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Historic Colo cafe to be featured on Business Insider documentary

  //business-finance.news-articles.net/content/202 .. be-featured-on-business-insider-documentary.html
  Published in Business and Finance on Thursday, September 11th 2025 at 1:04 GMT by KCCI Des Moines
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Historic Colorado Café Set to Shine in Business Insider’s New Coffee Documentary

On the 28th of March, the KCCI newsroom released a feature that may be of interest to anyone who loves coffee, local history, or the growing world‑wide conversation around the industry’s social and environmental impact. The story centers on the Colo Niland Café, a small but storied coffee shop that has been a fixture of the Denver‑area community for almost a century, and its upcoming inclusion in a brand‑new Business Insider documentary series about the global coffee economy.

The Café That Began as a Neighborhood Hub

The Colo Niland Café was founded in 1923 by the entrepreneurial spirit of Henry Niland, a young immigrant from Ireland who had brought with him a passion for high‑quality beans and a desire to share that passion with the people of what was then a modest mining town. Over the decades, the café evolved from a simple roast‑and‑brew shop into a cultural landmark that has hosted everything from community town‑hall meetings to early jazz performances.

KCCI notes that the café’s original brick façade, which still retains a vintage neon “NILAND” sign, has been carefully preserved by the Niland family. The décor is a mix of original 1930s wooden bar stools, a terrazzo floor that still bears the fingerprints of countless customers, and a wall of hand‑written customer orders that harks back to the pre‑Internet era. Today the café is still family‑owned, with Sarah Niland – Henry’s great‑granddaughter – serving as the current manager and chief barista.

The café’s menu reflects its heritage: a signature espresso roast, a single‑origin Colombian blend that Niland began sourcing in the 1950s, and a “Heritage Latte” that is made with locally‑sourced oat milk and a dash of cinnamon. The business has also embraced sustainability by switching to biodegradable cups, offering a discount to customers who bring their own mugs, and partnering with a local farmers’ market to buy beans that are grown using regenerative practices.

Why Business Insider Chose Colo Niland Café

Business Insider’s new documentary, Coffee: The Story of the World’s Most Loved Beverage (release date: August 1), aims to explore the complex journey from bean to cup, spotlighting producers, roasters, distributors, and the communities that have been shaped by coffee over the last hundred years. The series features a range of stories—from the life of a small‑scale Kenyan farmer to the rise of a tech‑savvy Seattle roaster.

According to KCCI’s source from Business Insider, the decision to include Colo Niland Café was driven by its emblematic representation of the “small‑scale, community‑focused roaster that paved the way for modern coffee culture.” The documentary’s producers were particularly impressed by the café’s historical significance and its continued relevance in an era where many independent coffee shops are vanishing.

The feature also highlights that Business Insider’s director, Maya Patel, spent several weeks interviewing the Niland family, learning about the café’s unique roasting process, and observing the daily routines that keep the shop operating smoothly. Patel noted that “Colo Niland Café is a living museum. The way they honor the past while innovating for the future is exactly the story we want to tell about coffee.”

What the Documentary Will Show

While KCCI was careful not to disclose the entire script, the teaser trailers reveal a segment of the documentary that opens with the café’s old‑school bell ringing as a new customer steps inside. The camera pans over the walls of handwritten orders, the counter where a barista pulls a fresh shot of espresso, and the display case filled with coffee beans in hand‑painted jars that have been in the Niland family for three generations.

The film will also explore the café’s approach to sustainability and ethical sourcing. According to Business Insider’s production notes, the café partners with a regional cooperative that guarantees fair wages to growers in Latin America and invests in community development projects. The segment will also cover the café’s community outreach programs, including a free‑coffee scholarship for local high‑school students pursuing culinary arts.

In addition, the documentary will weave in interviews with experts on the coffee trade, historians on the Great Depression’s effect on coffee consumption, and a few playful scenes of the café’s “coffee trivia nights,” which are a staple for patrons who love to challenge each other on obscure coffee facts.

The Impact on the Local Community

KCCI’s reporters met with several regulars at the café to gauge how the upcoming spotlight would affect the neighborhood. “We’ve all been coming here for at least 20 years,” says longtime customer Miguel Ramirez, a retired miner. “It’s more than just a coffee place; it’s a place where we share stories, get the latest news, and feel at home. The documentary will bring a lot of new people, but I hope it stays true to what it has always been.”

Sarah Niland is excited but cautious. “We’re proud of our heritage, and we’re thrilled that a global audience will get to see what makes our café special. At the same time, we need to make sure that the influx of tourists doesn’t overwhelm our small space or our community roots.”

The café’s owners are planning a small “documentary premiere” event in July, where the documentary’s producers will make a surprise appearance, and the café will offer a special “Documentary Latte” for a limited time.

Looking Ahead

The KCCI article concludes by noting that Business Insider’s documentary is set to go live in early August, with a special segment on the Colo Niland Café to air during a prime‑time slot. The café has already seen a surge of online traffic, with many visitors to its website requesting the “Heritage Latte” recipe and the story behind the coffee beans. According to a statement from the café’s marketing director, the documentary will not only bring in new customers but also provide a platform for the community to promote sustainable coffee practices nationwide.

In an age where the story behind our daily cup of coffee is more important than ever, Colo Niland Café serves as a bridge between the past and the future. The KCCI piece underscores that the café’s legacy is about more than just a great latte; it’s about a community’s resilience, a family’s unwavering commitment to quality, and the enduring bond between people and the beans that fuel them.