We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Micah Hanks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Micah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Since Joanna and I have been married, 13 years, we always wanted to open a coffee shop. Between the two of us, we have about 12 years of coffee shop experience. Four years ago, I was working as a pilot and Joanna was an accountant. We felt that God was asking us to do something different… to create a space where people could come and rest in a crazy world. That was when we decided I was going to quit flying, sell everything, move to a small house on the edge of town, and open a coffee shop. The foundation of a coffee shop is the quality of the coffee. After tasting and searching for the perfect coffee roaster for our coffee shop, we came up empty. We then decided to started Double Shot Espresso Company and roast the coffee ourselves. I had dabbled in home roasting coffee and that was enough of an introduction for me to take formal classes and learn how the industry roasts coffee. I learned the rules so I knew which ones I could break to make our coffee beans taste different from anything else in the market. Specifically, I took the standard 13 minute roast and extended it to 40 mins to remove the bitterness and acidity from the bean. Having a solid plan for roasting, we bought our first roaster, which could roast 2.2 Kg at a time, and I renovated our detached single car garage into a manufacturing facility.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Joanna is a native to Ohio. Born and raised in Zanesville, she started drinking coffee in her teen years and it was mostly sugary, pre-made bottles from the grocery store. After moving to Atlanta, GA, she found the joy of making and serving coffee to people who needed the cup to make it to work. Nothing brightens up someone’s day like walking into a store and the employee knows what you want before you even say anything!! Joanna worked at a few different coffee establishments until she finally got a job at Nordstrom Espresso Bar where she met Micah.

Micah is a son of a military family. Never staying in one place too long, Micah found himself in Atlanta, GA working at a local coffee shop. His love of coffee didn’t come until he made drinks for other people. It fascinated him how one “simple” drink, coffee, could be crafted into limitless variations to accommodate anyone. A few coffee shop jobs later, Micah found himself working for Nordstrom Espresso Bar where he met Joanna.

We became the prefect blend (pun intended). The love and joy of working in the coffee industry never really left us. Finally, two kids later, we decided to take the leap of faith and open a coffee shop in Zanesville. This endeavor lead us to the realization that the way coffee was being presented in mainstream roasting was only one picture of this versatile bean.

Double Shot Espresso Company in Zanesville, Ohio has built a loyal customer family with a product that breaks industry norms — three times longer roast times than normal delivers an unforgettable flavor, paired with radical, people-first hospitality. We don’t just make great coffee, were are redefining what great coffee can be. The 40-minute roast doesn’t follow industry standards, and it doesn’t need to as the product speaks for itself: smooth, bold, memorable. But even more than that, we have built a brand that’s grounded in something deeper — hospitality that reflects Jesus by giving customer service that makes people feel seen and puts people first without sacrificing quality.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Pivot is the name of the game!! It seems like nothing ever goes to plan. Opening up a coffee shop had to pivot right out of the gate. We thought roasting coffee would be easy and could do it while we found a spot to put in a coffee shop. Surely, finding a location and opening a coffee shop wouldn’t take long. Four years later, our business has grown to the point where we had to expand roasting and still no spot for a coffee shop!

We have brought in products that we weren’t expecting because our customers asked for it. Our idea was to make cold brewed coffee for our customers in small, reusable glass containers. That sold so well, we decided to create a large bottle for our wholesalers. Once word got out we had big bottles, the customers only wanted copious amounts of coffee. We hadn’t planned on selling the product retail and had to adjust.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Yes, we manufacture coffee. The best smelling product in the world! Ok, maybe a little bias. As we mentioned before, roasting coffee was not our first choice. When we started down that road, we had no idea what we were doing. There is a big different between home machines and commercial machines. I had experience with home machines but that did not prepare me for the magnitude a commercial machine could do. Online classes, reading everything I could on the subject and even then, when the machine finally arrived, I was terrified! We just paid most of our cash for the machine with the expectation I could make a delicious product people wanted. It felt like the success of our business was on my shoulders. At first, I kept telling myself mistakes were costly and bad. That only exasperated every mistake I made. Do not recommend doing that. Eventually, I realized it was ok for me to make mistakes. Those mistake were the catalyst for what I now call my craft. I have developed skills that make our coffee stand out and I would not be here today if I didn’t make mistakes and learn from them.
It only took 1 year to grow out of our first roaster which we named “‘Lil Bean”. We were able to upgrade, with the help of an investor, to a 15Kg roaster. We managed to squeeze it into our space and it is HUGE! We thought we over bought in size and that we would never do full roasts on it… but that only took about 6 months. Now we are doing almost full roasts of all of our coffee origins.
Our greatest difficulty right now is space. We need more space to grow and the desire to start a coffee shop is still forefront in our minds. Our eyes and ears our tuned to what and where this next step is. Until then, just keep roasting…. just keep roasting!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.doubleshotespressocompany.com/
• Instagram: @doubleshotespressoco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doubleshotespressocompany/
• Other: email: [email protected]

Image Credits

Photo credits: Tim Trace