Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Andersen, Krista Andersen.
Eric and Krista started FreshGround Roasting in a super-small and well-hidden location in West Chicago. Eric came out of the IT world and was looking for a change. A lifelong love of great coffee pointed me towards something in the coffee business. After exploring a whole bunch of different options from cafes to carts to kiosks, I settled on the idea of focusing first on roasting coffee.
Around the same time we opened up, Eric got in touch with some of the key people who import our direct trade coffee. We work with missions and other organizations around the world who are working long-term in coffee growing communities helping them grow better coffee, providing educational and financial tools, and giving them an outlet to sell their coffee.
We’ve been in business now for 6 years (anniversary this month!). Our focus has been on our wholesale customers – cafes, bakeries, restaurants. We love to help them serve the perfect cup of coffee. We provide our customers with the equipment they need to brew great coffee as well as a complete list of training classes to help their employees make the perfect cup of coffee.
Our home coffee drinkers can purchase our coffee either in our Geneva location or online store at FreshGroundRoast.com. We roast fresh to order and ship all around the United States. We also have a complete line of coffee brewing tools like the Chemex, Aeropress, and several pour over brewing methods. Our ReFills coffee subscriptions are also a very popular option for people who either want the same coffee on a regular basis or are interested in exploring a new and different specialty coffee origin each month.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Is business ever a smooth road? It’s been a learning experience all along the way. The biggest challenge has been in differentiating ourselves from the mass of other coffee roasters that are popping up all over the city and suburbs. We believe with the educational tools and classes that we offer, we can provide resources to our customers that cannot be matched.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the FreshGround Roasting story. Tell us more about the business.
We roast coffee that is always fresh. Nothing on our shelves has a roast date older than 7 days. All of our online orders are less than 48 hours old when they ship. Freshness is key for coffee.
Also, the organizations we work with are doing great work in coffee growing communities. Whether it’s Growers First working in Mexico and Honduras helping coffee growers recover from the devastation of coffee rust or Dominion Coffee providing education and medical resources all around Ethiopia, our coffee supports some great organizations.
Lastly, just like the organizations we work with teach in farming communities, we love to teach our customers how to brew great coffee. That can be our retail customers coming by for a coffee brewing class or home espresso class or our wholesale customers sending in their baristas for a full schedule of training classes.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t believe in luck – either good or bad. Opportunities are what you make of them. We’ve worked hard to make sure we’re in the right place at the right time. That’s not luck – that’s hard work. It’s making sure people think of you when they think coffee and developing a brand that they want to do business with. Bad things are going to happen. Some people call it bad luck, I call it life. How you respond to those challenging circumstances makes all the difference in the world.
Pricing:
- 1 lb bags of coffee – $15.99
- ReFills Coffee Subscriptions starting at only $14 a month
- Our famous Black Ice Brew Cold Brew coffee – Howlers available in our Geneva store for $12.
Contact Info:
- Address: 321 Stevens St Suite N Geneva, IL 60134
- Website: https://FreshGroundRoast.com
- Phone: 630-457-4458
- Email: eric@freshgroundroast.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/FGRoast
- Facebook: http://Facebook.com/FGRoast
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/FGRoast
- Other: https://blog.freshgroundroast.com
Image Credit:
Anna Guziak
FreshGround Roasting 2017
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