Local Eats: Cafe Rhema launches new coffee roasting company - mlive.com

takanadalagi.blogspot.com

FLINT, MI -- Café Rhema has launched a new coffee roasting company in partnership with its workers.

Rhema Roasting is a separate company from the downtown coffee shop at 432 Saginaw Street in Flint. The company has been in the works for a couple of years. It’s a collaboration between Café Rhema owner Joshua Spencer, partner Sean Murray and workers at the cafe.

People looking to try new blends can come into Café Rhema and grab a cup of coffee there, buy a bag of coffee or order bags to be delivered online.

Spencer and Murray announced the soft launch of the company Monday, June 8. The hard launch is planned for Saturday July 11.

The company was formed in January of this year, but the roaster didn’t come in until March 20, right as COVID-19 hit Michigan.

“We didn’t announce anything right away because we just didn’t know what was going to happen,” Spencer said.

However, in a way this worked out, Spencer said. They were able to start a GoFundMe to sponsor thousands of cups of free coffee to bring to Hurley Medical Center workers. The Mott Foundation eventually sponsored the coffee donations.

“It was a good soft launch before we ever announced that we were roasting coffee but it was also good practice,” Spencer said. ”We were brewing so much coffee we could keep perfecting it.”

Rhema Roasting coffee will be available for wholesale to offices, realtors and other businesses.

One of Rhema Roasting’s goals is to teach people about the source of coffee, Spencer said. Many people, for example, don’t know coffee comes from a fruit. The coffee bean is the pit of a cherry.

Café Rhema has made a point of carrying a variety of coffees -- one that is extremely fruity, one full bodied and nutty and something in between.

“We’re extending that same concept to our roasting company,” Spencer said. “We want non-coffee drinkers, as well as experienced coffee drinkers, to be able to try our product and know that there’s a wide variety available.”

Eventually, they would also like to host Coffee 101 classes.

One goal of the company is to introduce craft coffee to people who have never tried it before, Sean Murray said. Murray started working at Café Rhema in 2018. He expressed a desire to eventually roast coffee and spearheaded much of the roasting.

Coffee from Chazzano Coffee Roasters in Ferndale turned Murray to craft coffee.

“I was a Starbucks guy, like give me the dark roast, I was that guy,” Murray said. “And I had Chazzano’s for the first time and I loved it. I was just blown away by how different this coffee was. That started it.”

He said he’s always appreciated the art of a craft. He would brew beer, make wine and eventually found his way to coffee.

“It’s a mixture of art, it’s a mixture of science. It’s all encompassing that it can really stimulate multiple parts of your brain of being creative while also working to get that perfect product out to people,” Murray said.

The business partners called their new roaster the “Tesla of coffee roasters.”

Notes of strawberry, blueberry or cherry come from within the bean, Murray said. It tastes different from region to region and farm to farm.

“My goal when I’m roasting is not to cover that up, it’s to accentuate it because it’s already in there,” he said. “If you roast it so dark, you’re just going to have a roasty flavor. It’s like if you burn bread you’re just going to taste burnt bread.”

Rhema Roasting works to invest in farmers of their products as well.

“It is important to us that this coffee is ethically sourced,“ Murray said.

Re-branding has been a part of the new business.

“My reason for Café Rhema in general was to be able to contribute to the downtown area in Flint,” Spencer said.

This includes collaborating with local businesses. John Hill with Consolidated Tattoo Parlor helped with the deign of the new Rhema Roasting products, Spencer said.

“We’ve tried to maintain this brand of ‘yes we want craft coffee and we want a high level of excellence,' but I love the idea when it comes to with craft and the artistic side of things, we make a point of showing off tattoos and showing off the artwork that people have on their arm or leg,” Spencer said.

Read more on MLive:

Takeout Tuesday: Check out these reopened Flint-area eateries

Try one of these Flint-area restaurants for ‘Takeout Tuesday’

Takeout Tuesday Cinco De Mayo edition offers option for Mexican food

‘Takeout Tuesday’ restaurant options in the Flint area

Takeout Tuesday: Five restaurants to try in Flint-area

Let's block ads! (Why?)

"cafe" - Google News
June 23, 2020 at 07:03PM
https://ift.tt/3emUToy

Local Eats: Cafe Rhema launches new coffee roasting company - mlive.com
"cafe" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2FkbMR3
https://ift.tt/3c4yPxW