Coffee Colony celebrates 35 years

MEDINA — The smell at Medina's The Coffee Colony is like "aromatherapy," according to co-owner Kim Hansen. "I never get tired of it," Hansen said. The mother-daughter team of Hansen and her mom, Sharon Lipton, will celebrate Coffee Colony's 35th anniversary Nov. 7 at 113 N. Huntington St., Medina. "We've gotten to know the customers as friends," Lipton said. One of the biggest reasons they've stayed in business so long is because of their "highest quality coffee," Hansen said, while Lipton joked it's probably not because of their "dazzling personalities." Coffee has become an essential part of most people's morning long before the pair opened the store in 1985. "People come from all over — Sandusky, Mentor, Toledo, Canton, Youngstown," Hansen said. "They say, 'We don't have anything like this (in their home town)," Lipton added. Hansen said the store has about 80 flavors of coffee, and their best seller is Jamaican Me Crazy, a combination of rum, vanilla and caramel which costs $10 per pound. "It's the original (flavor)," she said. "It's from 25 years ago. All the roasters make it, but we have the original." Hansen said Jamaican Me Crazy is available in K-cups and in grocery stores, but it's not the same taste. Besides coffee, there also is tea, gift baskets, soups, dips, honey, jellies, candy and cocoa mix, but Hansen said the $1 bags of coffee continue to be the store's biggest seller. The Coffee Colony's house is a Greek Revival that's 174 years old. The man who built the house, P.C. Alcott, was the uncle of Louisa May Alcott, the author of "Little Women." The week of Nov. 7-15, the store will celebrate its anniversary. Customers can enter to win a $100 gift basket or free coffee for a year. The basket winner will be announced Nov. 17, with the coffee for a year announcement Jan. 2. The Coffee Colony will be open for Candlelight Walk on Nov. 20-22. The store is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. The store is closed Monday during November and December. Contact reporter Bob Finnan at (330) 721-4049 or rfinnan@medina-gazette.com.