Now, more than ever, consumers are choosing to spend their hard-earned money on companies they know and trust. Long gone are the day of blindly purchasing products off the shelves at the local supermarket. Consumers—specifically millenials—are spending more time researching what they buy in order to positively impact the community. This is intrinsic in the specialty roasting industry. Consumers not only want to purchase coffee from shops that treat their employees with respect, they want to support companies that strive to do good in the world. Since the farming, production, and distribution of specialty coffee involves many players from all around the world, it’s easy for ethical business practices to get lost in the mix. How does a coffee roasting company ensure sustainability and ethical business practices? Although the answer is complex, it is achievable.
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Topics:
coffee roaster,
commercial coffee roaster,
Successful business,
tradition,
legacy,
International
Like many coffee professionals, Micah Svejda didn't set out to dedicate his life to the elusive bean. Nor, years ago in a philosophy program in St. Louis, Missouri, could he forsee roasting on a red San Franciscan coffee roaster in the stately city of St. Paul. "I took a job at Kaldi's Coffee to supplement my income as a teaching assistant," says Svejda, who'd put in years behind the bar in chains like Caribou and Dunn Bros., "and the truth is that I fell in love with coffee and out of love with academia."
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Topics:
roaster profile,
coffee roaster,
commercial coffee roaster,
roaster,
Successful business,
Local,
SF6
Through the Lebanese culture runs a thick ribbon of honor and pride of legacy, father to son, mother to daughter. Hrag Kalebjian grew up dreading Saturday mornings, when his father Henry would drag him out of bed and into the specialty foods store where he roasted coffee. "I just wanted to watch cartoons," Hrag says, and eventually he left the family business altogether to work in corporate finance.
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Topics:
roaster profile,
SF25,
California,
coffee roaster,
commercial coffee roaster,
roaster,
Successful business,
tradition,
legacy
In her mild demeanor and her obvious passion for coffee and community, Christine Herman Rusell embodies the qualities of Case Study Coffee that have seen the business grow from a single espresso cart in 2005 to a soon-to-be three-location coffee establishment in Portland, Oregon. She looks around the spacious downtown location, at the tables full of students chatting and business-people glaring at their laptops, and says, "I just try to choose great coffee and not mess it up, so I can make my baristas' lives easy."
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Topics:
roaster profile,
coffee roaster,
roaster,
Successful business,
sf1,
woman roaster
When long-time friends Jelynn Sophia and Beverly Magtanong returned to their hometown of San Diego after years away, they knew they wanted to invest into their community, as well as continue the philanthropic work they’d been doing in the Philippines. “We learned that coffee is actually grown in the Philippines, though it’s not available on the market. Then, we discovered that some of Beverly’s husband Sam’s family owns coffee farms there.” At the same time, a long time friend and prominent chef in the San Diego area, Mike Arquines, was roasting coffee as a hobby on his stovetop and learning more about specialty coffee. The pieces all came together, and Mostra Coffee was formed with the goal of eventually doing direct trade with coffee farmers in the Philippines.
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Topics:
roaster profile,
SF25,
roaster,
Successful business
