Crafting a Cup of Coffee

CRAFTING A CUP OF COFFEE

With cafes around every corner, Chattanooga is home to a thriving coffee scene that delights connoisseurs and casual drinkers alike. While plenty of spots serve up coffee, some go further by sourcing and roasting the beans they brew. Here, we speak with six local coffee roasters about what it takes to create a unique and delicious cup of coffee. Read on to learn more about their craft and the ways a shared love for coffee brings people together.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KRISTINA ARMSTRONG

CHATTANOOGA COFFEE COMPANY / CHATTZ

LISA DUNNY, OWNER

What sparked your interest in coffee and coffee roasting? I’ve always been drawn to the culture and community that surrounds coffee. Whether it’s enhancing people’s experiences through providing exceptional beans to local businesses or creating a welcoming cafe environment. Nothing compares to the satisfaction of seeing someone enjoy a cup of coffee that you’ve roasted.

When did your business launch? Tell us about its beginnings. Chattanooga Coffee Company began in September 2002 when it was founded by two women, Evelyn Wheeler and Eileen Mason. Initially focusing on roasting coffee for wholesale distribution, they later expanded to include three cafes under the Chattz brand. In 2018, they closed the cafes but continued roasting coffee for surrounding businesses. In October 2020, I purchased Chattanooga Coffee Company. For six months, I concentrated solely on the roasting and wholesale aspects of the business. I wanted to make sure I was delivering the coffee Chattanooga was accustomed to. In February 2021, Chattanooga Coffee Company reopened Chattz at one of its original locations at 2627 Broad Street. This location also serves as the current roasting facility, allowing customers to experience freshly-roasted coffee while enjoying the cozy ambience of the cafe.

Where do you source your beans from? What all goes into making that decision? We typically get our beans from Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, and Ethiopia. We chose these origins not only for their distinct flavors but also for their reliability in delivering an excellent cup of coffee. We made the decision to keep the same beans because we understand the importance of consistency to our customers. People like to know the coffee they are about to brew at home will taste like the same cup of coffee they fell in love with 22 years ago.

What do you love most about your work? I truly love the customers. We get just as many out of town visitors as we do locals. I enjoy talking to all of them and seeing where they are from and what brought them in. They love that you can see our roaster and are always inquisitive about the roasting process. The best thing about the coffee business is that you are the one who starts their day off on the right foot. People are usually very happy to see you!

What type of experience do you hope to foster when people visit your location or enjoy your coffee? I want people to enjoy a consistently high-quality cup of coffee every single time, whether it’s coming into the cafe or making coffee at home. When they come into the coffee shop, I want them to feel at home. I want them to always feel welcome and to know we care and appreciate that they chose to come to our little coffee shop.

MEAN MUG COFFEE ROASTERS

DEAN JOHNSON, HEAD ROASTER

When did your business launch? Tell us about its beginnings. Mean Mug opened its first coffee shop in Southside in 2011, and the second location on the Northshore opened in 2017. As they worked to open this second location, they decided to invest in learning more about the roasting process and eventually bought our 10kg roaster from Mill City Roasters up in Minnesota. During this time, we would roast after closing at the Northshore location, so we got our start roasting beans late into the night to serve the needs of our business. We opened two more coffee shops in 2021 – one in Fort Oglethorpe and another at Hamilton Place Mall. We began to grow more and more during this time and eventually began to outgrow the space and long nights of roasting at the Northshore location. We moved to a warehouse space off of Rossville Boulevard in 2022 and have been here since!

What is your roasting process like? During the roast, we modulate gas burners and air pressure to essentially trace the line of our ideal profiles. While this sounds simple enough, there’s lots of environmental factors like temperature, humidity, weather, and barometric pressure that will cause each roast to feel like its own unique thing. It definitely helps keep me on my toes! You have to be willing to roll with the punches and work with what nature is giving you to really nail the consistency aspect in a satisfactory way. We roast each origin individually in order to really nail the specific needs and tendencies of each coffee. For blends, we will mix different ratios of the component coffees after the fact so that all the coffees can best balance each other out.

How would you describe the coffee scene here in Chattanooga? We are in an extremely fortunate situation to have so many talented coffee professionals here in town. There are several highquality coffee roasters in town that bring their love for the craft to customers of all walks of life. Each of these roasters is buying different crops from different importers and applying their own unique approach to how they manipulate the variables that affect flavor, so there’s something out there for everyone to fall in love with.

What do you love most about your work? Sharing the experience of tasting a new coffee with someone. It’s so rewarding to see that spark in someone’s eyes when they truly click with how a coffee tastes or smells. I also love the educational side of working in coffee. I have really enjoyed hosting cuppings and continuous education seminars for our employees where we break down some of the basics of extraction, latte art, and coffee processing.

REMBRANDT’S ROASTING COMPANY

WILL GRAFTON, LEAD ROASTER

What sparked your interest in coffee and coffee roasting? I grew up going to Rembrandt’s. It’s like a second home to me. I started working there in 2018, and as new opportunities to learn and expand my fascinations arose, I became lead roaster in 2022.

When did your business launch? Tell us about its beginnings. Rembrandt’s Roasting Company was founded in 2003. It began out of passion to continue to expand and define the culinary arts of Bluff View Art District. What started out as a small production for Rembrandt’s Coffee House has quickly grown to include roasting beans for wholesale, shipping orders, and other Bluff View Art District entities.

Where do you source your beans from? What all goes into making that decision? We source our beans from all over. We try to have a wide variety of origins to allow a range of flavors and profiles. Most of our current coffees are from Central or South America.

What is your roasting process like? Rembrandt’s Roasting Company is dedicated to small-batch roasting. By roasting this way, it allows for a smooth, rich, and flavorful coffee while also maximizing freshness. It is important to us to maintain a consistent time and temperature during the roasting process. Any change to the time or temperature of the roast can change the taste and overall experience of the coffee.

Tell us about the roasts and blends you offer. We have three signature blends at Rembrandt’s Coffee House: Rembrandt’s House Blend, which is Sumatra and Bali beans with a fruity, floral profile; Chattanooga Blend, which is Guatemalan and Costa Rican beans with a flavor profile of spiced chocolate with a soft, cherry finish; and Espresso, which is a blend of Guatemalan and Ethiopian coffees with strong notes of smooth milk chocolate and a soft, sweet finish. The Espresso is my favorite because it is very versatile and tastes great even as a brewed coffee!

What do you love most about your work? The creative freedom. It is fun to be able to experiment and taste different coffees and figure out which roasts will pair well together.

How would you describe the coffee scene here in Chattanooga? There are so many different coffee shops and cafes here in Chattanooga. Around every corner there’s a new experience and a different spin on the classic drinks. Each spot is totally different and unique – making the coffee scene in Chattanooga very rich and diverse. There is truly something for everyone!

MAD PRIEST COFFEE ROASTERS

MICHAEL RICE, OWNER

What sparked your interest in coffee and coffee roasting? Initially, I was a home enthusiast roasting on a little popcorn popper. The deeper I read into the complexity of the supply chain and the process from seed to cup, I became enamored and wanted to pursue coffee as a career. I also loved the communal element as a truly neutral third space for people.

When did your business launch? Tell us about its beginnings. Mad Priest launched in 2016 with a successful Kickstarter. It was truly a bootstrapped small business with lots of blood, sweat, and tears. It’s evolved in so many ways over the years, but one thing that remains is our goal and desire to always be driven by curiosity. From day one, and ingrained in our DNA, we strive towards maintaining a triple bottom line of social and environmental impact, alongside the economic.

Where do you source your beans from? What all goes into making that decision? We source from all over the world. Coffee is a widespread crop, spanning most places between the Tropic of Capricorn and Tropic of Cancer. We love to source unique coffees but also tend to find ourselves returning to the countries with the most optimal growing conditions, such as Ethiopia, Colombia, and Guatemala. The decision-making process is much more complicated, though. We look at origin, quality level, and process. But beyond that, we try to only source from exporters/ importers who have full transparency so we can know the farmers are getting paid a living wage.

Tell us about the roasts and blends you offer. We have lots of coffees on rotation at any time, but our top sellers are our blends. All of them have a unique focus, such as a dark roast or a breakfast blend, and are ingrained as a part of our brand. It won’t take too much to look at our blends and see the fun satirical connections to Mad Priest. My personal favorite, though, is anything from Yemen. We tend to carry a Yemen year-round thanks to the work I do with Qima Coffee, and to this day, I believe it is some of the best coffee you could possibly get.

What do you love most about your work. Everything. I love leading a team of awesome people. I love visiting farmers and feeling like we have a holistic role in the industry. I love traveling for coffee events and being with the coffee community. And ultimately, I love that I, alongside my team, can pursue meaningful work with people we align with while being true to ourselves.

GOODMAN COFFEE ROASTERS

IAN GOODMAN, OWNER

When did your business launch? Tell us about its beginnings. In 2015, I was working in the corporate side of the hospitality industry and teaching entrepreneurship on the side, but I really missed sharing coffee with others. In January of 2016, we launched Goodman Coffee Roasters, and 10 months later we opened our first retail store in Warehouse Row. We are a family-owned business and enjoy working alongside our kids, among other exceptional team members.

Where do you source your beans from? What all goes into making that decision? The large majority of the coffee we buy is through direct relationships we have built with farmers around the world, who grow and process the coffee for us. The rest comes from green brokers. After every harvest, farms send us samples which we roast and cup to decide which lots we will buy for the next year. Having open dialogue with the farmer allows us to communicate what we are looking for in the cup, and this symbiotic relationship enables us both to focus on the success of the other. We are simply adding to their craft and building on the work they have already done to get great coffee to us for our customer.

What is your roasting process like? Before we roast a coffee, we test its moisture content and density to give us a starting point, and we take into account how the coffee has been processed. Coffees that are natural or various other experimental fermentations have to be approached differently than their washed counterparts, in order to capture the complex notes from the processing and fermentation. We approach each coffee we roast individually with the goal of highlighting the storied history of each crop and its journey to get to us.

What do you love most about your work? The relationships I have built with people all around the world and working together to advance each other’s businesses is one of the most exciting parts of my job. Seeing people in other countries thrive because of these relationships motivates me to do more and to see the world more intentionally.

What type of experience do you hope to foster when people visit your location or enjoy your coffee? We hope people will tell us what they like and for them to ask questions. We live for those moments when someone says, “I don’t really like coffee,” but then changes their mind because of our work. For those already bringing a strong understanding of the complexities, we enjoy digging deeper and tasting some mind-blowing experimental coffees together.

VELO COFFEE ROASTERS

ANDREW GAGE, OWNER

What sparked your interest in coffee and coffee roasting? My introduction to specialty coffee was simply a part-time job in a cafe. The opportunity to learn about the roasting process came later at that job, and that’s what really hooked me. For me, roasting and evaluating coffee have always been the big draw. There’s room for endless and constant improvement in both disciplines, and that keeps me engaged.

When did your business launch? Tell us about its beginnings. I started Velo as a wholesale roastery in the spring of 2010. By the fall of that year, we had relocated to East Main Street in the exact space we are in now. When I started, it was just me. Friends – both old and new – helped me along the way (as they still do), but the company was originally designed to operate by one person for as long as possible. I would typically roast in the mornings and deliver the roasted coffee by bicycle in the afternoons. I sold my van for much-needed startup capital and fully committed to the concept of bicycle delivery. I used a bicycle to deliver coffee, to pull a trailer to local farmers markets, and to call on customers. I ran Velo by bicycle for about six years, and bicycles still play a big role in the company.

What is your roasting process like? We have always trended towards the lighter side of the roast development spectrum. While we carry a wide variety of coffees, we typically roast to our own taste preference while trying to highlight sweetness and balance in a coffee. This simply means that we strive to showcase what we know each coffee has to offer. Ultimately, we want the coffees we carry to exhibit their individual intrinsic qualities rather than a specific roast profile.

What do you love most about your work? One of the most enjoyable things about my job is the people I work with. I feel incredibly lucky to work with creative people who care about what they make. Also, coffee! I mean, my job is to roast and make coffee! That’s hard to beat.

What type of experience do you hope to foster when people visit your location or enjoy your coffee? As a company, we’ve always tried to emphasize education. We want to encourage curiosity about a coffee, a grower, one of our processes, or even a drink ingredient. There is a lot to learn about in the world of specialty coffee, and we really value being the ones who can find an answer or provide expertise. We want our shop to be a welcoming place where people feel comfortable asking questions and where they can learn something new.