LEONARDTOWN, Md. – Local business, Breton Bay Coffee Company, is gaining popularity for its unique blends and dedication to sourcing high-quality fresh beans.
On the 35th episode of The BayNet’s Podcast, “Get Real with Chris & Mark,” the hosts ‘Get Real’ with Jon Voigtlander from Breton Bay Coffee Company about roasting locally while Chris and Mark taste-test coffee beans from The Founder’s Roast and The County Blend.
Voigtlander is the company’s founder and a retired Navy veteran. He said his inspiration for starting a coffee company came from a combination of factors, including a desire to support the local community.
“Breton Bay Coffee Company is a disabled veteran-owned local coffee company actually out of my home,” he said. “We’ve gotten a great response. People seem to really love the coffee, so that’s awesome,”
The business is currently classified as a cottage industry, meaning they can only sell whole-bean coffee in Maryland. However, the company is working towards expanding its reach and recently applied for a permit to grind and ship coffee out of state.
Voigtlander started the company after hearing a commercial for a web startup that sold coffee before receiving a local coffee gift from his high school.
“I heard something on the radio about buying local, supporting Southern Maryland and everything. And then I had my retirement party, and as a gift, somebody gave me local coffee from where I went to high school, and I was like, you know what? For all the things that we have in Southern Maryland and in Leonardtown, you can’t walk into a store in Leonardtown and buy a locally roasted coffee to take home. And I was like, huh? So I did a little research and found the equipment. As far as investing in a business, it’s not that bad. So I was like, hey, you know, give it a shot. Worst case, it fails. I resell the equipment, and off I go,” explained Voigtlander.
Breton Bay Coffee Co sources its beans wholesale from a company that sources beans worldwide.
“So we’ve been experimenting with African beans and South American beans, and we have a couple of blends that we’re really happy with,” said Voigtlander
During the podcast, Voigtlander mentioned that they use two machines to roast the beans. One is a barrel roaster, where the beans spin around in a barrel. The other is a fluid roaster Voigtlander compared to a giant hairdryer that blasts air at 500 degrees through a hopper full of beans.
There are different levels of roast, and the company offers a variety of roasts, from The Founder’s Roast, a single-origin coffee from Nicaragua, to The County Blend, a medium roast coffee.
“There’s a lot of Ethiopian fruity coffees that are here. So we kind of decided to go for more of an earthy buttery, which tends to be a little lower acidic. So people seem to enjoy that too,” said Voigtlander.
On top of their unique blends and tastes, Breton Bay Coffee Co has recently announced they will donate 10% of profits to solving homelessness in Southern Maryland.
“So the big thing that started this is, you know, none of us are quitting our day jobs, but we want to provide a good local coffee. And then the other big thing is we want to give back to the community. So actually, as of Friday, I had a meeting with the Three Oaks Center for Homeless, and I am proud to announce that 10% of all of our profits are going to go towards solving local homelessness here in the tri-county area,” Voigtlander emphasized.
As Breton Bay Coffee Company grows, Voigtlander plans to expand the business to offer ground coffee and shipping to customers outside of Maryland. Breton Bay Coffee Company provides a delicious and unique local option for coffee lovers in St. Mary’s County and beyond.
Learn more about the roasting process in the full episode: https://youtu.be/G2zs__J6VP0
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Once a week, Century 21 New Millennium Realtors Chris Hill and Mark Frisco ‘Get Real’ with topics surrounding life in Southern Maryland while showcasing local business tastings and highlighting hidden gems in the area.
You can watch or listen to previous episodes at: www.thebaynet.com/podcasts
If you’ve got a great podcast idea or an awesome business you want to be mentioned, email us at partnerships@thebaynet.com. We’d love to hear more about it!
1 time i had to do that. A lady at church gave me a bag of coffee for Christmas & by accident\ on purpose, it was unground. Nobody has coffee grinders anymore, so spoon by spoon, over the course of about 6 months, I had a bag of coffee.
I grind my own but at $18 a bag, one could become homeless buying these beans.
Figure out a plan to solve homelessness…open up a consulting co to offer services to ALL metropolitan areas that haven’t figured out how to do anything more than to continue ‘enabling’ the homeless in their areas. Become wealthy and well known. Retire early.
1. Solve local homelessness.
2. Document the steps.
3. Open consulting firm.
4. Offer up services for metropolitan areas that have been trying to figure this out…for years.
5. Go into the history books for solving a nationwide epidemic.
6. Retire early.