McBee Coffee Co | Jay & Autumn
Hi there - so glad you are here! I hope you have a few minutes (sipping a steamy cup of coffee, of course) to learn a little about us.
We didn’t intend to become coffee roasters but here we are. The journey really began more than a decade ago when I realized I was no longer satisfied with grocery store coffee - even the “good” stuff.
I (Autumn) started evaluating every cup of coffee I drank; at home, coffee shops, friends’ houses, and restaurants. Now this wasn’t with any sort of studied knowledge of what qualities coffee should contain. No I was very simply asking, “Is this enjoyable?” Not just drinkable, but the kind of coffee that you are looking forward to drinking the next morning.
I can still remember sitting at a local restaurant with Jay, when I took a sip of coffee and looked at him across the table. I found it, a simple but delicious cup of coffee!
Turns out, this restaurant sourced their coffee from a local Austin roaster. In turn, this roaster became our first coffee source. Little did we know that would lead us to start roasting our own coffee.
But why? Well, both Jay and I come from long lines of self-sustaining, hard-working folks, who haven’t chosen easy over better. We embody many of those same traits — we’ve built much of our own furniture, we take an unpaved road when the opportunity presents (for the scenery), and Jay even edges our lawn with scissors.
What does any of that have to do with coffee roasting? Let’s just say we are the quintessential DIYers. As our love of coffee developed my curiosity in how to create good coffee was piqued. So I did what I always do…I researched.
I learned that coffee beans can be roasted in a Whirley-Pop (made for popcorn) and I can pop a pretty good bowl of popcorn so I figured I could give that a try. Once I figured out where to get green coffee beans I gave it a whirl.
By my third try, we were drinking some of the best coffee we had in years.
After sharing our coffee with friends who had encouraged us in launching our coffee roasting business, we knew the Whirley-Pop had run its course. We stepped up to a Behmor which provided the ability to roast more beans at a time and I didn’t have to churn it manually the whole time either.
While that was quite a bit more efficient than the Whirley-Pop, at best we could produce about a pound an hour. We realized we had to make the leap to a Bullet roaster, and what a game changer it has been.
We both have day jobs and with this roaster we can roast enough coffee to meet our current demands. Most importantly, we still have some free time to take an unpaved road when the opportunity presents itself.
The beans we roast are sustainably grown and sourced from small farmers in the local regions. This helps support other small business and their communities, which is important to us.
You may be wondering, Who is McBee?” McBee is my maiden name, and it just felt right that our little roasting company should honor that name and who those people were that came before us.
My great-grandparents loaded up their family and few possessions in a covered wagon and headed out looking for a better life. Jay also has a set of great-grandparents that left the family and home they knew hoping to make a better life during the Great Depression.
While venturing out to roast small batch, artisan coffee is hardly comparable to the hardships our families endured to make a better life for themselves and future generations we think they would appreciate the legacy they created. McBee Coffee Co. is part of that legacy.
McBee Coffee Co was born out of our simple desire to bring flavorful, sustainable coffee to our friends, family, and community. We want our coffee to be what you look forward to drinking each morning, that you want to linger over with family and friends gathered around a table or savored with a delicious dessert.
Let us share our coffee with you! You will be back for more.
~Jay and Autumn,
worker bees of McBee Coffee Co.
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