We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amber White. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amber below.

Amber, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How has Covid changed your business model?

Covid changed everything about my life and it was the perfect opportunity for me to start a new business, so Porcupine Coffee Roasting was born during the Covid lockdowns. In 2020/2021, I was working as a speech therapist via teletherapy. I lived in New Hampshire and worked with students and schools in California. Coffee roasting was a simple hobby at the time. A hobby that I started when I was going to graduate school for speech therapy.

When all the students were at home during the lockdowns, I experienced the biggest job burnout of my career. I loved working with the students, but I didn’t love the restrictions and demands the states put on me during that time. It was impossible to do my job ethically and in a way that would really help the students. As an escape and as a way to help me survive the school year, I bought myself a new home coffee roaster in December 2020.

Shortly after I got the roaster, my love for coffee roasting reignited. My husband and I decided that it was time for me to leave the speech therapy field and do something completely different. In March 2021, Porcupine Coffee Roasting was born, and we ordered a much larger (but still small) coffee roaster.

I needed to change careers completely and I am so happy that I did. Porcupine Coffee Roasting allows me to work how I want to work and when I want to work. I am the one calling the shots on how I want the business to grow and how quickly, not someone else who has a quota to meet.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Amber, the Owner & Head Roaster of Porcupine Coffee Roasting. I started this business after experiencing massive burnout while I was working as a speech therapist during the Covid Lockdowns.

We mainly roast Specialty grade coffee beans. Specialty coffee is the highest quality coffee you can get. Coffee is rated on a scale of 1-100 by highly skilled coffee cuppers/tasters. Coffee that receives a score of 80 or higher is typically considered Specialty. To receive that score, the coffee producers follow organic practices and follow the Specialty Coffee Associations standards. Another fascinating thing about Specialty coffee is how many hands actually touch the beans before they make it into your cup. Specialty Coffee producers harvest their coffee by HAND and not using machines. This ensures that the bean that is going into your cup is picked at its peak ripeness. So you’re not drinking unripe beans, which can give you a coffee headache.

Porcupine Coffee Roasting is considered a MICRO coffee roaster because our machine can only roast about 3 pounds at a time. So all our coffee is small-batch and can vary slightly from batch to batch. We offer a monthly coffee subscription where our subscribers get a bag of our Coffee of The Month, delivered to their door each month that they pre-pay for. The bean and roast levels are different each month.

We are a Private Membership Association, which means all our sales are private. This allows us a lot more freedom in running our business. We don’t charge a membership fee, however, we do make customers agree to our Membership Agreement every time they order through our website.

Porcupine Coffee Roasting also accepts multiple forms of currency. We take the typical Dollar, but we love accepting Bitcoin, Silver coins, Goldbacks, and Ammo. We also enjoy bartering with other small businesses or customers. We currently barter coffee for meat and raw milk products with local NH farms.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

I get most of my new customers through my website and events that I attend. Farmers Markets during the spring and summer seasons are a great way for the locals to experience my coffee before buying a bag. It allows me to talk with them and build a relationship that people are looking for when they choose to support small businesses. My website draws in out-of-state customers that are looking for a coffee subscription, and locals who want bigger bags of coffee.

In each of these interactions, my customers are dealing with me directly. If they order through the website and need to be aware of something (like shipping times), I am the one who emails them. These types of interactions turn into word-of-mouth recommendations and then turn into new customers.

I love receiving notifcation that one of my subscribers has gifted a friend or family member a coffee subscription! It truely means the world to me, knowing that my coffee makes others happy enouh to share it with others!

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

In December 2022, we moved to a new property that had a barn on it. My husband and I were planning on fixing it up and putting the business in there, After some flooding, we realized the business couldn’t live or function in the barn. We decided that we needed a shed big enough to house the roaster, coffee stock, and all supplies to run the business. Having just moved, and dealing with major house issues, money was tight, I decided I needed to ask for help.

From January to April, I couldn’t roast on my machine, so I had to ask a few local roasters if I could roast on their machines. They were all incredibly kind and helped me learn and roast on their machines. I was able to roast for my subscribers without having to pause for a few months. I am so grateful for the other roasters who helped me out!

In February/March we launched an Indiegogo Campaign, asking for help, from the community, to purchase a pre-built shed so we could resume roasting. We were asking for $7000. It was a big chunk of money to ask for, but anything helped. It was a risk because I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. I used a couple of promoters to get the campaign out there to other platforms, but I didn’t see many results.

The biggest amount of donations came from an event I was a vendor at for 3 days. I offered free cups of coffee to the event attendees and asked for donations for the shed. We raised about $1000 in donations and had a SUPER BACKER ($1000 contribution through the campaign) come through! It was a really great event!

We didn’t reach our $7000 goal but we got close! Between the Indiegogo campaign, outside donations, and savings, we were able to purchase a shed in April and a week later it was delivered! Since getting the shed, I’ve seen consistent growth each month and love telling future customers that our coffee is roasted out of a shed that other customers helped us get!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.porcupinecoffeeroasting.com
• Instagram: @porcupinecoffeeroasting

Image Credits
The first three uploaded pictures were done by Allan Wolf – Wolf Reel Visuals, and the remaining three were done by myself.