Coffee beans pouring from a bag of Desert Sun Sumatra over the Valley of the Gods as hot air balloons drift above the buttes

BRAND AI · PHOTOGRAPHY

Desert Sun Coffee Roasters

A Durango roaster with no café of its own: the bag and the story do the selling. We built a brand GPT and a fair-trade content plan, then shot the bags in the Valley of the Gods at balloon hour.

ClientDesert Sun Coffee Roasters — organic, fair trade
LocationDurango, Colorado · shot in the Valley of the Gods, Utah
EngagementBrand GPT · content plan · email · photography
PlatformCustom GPT · their Shopify store
StatusAI project delivered June 2025 · shoot January 2026

18

photographs by Wes in the Valley of the Gods, during the January 2026 Bluff balloon festival

24

Instagram posts planned for June to August 2025, one series: What Fair Trade Really Means

9

emails written across three flows: welcome, abandoned cart, and after a purchase

THE FINISHED WORK

Coffee at balloon hour.

A man in a Desert Sun cap drinks from a camp mug, holding a bag of Peak Reserve, as hot air balloons rise over the Valley of the Gods behind him

The Valley of the Gods, Utah, during the Bluff balloon festival in January 2026. Photographed by Wes for Desert Sun.

THE PROBLEM

A true story, and no counter to tell it across

Desert Sun has roasted coffee in Durango since 2004. It’s certified organic, and a member-owner of Cooperative Coffees, the only roaster-owned coffee co-op in North America. The coffee comes with real people behind it: Las Diosas, a women-led co-op in Nicaragua; CENFROCAFE in Peru; Fondo Paez in Colombia.

But there’s no café. Desert Sun sells to coffee shops and through its online store, so the story has to live on the bag, in the feed, and in the inbox, and someone has to keep writing it.

The brief in May 2025: audit the brand, train a custom GPT on it, and plan three months of content around the co-op story. Meanwhile, the online store shows every coffee the same way: a bag on a white background.

desertsuncoffee.com/products/sumatra-gayo-mountain
The Sumatra Gayo Mountain page in Desert Sun's online store: a rendered bag on a white background beside the price, roast level, and tasting notes
A bag of Desert Sun Sumatra standing on red sandstone at first light, the cliffs of the Valley of the Gods soft behind it

The same coffee, twice. Left: the Sumatra page in Desert Sun’s online store, captured October 1, 2026; every coffee in the store is shown this way. Right: the Sumatra bag on the rock in the Valley of the Gods.

THE RECEIPTS

  • “We believe the best cup of coffee starts with relationships”

    The first line on their homepage. The content plan is built on those relationships, by name.

  • “We are a member owner of the only roaster owned coffee cooperative in North America”

    A story most roasters can’t tell, and one that needs telling every week.

  • “Beyond Fair Trade | USDA Organic”

    Their promise, and the title of the last post in month one.

THE RULES

Three things the work had to respect

  1. 1

    No café to shoot.

    Desert Sun roasts in Durango and sells to coffee shops and through its online store. There’s no counter to tell the story across, so the bag, the feed, and the inbox carry it.

  2. 2

    Nothing made up.

    The GPT guide puts it plainly: “Stay rooted in reality—no fictional co-ops, no made-up data.” The content plan names real partners, from Las Diosas to CENFROCAFE.

  3. 3

    One morning a year.

    The Bluff balloon festival flies over the Valley of the Gods once, on the festival’s Sunday, weather permitting. The shoot had that one window.

THE PROCESS

Seven weeks of groundwork, then one morning in the desert

The AI project ran from May 5 to June 20, 2025, through the Katz School of Business Marketing Agency, with Kahlil writing the GPT guide. Wes’s shoot followed in January 2026.

  1. May 5

    Kickoff

    A tour of the roasting facility, interviews with the team, a brand audit, and a look at the numbers in their Shopify store and Klaviyo email.

  2. May 7

    The brand, written down

    Brand pillars, voice rules, and a list of words to use and words to avoid.

  3. May 8

    The source material

    A catalog of 11 coffees and profiles of 20 co-op partners, from Las Diosas in Nicaragua to the Sidama union in Ethiopia: the facts the GPT would draw on.

  4. May 12

    Nine emails

    Welcome, abandoned cart, and post-purchase flows, three emails each, with subject lines and calls to action.

  5. May 22

    Twenty-four posts

    A three-month Instagram plan, What Fair Trade Really Means, with captions written for the first month.

  6. May 29

    The brand GPT and its guide

    A custom GPT trained on the brand, and a 19-page guide that shows the team how to brief it, update it, and check what it writes.

  7. Jun 16

    Twenty years on one page

    An origin timeline, from the 2004 founding in Durango to the Peak Reserve program in 2024.

    Desert Sun's origin timeline: nine milestones in orange circles linked by dashed lines over coffee-bean shapes, from 2004, Founded in Durango, CO, to 2024, Peak Reserve Program Grows

  8. Jan 2026

    Balloon morning

    Wes took the bags to the Valley of the Gods for the festival: product on the red rock at first light, then coffee in hand as the balloons came up.

THE BUILD

A system for telling the story every week

Three pieces, built for the team to run themselves: a GPT that knows the brand, a plan for what to post, and the emails to send.

Cover of the Desert Sun GPT Brand Toolkit, An Internal Guide to your Brand's Custom GPT, under the Desert Sun Coffee Roasters logo
The cover
Guide page titled How to Ask the Best Questions: the Golden Prompt Formula, and a table breaking it into content type, coffee or co-op, audience, pillar, and length
The prompt formula
Guide page with a table of weak prompts, why each is risky, and a better version, followed by a final prompting checklist
Weak prompt, better prompt

A brand GPT that won’t make things up.

The GPT is trained on Desert Sun’s own material: the coffee catalog, the co-op partner profiles, the email flows, and the voice rules. Its job is first drafts of blogs, captions, product pages, and staff training.

The guide gives the team one formula for every brief: “Write a [content type] about [coffee/co-op/impact topic], for [target audience], that supports our [pillar: sustainability, equity, or craft]. Make it [length/tone/platform-specific].” And one rule for every draft: “Review tone, verify specifics, and always add your human touch.”

19-page team guide11 coffees20 co-op partners3 brand pillars

INSTAGRAM · JUNE TO AUGUST 2025

What Fair Trade Really Means

Month 1

People + Place

  1. Meet María from Las DiosasStatic
  2. Who Grows Your Coffee?Carousel
  3. Field Notes from PeruReel
  4. Map of Our PartnersStatic
  5. What Co-Op Really MeansCarousel
  6. Coffee = Climate ResilienceStatic
  7. One Cherry at a TimeReel
  8. Beyond Fair TradeStatic

Month 2

Process + Purpose

  1. How Coffee TravelsCarousel
  2. Roaster’s RitualReel
  3. The Impact Fund, ExplainedStatic
  4. Your Coffee = Real ChangeStatic
  5. Pour Over with a PurposeReel
  6. What Does Organic Mean?Static
  7. What You SupportCarousel
  8. Thank You, From the FarmStatic

Month 3

Connection + Conscious Choices

  1. This Cup Supports…Carousel
  2. Coffee is Climate WorkStatic
  3. Start Here, Go FarReel
  4. Why Pay More?Static
  5. Ethical Sipping ChecklistCarousel
  6. My Brewing Ritual (Staff UGC)Reel
  7. What Fair Trade Really MeansStatic
  8. Pick Your Impact – QuizCarousel

Twelve weeks of fair-trade stories, planned.

One series, What Fair Trade Really Means, in three acts: the people and places behind the coffee, how it’s made and where the money goes, and what a customer’s choice supports.

The posts name real partners (Las Diosas, CENFROCAFE, Fondo Paez, ANEI) and explain the Impact Fund that sends money back to the farms. Captions for the first month come written.

24 postsJune to August 2025Static, carousel, and reel8 captions written

Welcome

  1. Email 1Every Sip Has a Story ☕
  2. Email 2Not All Beans Are Created Equal
  3. Email 3You + Great Coffee = Better Mornings

Abandoned cart

  1. Email 1Forget Something Delicious?
  2. Email 2Why This Roast Matters
  3. Email 3Still Thinking It Over?

After a purchase

  1. Email 1You Just Brewed a Better Future
  2. Email 2Brew It Right ☕
  3. Email 3Show Off Your Brew!

Nine emails for the moments an online store wins or loses.

A new subscriber, a cart left open, a first order: three flows, three emails each, with a subject line and a call to action for every one.

Three of the nine lead with the co-op story: the first welcome email, the second cart reminder, and the first thank-you.

3 flows9 subject lines9 calls to action3 built on the co-op story

THE SHOOT

Wes behind the camera

The festival flies over the Valley of the Gods once a year. In frame order: the bags on the red rock at first light, then coffee in hand as the balloons filled the sky.

First light, on the rock

A bag of Desert Sun coffee on a boulder at sunrise, the buttes of the Valley of the Gods on the horizon
A bag of Desert Sun Sumatra on red sandstone, a sandstone spire blurred behind it
A bag of Desert Sun Sunrise espresso on a sandstone ledge in warm morning light
A black bag of Desert Sun Peak Reserve on red rock, the cliffs glowing orange behind it
Black-and-white photo of coffee pouring from a kettle, the rising sun flaring behind it over the desert
A bag of Desert Sun coffee between boulders with the sun bursting over its shoulder

Then the balloons came up

A man in a Desert Sun cap and canvas jacket holds a bag of Sumatra toward the camera, red cliffs behind him
Silhouette of a hand pouring coffee into a cup over the misty valley as balloons rise in the distance
A man seen from behind adjusting his Desert Sun cap as balloons float over the valley
A man holds a bag of Desert Sun Peak Reserve up against the sky, balloons drifting over the buttes behind him
Coffee beans spilling from a tipped bag of Desert Sun Sumatra, the valley's buttes behind
A woman in a white knit hat sips from a mug in a camp chair, desert buttes behind her
A black bag of Desert Sun Peak Reserve held out toward the camera, its owner's cap blurred behind it
A man in a Desert Sun cap and hooded jacket drinks from a mug, looking out at the balloons

Photography by Wes · Creative Flow Studio

THE RESULT

What Desert Sun walked away with

A brand GPT
Trained on their catalog, their co-op partners, and their voice rules, with a 19-page guide for the team.
A content plan
24 Instagram posts for June to August 2025 in one series, with first-month captions written.
Three email flows
Nine emails, each with a subject line and a call to action.
An origin timeline
Twenty years of Desert Sun, 2004 to 2024, on one page.
18 photographs
Their bags in the Valley of the Gods, at first light and under the balloons.

No café, no counter. The bag, the feed, and the inbox do the selling, and the team now has a way to fill all three without making anything up.

We don’t have performance numbers from Desert Sun for the posts or the emails, so this page doesn’t claim any. They get added here if Desert Sun shares them.

Brand AICustom GPTContent StrategyEmail FlowsProduct PhotographyOn-location Production

A roaster with a true story and no counter to tell it across. Now the story has a system, and the bags have the Valley of the Gods.

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