Running a successful café hinges on many factors, but few are as memorable as serving an exceptional cup of coffee.  For many café owners, the idea of roasting their own beans feels like the ultimate expression of their passion for coffee. While the concept is alluring, the reality of roasting is far more complex than it seems. The good news? You don’t need to own a roaster to deliver an outstanding coffee experience. By partnering with a specialty coffee roaster like Ember Coffee Co. in Minnesota, you can elevate the quality of your coffee without the financial and logistical challenges of in-house roasting. Here’s why outsourcing your coffee roasting could be the smartest move for your business. The Roasting Myth Debunked Many café owners dream of roasting their own coffee. It’s often seen as the ultimate hallmark of authenticity—a way to take full control over coffee quality and showcase true craftsmanship. But the reality of roasting is far more complex than it seems, and it’s important to separate perception from reality. Take a closer look at what roasting really involves: Significant Investment: Roasting equipment alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars. On top of that, mastering the craft requires extensive time, training, and practice. Operational Strain: Roasting isn’t just a side project—it’s an entirely separate business. Trying to juggle roasting alongside running a café often leads to burnout and a decline in the quality of your core operations. Consistency Challenges: Roasting may seem straightforward, but without years of experience, maintaining consistent quality across batches is incredibly difficult. While roasting may seem like the ultimate badge of credibility, the truth is that consistency is what matters most. Partnering with a trusted roaster can ensure reliable quality while freeing you to focus on what you do best—creating a great café experience for your customers. Sometimes, the most authentic thing you can do is prioritize quality above all else. 1. Consistency is King Icons in the coffee world aren’t born—they’re brewed. Exceptional coffee isn’t just about taste; it’s about trust. Delivering a perfect cup every time turns casual customers into loyal fans. At Ember Coffee Co., we’ve mastered the art of coffee roasting, ensuring every batch is bursting with clarity and unforgettable flavor. Our secret? Advanced air roasting techniques, used by fewer than 1% of roasters. This process eliminates smoky undertones found in traditional drum roasting, allowing each coffee’s unique personality to shine. Think bright, fruity African beans or the rich, comforting depth of South American origins—flavors that demand attention. When you partner with a specialty roaster like us in Minnesota, you can focus on what you do best: serving coffee your customers will rave about. Let us handle the roasting magic, so you can pour perfection into every cup. 2. Coffee is a Brand Statement Coffee plays a crucial role in defining your brand’s identity, especially for cafes and restaurants. It’s more than just another menu item—it’s often the first and last impression your guests have. A single bad cup of coffee can negatively impact their overall experience and perception of your business. Today’s consumers are more discerning than ever, with access to high-quality coffee equipment and beans at home. This means that when they visit your establishment, they expect a superior coffee experience that stands out. At Ember, we understand this demand and work to ensure your coffee meets and exceeds these expectations. Our expertly crafted roast profiles are designed specifically for real-world conditions, ensuring consistent flavor and quality regardless of the brewing method. From a perfectly pulled espresso shot to a smooth batch brew on a busy morning, Ember’s coffee is engineered to deliver exceptional results every time, solidifying your reputation and leaving a lasting impression on your customers. 3. The Art of Air Roasting: A Game-Changer for Coffee Lovers At Ember Coffee Co., we pride ourselves on using state-of-the-art air roasting technology to deliver a superior coffee experience. So, what exactly is air roasting, and why does it matter? Clarity of Flavor: Unlike traditional drum roasting, air roasting prevents the smokiness that can overpower a coffee bean’s natural characteristics. This method allows the true flavor profile of single-origin coffee beans to shine through, delivering a clean, vibrant taste in every cup. Even Roasting for Consistency: Air roasting ensures each coffee bean is roasted evenly, avoiding common issues like bitterness or underdeveloped "baked" flavors often associated with drum roasting. This precision results in a consistent, premium coffee experience every time. Highlighting Bean Origins: With precise temperature control, air roasting preserves and enhances the unique qualities of coffee beans. Whether it’s a bright Ethiopian roast or a bold Colombian, this method respects and amplifies the story behind every origin. For coffee enthusiasts searching for the best coffee brewing experience, air roasting offers a significant edge. From gourmet coffee aficionados to those looking for specialty coffee beans that stand out, our air-roasting process ensures a cup that’s not just good—it’s exceptional. Looking for premium air-roasted coffee? Ember Coffee Co. is your destination for high-quality, expertly roasted beans. 4. DIY Roasting: What You Need to Know Roasting your own coffee beans can seem like an exciting way to control quality and cut costs, but it often comes with significant challenges. For most café owners, the demands of in-house roasting outweigh the benefits. Here's why: Time and Resource Strain: Running a café is already a full-time commitment. Adding roasting operations means diverting resources, energy, and attention away from your core business. Initial Investment: Roasting equipment is expensive, often requiring thousands of dollars upfront. Beyond the equipment, you'll need space, ventilation systems, and specialized training to get started. Consistency Challenges: Roasting is a delicate process that requires constant monitoring, precise control of variables, and rigorous testing to maintain consistent quality. Mistakes during experimentation can lead to wasted beans, higher costs, and even dissatisfied customers. Regulatory Compliance: Depending on your location, roasting may require permits, inspections, and adherence to strict environmental regulations, adding complexity to your operations. While DIY roasting can work for some, for most café owners, it’s more efficient to focus on what truly matters: delivering exceptional coffee with reliable quality and consistency. At Ember, we specialize in expert roasting so you can focus on creating the perfect experience for your customers. Let us handle the complexities of roasting, and you’ll never have to compromise on quality. 5. Focus on Quality Over Trends Chasing trends might bring quick buzz, but real success comes from staying true to quality and craftsmanship. At Ember, we pride ourselves on responsible sourcing, partnering with trusted farmers who share our commitment to sustainability and excellence. Every bean is carefully selected and roasted with precision to ensure it delivers a balanced, delicious cup that highlights its unique flavors. Our menu is intentionally simple—no over-the-top gimmicks or unnecessary frills. Instead, we focus on what matters most: offering a curated selection of single-origin coffees and seasonal blends that are crafted to impress even the most discerning coffee drinkers. Whether you’re a connoisseur or just starting your coffee journey, we aim to deliver an experience that showcases the art of coffee at its best. 6. Grow Without Compromising Quality As your business scales, maintaining quality often becomes a challenge. This is where Ember Coffee steps in to make growth effortless and sustainable. We offer custom blend options tailored to your needs, inventory forecasting to ensure you’re always stocked, reliable shipping schedules to keep operations running smoothly, and private-label packaging to help you stand out. Whether your business is brewing 20 pounds of coffee per week or scaling up to 200, Ember’s systems are designed to adapt to your growth while keeping the same exceptional quality in every cup. Partner with us and scale with confidence, knowing your coffee program is built for success. 7. Coffee Operations Simplified Running a coffee program is about so much more than just sourcing great beans. It’s about creating seamless systems that maintain quality and efficiency across the board. That means everything from properly training your team, optimizing workflows for speed and consistency, and keeping equipment in peak condition. With our operator-first approach, we go beyond delivering exceptional coffee. We work with you to fine-tune every aspect of your coffee program. From detailed brewing guides and workflow design to troubleshooting equipment and offering expert support, Ember Coffee ensures your operations are smooth, reliable, and built for long-term success. Whatever stage your business is in, we’re here to help you craft a coffee program that excels. A Smarter, Easier Way to Serve Amazing Coffee Serving exceptional coffee at your café doesn’t mean you have to take on the complicated task of roasting. By partnering with a specialty roaster like Ember Coffee Co., you can deliver an unforgettable coffee experience without the hassle. Ready to take your coffee to the next level while focusing on what you do best? 📩 Get in touch with us today to see how teaming up with Ember Coffee can transform your coffee offerings. Great coffee doesn’t mean you have to roast—it just takes the right partner. With consistent quality, expert roasting, and a focus on your customers’ experience, you can create a coffee program that stands out while keeping things simple. Team up with Ember Coffee Co., and let’s help your café and coffee program thrive together.

At Ember Coffee Co., our goal has always been clarity in the cup and consistency in the craft. Based in Central Minnesota, we're a local coffee roaster committed to roasting coffee with heart, intention, and increasing precision. Our Café and Roastery operate with one guiding principle: do better, every batch. For the first few years, that meant relying on trust, paper logs, and what we could hold in our heads and our hands. But as we grew—adding team members, expanding our wholesale relationships, and increasing our volume—it became clear that our roasting operation needed structure. We needed a system to help us document what we were doing, share knowledge, and scale with integrity. That's when we chose Cropster. This blog post isn't a sales pitch. It's a transparent look at how we got here, what led us to adopt Cropster, and what it's unlocked for us as a growing Minnesota coffee roaster using air roasting technology. A Roastery at a Crossroads We started with a solid foundation: a clear vision for how we wanted to roast, a commitment to intentional sourcing, and a focus on delivering a consistent product. But even with all that, the tools we were using started to show their limitations. We were: Logging roasts manually or in disconnected documents Losing time trying to confirm roast consistency or troubleshoot batch issues Keeping track of green coffee inventory through spreadsheets Training new roasters through observation and repetition, without shared data All of this added up to a lot of behind-the-scenes labor that wasn't sustainable as volume increased. "We needed a better way to track what we were doing. We needed to get roast profiles locked in and make sure we were being consistent across the team." — Matt Berry Why Cropster Made Sense for Ember What made Cropster feel like the right choice wasn't just the feature set—it was that it adapted to what we were already doing. It didn't force us to change our roasting style. It let us build structure around it. As an air roasting operation, we already think in terms of heat transfer, airspeed, and timing. Cropster helped translate those variables into language we could all share across the team, with real-time data and historical tracking. "It's been really good just from a documentation standpoint, to be able to go back and reference previous roasts. Especially when we're training new roasters, and we're bringing them into the fold, it's really nice to say, 'Here's a really solid roast of this coffee. Let's take a look at it, let's study it.'" — Matt Berry Real Benefits We've Experienced 1. Better Training for a Growing Team Training is critical. At Ember, we want every roaster to understand the "why" behind what they're doing—not just follow instructions. Before Cropster, training meant watching Matt roast and taking notes. Now, we can walk new team members through a previous profile, explain the thinking behind key stages, and let them interact with data—not just machinery. "Our team's at a point now where other people are roasting. And I need to make sure they can look at previous roasts and ask: 'Okay, what's different about this roast than that roast?' And Cropster makes that really easy." — Matt Berry 2. Repeatability, Not Guesswork Every roast tells a story—and with Cropster, we can read it back. When a customer raves about a specific batch or a wholesale client wants to reorder the same profile, we can go back and match the roast exactly. The variables are right there: development time, temperature curves, turning points, and notes. This matters especially in air roasting, where roast dynamics move fast. Having live curve tracking gives us immediate feedback when something's off—before it gets into the cooling tray. 3. Inventory Visibility Before Cropster, green inventory tracking was a manual task. Now, it's built into our daily rhythm. We know: How much green we have in real time How much we'll need for upcoming orders When to reorder to avoid shortages This reduces stress during peak seasons and makes our sourcing more strategic. "I can just go into Cropster and see how much of that natural Ethiopia we've got left. It's right there, live." — Matt Berry 4. Tighter Communication With roasting, café operations, e-commerce, and wholesale all running in parallel, we needed a central source of truth. Cropster helped us build a system that connects: Production scheduling Roast logging Inventory forecasting Team communication This lets us spend less time rechecking details and more time roasting great coffee. Cropster + Air Roasting = Compatibility For those wondering: yes, Cropster works beautifully with air roasting, and it’s a game-changer for precision-driven roasting methods. Our roasting style relies heavily on precise airflow and fast heat transfer to achieve consistent and high-quality results. Cropster's real-time graphing and logging features make it easy to track every detail of the roast, allowing us to make on-the-fly adjustments or replicate a roast with exact precision. The software doesn’t just accommodate air roasting—it actively supports it with powerful tools like live temperature monitoring, detailed curve comparisons, and roast replay, giving us unparalleled control over the process. Whether you're using a fluid bed or hot-air roasting system, Cropster can help elevate your workflow. It enhances the clarity and control we value, making it easier to fine-tune profiles and experiment with different variables to get the perfect roast. If you’ve been unsure whether Cropster is the right fit for air roasting, we’ve found it to be an essential tool that empowers us to push the boundaries of what’s possible with this style of roasting. Advice to Other Roasters When we started growing as a local coffee roaster—especially one using air roasting—we learned a few key lessons along the way. First, it’s important to start small but track everything early on. You don’t need to activate every tool or feature right away. Begin with the basics like roast logging and inventory tracking, and let your system grow naturally alongside your business. We also found that building a shared language was crucial. Tools like Cropster give your team a common vocabulary for training, quality control, and planning. Embracing this shared language from the beginning made everything run more smoothly. Finally, integrating tools into your daily workflow is essential. Cropster really shines when it becomes second nature. From setting up roast schedules to using it during roasting sessions and reviewing afterward, the more we relied on it, the more valuable it became to our process. These lessons helped us streamline our operations and focus on what matters most—crafting great coffee. Looking Ahead Implementing Cropster didn't change what makes Ember unique—it supported it. As a Central Minnesota coffee roaster committed to craft and community, we believe technology should serve the people behind the process. That's what Cropster has done for us. It's become a tool that helps us focus less on the variables—and more on the coffee itself. We're still learning. We're still adapting. But thanks to tools like Cropster, we're doing it with more clarity, more consistency, and more confidence in every cup. Want to hear more about how we use Cropster day-to-day?Have questions about air roasting or managing a growing roasting team?Drop a comment, share this with a fellow Minnesota coffee roaster, or find us on Instagram @embercoffeeco. Let's keep raising the bar—one well-documented roast at a time.

By Matt Berry, Owner of Ember Coffee Like a lot of small business owners, I wear a lot of hats: roaster, operator, strategist, sometimes janitor. When we launched Ember Coffee, our mission was simple: roast exceptional coffee, build community, and do it with integrity.But scaling online? That’s a different beast. At one point, I decided to go all in on growing our e-commerce and subscription business. I set aside a dedicated marketing budget and started researching Facebook ads. I knew just enough to be dangerous, and to know I didn’t know enough. That’s when I made a decision that felt smart at the time. I hired a paid Facebook ads agency. This is the story of what happened, what I learned, and what I’d tell any other founder thinking about doing the same. Why I Hired an Agency I hired an ad agency because I didn’t want to waste money experimenting. Facebook ads are complex, constantly changing, and filled with nuance. I didn’t want to just run ads, I wanted someone to help me make that spend effective. The goal was simple:• Grow the number of coffee subscriptions• Build out our online store’s customer base• Do it efficiently, without burning cash I wanted a partner, someone I could trust to help us scale thoughtfully. Why I Chose the One I Did The agency came by referral. A customer at our café mentioned she’d worked with them for her own business and had seen a strong return. That helped cut through the noise, especially since digital marketing is full of hype and half-truths. What really impressed me was that when I first reached out, the owner of the agency actually turned me down. She said our site’s “add to cart” conversion rate wasn’t high enough and gave me a few actionable tips to fix it. I made the changes, saw results, and reached back out. This time, she agreed to work with me. It felt like I was in good hands. The onboarding was smooth, the team was organized, and they had impressive systems: custom templates, structured content folders, a whole playbook. It was one of the better onboarding experiences I’ve had with a service business. When Things Started to Unravel It only took a couple weeks before I noticed a shift. The founder who had onboarded me handed me off to someone else, an account manager who, while friendly, often seemed to be in another time zone (and sometimes another headspace). Response times slowed down. Our meetings started feeling rushed and underprepared. And most importantly, our return on ad spend (ROAS) was bad. Like sub-1.0 bad. For context: if your ROAS is under 1.0, you’re spending more to acquire a customer than that customer is spending with you. Every week I was told the same things:• “We’re still in the learning phase”• “We need more time to optimize”• “Let’s increase ad spend to improve results” That last one was especially frustrating. Because here’s the trick. It looked like things were going well. The roastery was busy. Orders were coming in. But once I looked closely at the data, I realized the growth wasn’t sustainable. The agency was spending thousands of dollars of my money on ads and encouraging deep discounts on top of that. Meanwhile, I was paying them $3,000 a month in management fees. It started to feel like I was carrying all the risk, and they were just along for the ride. The Economics Didn’t Add Up If you’re in the coffee business, you know margins are tight. Our average order value isn’t $300. It’s not even close. It’s specialty coffee, premium, yes, but affordable. For our math to work, we need a ROAS of at least 3.0 to cover cost of goods, fulfillment, ad spend, and overhead. Anything less than that, and we’re subsidizing growth. That might be fine for a venture-backed SaaS company. But we roast coffee. We can’t afford vanity metrics. Even with increasing ad budgets and constant tweaking, nothing moved the needle. And worse, they kept pushing deeper discounts to juice conversions. It got to the point where we were giving away too much value up front just to make the numbers look better. That wasn’t marketing. That was misdirection. When I Finally Pulled the Plug I gave them six months.Six months of high spend, low returns, and mounting frustration. When I finally added everything up, including management fees, ad costs, margin loss from discounts, it became clear this wasn’t a short-term slump. It was a flawed model. So I ended it. And while it was painful financially, it taught me lessons I couldn’t have learned otherwise. What I Learned Retainers Only Make Sense If You Have High Ticket Sales If your average order value is under $50, the economics of most ad agencies just won’t work for you. They’re better suited to businesses selling $200+ products or services where one sale more than covers the cost of acquisition. Don’t Confuse Activity with Effectiveness We had lots of ad sets running. We had tests happening. But activity doesn’t equal impact. If your ROAS is low, all the dashboards in the world won’t change the bottom line. Be Skeptical of “Performance-Based” Deals Too After that experience, I talked to an SEO agency that wanted to work on a pure commission model. No retainer. Sounds great, right? But I realized they were basically asking me to fund their learning curve with my ad spend. Red flag. Discounts Aren’t a Strategy Throwing discounts at cold audiences to hide weak ad creative or targeting is lazy marketing. It damages your brand and cuts your margins. Use them sparingly and with intent, preferably for returning customers, not strangers. Control Testing Matters One thing the agency did teach me: test small changes at a time. Keep the creative the same and test new headlines. Or vice versa. And give the algorithm time to learn. That was solid advice. What I’d Do Differently Now • Learn the fundamentals. There are great free podcasts, books, and courses out there. Start with Alex Hormozi’s stuff. You’ll come out way more capable.• Run ads yourself first. Even if it’s just for $5 a day. Get familiar with how targeting, creative, and budget interact.• Pay for coaching, not control. Instead of handing over thousands to an agency, pay an expert hourly to review your work, give feedback, and help you level up.• Stay close to the data. No matter who’s running your ads, make sure you understand the numbers. If someone can’t explain what’s working and why, walk away. Final Thought I’m not against hiring experts. But if you’re a small business trying to grow thoughtfully, you need to be more than just the budget holder. You need to be the strategist. Because nobody, no matter how “data-driven” or “conversion-obsessed” they claim to be, will care about your business like you do.