Meet Hannah Poolman of Optimist Coffee in Wheat Ridge

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Poolman.

Hannah, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I fell in love with coffee when I was in high school, working at a mom n pop shop in small-town Iowa. It was me and the two owners. We all got along great and I thought every job was going to be that much fun. They took coffee very seriously but made work exciting and very much cared about educating people about coffee. Learning about the history and growing regions of coffee and how much work goes into your cup of coffee before it gets in your hands is amazing and it changed me. I learned to appreciate the plant and all the people involved in the journey.

My wife loves coffee as well. She does not have the same obsession with it as I do, but I think she will one day. She has always wanted to be a business owner. We balance each other well and that is how Optimist Coffee is falling into its place in the world.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I wouldn’t say it’s been a rocky road but we have had some small bumps. Everything just takes time. When I think something will take one week, it takes 3 or 4 weeks but that is life. I have been scared during most of this process. For instance, I had never driven anything bigger than my pickup truck before but in order to get the camper from Iowa to Colorado we rented a U-Haul truck and pulled a 14 ft camper behind us for 11 hours! And when my dad and I hooked up all the wiring inside the camper, spending hours and hours in heat and humidity, it didn’t work. I have learned many things along the way and I feel that Desiree and I are prepared for failure always. We will continue on..

Optimist Coffee – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Optimist Coffee is crafting freshly roasted, local coffee from a revived retro camper. We want everyone to feel welcome and know that we value them. We plan to be at a regular location during the weekdays and be available for all your special occasions. We want to be a part of our customers’ lives and hope to be involved in collaborating with other LGBTQ owned businesses. We strive to make your morning ritual an optimistic one, pouring positivity into every cup.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Oh wow, there are two…. We recently did our first event ever! We didn’t have all our equipment yet but we had a small menu and did what we could to pull off a little surprise party for a dear friend. We set up the camper in her front yard and had shiny gold balloons hanging from the trees, 20 of her closest friends (all wearing masks and staying 6 ft apart). We made drinks for everyone there and it was relatively smooth. That was such an amazing day!

I have to say another big moment was when we first got this 1968 camper on the hitch of the U-Haul (it didn’t fit so easily), packed up everything including my dad’s motorcycle to ride back home, and pulled it 11 hours from Iowa to Colorado (where we ran into a small hail storm). To me, it was a miracle that my dad and I got it out here safe and sound. I will always remember how scary it was but I had to put on my big girl pants and just do it because if I don’t make my dreams come true, nobody else is going to, it just won’t happen. It just took me until the age of 30 to figure that out.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 7203553892
• Email: optimistcoffeecamper@gmail.com
• Instagram: optimistcoffeecamper
• Facebook: occoffeecamper

Image Credit:
Friends and Lovers Photography

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