By Hannah Curran, Editor
PINSON — A new coffee shop opening on Main Street in Pinson on February 7, 2022, is creating a buzz.
Barking Bee Coffee is freshly roasted coffee that has been around for the last three years and is not intimidating to the customers like some coffee shops. Barking Bee Coffee offers serval different kinds of coffee, such as coffee from Brazil, Columbia, Ethiopia, Honduras (Honey processed), India (Monsooned Malabar), Columbia-Decaf, and Nicaragua-Decaf. If you want to take the coffee home, it can be bought in a two-ounce sample size, and then you can buy a 12-ounce bag. Barking Bee Coffee also offers Buzz Pods for Keurigs in 12, 16, 32, 48, and 64 pod count.
Each type of coffee was bought directly from the farmers who grew them, and many of the farmers are retired U.S. military and went back to their home countries to help build up the communities.
“We want people to know that coffee is not bitter, coffee is not gross,” Barking Bee Coffee Owner Heather Manning said. “Coffees from different countries have these wonderful, individual flavors that you should be able to taste and enjoy. You should never make a face when you’re drinking your coffee. So many people use creamer and sugar because they’re covering up that bitter taste, and coffees just got a bad rap. Coffee should not be bitter, and we want people to drink good, fresh roasted coffee. That’s our whole purpose.”
Manning said that she wanted the coffee to be “non-intimidating and fun,” and who could be intimidated by a Rottweiler with bee antennas on a caffeine buzz.
“My maiden name is Barksdale, so I took the bark out of it, and we have two crazy Rottweilers that always act like they were on a caffeine buzz,” Manning said. “The alliteration of the Barking Bee wrote itself, so we put the antenna on a cartoon Rottweiler that looks like they’re on caffeine buzz and Barking Bee was born.”
Manning joked that they had people ask if the coffee is for dogs, and she responded by saying that she does not recommend you give your dog coffee, but she does recommend you drink it.
“We get a lot of people that just come up to talk just because of the mascot,” Manning said.
Pets are welcome on the outside patio sitting area of the Barking Bee Coffee Shop, but they are not allowed inside the shop.
“We will absolutely love to have your dog on our patio,” Manning said. “Unfortunately, the Board of Health has some regulations about having them inside the cafe.”
Before deciding to create her own coffee brand, Manning had been an accountant for 25 years before she married her husband, Dan, who was in the military.
“We started moving around, so I kind of left [accounting] behind,” Manning said. “Then our last six years of the military life, we were in D.C. I knew that we were going to move back to Alabama, this was home for us, and I knew I did not want to go back into accounting anymore.”
Manning said she wanted to do something she enjoyed. She couldn’t go back to the accountant life after spending so much time away.
“They always say do what you love, and I love coffee, and I love reading,” Manning said. “I could not make a living out of just sitting on my couch reading books. So I decided to go into coffee.”
When she began looking into what type of coffee she wanted to sell, she explained that she wanted people to remember the coffee. Manning said she would never forget her first cup of freshly roasted coffee, and that’s when she knew she needed to make freshly roasted coffee.
She needed a place where her coffee would reach many people, and she decided the best place to do that was the farmer’s markets. As a result, she has been a part of the Vestavia Hills Farmer’s Market, Gardendale Farmer’s Markert, Pinson Farmer’s Market, and Trussville Farmer’s Market.
“We got our name out there, and we built our business in the farmer’s markets,” Manning said. “We are definitely not giving that up; we are still going to be in our farmer’s markets because we love those customers. I love being out there meeting the people.”
Manning said she didn’t want people to miss out on the opportunity to experience freshly roasted coffee, so she made sure her tent was eye-catching.
“Green is my favorite color, so the neon green, or lime green, I call it now Barking Bee green, really catches your eye in a sea of white tents at farmer’s markets,” Manning said. “The green stands out, so we have to do everything we can to get your attention so that we can talk coffee with you.”
The Barking Bee started as a roastery, and Manning said that they hold that as the core of the business because she wants people to enjoy “good, fresh roasted coffee in-store or at home.”
If you would like to be a Buzz Club Member, you can subscribe for home delivery on their website at barkingbeecoffee.com. In addition, Manning caters explicitly to the amount of coffee you receive each month by answering questions informing Barking Bee about your coffee needs.
“However they want it, it’s their coffee, we’ll do it however you want,” Manning said. “Then I’ll do all the roasting for our Buzz Club on the last day and the first day of the month. Then we do all of our deliveries on the second and third day of the month. Every month, freshly roasted coffee shows up at your door, then we repeat every month until you no longer want to drink good coffee.”