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Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Local coffee company brews up big expansion

By JIM HAUG
BUSINESS WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH — Kroger, one of the nation's largest grocery retailers, will soon be selling a locally roasted coffee at 350 stores in the southeastern United States.

The expansion increases Christopher Bean Coffee's total retail network to more than 1,200 stores in 14 states. Publix, Marshall Fields department stores and four local Wal-Mart Super Centers also carry Christopher Bean.

Founded in 1996, Christopher Bean, 440 Fentress Blvd., employs 10. Its founder, Chris Brown, is the company's certified roaster.

The local start-up won its newest retailer during a competitive interview process at Kroger’s corporate headquarters in Cincinnati, said Mark Geallis, the director of sales and marketing for Christopher Bean.

To Read The Entire Article at the News Journals Online Edition Click Here

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The sweet smell of success

By AUDREY PARENTE
STAFF WRITER
Monday, April 5, 2004

Amid the aroma of roasting coffee beans during his first visit to a Starbucks, yuppie stockbroker Christopher Brown sensed the sweet smell of success.

He’d sell coffee instead of stocks and bonds.

That was about seven years ago. Now the Christopher Bean Coffee Company on Fentress Boulevard in Daytona Beach, sells gourmet roasted coffees to 811 Publix grocery stores in seven states, to Marshall Fields department stores in the Midwest, to four Wal-Mart Supercenters and to coffee cafes in Central Florida.

To Read The Entire Article at the News Journals Online Edition Click Here

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Twenty questions for Christopher W. Brown

Kristen Stieffel
Orlando Business Journal
July 7, 2003

Christopher W. Brown
President and CEO
Christopher Bean Coffee Co.

Company info: Family-owned gourmet coffee roaster, founded in 1997. The firm roasts more than 60 specialty coffees for offices, hotels, restaurants, connoisseurs and retailers. Flavors range from caramel nut fudge to Danish pastry.

Web site:www.christopherbean.com

Background: At 21, Brown studied for a license to sell stocks and bonds. But after three years of working for Smith Barney, Brown resigned. He says it was "just not me."

Education: Bachelor's degree in business from the University of Central Florida

Residence: Daytona Beach's Palm Grove area

What was your first job? Carpenter for a small construction company

How did you get into the business you're in? One day I decided to see what Starbucks was all about. Wow! I knew the moment I left with my six bags of different coffee I wanted to be in the coffee business.

If you could have any one thing for free for the rest of your life, what would you choose? Good health

Whom would you most like to take to lunch? My mother, who I lost when I was a senior in high school. I would give it all up to know her now as an adult.

What hobby or sport do you spend too much money on? Off-shore fishing

What are your pet peeves? People who tell me "I can't" and people who don't try.

Where would someone likely find you on a Saturday afternoon? Off-shore fishing, dirt bike riding or surfing

How do you unwind after a stressful day at work? Take a spin on the dirt bike or work on new fishing rigs

What one talent are you especially grateful for? Working with my hands. In this business, if you can't learn to fix complicated equipment with limited tools, you're dead in the water.

What accomplishment are you most proud of? My coffee business

What's the most challenging aspect of your position? Time management. I make a list, and everything on the list seems to have equal priority.

What can't you live without at work? Communication

What words would people use to describe you? Intelligent, anal, funny, persistent, demanding

If you could wake up with a new ability, what would it be? The ability to manage stress. I worry about every bag of coffee that goes out of this plant. I ask myself, is it my best, will the customer know it was roasted two days ago, will someone mishandle the product and make it look tattered on the shelf, did the roaster add enough flavoring. I would love to be able to just let it go.

What's your formula for success? Quality combined with passion

Who is your role model? Any business person who knows how to operate a successful business, treat his people well and not have to shoulder it all

What book would you recommend for would-be managers?The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

What do you like best about being your own boss? The flexibility of scheduling. If I'm 13 minutes late, who cares? If I want to work late to make up for a late morning, I can. Time is more important than the financial part.

What part of the job do you take home? Too much. You can't run a business and not bring it home. It's like trying to swim without getting wet.

What's the last thing you do before leaving the office? Organize my desk and notes for the next day. It's like not wanting to wake up to a dirty kitchen.

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Not all coffee beans are created alike

Mike Lafferty
Orlando Sentinel
Published July 4, 2003

The scent that rises from my desk is driving me mad with desire.

It is to my nose what the Sirens were to the ears of mariners.

It whispers: Use 1 tablespoon of ground coffee per 5-ounce cup. Do it now.

But I will wait because Chris Brown told me to.

I had visited Brown earlier in the day, drawn to his business by my long and satisfying relationship with coffee, which Thomas Jefferson called "the favorite drink of the civilised world."

And who am I on this patriotic day to argue with the author of the Declaration of Independence and the smartest president in our nation's history?

Chris Brown has the enviable job of making coffee for a living. His office in a nondescript building near Daytona International Speedway has the sweet, earthy smell of roasted coffee beans. So does the lobby. So does the parking lot.

Brown founded Christopher Bean Coffee Co. in 1997 after visiting a Washington, D.C., Starbucks, where he had an epiphany.

"I fell in love with the idea of coffee," Brown said.

Amen, brother.

Brown wanted to open his own Starbucks, but the company didn't offer franchises.

He tried pitching the idea of a coffee bar to malls and hospitals in the Orlando area. When Halifax Medical Center made encouraging noises, he spent $40,000 to build a coffee cart. The deal fell through, so he set up shop in a flea market.

Brown, who is 38 but looks a decade younger, went to roasting school in Idaho to learn the science of coffee and then bought a small roaster.

Now, he has eight employees and a new deal with Publix to distribute his coffee in 740 stores.

He also has a visitor eager to learn more about the secrets of coffee, a noble beverage whose key ingredient, caffeine, has been unfairly maligned through the years.

Scientists not only are backing off early warnings about caffeine but also are crediting it for everything from preventing gallstones in men to protecting mice from radiation. The Orlando Magic's perky little point guard, Darrell Armstrong, used to get up for games by drinking a couple of cups of joe.

Chris Brown, it seems, is doing God's work.

The tour of his business takes us past bags of burlap sacks containing beans from such exotic locales as Sumatra, Ethiopia, Yemen and Jamaica, which produces a coveted Blue Mountain bean that sells for $40 a pound.

Brown points out how evenly colored the Blue Mountain's green coffee beans are, compared with the slightly mottled color of an inferior bean.

Yes, I whisper, I can see it.

Today, Brown is going to put some Guatemalan beans in the big yellow roasting drum to demonstrate the process. He turns to a color-coded computer panel that looks like the one Mr. Sulu used to navigate the Enterprise.

The beans start to churn as Brown manipulates the amount of heat and air that removes moisture from the bean and turns them from green to brown. He's flying on manual controls, so one false step could mean disaster.

About 16 minutes later, the beans are heated to about 430 degrees and are starting to crackle like popcorn. Time's up. A batch of dark brown beans spills from the roaster into the cooling bin. They are then sucked into a hopper, from which Brown scoops out about a pound. He grinds the beans and seals the grounds in a Christopher Bean bag, which I buy.

Be careful, he cautions, not to brew any until the morning. That will give the coffee time to get rid of the remaining gases, the very gases that now torture me as they escape through a one-way valve built into the bag on my desk.

The next morning I brew the coffee, take down my Thomas Jefferson mug, add some half-and-half and take the first sip.

The difference between it and the caffeine-reduced Maxwell House Lite I usually drink in the morning is the difference between Anchor Steam beer and Milwaukee's Best.

I sigh, again reminded that life is too short to drink swill.

Mike Lafferty can be reached at 386-851-7921 or mlafferty@orlandosentinel.com.

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Firm pours its 'joe' into bigger pot
Port Orange roaster inks deal with Publix chain

By THOMAS S. BROWN
Business Writer
Daytona Beach News-Journal

13 May 2003

Business is brewing

N-J/Kelly Jordan

Chris Brown, president of Christopher Bean Coffee Co., holds two bags of his gourmet coffee on Tuesday. The company's flavored coffees are now available at 750 Publix Super Market stores throughout the Southeast

DAYTONA BEACH -- Christopher Bean Coffee Co. hopes an expanded marketing deal with Publix Super Markets will brew up a $3 million sales gain and win it some regional recognition.

Two years ago, the startup supplier was roasting beans in a Port Orange warehouse and selling its gourmet coffee blends at local restaurants and 50 Publix stores in Central Florida. After the company placed among the top three specialty coffee brands in sales at the test stores, Publix gave Christopher Bean the green light last fall to extend its shipments to all 750 Publix stores in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee.

To Read The Entire Article at the News Journals Online Edition Click Here

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COFFEE CRAZE New cafes perk up social scene

Jim Haug
Business Writer
Daytona Beach News-Journal
September 16, 2001; Page 01E

At a brisk wake-up pace, specialty cafes are popping up in strip malls and storefronts across Volusia and Flagler counties.

Starbucks, which has spanned the globe with 4,500 stores in 24 countries, is finally dripping into the local market with two shops at Bellair Plaza in Daytona Beach and Granada Plaza in Ormond Beach, said Warner Walker, a real estate executive for Starbucks in Florida. Both stores are slated to open in early fall, although Starbucks has not announced the dates. Meanwhile, two locally owned coffeehouses, Patty's Perks and Cup O' Joe, have opened in Ormond-by-the-Sea and New Smyrna Beach, respectively, within the past month. A third newcomer, Koffee Kup in Deltona, combines coffee service with a bakery. Christopher Brown, who owns a coffee roasting company in Port Orange called Christopher Bean & Co., said he is supplying four new coffeehouses in Ponce Inlet, Ormond Beach and DeLand.

Interest in the coffee business is buzzing, he said.

To Read The Entire Article at the News Journals Online Edition Click Here

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Fit for the Shelves Small coffee roaster brews business at Publix

THOMAS S. BROWN
Business Editor
Daytona Beach News-Journal
June 17, 2001; Page 01E

Chris Brown has a lot riding on his 3-month-old partnership with Publix Super Markets.

If it succeeds, Brown thinks his Christopher Bean gourmet coffee business in Port Orange has a chance of becoming well-known throughout Florida and a serious rival to the Starbucks and Brothers brands. If it fizzles, Brown, 36, will have to find other ways to recoup his six-figure investment.

Mail-order sales through the Internet is one alternative the company has been pursuing, but it's an uphill battle to convince consumers to buy something they can't actually see, smell or taste beforehand.

"This Publix deal is huge for us," Brown said. "It's what we've been focusing on for the past year."

To Read The Entire Article at the News Journals Online Edition Click Here

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DAILY GRIND CHOOSY COFFEE DRINKERS CHOOSE FRESH

Catherine Klasne
Food Editor
Daytona Beach News-Journal
February 17, 2000; Page 01D

Get close to the roast for the best brewed coffee, experts agree. Aging may improve some things wine and cheese come to mind but roasted coffee is not one of them.

"Personally, I don't like to drink coffee that's more than a week out of the roaster," said Mike Ferguson, marketing director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, based in Long Beach, Calif. Locally, Port Orange's Christopher Brown is a big advocate of freshly roasted coffee. He spends most Mondays roasting green coffee beans until they assume their familiar deep-brown color. By Thursday, he and his crew of four at Christopher Bean Coffee Co. in Port Orange will have delivered Monday's coffee, packaged as whole beans or ground, all over Volusia County. Some is sent to far-flung mail-order customers as well.

"It's only going to sit for three days before it's delivered," Brown said recently, pointing out boxes that were ready to leave his climate-controlled storage area.

To Read The Entire Article at the News Journals Online Edition Click Here

Local coffee company brews up big expansion

The sweet smell of success

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Firm pours its 'joe' into bigger pot Port Orange roaster inks deal with Publix chain

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COFFEE CRAZE New cafes perk up social scene

Fit for the Shelves Small coffee roaster brews business at Publix

DAILY GRIND CHOOSY COFFEE DRINKERS CHOOSE FRESH

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Twenty questions for Christopher W. Brown

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Not all coffee beans are created alike

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Firm pours its 'joe' into bigger pot
Port Orange roaster inks deal with Publix chain