Join our Community of Independent Coffee Shops!
Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea has helped hundreds of independent coffee shops get off to a successful start.
Since 1991, we have roasted and packaged quality, great-tasting coffee in Columbus, Ohio while providing coffee shop consulting and startup support to entrepreneurs and independent business owners.
Supporting over 300 independent coffee shops and businesses around the country, we know how to help businesses grow for the long term.
We can show you how to start and grow a successful independent coffee shop! To get started, map out your business after reading 7 Steps to Success: a Common-sense Guide to Succeed in Specialty Coffee by Crimson Cup Founder and President Greg Ubert.
You don’t have to take it from us. Check out what some of our independent coffee shop owners are saying!
Jerry Bevel – Cpl. Ray’s Coffee in Midland, Texas
Tracy Heitmeyer – 5 Bean Coffee House in Reynoldsburg, Ohio
“Anytime that we need anything, Crimson Cup seems to be there for us,” says owner Tracy Heitmeyer of 5 Bean Coffee in Reynoldsburg, Ohio which opened more than 10 years ago using the 7 Steps process.
Kim Krantz – Coffee Chaos in Midland, Michigan
“The approach that Crimson Cup takes is to make me, at Coffee Chaos, the best shop that I can possibly be. That I can sell the most coffee that I can sell. That I’m giving the best product, the best service. All of those things are what they are helping me do. They want to make me successful. Because if I’m successful, Crimson Cup’s successful. That business model is so unique. That’s what sets them apart.”
“If you have a specific issue, there’s always someone there that’s going to be able to answer it. Whether it’s with a machine or specific products or recipes, they are right there by my side making sure that I am doing things the best possible way. As I got more into the business and knowing it better, when different problems arose – whether it was with maintenance with a machine or having some issues with shipping – a quick phone call to Crimson Cup and they’ve been able to answer my questions over the years.”
“It’s something that you start taking for granted because you know it’s always there. They’ve never failed me yet!“
Debbie Fulks, Court Street Coffee in Athens, Ohio
“Tasting the coffee is like – Oh my gosh! – This is like the best coffee I’ve ever had. This is so smooth. And it was so good. That kind of sold me right there.”
“They’re just a phone call away. If I have questions about drinks or equipment, marketing, staff … just anything. If the person I talk to first can’t answer, they point me to the right person. It has been invaluable.”
‘‘Sending new staff members to Crimson Cup headquarters for their training was huge. They come back motivated. They know how to use an espresso machine. They know how to make drinks. They understand where the coffee is coming from. They get to see how it’s roasted and all of the care that goes into creating the blends that we use. They come back motivated and excited about being baristas.”
Coffee Shop Owners Travel to Costa Rica
Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea invited members of the coffee shop community to travel to origin and connect with a coffee growing community in Costa Rica.
The goals: to share a much-loved passion for coffee, to create more sustainable relationships with coffee communities, and to offer an exclusive lifetime experience for the coffee shop owners.
Here are some of their comments about the experience:
“Breathtaking. Incredible. Unbelievable. Amazing. That Crimson Cup allowed me an opportunity to come to Costa Rica solidifies a relationship.
“It shows me a commitment that they have to me as a coffeehouse owner and it really means a lot to me that I was given this opportunity.”
– Sheri Thomas, Sheri’s Coffee House, Norwalk
“To know that the coffee that we can is so well taken care of and that they preserve the environment as well really gives me a good feeling about what they do because it’s the same way I want to live.
How you feel – the passion behind it – that passion is here. To the ends that they go, to the means. I think that I trust.”
– Lynne Calvelage, Coffee Amici, Findlay
“It’s stunning. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. It’s just so expansive … I don’t even know how to describe it.
“The whole workings of what it takes to get a bean of coffee, it kind of blows my mind. It’s a lot.”
– Tracy Heitmeyer, 5 Bean Coffee, Reynoldsburg
“Just learning everything that I’ve learned about coffee. We went riding through the coffee plantation, the irrigation and the trees and the vastness of it. And then being told this was a medium to small operation. I was impressed.”
– Debbie Fulks, Court Street Coffee, Athens
“The thing that had the biggest impact on me during this trip is the meticulousness of the human touch to the bean.
‘Someone has to pick it. Someone has to load it. Someone has to push it. Somebody has to put it through. Somebody has to gather it. Somebody has to pick through it. They pick through them.”
– Lynne Calvelage
“They hand sort the coffee at the end, and we get the very best of the best.” – Tracy Heitmeyer
“This isn’t something that you typically see in the coffee industry. The hand processing, the quality assurance.
“They go as far as each table is then double-checked by an additional table and they’re still finding defects and getting out every last one of them.
“It just is amazing that the quality really shows up in the cup after a process like this.”
– Brandon Bir, Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea
“They’re going through the coffee bean by bean, picking out the best beans. It was just an amazing thing to watch, to engage with to be able to be a part of.”
– Sheri Thomas
“I’m overwhelmed thinking about what we’ve experienced and everything that we’ve been allowed to see and do. It’s like wow. I’m kind of humbled by it actually.”
– Debbie Fulks
“I think it’s really nice that Crimson Cup brought us down here. It was an opportunity I wouldn’t have had on my own. There’s a lot that goes into a cup of coffee.”
– Tracy Heitmeyer