Dynamite Roasting Co. circled the globe to build a successful local business and support organic farmers in the coffee belt

Patrick Shaw tests Dynamite Cold Brew ice cream by The Hop

When Andy Gibbon first started roasting coffee in a craftsman bungalow on the side of Hwy 70 as it enters (or exits) Black Mountain, the business plan he had written for Dynamite Roasting Co. was wholesale only. But the aroma of roasting beans wafting from the building lured neighbors and passersby inside, pleading for a cup of fresh-brewed coffee.

Struggling at the time to build a wholesale clientele (it was 2008), Gibbon woke up and smelled the coffee. “This is how the accidental café was born,” says CEO Patrick Shaw. “For the first two years, the café and roasting operation co-existed in the same space, which did a lot to generate the Dynamite magic we still benefit from today. Customers got to really understand where their coffee comes from and what happens in the roasting process. It built relationships.”

Relationship-building has been driving the business since its start, when Gibbon committed to sourcing, roasting and selling 100% organic coffee. To do that, he began traveling to the ‘coffee belt,’ found in tropics around the world. He first focused on Marcala, Honduras, home to COMSA, an organic coffee cooperative which adheres to a microlot program, sourcing exceptional coffees from individual farms and individual producers.

“Most coffee is put into general lots from all different farms from a certain area will send all their coffee together for processing and it all gets lumped together and judged on overall quality,” Shaw explains. “Microlots keep coffee segregated according to which producer they come from, and because they are above a certain threshold deemed exceptional quality, they can receive a higher price for those producers.”

Oscar Omar Alonzo, a Dynamite Roasting Co. All-Star for 14 years

Dynamite’s longest-term relationship – 14 years – is with Oscar Omar Alonzo, one of the founding partners of COMSA in 2012. When Alonzo switched from conventional farming to 100% organic, he dedicated the first farm as Finca Cual Bicicleta, which is the name of Dynamite’s most popular coffee from their roster of All Star producers.

There are six currently featured All Stars on the Dynamite website – and more on the archived list. Gibbon and other Dynamite staff travel at least once annually to origin countries and producers, strengthening bonds over shared meals and trips into the fields. The producers and their families – from kids to grandmas — also visit Asheville as guests of Dynamite.

Shaw’s history with the coffee industry goes back to his grandfather, who started a roasting business in Norcross GA over 50 years ago, and then handed the reins to Shaw’s father. Patrick Shaw wanted nothing to do with coffee, and after high school spent a few years as a diesel mechanic before switching to the vending machine business. He and his wife moved to Asheville in 2004; through his job with the Compass Group, he met and built a friendship with Gibbon.

After navigating his team through Covid, with his wife’s encouragement, Shaw was ready for a career change. Around the same time, Dynamite was completing construction of their own expansive facility. He approached Gibbon about coming to work with Dynamite, and in January 2021, clocked into his first day on the job.

Coffee cherries on the tree in Honduras

In 2022, he bought into the company as part-owner, and about two years later, Gibbon passed the CEO torch to him as he took a step back from day-to-day in Black Mountain.

Shaw says that to select the beans from the microlot program, they typically taste 80 to 100 coffees – through a practice called cupping – and purchase about ten per year.

The sacks of processed beans – which are picked as ‘cherries’ off the trees on the farm – are shipped into New York or Jacksonville, trucked to Black Mountain and stored in the Dynamite building to be roasted as orders are placed.

When Dynamite moved into its own solar-powered building – with 156 panels on the roof – they purchased the Cadillac of roasters – a Loring full bag coffee roaster that runs about five hours a day, five days a week. “We can roast a full 70-kilo sack of coffee at a time in 14-17 minutes.”

They carry about a dozen types at one time, in addition to limited seasonal releases. Their consistent best-seller is Suplicar Clemensia – a big-bodied dark roast that translates to ‘beg for mercy.’

Retail customers can find Dynamite Roasting Co. coffee in grocery stores, specialty markets, at the Black Mountain Coffee Bar and online, and can choose whole bean or ground in one- or five-pound bags. The company has found a way to decaffeinate two types of coffee so meticulously that blind taste testers have been fooled.

Dynamite Nitro Cold Brew Pow!

Their newest product, launched about a year ago, is Pow! canned nitro cold brew, only available locally.

Shaw says that most people in the coffee industry prefer a light roast which allows the intrinsic qualities of that coffee to be tasted. He most often does the pour-over method of brewing and drinks his coffee black, from a mug. “We have quite the collection of mugs in the building. Everyone has their favorite.”

Dynamite’s website has a helpful tutorial on different types of brewing methods, and tips for which of their coffees are best for that type of brew. But as Shaw points out, “Our tag line is coffee for everyone. We offer big dark roasts and fruity light roasts and everything in between. We make no judgement and only want our customers to enjoy their coffee however they choose.”

More about Dynamite Roasting Co.

— Written by Kay West

— AIRfare is sponsored by McGuire Wood & Bissette

Photos courtesy of Dynamite Roasting Co.