GROWING A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

It is easy enough to grab a cup of coffee from a drive-thru on the way to work. It is quick and convenient. In an industry with big names like Tim Hortons, McDonald’s and Starbucks, our little business barely seems to register. But we do not aim to compete; our purpose is to provide an alternative.

There is a shift happening in the coffee industry. More people are looking for local, freshly roasted options and provide a living income to farmers. That is where we come in.

As a specialty coffee micro-roaster, we are in a niche market. It is about quality, not quantity. Our vision is to help more people become mindfully aware of the type of coffee they consume and where it comes from.

It is relatively easy to start a coffee business nowadays. They are popping up everywhere. We jumped into this business without knowing much about the coffee industry or the food and beverage industry. We tried some amazing coffee in our travels and had this crazy idea that we wanted to share these coffees with others.

Setting up our business online was easy. Launching our business was easy. The challenge has been the learning curve that comes with all the nuances of specialty coffee. And learning the art of coffee roasting to produce specialty level roast profiles would have to be the hardest part. Luckily, we have been able to partner with a master roaster who has over 25 years of experience.

Here are a few things we have learned about starting a specialty coffee business.

Sustainability

From the beginning, we have been relying on our roaster to guide us when sourcing green coffee. We are now at a point where we feel comfortable sourcing our coffee directly from farmers or

importers. Thanks to social media and the internet, there is an endless supply of specialty coffee farmers at our fingertips. We are able to build relationships and acquire information about the origins so we can tell the story of where our coffees are grown.

Organic and Fair Trade certifications are not always the best indicators of sustainable practices. We want to know that farmers are getting paid a living income higher than the global market price. One way to do that is through direct trade, when possible. We recently sourced one of our coffees through iFinca, an organization dedicated to providing more transparency and traceability in the supply chain. This allows our customers to meet the farmers and see precisely how much they are paid per pound.

Quality

Specialty coffee is roasted fresh in small batches (unlike commercial coffee such as Nabob, Folger’s or Maxwell House). Our coffee is roasted once a week, and we keep a small inventory that will sell within 1 – 2 weeks. We would rather sell all our current stock and have our customers pre-order from our next batch to ensure our coffee will be fresh.

We struggled with the decision to sell whole beans only because we knew we would be excluding a considerable segment of the market that prefers to buy pre-ground coffee. Whole beans stay fresh longer, and since we are focused on quality, this knowledge has helped us stick with our decision. It has also allowed us to educate our customers.

We continue to roll out our wholesale program very slowly because we want to find the right fit with retail partners who share our commitment to quality. Our minimum orders are relatively small, so our coffee is not sitting on the shelves for months.

Brewing/Production

Although there is a precision to brewing a great cup of coffee, it can be done easily at home using the equipment you have available. We want to make specialty coffee accessible to everyone, so we like to choose coffees with an exceptional taste no matter how you brew them.

Evolving with purpose

We started this business with the sole purpose of selling whole bean coffee roasted to order. Our vision has evolved a few times since then! The more we learn about the coffee industry, the clearer our vision becomes. With 2.25 billion cups of coffee consumed daily worldwide, and roughly 25 million coffee farmers trying to make a decent living, there is plenty of room for more entrepreneurs to enter this market.

By: HEATHER KLASSEN

Co-Founder of Mugging Whales Coffee

Website/Contact: https://muggingwhalescoffee.com/