Art Of The Brew: Salem 11-Year-Old Designs Atomic's 'Witch City' Label

SALEM, MA — A talented young artist and North Shore coffee roster teamed up once again this year to create the much anticipated Halloween seasonal "Witch City" coffee blend.

This is the third year that Atomic Coffee Roasters, whose production facility is located on Webster Street in Peabody, has worked with Salem 11-year-old Georgia Wrenn on a label for the annual roast.

Wrenn — whose artwork has more than 3,000 followers on the Instagram account "Georgia Made This" — based this year's label on the Salem Witch House.

"We've had a great reaction this year, in particular, as our local customers are starting to look forward to this collaboration every year," Atomic Roasters Vice President of Operations Spencer Mahoney told Patch.

Mahoney said the collaboration began when Wrenn was 9 years old and the company was looking for a special holiday design for a seasonal brew out of the Mason Street in Salem roasting facility.

"We wanted to share a new coffee that highlighted the area that we've called home for so many years," Mahoney said.

He said Atomic Roasters were told of Wrenn's amazing catalog of work given her young age and determined that her art would be perfect for the project. She started her brand when she was 6 years old and has been adding new designs every year since.

"We thought it was really cool," Mahoney said, "and perfectly represented Salem and what we were trying to showcase with this coffee.

"We reached out asking if she wanted to collaborate on this coffee and she said: 'Yes!'"

Mahoney said customers now begin reaching out to Atomic Roasters asking about both the brew and the artwork in September. Wrenn creates new artwork each year to be incorporated into the unique label.

"Georgia has visited the roastery numerous times," Mahoney said, "has learned about the process of how customer orders get roasted and packaged, and this year we even expanded the collaboration into offering cans of cold brew."

Wrenn previously designed a line of rainbow products that she used to raise money for the North Shore Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth, which were featured in the 2019 Rainbow Times Pride Guide, and for the past four years has made the design artwork for gold collectible coins she hides at historic places around the city throughout October.

Wrenn's artwork and other ventures — including hints about locations for this year's five remaining gold coins — can be found on her Instagram page here. Clues are released at noon on page the day each coin is hidden. The theme of this year's coins is "The Friendship" with the Peabody Essex Museum sponsoring the coins for the third year.

She has also designed various patches, pins, buttons and shirts that can be purchased through the new Sully's Brand retail location in Beverly and online here.

The joint creations of Atomic Roasters and Wrenn can be found and ordered online here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)