Passion House Coffee Roasters
1. How long have you been in business?
In March it will be 5 years.
2. How did you get started?
I loved the Beat Generation. They were always hanging out in coffee shops, discussing life and pushing boundaries and that was a setting I wanted to be in. At the time I was in high school and I needed a job. Starbucks had just opened in Glenview so I took the opportunity to jump into the world of coffee. It was amazing because I was learning about countries all over the world, while being of service and learning how to make amazing coffee. After college I moved to San Diego and really dove into specialty coffee. I helped open and run a café downtown, and then was recruited to roast for Cafe Calabria. Eventually, I moved back home, and worked for another roaster in Evanston. I enjoyed working in the coffee roasting business, but the way I wanted coffee to be portrayed and a company to function never fully lined up with the companies that I worked for. I founded Passion House Coffee Roasters to pursue my vision.
3. What’s unique about your story or business?
Our perspective on coffee and life is what sets us apart. We continually strive to elevate coffee, while integrating a business dedicated to self-growth.
One of the best things we did as a company was to break up the coffees into genres: Ambient, Mainstream, and Experimental. This gave us the ability to communicate with consumers in a very direct and clear way. It created an expectation of what the coffee was going to taste like and provided a way to navigate and explore coffee with ease.
Practicing yoga and meditating helps me daily to slow down, and look inward. Knowing all the benefits of yoga and meditation, we created a space for the team members to practice. We do daily meditations and weekly yoga. I have found this helps us to connect and create a space for openness. We plan to expand this to our customers and non-customers this year.
4. What is the biggest challenge you have faced in business and how did you overcome it?
I have a tendency to want to control everything, and I am working on overcoming this challenge by understanding that I can only control myself, be in the flow with my team, and to consciously be hands off. I find meditation to be really beneficial. Lots of meditation!
5. Please list a few of your most recent accomplishments
Here are just three:
In March it will be 5 years.
2. How did you get started?
I loved the Beat Generation. They were always hanging out in coffee shops, discussing life and pushing boundaries and that was a setting I wanted to be in. At the time I was in high school and I needed a job. Starbucks had just opened in Glenview so I took the opportunity to jump into the world of coffee. It was amazing because I was learning about countries all over the world, while being of service and learning how to make amazing coffee. After college I moved to San Diego and really dove into specialty coffee. I helped open and run a café downtown, and then was recruited to roast for Cafe Calabria. Eventually, I moved back home, and worked for another roaster in Evanston. I enjoyed working in the coffee roasting business, but the way I wanted coffee to be portrayed and a company to function never fully lined up with the companies that I worked for. I founded Passion House Coffee Roasters to pursue my vision.
3. What’s unique about your story or business?
Our perspective on coffee and life is what sets us apart. We continually strive to elevate coffee, while integrating a business dedicated to self-growth.
One of the best things we did as a company was to break up the coffees into genres: Ambient, Mainstream, and Experimental. This gave us the ability to communicate with consumers in a very direct and clear way. It created an expectation of what the coffee was going to taste like and provided a way to navigate and explore coffee with ease.
Practicing yoga and meditating helps me daily to slow down, and look inward. Knowing all the benefits of yoga and meditation, we created a space for the team members to practice. We do daily meditations and weekly yoga. I have found this helps us to connect and create a space for openness. We plan to expand this to our customers and non-customers this year.
4. What is the biggest challenge you have faced in business and how did you overcome it?
I have a tendency to want to control everything, and I am working on overcoming this challenge by understanding that I can only control myself, be in the flow with my team, and to consciously be hands off. I find meditation to be really beneficial. Lots of meditation!
5. Please list a few of your most recent accomplishments
Here are just three:
- We customized our retail packaging to have a look that is clean and stands out.
- We revamped our website to be easy to use with a similarly clean design.
- We expanded our retail presence, including getting our coffee into Whole Foods stores throughout Illinois.