Located in the central hub of the building, the new school store, the Commons Coffee Co., is the reincarnation of the old DECA store and the former coffee cart, the Steamin’ Eagle. Run by the Business Professionals of America club, the store and coffee bar hope to serve all of the Big Sky community in an efficient and affordable manner.
“We are excited about our new store, and though it’s a bit intimidating, taking on the coffee bar is turning out to be quite the learning experience by both advisers and students,” Jenn Keintz, co-BPA adviser said.
Keintz and co-adviser Laci Dunfee were both baristas in college, though for Keintz, that was 25 years ago.
“It’s coming back to me, slowly but surely, but we plan to keep our offerings pretty limited,” Keintz said. “The plan is to do a few drinks really well rather than to offer an entire menu of coffee drinks.”
The group has officially partnered with Drum Coffee this week, the local shop in Missoula owned by Fitz and the Tantrums’ drummer John Wicks and his wife, Jenna.
“We are really excited to be pairing with Drum Coffee,” Keintz said. “We have switched our coffee to their Luigi blend of whole bean espresso that they make in house and deliver to our doorstep.”
Drum coffee co-owner Jenna Wicks suggested the school use their Luigi blend, the same blend used at the Drum locations for espresso. “The flavor is bold, chocolatey and nutty. We designed the blend as espresso to be flavorful enough to cut through the milk of lattes so you get that delicious coffee flavor,” she said. “We did this by adding a small percentage of Robusta bean which is one of the most common beans used in Italy. It gives espresso shots a beautiful thick crema that allows you a little more time while making drinks before they start to turn toward bitterness.”
Only in its second year at BSHS, BPA is looking to expand membership and make their group competitive in the state of Montana. With less than a dozen members last year, several students qualified to attend the National Conference, though competed virtually due to COVID restrictions.
One of the current needs is finding students to work the store throughout the day, especially first period.
“We really need students who are committed to the store to work during the school day. Other than lunch, or busiest times are the end of zero period and the start of first period,” co-BPA president Hollin Keintz said. “We don’t want kids to be late for class, because we worry about teachers getting angry. But there’s usually this huge rush right at the end of zero period, and we don’t have enough workers to get through everyone as quickly as we’d like to. We really want this to be completely student run, with our advisers doing just that—advising.”
BPA meets Tuesdays at lunch in Room 130. Anyone is welcome to join.