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Wholesale Imported Green Coffee & Commercial Small Batch Micro Roasting Equipment

Carvaci’ Green Coffee, Starting A New Retail Coffee Shop is Good Business Green Mountain

Roast Your Own Coffee

We started in the retail end of coffee with our 1st store known as “Grandfields” back in 1997. Like all attentive business owners we were always looking for ways to improve our business’s bottom line while keeping our valued customers happy & coming back.

 

We had always talked about roasting our own coffee but didn’t want another job for ourselves, lacked space in the stores and didn’t have a clue where to start. And until then, there weren’t any small batch commercial roasters on the market. In October of 2001 we purchased our first counter- top roasters. We drove down to California and bought 2 of the Korean made Brightway Caffe Roasto Pro 1500s that retailed for $6,000 each with the idea that one could be used as a backup since Brightway was based in California (we were already worried about dependability). We also picked up a “Roastmaster” 220 Volt unit to have as another back up. (it was high stress letting go of our old wholesale roaster and going it alone so we wanted to be absolutely sure of our production abilities) What followed is laughable now, but back then, was true heartache.

 

After struggling to find a green bean supplier who wouldn’t laugh at our 200lb/wk volume and trying to come up with just a couple good blends, we were on the verge of giving up. That’s when we discovered Carvaci’. They’re authorities on green coffee & blending so getting the good stuff was no longer a problem. (Acquiring Quality Green Beans in small quantities is a big challenge and Blending good coffee is truly an art) In a perfect world, that would be the end of the story. But the Pro 1500 roasters were an utter and complete nightmare, amassing 32 repairs, three bean fires & countless other problems in 2 short months of use. After several well placed legal actions, the roasters finally went back to California! Although it never broke down, the “Roastmaster” unit was only good for single origins and smoked like crazy so it didn’t help much either. On a lighter note, even with all the equipment problems we were still able to roast our own coffee which went over wonderfully with all our customers. We were on the right path! All that was left was to find a decent small batch roaster.

 

The roaster of choice was the Cafe’ Roaster, but the manufacturer doesn’t offering it for sale directly. They have a program where you get the roaster for free but have to buy their green beans for higher prices. With 20% moisture shrinkage the cost of their green coffee is around $5.80/lb. This just didn’t work for us because we were only paying $5.75 to Dillano’s for our roasted coffee and the manufacturer’s blends didn’t match what we needed. Had we known that such growth was possible simply from roasting, it would have made sense to do their program but in the end we’re glad we stuck it out. Our customers are too!

 

David Allender, leader of the Monster concept, was able to team up with the roaster manufacturer to allow us to be an exclusive distributor of their product over a broad range of territory making up 6 western states and eventually, the rest of the world. We immediately set the units up in each of our retail shops. They’re likely to be chugging away as you’re reading this without so much as a hiccup to date!

 

In December of 2002, with most of the age old financial pressure relieved, it was time to think about expanding our retail operations again. Our choices were to open a third Grandfields location or bag the retail expansion efforts and help others with what we’ve learned over the years in our shops by starting Monster Coffee. Monster Coffee won the vote hands down. We’re confident with the level of retail coffee related knowledge amassed over the last 6 years and can be of major service to others in the business. We’ve done everything from architectural design, every stage of construction, sign making, marketing campaigns, maintenance, recipe design, graphic design, federal trademarking, copyrighting, book keeping, taxes, retail management, L & I claims, Unemployment claims, went head to head with national competitors and of course worked more than our share of 7 day weeks with 14 hour days on the floor. It wasn’t a piece of cake but as most anyone will say, you learn a lot that way! We’re also friends with many other owners with whom we have shared and learned a huge amount of critical lessons over the years. Now it’s time to share what we know.

 

When it comes to roasting, we understand all the common fears and concerns that everyone contemplates since those same fears and concerns were once ours. However, we are now fully able to show you the simple secrets of easily roasting your own coffee and saving a bundle while doing so. The system is very well proven and works perfectly in every respect. Now it’s yours for the taking and we’re ready to help you get past the first few hurdles! In the end, you’ll be happy, we’ll be friends and the wholesalers will be nothing more than a costly memory. We estimate that our old roaster enjoyed a hefty $125,000 in pure profits from our stores!

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We’ve Been In Retail
Coffee Since 1997.

 

We always wanted to
roast but didn’t have
a clue where to start
and really didn’t want
another job for
ourselves.

 

Acquiring quality
green beans in our
small quantity of
800lbs/Mth was a big
challenge. Carvaci’
made all of our green
coffee problems go
away!

 

Monster is exclusive
in 6 Western States
but can ship roasters
& green coffee
anywhere in the
world.

 

When it comes to
cafe’ roasting, we’ve
been there & back.

 

Now with Monster,
other retailers can
easily make the
switch, practically
with their eyes
closed!

 

We threw away
$125,000 of our hard
earned and much
needed profits on pre-
roasted coffee before
we were able to start
roasting in house.