Chattz owners to open roasting studio

Before Evelyn Wheeler started roasting coffee in 2002, she admits she never thought about how coffee was made.

The co-owner of Chattz Coffee quickly learned, and was fascinated by all that goes into the process.

With their new roasting studio on Broad Street, Ms. Wheeler and business partner Eileen Mason will give the public the chance to see how their coffee gets made, beginning from when it is a tiny, green bean.

"We have that vision for it, that people can come in and really see what the coffee looks like before its roasted, what the process is like," Ms. Wheeler said. "I think people will get really excited when they can come in and see the process."

The Chattanooga Coffee Co. Roasting Studio will open in late November on Broad Street.

The Market Street location will remain open and continue to operate as Chattz.

The 1,900-square-foot space for Chattanooga Coffee will be divided to house a retail coffee shop on one side, and the roasting will be done on the other.

The owners spent several months getting the space ready and ran into several roadblocks along the way, including damaged equipment and flooding. As a result, Ms. Wheeler said she does not yet know what the total investment will be in the new location.

Bailey Cole manages wholesale distribution of the coffee, roasted and sold at area restaurants and grocery stores under the Chattanooga Coffee Co. brand.

Ms. Cole will work primarily from the new Broad street location. After buying their coffee, customers will be able to sit at tables near the roaster and the burlap bags of roasted coffee beans.

"(The new location) is going to bring them a lot closer to their morning cup of coffee," Ms. Cole said. "It's going to tie together where the coffee is coming from, the process it goes through and what makes it as good as it is when they have it in the morning."

Ms. Wheeler and Ms. Mason began roasting their own coffee when they opened Chattz in September 2002. The roasting was done in a 1,000-square-foot corner of a large warehouse on King Street. Ms. Mason and Ms. Wheeler roast about 1,000 pounds each week. The coffee is served at Chattz along with several restaurants in the area.

They decided it was time to move the facility to where the public could see more of what's going on.

The new space also will allow them to have tastings, or cuppings, where people can come in and sample different types of coffee and learn about the origin of the coffee beans, how the roasting changes it and why it tastes the way it does.

"They are going to see that (roasting coffee) really is an art form," Ms. Cole said.