diff --git a/consumer/consumer.go b/consumer/consumer.go
index e72646f..af788d4 100644
--- a/consumer/consumer.go
+++ b/consumer/consumer.go
@@ -24,15 +24,16 @@ type clusterConsumer interface {
 
 // Consumer is a Kafka consumer.
 type Consumer struct {
+	RetryInterval time.Duration
+	Metrics       MetricsReporter
+	// If you wish to provide a different value for the Logger, you must do this prior to calling Serve.
+	Logger        *log.Logger	
+	newConsumer   func(addrs []string, groupID string, topics []string, config *cluster.Config) (clusterConsumer, error)
 	consumer      clusterConsumer
 	config        *cluster.Config
 	handlers      *handler.Collection
 	wg            sync.WaitGroup
 	quit          chan struct{}
-	RetryInterval time.Duration
-	Metrics       MetricsReporter
-	newConsumer   func(addrs []string, groupID string, topics []string, config *cluster.Config) (clusterConsumer, error)
-	Logger        *log.Logger
 }
 
 // Handle registers the handler for the given topic.
@@ -139,9 +140,7 @@ func (c *Consumer) handlePartitions(ch <-chan cluster.PartitionConsumer) error {
 				c.handleMessages(pc.Messages(), c.consumer, pc, pc.Topic(), pc.Partition())
 			}(part)
 		case <-c.quit:
-			if c.Logger != nil {
-				c.Logger.Println("partition handler terminating")
-			}
+			c.Logger.Println("partition handler terminating")
 			return nil
 
 		}
diff --git a/consumer/consumer_internal_test.go b/consumer/consumer_internal_test.go
index 85640d3..63e6c43 100644
--- a/consumer/consumer_internal_test.go
+++ b/consumer/consumer_internal_test.go
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ const (
 // TestLogger grabs logs in a buffer so we can later make assertions
 // about them.
 type TestLogger struct {
-	buf    *bytes.Buffer
+	buf    bytes.Buffer
 	Logger *log.Logger
 	t      *testing.T
 }
@@ -32,10 +32,9 @@ type TestLogger struct {
 // NewTestLogger constructs a test logger we can make assertions against
 func NewTestLogger(t *testing.T) *TestLogger {
 	tl := &TestLogger{
-		buf: bytes.NewBuffer([]byte{}),
 		t:   t,
 	}
-	tl.Logger = log.New(tl.buf, "[Felice] ", log.LstdFlags)
+	tl.Logger = log.New(&tl.buf, "[Felice] ", log.LstdFlags)
 	return tl
 }