Featuring Dave's Homeroast Coffee!

Welcome to one of our newest members, Dave of Dave's HomeRoast Coffee.

We asked Dave some questions, and here is a little about him and his company!

From Dave's shop announcement:
Dave's Homeroast is a better way to enjoy coffee. It's better because it's fresh - I roast to order. It's better because I ship free. Most importantly, it's better because it directly benefits charity.

100% of the money you spend benefits Batten Disease Support and Research Association. I donate my costs, including raw materials and shipping. Batten disease is a rare, terminal illness which afflicts one of my sons, Clifford.

More information on Batten disease can be found on the Internet, at www.bdsra.org.


Tell us how you came to be in the coffee business. Why coffee? Where do you get your flavor ideas? How did you first hear about Etsy?

My coffee is too good not to share and too valuable to give away. Having an online component makes it convenient for anyone to buy it, whether they know me or not. The goal wasn't to go nationwide so much as it was to offer convenience.

My main supplier is www.sweetmarias.com, but there are a number of other places that sell to homeroasters. I try to have on hand some from Central/South America and some from the Indonesian region (Sumatra/Sulawesi) - different people have different tastes. And I try to have some I want to try myself. I throw it all up there and see what sells.

I have long been interested in improving my coffee experience, from the first time I got a grinder and some beans as a gift in the early 1990's. I've gone through various kinds of beans, a lot of Eight O'Clock and Dunkin' Donuts, before a friend at church said, "Boy, my neighborhood smells great - the guy next door roasts his own coffee in his garage." I decided to get more information about it, both online and through a book ("Home Coffee Roasting: Romance and Revival" by Ken Davids). By the time I finished my research, I had determined 1) I want to try this; 2) which method to use. There are many, many ways to do this, most of which involve being creative and handy. I use an oven, placing the beans on a perforated cookie sheet. This allows me to roast one pound at a time without buying and/or modifying equipment.

A former co-worker is an Etsy merchant, selling scarves and the like. Once I learned I could sell food items on Etsy, I decided to give it a go!


What do you do for a living outside of Etsy?
Right now I am a reporter covering politics and government in Illinois. I work for a service whose clients are a little more than fifty radio stations that use us as their "Capitol bureau." Most of my career I was on in the early morning as a news anchor and am now getting used to sleeping in. In my current job, which I've had for two years, the hours almost entirely depend on what the state legislature is doing. The days they are in session can be very busy. But they are not in session every day.




You mention that your proceeds to the Batten Disease Support and Research. What is Batten Disease?
Batten disease (www.bdsra.org) has a longer name for which NCL is the abbreviation. It's a progressive, degenerative, neurological illness which is hereditary, incurable, and fatal. Cells which are supposed to self-clean instead build up waste. It works its way through his brain, destroying all the functions. The first manifestation is blindness, followed by behavior problems, seizures, difficulty walking, dementia, retardation, difficulty swallowing, etc. In the final stages the child is bedridden and uses a feeding tube. The life expectancy for the juvenile form (which he has - the others are infantile and late infantile) is late teens/early-mid 20's. He is unaware of the fatal consequences.

My son, Clifford is 11 and in sixth grade. He has Batten disease. He is doing very well in school with an aide and various therapists. At the moment he is in special ed all day except for band and some rotating special-interest classes. We found out he was blind when he was in first grade, and we learned about Batten disease at almost the same time. Each child we have has a 25% chance of having it. Isaac was a baby when we started with this, and he is negative.

Go get yourself some freshly toasted Coffee! Visit Dave's Shop to order today!