Meet Carrie Medley of Union Coffee Roaster in Ayer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carrie Medley.

Carrie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The idea for Union Coffee Roaster began in our car one day, as my husband Jesse and I were heading home, about to get ready for the next day of work (I was in administration and he was in construction). We were both restless with the positions we were holding so I thought out loud, “well, why don’t we open a coffee roaster?”. I had worked in a cafe for nearly 5 years in the South End of Boston and he had been home roasting for years.

So, we decided to jump into it. From first thought to opening it was only roughly 8 months. We’re very lucky with the success we’ve had since day 1, but the success stems, we believe, from our mission of quality & consistency, always. We roast all of our coffee in small batches (6-8 pounds per) & we offer only quality products from local milk to organic, fairly traded chocolate. I bake all of our muffins and scones from scratch, in house, and we offer local baked confections and gluten free goods, as well.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t believe any business starts and thrives without struggle. I would say that our main struggle was the sheer amount of time and energy it took to get our business off the ground and through the first year. We opened the shop with just the two of us.

During the day time open business hours, I was helping customers and Jesse was making the espresso beverages. After business hours was the time that we actually completed our task; me, keeping up making baking batters & administrative items and Jesse roasting all of our beans plus Q & A (cupping all samples, analyzing roasting graphs, etc.). It was a struggle for sure- keeping up with the demand and making sure our quality was always top notch.

Union Coffee Roaster – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We specialize in small batch, socially responsibly sourced beans from all over the world- we currently offer multiple Nicaragua coffees (from Gold Mountain Coffee Growers, a social enterprise who connects partner coffee producers with roasters directly), as well as coffees from Brazil, Burundi, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sumatra and a water processed decaf. We also always carry our house blend, which is a blend of two coffees, one from a small farm in Colombia & one from a small farm in Brazil and an espresso blend that is excellent in milk based drinks. We’re most proud of our commitment to quality and that we are trying to be as responsible as possible in terms of our coffee buying. We know that many coffee farmers & their countries of origin are struggling everyday and we really feel that change is possible. We love doing our part and we look to do more in the future- we plan on supporting a young Nicaraguan woman through college and also plan on working on an environmental or social project with our Rotary International club.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Our proudest moment happened when we were in Matagalpa, Nicaragua visiting coffee farms with Ben Weiner of Gold Mountain Coffee Growers. We were able to meet two pairs of farmers, two husband and wife teams, that we partner with. The thing that made us proudest was being able to brew them Jesse’s roasts of their coffee. We brought an entire brewing set up- our Aeropress, Hario hand grinder, & MSR Whisper Lite stove- and brewed them their own coffee on their farms. These farmers hadn’t truly tried their own coffee before, most farmers sell all of their crop in order to make the maximum profit. To see their reactions when they tried their own incredible coffees was worth the whole business- they were all elated, surprised and eager to continue the quality or even improve their processes because of the tasting!

Contact Info:

• Address: 25 Main St.,
  Ayer, MA 01432
• Website: www.unioncoffeeroaster.com
• Email: carrie@unioncoffeeroaster.com
• Instagram: @unioncoffeeayer
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/unioncoffeeayer

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