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

Zachary , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

In 2020, the pandemic arrived and I (Zach) was let go from my job while my wife, Sara, was working. We knew, despite there being a pandemic, people’s coffee addictions hadn’t disappeared, so we began laying the groundwork for Edina Coffee Roasters. In doing so, we decided to focus on sourcing and roasting delicious coffees- launching first with three foundational blends and later expanding to a mix of blends and single origin offerings. Launching with three main coffees and a decaf option helped keep our options simple and easy to discern from each other making it easy for decision-making.

In January, we solidified the look of our coffee bags, blend names, and finished setting up our website. The last thing to do was launch!

Our first production roast was February 1st, 2021. It felt surreal in that all the pieces were coming together and it was about to start going out to our friends and family. It was such an awesome moment.

Just before launching, we acquired a coffee cart made by Sara’s dad, paired with a used espresso setup. We knew the easiest way to connect with the community was to go out and participate in farmers markets, makers markets, offer a catering service, and say yes to whatever we could. We moved forward with those plans, making the decision to try every experience once and go from there. The cart has helped us communicate what our coffee is like while allowing us to display some creativity in drink recipes that have opened our community up to us not just for sourcing locally roasted coffee but for going out to our pop-ups and trying something fun or different and taking in the community environment.

In the past year and a half, we’ve seen steady growth as we’ve been focused on building connections with the community. We know that quality matters but more so are the connections. Our hope is to deliver on both consistently and to share the same passion as we grow our team later on.

Zachary , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My wife and I have always wanted to own a coffee business. We always saw the value in how people come together over coffee and we wanted to be part of that process. In 2008 we got married and a few months later I began working in coffee.

After immersing ourselves in coffee for the past fourteen years, coffee and hospitality are just a natural overflow from us. It excites us to connect with others and make them great coffee.

We launched Edina Coffee Roasters with the main tenants of sourcing and roasting delicious coffee and meeting others where they’re at. We do online retail, wholesale, and pop-ups for public and private events.

In coffee roasting, we approach each coffee with the intension of bringing out the most natural sweetness. Coffee has acidity, brightness and sweetness, and if we can roast coffee in a way that accentuates the sweetness we believe we have elevated the most pleasing part to enjoy.

After launching, we put forward our partner program. With it, we walk beside store managers/owners, ensuring they have the tools to deliver quality coffee to their communities and offer training to their teams. At the end of the day, we are out to help our partners achieve the success they are looking for in their coffee program and do so in the easiest way possible.

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

We’ve been active in the coffee community for fourteen years. For me working in coffee as a barista, roaster, and manager. For Sara, participating in coffee events hosted across the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. By participating in community events, making many drinks over the years, challenging yourself to grow and be better, and prioritizing guest interaction, a reputation forms over time.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Sara and I(Zach) met each other in college in November ‘06. Sara was a senior and I was a junior taking a senior seminar class because it was all that worked in my school bus driving schedule. In class we were paired up having to share our hopes and plans for after graduation. Our faith, passions, and values aligned and in that we fell in love. Thirteen months later we were married. Our “plans” hadn’t quite gone the way we planned, but looking back, we wouldn’t have changed them. Absolutely grateful for all the experience and real life education we went through. It has added up to a ton of personal and professional growth and we were able to do that together. We are very fortunate to have gone and continue to go through each step together.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.edinacoffeeroasters.com
• Instagram: @edinacoffeeroasters
• Facebook: Edina Coffee Roasters