Berthoud roaster Brent Bromstrup wants people to linger over his coffee, so he came up with a couple of new lines and created something just for Valentine’s Day.

In December 2020, Bromstrup started Linger Coffee, a DBA of Top of the Lake Coffee Roasters founded in 2014, to be able to offer flavored and CBD-infused coffees. One of his flavors, gingersnap, is the Valentine Coffee this year for the Valentine Remailing Program, where valentine cards and letters get a special Valentine-themed stamp, cachet and cancellation though the Loveland Chamber of Office in partnership with the U.S. Postal Service.

Courtesy photo – Brent Bromstrup shows his Gingersnap coffee he made for the Loveland Valentine Re-mailing program.

“Coffee is such a unique beverage,” said Bromstrup, a Windsor resident and owner of Top of the Lake Coffee Roasters and Linger Coffee in Berthoud. “As a Valentine’s celebration, two people will sit and enjoy a cup of coffee together and linger over it. It’s a perfect beverage to have a conversation over.”

The coffee is a Columbian brew with a gingersnap flavor and will be sold exclusively at the Loveland Visitors Center. Bromstrup also created the Valentine Coffee last year, which was mint mocha, and as the selected roaster has to come up with a new flavor not used before.

“It’s a memorable flavor. The aroma is great,” Bromstrup said. “We received a lot of compliments on the flavor.”

Iain Bryant of Detroit tried the Valentine Coffee and loved it, he said.

“I had the opportunity to enjoy a few cups of the gingersnap coffee. While I typically don’t opt for flavored coffees, this blend was particularly enjoyable,” Bryant said. “With restrained but flavorful fruit undertones and a soft and buttery finish, it truly was Christmas in a cup.”

Bromstrup offers three other flavors through Linger Coffee that include butterscotch, mint mocha and chocolate-covered cherry, plus he plans to offer gingersnap next year. The flavors come in 12-ounce packages and are in-ground only.

“Linger (is a) broader appeal kind of coffee,” Bromstrup said. “I wanted an outlet for more common coffee rather than a single origin.”

To do this, Bromstrup separated Linger Coffee from Top of the Lake Coffee Roasters, a justice-based company that sells specialty, primarily organic, single-origin and blended coffees. Bromstrup buys premium beans directly from farmers when possible and donates a portion of his proceeds to communities in Guatemala, where most of the coffee is grown, as well as in Chiapas, Mexico. Two of the blends are Coati, a Guatemalan and Columbian medium roast, and Casa Flor Ixcaco, a Guatemalan, Columbian and Sumatran dark roast. The coffee primarily is sold in 12-ounce packages of beans, but ground also is available.

“We recommend people grind the amount they want just before they brew it,” Bromstrup said.

By Feb. 1, Bromstrup hopes to begin selling a CBD-infused flavored coffee. He is waiting for high-end packaging to arrive and testing to be finished on the components and levels of CBD—the packaging will have a QR code with those results.

The coffee is organically-grown in Guatemala and comes in a medium and dark roast and whole bean or ground in 12-ounce packages. Brewed regular and decaf, the coffee has four levels of CBD from not being able to taste it to having the CBD flavor appear alongside that of the coffee. The packaging carries a disclaimer stating that the CBD in the coffee cannot provide tested medical outcomes.

“I drink it in my coffee daily, I feel more consistently able to focus and have a higher energy level as a result of taking it,” Bromstrup said.

Bromstrup partnered with High Altitude Wellness in Berthoud, which provides the CBD for his coffee,

“It’s a combination of two premium products. It’s a really good crafted coffee. People will enjoy the flavor and the outcome,” Bromstrup said. “CBD coffee has been around for about a year. It’s fairly new as a product.”

Linger Coffee is primarily sold online at https://linger.coffee and eventually will be sold through retail outlets. Top of the Lake Coffee is sold at topofthelake.com and through a brand created exclusively for Hay’s Market, Mountain’s Edge Coffee, and for Colorado Cherry Co. at three Colorado locations.

To offer additional outlets for his coffee, Bromstrup hopes to open a coffee shop in the next one to two years—he will provide education about how coffee is produced and where it comes from.

“Right now, our eyes are on developing the whole Linger line and getting out into retail outlets,” Bromstrup said.