Wordplay Coffee came to exist as a creative outlet and a means to support Durango’s LGBTQ+ community.
Megan Milstead said she worked in several specialty coffee shops in Houston before moving around the West. When she arrived in Durango, she missed marketing coffee. As a result, Wordplay Coffee, now in its third year at the Durango Farmers Market, was born.
Milstead uses Wordplay Blend, a special coffee blend she created with 81301 Coffee House and Roasters.
“It's a nice balance between having some fruity notes, but then also being balanced,” she said. “It's 20% Sumatra, which has tropical fruit notes; 30% Ethiopia, which has more berry notes; but then that is balanced by 50% of the Guatemala, which is more chocolaty.”
She says the coffee has some fruit notes, but can still be enjoyed by someone who isn’t “a super fruity coffee person.”
Wordplay sells all of the hot and cold, coffee- and espresso-based drinks one would expect, including drip coffee, cold brew, lattes and the like. Milstead makes all the syrups herself, she said. She also sells chai, matcha and herbal iced teas and hot chocolate.
Milstead’s distinctive beverage is the “Drink of the Week.” Each week she features a new drink special that usually includes an ingredient from another farmers market vendor. For instance, a past special, “Strawberry Fields,” was made with strawberry and basil simple syrup – using basil from Adobe House Farm – cold brew and strawberry cold foam. Another, “Livin’ on a Pear,” was made with spiced pear and almond syrup – using Stone Free Farm’s pears – espresso and milk.
“If a vendor has something that I think I can use in a drink special, then I will build a drink around that so there's always something new to try,” she said. “I try to do something fun and creative when I can, so people are always kind of excited to try whatever the drink special is.”
The names of the specials – which often feature puns and the like – are where the business name’s “wordplay” most obviously intersects with the coffee, but Milstead said it also represents the fun playfulness that she tries to incorporate into her attitude toward coffee.
“I've worked in the industry for a while, I kind of have a certain standard that I try to live up to, but I don't approach that level of knowledge with pretension; I try to be creative,” she said. “I want to try to be playful with coffee, to create a welcoming environment. … I'm a huge reader and I love kind of witty humor, so it just feels like a good fit in terms of the vibe that I'm trying to portray.”
She said another reason she started Wordplay Coffee was to support local LGBTQ+ organizations. She said she is a sponsor of this year’s Durango Pride Festival, and has sponsored other pride events in the past.
Milstead won’t be at that festival, but she won’t be very far away either – the festival at Buckley Park overlaps with one of the Durango Farmers Market’s Second Saturdays on Main, which is here she’ll be. She also usually has a booth at the Four Corners Rainbow Youth Center’s annual fundraiser every June.
“Eventually, when I make a profit from this business, I want to donate a percentage of the profits to local queer youth organizations,” she said. “That's a huge reason why I started this business – for that and also just as a creative outlet.”
ngonzales@durangoherald.com
