ALAMOSA– A double shot of espresso or a London Fog warms the heart and reduces the red line for student fees. The Adams State University Grizzly Roast will open for business at the start of the spring 2019 semester. Located on the first floor of McDaniel Hall, the Grizzly Roast will serve the same menu as Blessed Brews coffee. In the future, proceeds will help decrease the student capital fee.

Mark Manzanares, Ph.D. Counselor Education chair, has wanted a coffee bar in the academic building for some time. “The McDaniel Hall remodel included a space for a coffee bar.”

Every summer hundreds of counselor education graduate students come to campus for several weeks of intensives. “We have contracted with Blessed Brews to sell their products out of their mobile unit,” Manzanares added. The next logical step was to make use of the space in McDaniel Hall for a permanent refreshment stop. “The folks at Blessed Brews have been so generous in teaching us everything that we needed to know to do this project. Not only are they showing us what to do, they have committed themselves to help us all along the way.”

The Counselor Education Department funded the Grizzly Roast equipment and startup costs from their budget. The department faculty and staff all supported helping to create a niche for current and future students in the largest academic building on campus. “We needed the equipment for our summer program in June, but rather than letting it sit unused the rest of the year, why not create a win/win situation for the University and open a coffee shop for everyone to enjoy,” Manzanares said. “So the win for the university is a coffee shop and the win for the students is if everyone purchases coffee at the shop, after all the bills are paid, any revenue left over will go to helping the students.”