In this post we'll feature a coffee roaster that provides private label coffee services.
In this case the roaster is K&F Coffee.
They are located in Portland, Oregon and provide Q-Grade certified coffee roasted from 100$ arabica coffee beans. They also sell Torani syrups.
Not only do they provide coffee wholesale to restaurants, hotels, and cafés, they also specialize in offering private label services and we'll detail all of what that means here.
The Coffee Roast
K&F looks to provide a good quality roast. They've been included in Oregon's “Top 30 Golden Bean North American Coffee Roasters” determined by Golden Bean in Fresh Cup Magazine, September 2019.
They've also won numerous awards and their founder, Don Dominguez is a certified professional Coffee Q Grader.
The business was recently taken over by Rudy Zarfas began his business relationship with K&F Coffee 20 years ago.
Their current roast master joined K&F in 1999 and is a licensed Q Grader who's actively involved in cuppings and workshops organized by the Specialty Coffee Association and Roaster’s Guild.
Private Labelling
K&F offer three private labelling options.
You can either select one of their already made house blends OR you can work with them to create you own custom roast.
According to their website the process seems very open and appealing to those who really want to define their own coffee product:
K&F Coffee Roasters will take you through the “cupping” process where you will compare the aromas and flavors of select beans to create your own private blend. Once you have identified your premier blend, K&F will go to work roasting your beans to create Your Perfect Cup!
The third option they offer is toll roasting. Toll roasting just means that you provide them the green coffee beans and they will roast them on your behalf.
Packaging & Labels
Fortunately they also provide packaging services with very few limitations.
You can have them print your own brand and logo on their labels or if you prefer you can get your own labels printed yourself and have them use those. If you're not sure how to go about printing your own labels they even offer to refer you to a Portland bases company who can assist.
Minimums and Requirements
While pricing needs to be determined once you've established a relationship and worked out your own requirements, they do have an order minimum of 120 pounds per coffee blend.
They also require that you order and taste some samples to choose your coffee blend before a private label agreement is setup, but offer to refund you the price of the samples if both parties choose to go forward with the partnership.
The minimum and requirements are explicitly intended to save both sides time as they state that they receive hundreds of private label requests per month, so ensure your serious about engaging them before exploring the service.
Next Steps
First, you'll want to use their website to order 12 ounce bags of coffee to try a few samples. Once you've naroowed down a few blends you're satisfied with you can visit their private label page and fill out the form here.