“A Fusion of Art and Science” A Passion for Roasting Quality Coffee with Trail Creek Coffee Roasters
Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with Jim and Crystal Whitmarsh, who turned a college dream into a reality through their business, Trail Creek Coffee Roasters.
Photo contributed by Jim & Crystal
Michigan natives, Jim and Crystal Whitmarsh, met in college while he pursued degrees in mechanical engineering and business, and she in exercise science and physical therapy. Over many college hours spent lingering in coffee shops, their relationship developed, as did a blue sky idea to own a coffee shop someday.
“We were set up on a blind date and ended up going to a local coffee shop. We spent a lot of our dating time there and started to dream about opening up a shop of our own one day. But we never thought it would include roasting and didn’t think it would happen till we were retired and beyond our professional careers.” Crystal said.
Jim and Crystal married and his first job out of college brought them to Minnesota, originally to the Mankato area, where they settled down and started a family, now consisting of two boys. Jim was working as a production and shipping supervisor, moving his way up in that company for the next decade, while Crystal worked in a hospital in Mankato.
In 2014, the same year their first son was born, Jim started experimenting with roasting coffee with a popcorn popper. He would roast once a week and just enough for them to use at home, but he was hooked on the process and in February of 2017 they purchased a small commercial roaster and pursued a cottage food license to begin selling coffee as Trail Creek Coffee Roasters. In that same year, they moved to Kasson, Minnesota, which was prompted by Crystal’s job transition from Mankato to St. Mary’s in Rochester, predominantly working with patients recovering from brain and spinal cord injuries.
Shortly after they purchased the roaster and moved Kasson, they started selling their coffee at nearby farmers markets and community events.
“We popped around to all the events that we could to start getting our name out there, and our customer base started to grow.”
Before long, their side hustle hobby began turning into its own full time job and Jim and Crystal started weighing their options as they were both still working their other jobs full time as well.
“Jim would wake up at four in the morning to commute to work in Mankato, work a full day, and commute back home. We would eat dinner together and then he would often roast in the garage until midnight. It reached a point of being unsustainable. We decided that we either needed to put a cap on orders and events, hire someone, or figure out how Jim could move away from his job to roast full time.” Crystal explained.
Jim had fallen in love with the roasting process and they decided to start looking for a space where they could run a commercial level roastery. Crystal reached out to the city administrator of Kasson about spaces that could work well for their project and at their recommendation looked into a space that at one time was a local library and, before that, a post office. The space needed a lot of work, but they decided that it was the best fit for what they had in mind and started leasing it.
In March of 2019, after a long and somewhat frustrating build-out process, the roastery officially opened for business and Jim transitioned out of his other job and into running the roastery full time. They transitioned from a cottage food license to being licensed through the Department of Agriculture as a commercial roastery and started providing beans to grocery stores, restaurants, and coffee shops as well as selling at the Rochester Farmers Market with a small espresso cart.
“It was initially really challenging getting our name out there and marketing our product. It takes quite a lot of courage to approach businesses about carrying our beans. We know we’re small, but also know that we can provide a really wonderful coffee product. Sometimes it takes multiple approaches and you have to get used to hearing no a lot.”
Today, you can find their coffee beans at fourteen different locations and their brewed coffee at seven different spots between Rochester, Kasson, and Byron!
Like many businesses, the pandemic provided its challenges to Jim and Crystal and their business but also pushed them to make some positive changes.
“In some ways it ended up being a huge blessing. We really started pushing online sales and pivoted to free local delivery within twenty miles of the roastery, which we’ve continued to do. We also started curbside pick-up for drinks.”
In February of 2021, business had picked up enough to require a change in equipment. Jim was still roasting on their small commercial roaster which could only roast three pound batches at a time. They purchased a larger roaster from Mill City Roasters out of the Twin Cities, with which Jim can roast a little over twenty-six pounds of coffee per batch. Around that time they also purchased a few other pieces of equipment to save time and streamline the roasting and bagging process.
At Trail Creek Coffee Roasters, they focus on roasting single origin coffees with beans from Ethiopia, Peru, Tanzania, Columbia, and Guatemala as well as an espresso blend. They’ve also collaborated with multiple charities such as The Landing and Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch to develop special roasts for fundraising purposes.
Photo by Tiffany Alexandria.
Though the business requires both Jim and Crystal to wear many different hats and do many different kinds of work, Jim enjoys roasting the most.
“My favorite part of roasting is really being in tune with the coffee, from hearing first crack to seeing the color change as the roast progresses. I enjoy the challenge of working with different types of coffee and fine tuning the management of each roast with various heat and airflow settings. It ends up being a cool fusion of art and science.” Jim said.
He continued, “You don’t have to have a technical degree to roast coffee, anyone can learn how, but you do need to pay close attention and be detail oriented. There are a lot of nuances to roasting coffee well.”
Photo contributed by Jim and Crystal
In the future, Jim and Crystal would like to expand their distribution to provide coffee in more grocery stores and businesses as well as grow to have a coffee trailer for markets and events. Their roasting location is also a work in progress, which they purchased from the city in May of 2022, and they would like to eventually convert it into a coffee shop space where people can come in and enjoy their coffee. They’ve also started cultivating some relationships with coffee growers in the hopes to import coffee directly from them someday.
When they aren’t busy with work, they enjoy spending time with their sons, often hiking and being outdoors as much as they can.
As a word of advice to others considering starting a business, Crystal said, “Write down what your dream is for the business along with a business plan, as boring as that may be, and keep referring to it throughout the process of getting going. It can really help to guide you, especially as things get hard. You may question every day whether it's going to work or if it's worth it, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop. You know it's going to be hard, but also rewarding, which can get you through a lot of challenges.”
Thank you for taking the time to read Jim and Crystal’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about Trail Creek Coffee Roasters and where to find their coffee by clicking the link below!
A special thank you to our storytelling sponsor, Fredrikson & Byron, for their support! Their Midwest-based law firm is known as the firm “where law and business meet.” Their attorneys provide practical legal advice and advocacy that help people achieve their business goals. Just as Collider amplifies the voices or Rochester’s business community, Fredrikson & Byron helps new and growing businesses with a full range of services, combining a common-sense approach with decades of experience. to get things done for clients.
Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.
