Selling Your Roasted Coffee

[dgrueber]

Hey Guys,

New to the forum, just received my Huky (LOOOONG wait in customs for no apparent reason) and I'm starting to roast.  I see some of your setups, especially impressed by the setup at BoxAlarm's and am very impressed.

I am currently roasting and selling off of a Behmor 1600 at bout 30 lbs a month to friends/family.  With the Huky, I'm looking to start my gradual ascent into larger orders with my eye on a 5kg roaster in the next year or so (getting an investor on board) after I learn/hone my skills on the Huky.  I'm wondering how you guys sell your coffee and or get permits to roast from home and sell.  Here in Illinois it's not easy from my understanding as to have a "certified" kitchen you have to have smooth walls/floors/ceilings, triple basin sink and bathrooms available.  This is not practical for a home based business therefor I can't get a permit.  I see Box Alarm roasting in a garage and has much larger equipment and more capacity and either has A LOT of friends or has found a way to work with the system.  Just curious if anyone could share some advice on how to scale up out of your house as commercial property in the Chicagoland area is crazy expensive.

Thanks!

Dan

[hankua]

Sounds like you state does not have a cottage food program?

Next option might be finding a coffee shop or bakery to partner with or a shared roastery. There can be a lot of regulatory roadblocks in a commercial operation: venting, air quality compliance, code gas piping, etc. Afterburner/air quality requirements keep roasters from buying larger machines in certain locations. In my area we can go up to @12K; whereas I'm reading west coast @3K.

[dgrueber]

We do have cottage food law but limits it to ONLY farmers markets. Specifically no online sales is listed in the actual law.  Also, you can't sell at retail stores either.  It's a start but I'm trying to figure out how to start online sales legally and I haven't been able to get anyone to tell me how they do it.  I know people are selling online illegally but I'm trying to figure out how people have huge roasters in their garage and sell the beans.  PS the cottage law limits you to like 25,000 in sales which is not enough to sustain a business.

[Seion]

I have the same problem in Kentucky

I can't roast out of my garage / house unless I can pass a Commercial Kitchen Inspection/Certification and make sure I am not violating any zoning laws...

My only cheap option is to find a kitchen that will allow me to rent space...

[LTB]

Waw, I thought USA were a very liberal country for enterprise, seems more complicated than in france !

Hope you can easely find the good solution for you.

[dgrueber]

Yes, not easy here at all.

I did end up finding a shared kitchen that would let me install a roaster and roast there but it's 50-150 per month plus 10-15 per hour of use so total it could be 200-300 per month in just cost.  That's hard to justify for a startup that's not making anything currently.

Through research I did find the Cottage Food Laws allow you to sell at farmer's markets and other venues however, my state sucks in terms of where it allows you to sell.  You can only sell at a farmer's market here but in Ohio where i'm from originally, you can sell online, in retail stores, shops etc...  It's very up and down depending on where you go.

[MJ5150]

I started down this road in Washington State. It was too complicated and expensive, so I gave up.
I roast enough for the wife and I, then a little extra I sell to friends so we basically get our coffee free. That works for us.

-Mike

[Slayton]

I've been doing the cottage industry thing here in Alaska for the past not quite year and half.   Same deal.  Sales are direct to consumer or via farmer's market and no online sales.  I knew this going in before I bought my Huky. Although I received and started roasting as of mid March or so I really didn't start selling until June of 2015.  With the cost of the roaster, bags, beans, logo design, and any number of other things my business lost money for the year.  Though not anticipated neither was I surprised.

I bought my Huky with the idea of learning how to roast and testing the local market to see if my business idea was even viable.  I figured that if the business didn't work out I would still have the Huky, which I wanted anyway, and I would sell enough to friends to both eventually pay for it and keep me in coffee 

I work a full time job outside of roasting and value my free time.  With the limited capacity of the Huky I never expected to really make an income.  As it stands I just ordered a larger roaster and because I'm very lucky have a commercial kitchen to put it in.  I still have some hoops to jump through before going commercial but I'm on my way.

Coffee being what it is and how it is roasted and then brewed must be one of the safest food items out there in terms of commercial food products.   But it is still a food product and regulated as such and that means to sell commercially a commercial kitchen and all that entails is required, as well as any emission standards for your area, etc.  With that said, 200-$300 a month for a space to roast commercially seems like a bargain.

I don't know how much you anticipate selling overall.  I also don't know what the capacity of the Behmor vs the Huky is.  I do know that with my full time job and selling somewhere around 20lbs a week I feel like my capacity is maxed.  You could, of course, roast a lot more than that but for me it comes down to a point of diminishing returns (the time it takes to roast a batch on a machine of small capacity) and though my business is just starting to show a very little profit to do more and actually get ahead. . .. . it's not worth it and I will go crazy and I will stop enjoying the process of roasting coffee and the nuances of the end product which is why I got in this in the first place.

My 2 cents (after the buck fifty I've already interjected above) keep doing what you're doing after you get your brand spankin' new sexy little stainless steel beauty of a Huky.  Take your time and learn how to roast on it and dial in what you like.  Try to expand on your current customer base and build a name for yourself and your brand outside of your current customers.  And then take it to the next level and buy a larger roaster. In my humble opinion the Huky is too small to be a commercial roaster.  There is much more to running a commercial coffee business in terms of time and energy than just roasting coffee.  With the Huky in that setting, that is all you will have time to do to meet (hopefully) demand.

Best of luck.

Sean