Community Highlights: Meet Jessica Beans of Namesake Coffee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica and Michael Beans. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Namesake Coffee, a Dayton small-batch coffee roastery, was founded from an extreme love of specialty coffee by Michael and Jessica Beans (hence the name). We always source high-quality beans, find complex and interesting origins, and roast fresh to ensure the absolute best flavors. We strive to pay farmers a fair wage through using fair-trade importers and source organic coffees when available.

However, we also think a cup of coffee should go further than just being absolutely delicious. This is why we partner with a number of local non-profits and donate proceeds to help build up the Dayton community. Drink Intentionally.

Background:

Coffee started out as a hobby. Every city became an opportunity to discover a new local shop – a quest to find the next perfect cup. Michael first started roasting in the oven for friends as a hobby and was completely hooked. He wanted to buy our first roaster – which I (Jessica) said he could only do if we made a business out of it to be able to pay off the roaster which quickly spiraled into too many orders and interest to handle so we upgraded to the beautiful San Fransican roaster we have now. We had previously lived in Denver and realized when moving to Dayton that we could be a contributor to the small business and coffee community here rather than only be a consumer. In 2016 we established our LLC and have let the business grow slowly and organically over the years. We have found Dayton to be such a great place for our small-batch coffee roastery business to flourish.

Founder information:

Michael Beans, co-founder and head roaster, graduated with a degree in environmental horticulture from Colorado State University which uniquely equips him to understand the coffee growing process and therefore allows him to pair this knowledge with the finite details of roasting such as how the moisture and density in every bean impact the roasting speed, etc. His meticulous attention to detail and nerdy love of understanding horticulture shows in every single bag of coffee we roast.

Jessica Beans, co-founder and business development/marketing, has an extreme love of hand-pour methods and specialty coffee and is passionate about educating others on how they can create their own specialty coffee experiences right at home. With a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership, she frequently speaks to businesses about leadership, communication, and group dynamics, therefore after attending multiple coffee cupping events and training sessions, transitioning those speaking skills to educate and instruct about specialty coffee has become a passion as well as telling Namesake’s story on social media and through our branding.

Business Today:

Today our business is shaped very differently than it was when we first started in 2016, but our values of quality and ethically sourced coffee, donating proceeds to nonprofits in our community, and our motto of “drink intentionally” have continued.

We now offer a robust coffee subscription service where you can receive fresh-roasted coffee delivered right to your door. Our online store can be found at NamesakeCoffee.com. We also love hosting our coffee pop-up shops and catering events around the city. Our wholesale coffee or Namesake Coffee retail bags can be found at Table 33, Grist, Saltblock Biscuit Company, Gem City Market, Shoppe Smitten, Ordinarie Fare among other businesses, churches, and office buildings. Our relationships with our wholesale partners that serve our coffee around Dayton are a huge highlight of our business.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Our growth has been slow and organic. We have largely relied on the relationships we make with our partners to find business opportunities instead of paying for large ad campaigns or relying on quick transactions. This means we have had to have a lot of patience along the way as we slowly grow our business and income as we rely on a firm foundation of relational and values-based business versus quick, low-quality money–grabs. We have come to be so grateful for and rely on our word-of-mouth referrals when people are looking for new coffee wholesale partners or catering.

We have fully funded our growing business on our own so that has made growth slow and methodical as well.

Lastly, as with most businesses these days – we have seen inflation impact the coffee industry in that coffee prices and importation costs have drastically increased. We are at a 10-year commodity price high for green coffee beans and have had to adjust accordingly to make margins at times. Our community partners and local businesses we work with have been amazing through this in their dedication to offering small-batch, locally roasted coffee, even while our prices have had to fluctuate to keep up.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Namesake Coffee?
Namesake Coffee is a full-scale roastery in Dayton offering wholesale beans to restaurants, retail bags for sale, and private coffee events as well as pop-up shops (posted on our IG when we choose a new location and date). We also offer an online store (NamesakeCoffee.com and EnneagramCoffee.com) and are proud of our coffee subscription service when we deliver fresh-roasted coffee right to your door monthly or weekly. We don’t offer a brick-and-mortar location at this time but instead partner with others to support their shops and stores that want to sell high-quality, fresh roasted coffee.

We think a cup of coffee should go further than just being absolutely delicious. This is why we partner with a number of local non-profits and donate 10% of our proceeds to help build up the Dayton community. Some of these ongoing partners have included Brigid’s Path and The Oasis House in an attempt to support them in their own ongoing efforts to bring hope and healing to some of the most vulnerable people in our city.

Namesake’s motto is “Drink intentionally” in an effort to encourage people to use their morning coffee time as a means of stopping, slowing down, and reflecting about their lives. We are huge advocates for shopping and supporting local and small business which is why we partner with a number of local restaurants, boutiques, and markets to sell our beans and to support ongoing training and education in the coffee industry here in Dayton.

Another main differentiation is that Namesake Coffee also offers extensive support to these shop owners outside of the realm of just providing coffee beans. We have a number of wholesale partnerships with some major coffee equipment manufacturers, such as grinders and espresso machines, and can provide wholesale pricing from the manufacturers that they work with and as well as offering feedback about what equipment might be best for you. Michael Beans (head roaster and coffee expert) has extensive knowledge in the areas of coffee preparation, equipment installation and maintenance, and cafe setup/outfitting. Michael is also a certified La Marzocco espresso machine technician and can provide help with any problems that may arise or with necessary routine maintenance. In short, we truly want to be a helpful resource to all of our current and potential customers and partners to make a truly amazing cup of coffee.

Another project we are proud of is our second coffee line called Enneagram Coffee (enneagramcoffee.com). We launched this brand in November of 2019. This coffee line has 9 roasts for the 9 distinct personality types. As people that have enjoyed using this personality assessment in our personal lives, we loved launching this passion project on the side of our regular business to celebrate the road to self-discovery and to partner two of our favorite things – really amazing coffee and self-growth tools.

One last thing we are very proud of is our current branding and bag redesign that we will be rolling out very soon (within the next 3-6 months). We have been working on bags that are 100% compostable when buried, and the labels we will be using will be made out of seed paper so when planted can grow basil or wildflowers. This new bag is so exciting for us because we’ve spent two years sourcing the correct materials to get this right, so it is an extension of the intentionality of our brand and business.

What do you think about luck?
Our form of “luck” has largely come from meeting the right people at the right time that are excited about collaborations or partnerships. Two of our largest wholesale accounts came from meeting people at small business events, and those relationships manifested once they were looking for a wholesale coffee bean provider. The same with the majority of our private events – we typically get referrals through word-of-mouth when people share with others that they had a good experience with our mobile-espresso bar. These “lucky” meetings have been driving our business from the start when we meet awesome business owners and people in our community that are ready to collaborate and partner with us.

Pricing:

• Retail Namesake Coffee bags ($18)
• Namesake Coffee Subscription Service ($18-$20)
• Enneagram Coffee bags ($18)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.namesakecoffee.com/
• Instagram: @namesakecoffee
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/namesakecoffee
• Other: https://www.enneagramcoffee.com/

Image Credits
Courtney Haas