think of it:  Craft. Create. Engage. Impact.

• CRAFT - excellence in preparation of coffee, espresso, chocolate and tea.

• CREATE - a creative nexus of people place and idea; this includes making all sorts of people smile!

• ENGAGE - a place for all people to be with family, friends, together or alone in diversity, health and relaxation.

• IMPACT - a dynamic community space that strives towards and embodies sustainability, peace, democracy and human flourishing.

HOW do we plan to do it? Kickstarter, DIY and a whole lot of helping hands!

Cocoa Cinnamon is a make it happen project.  We have tons of sweat equity, lots of donations and friends, customers and family helping out!

• People have donated or advanced us equipment such as a commercial ice machine, a refrigerated glass case and a commercial freezer.

• We have worked bikeCOFFEE at markets and events and slowly purchased more equipment such as barista tools, chocolate making equipment, display fixtures, and some decorative items.

• Friends, family and new customers have given us recycled/vintage wood and decorative items from Durham’s past and present, old shutters from Brightleaf’s former tobacco warehouses, reclaimed wood from old Durham porches, some wooden chairs and decorative gadgets - things we can rework and make tables and shelves out of that are uniquely Durham.

• We have matching funds in place for some outdoor improvements and the cost of a sign.

With all that lined up, we have put many of our ducks in a row.  We need more money to do the initial upfit work and get key pieces of equipment so we can grow from bikeCOFFEE to Cocoa Cinnamon, the shop!

What will we do with the money raised through Kickstarter? Here are some examples:

• run electric through a wall and behind the bar, add health department approved lighting
• put in health department approved floor drain, run plumbing through wall and along bar
• upgrade restrooms to meet ADA requirements
• build/purchase tables and chairs and counters
• design and purchase outdoor and window signs
• buy remaining equipment, such as a 3 basin sink, barista fridge, backhouse NSF refrigerator, a commercial blender
• print & display menus
• purchase cups, trays, etc..

Cocoa Cinamon is going to be one of a kind.  We’d love it if you’d be a part of it from near and far!  It’s a global village after all!

Check out our fun and tasty rewards on your right! 

You get rewarded for contributing even just a little!  The mugs, t-shirts and photographs will be limited edition.  And if you help spread the word too, you will really be part of making Cocoa Cinnamon a reality! Remember, every $5 counts!  Each little bit will help us make a little bit of home in Durham’s DIY district!  Thank for checking out our project!

P.S. just in case you want to know about some of the places and events that inspire us, well here you go:

de Balie, Amsterdam, The French Broad Chocolate Lounge, Asheville, Italian train stations, coffee with our friend Cassie at Anna Blume in Prenzlauerberg, Maricel Presilla talk at 2010 NY Chocolate Show, Gwilym Davies World Barista Championship winning performance at the 2009 SCAA, our customers/friends in the NC mountains from 04 to 10 and our Durham bikeCOFFEE family, so many of the coffee people at SCAA conferences we've attended since 04, all people who know that coffee/chocolate/tea/spice can be at once humble, delectable and transformative!

Credits

Images taken ourselves or used with permission:

• We are incredibly grateful to Saleem Reshamwala for putting so much care, time and talent into making our video. 
• Black bikeCOFFEE picture with lights by Chrisopher Gurr.
• Image with hand grinder closeup, by Alysia Angel.
• Images under Merdith Stewart's quote were taken by her.
• Picture in Japan was taken with Mana Ogasawara at the Gizmon booth.
• 420 W. Geer building and youtube image by Saleem Reshamwala

Special thanks to everyone who has given us feedback and helped in getting our campaign together!  Leon and Areli, husband and wife, creative and business partners.  http://cocoacinnamon.com

More about Areli http://luchadoresandrobots.wordpress.com

More about Leon http://the-sushi-bar.com