Comox Valley Coffees #3
390 Coffees and counting.
👋 Comox Valley Coffee & Conversation Community,
Welcome back to Comox Valley Coffees. Every town has stories. We’re getting to know ours, one coffee at a time. Here’s who’s meeting, what’s coming up over coffee, and where we’re at on the road to 1,000.
Let's dive in.
Want in on this?
Join the waitlist to get matched with 10 interesting Comox Valley locals for a simple coffee & conversation.
Join the waitlistThe Numbers
We’re counting our way to 1,000 coffees and conversations across the Valley, and every month we check the numbers to see how far we’ve come. How many coffees happened? How many locals met someone new? How close are we to our goal?
Every coffee brings us one conversation closer. Here’s a little snapshot of the progress we made in August and September.
New Members
Every other month, we invite new people to join and give it a go. In September, 23 locals said yes, adding 230 more coffee possibilities to the mix. Below, three words about each of them. Just enough to make you wonder: what's the story there?
Forestry. Animals. Everest.
Gaming. Grandmotherhood. Communication.
Paramedicine. Animals. Gardens.
Travel. Reinvention. Parks.
Self-trust. Sarcasm. Philosophy.
Survival. Unions. Dogs.
Prairies. Publishing. Curiosity.
Firefighting. Raccoons. Counselling.
Flowers. Horticulture. Names.
Graffiti. Travel. Cinema.
Nightlife. Korea. Cyberpunk.
Punk. Skiing. Electricity.
Blockbusters. Germany. Costumes.
Teaching. Jewellery. Karaoke.
Accessibility. Software. Bagpipes.
Nursing. Coldwater. Birds.
Cooking. Psychotherapy. Collaboration.
Careers. Fundraising. Laughter.
Wildfires. Memes. Miles.
Cheese. Mermaids. Kayaking.
Through the Community's Eyes
After every coffee, we ask you how went:
This month, we’re sharing your answers to one question: What did you learn?
What did you learn?
Here are 10 responses, in your own words:
We love the range of these answers. Soil care, world history, parenting, bugs, humility, listening. It's fun how much you can learn and discover over one cup of coffee.
Through a Members Eyes
Sometimes what we take away from a coffee keeps unfolding long after we've finished our cup. We notice a familiar face around town. We find ourselves remembering something someone said or trying something a little differently because you met them.
We wanted to make room for those stories here, too. Here's Marie-Clo, one of our founders, more personal reflection on her first six coffees and the little ways those encounters became part of her summer.
On my first coffee and conversation, I met another herbalist like myself. However, she knew not only how to source and forage delicious plants and medicine, but also how to transform them into a delicious meal with which to feed and nourish large groups of humans. A calm presence, an understated leader. I kept bumping into her the following month in random community spaces, and I felt a surge of happiness when waving hello to a now familiar face.
On my second coffee, I met a woman with the most beautiful smile. Yes, an extraordinary human as well, but I haven't been able to forget her smile: real, luminous, commanding, complex, vulnerable, warm, mysterious. It felt like all the seasons at once. I've been really focused on making people feel that from my smile since.
My third and fourth coffees were, coincidentally, with siblings. During these coffees, I discovered two perspectives. Two lives that sometimes converge in very powerful ways. I learned about their independent paths full of grit, courage, and love, and where they intersect as sisters: a world of creation, community, and croissants. It made me deeply admire and crave sisterhood.
On my fifth coffee, I met a person with a fun hat. I was hooked right then and there. Brave, funny, knowledgeable, honest, and excellent at navigating nuanced topics, she was also a hat aficionado; we mused about hats, their cultural significance, their history, and more. What a joy to meet a person capable of going deep with play.
My sixth coffee was with someone warmhearted. It isn't the same as being kind, in my subjective opinion. When I meet someone warmhearted, they slow my own heart rate down so that I feel calm and safe. It's like kindness, but on a physiological level too. They let me land with them, my social anxiety and all. This gift is not celebrated enough. Each one of her words was chosen with a softness and simplicity that I can't quite describe. I was invited to her piano recital in the fall, and I thought to myself, why wouldn't I go? I'm honoured and impressed by her audacity to ask.
Coffee & Conversations isn't about creating mandatory lifelong friendships. It's about exercising the muscle of compassion, curiosity, and community. Stretching our minds and our hearts, seeing a bit of ourselves in others, letting others in, and learning how to be a human in all of its iterations. These 6 people left their mark on me and, thereby, narrated my summer.
So don't mind me as I learn to cook for a few more seats at my table, let my smile linger a little longer, and dream of what sisterhood means to me, with a warming heart and a growing hat collection. I'm just meeting my community.
From Coffee & Conversations to Dinner & Conversations
Sylvia, one of our original members, is inviting everyone she’s had coffee with over for dinner and conversation. Such a fun idea. We had to share it with you.
We love hearing what you’re doing with the connections you’ve made. And sharing your ideas so others can borrow them, too. This one already has me thinking about inviting my own coffee matches over. Maybe even hosting a Dinner & Conversation at my place once a quarter.
Imagine the stories around that table. You’ve met everyone over coffee, and now you get to introduce them to each other and see what happens next.
Anyone else tempted?
We may have started this experiment, but you all keep shaping what it becomes.
Celebrating 500 Coffees
We’re nearing 500 coffees. Let’s have one together.
Coffee: The World Behind Your Cup
Join us at Gladstone’s for our first group event: five coffees from five countries, guided by one of our own members—a barista whose coffee education took him to Dubai.
Taste something new, hear his story, and meet the locals you’ve been sharing this experiment with.
November 14 & 15 · 25 people per evening
Members: $25 · Non-members: $35
Tickets go on sale October 15. Keep an eye out. ☕︎
Tech Improvements & Upgrades
We are always improving the tech part of the equation so as to make more and more room for the human part of the equation. This month, we improved 3 things on the site to make it even easier to align on a date, time and place to meet. And to help you, help us match.
You can now add the times you're most available (example: weekdays, weekends). And you can now send up to 3 dates and times to pick from if you want.
As we get closer to coffee number 5, 6, or 10, there are more conversations to keep track of!
"My Messages" on your dashboard now brings all your chats with past and current matches together in one place. You can still message through your individual match cards but we thought we would bring them all to one place too.
Ever finish a coffee thinking, "You HAVE to meet someone I've already met"?
In your coffee reflection, you can now recommend matches. Just type their name and select it. We'll consider every recommendation you submit when making future matches, and if we introduce them, we'll let them both know you helped make it happen.
We made POSTERS!
Six posters. Five coffee shops. One salon. Eleven of you casually becoming local celebrities.
The Valley loves a poster, and we wanted in. Somewhere between the guitar lessons and the missing cat, there’s now an invitation to have 10 coffees with 10 locals in the Comox Valley.
A huge thank you to the 11 members who said, “Yep, you can put my face on that.”
Final Reflection
167 matches, 156 coffees, 102 reflections, and one dinner party brewing. You’ve been busy learning about soil, parenting, each other, and apparently bug romance.
This is how a place starts to feel more like a community. Ten new people. Ten new stories. Familiar faces where there used to be strangers. Maybe even someone you invite for dinner. Right, Sylvia?
We’ll keep counting to 1,000 coffees. You keep showing us why they count.
Here’s to the next hundred.
P.S. Please keep sending photos. Otherwise, this blog risks becoming an unnecessarily detailed photographic record of Marie Clo and I drinking coffee with you all!
