We were lucky to catch up with Kenny Beers recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kenny, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I returned from Cambodia where I had been helping youth and kids learn music. We used to take the kids to the zoo and they would see the Sun Bears and we could feed them. While I was in Cambodia a friend of mine taught me to roast coffee and gave me a shot on his roaster. He was the national barista champion in Cambodia at the time.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Upon returning to America and bored during Covid I started roasting coffee from the window of the second story of the apartment in St Pete. Our neighbor smelled it and asked to try. He asked if he could buy some the next week and told us we were onto something. We started selling our coffee at markets such as Winthrops Market in Riverview and Royal Palm Market and things just kind of caught on from there. Our coffee is always specialty graded 85 and up. We light roast single-origin coffees that we source from farmers who are far more amazing than us. We love roasting coffee and helping people elevate their coffee drinking!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think there is a very niche market for high end specialty coffee and the folks who get it really appreciate and are die hard loyal fans. We are so thankful for the ones who have believed and invested in us so far!

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

We have an incredible relationship with Rollin’ Oats Saint Petersburg. Honestly, we cannot keep it stocked enough! I think their patrons are already minded toward locally sourced items and appreciate the fact that we are local and it’s been a big hit. Our beans can be found at: Rollin’ Oats, Earth Origins, Pete’s Bagels & Sans Market.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sunbearspecialtycoffeeroasters.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunbearspecialtycoffeeroasters/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drinksunbear
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sunbearspecialtycoffeeroasters