Staff Writer
They were both looking for their next project.
One had just left a career that spanned about 30 years and the other wondered what he was going to do with the Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography he earned from the University of North Florida.
Jay Burnett, 54, and his son Zack, 26, found their next project in Bold Bean Coffee Roasters, which is a certified organic roaster. The certification allows customers to follow the “greens” from the farm to the table. “Greens” are what coffee beans are called when they are delivered from the farm because they are green in color until roasted.
“I had left publishing and I was looking for a new project,” said Jay Burnett, former managing editor of the local “Water’s Edge” magazine. “I’ve always been involved with food and agriculture, and my roots in the organic movement go back pretty far. The artisan foods movement really piqued my interest.”
Burnett had roasted coffee beans at his home for a couple of years before considering it as a business venture. At first he thought about making enough to sell at the Riverside Arts Market.
“It sort of snowballed from there,” said Burnett, sitting in his office in a building that also housed bags of coffee beans and the company’s gas-fired Ambex drum roaster.
Burnett’s pursuit of a good cup of coffee inspired the founding of Bold Bean Company in 2007 and he spent the next year tweaking the roasting process. The company was renamed in 2008.
The company now has about 40 wholesale accounts, selling to grocery stores, restaurants, cafes and coffee shops. The company was recently picked up by Whole Foods Market and is available in five of 16 stores in Florida, including Jacksonville’s San Jose Boulevard location, with plans to be in 14 of those stores shortly.
The snowball also rolled into life of Zack.
“I kind of fell into it,” said Zack, who has made multiple trips to Costa Rica to enjoy its surfing and coffee. “I graduated with a fine arts degree and there’s not much you can do with that. So I got into coffee roasting not knowing what I wanted to do next and I fell in love with coffee and producing the best coffee possible.”
Though Zack did work as a Starbucks barista, he admitted that coffee roasting is much more involved than serving espresso shots and caramel macchiatos.
“It’s a real craft to pull out the different characteristics of each bean,” said Jay Burnett. “That’s where the artist in Zack comes out. He really has a passion for it.”
That’s why Jay lets his son brew the morning coffee, as well.
“I’m usually the one brewing the coffee,” said Zack. “If it’s messed up, it’s usually (Jay’s) fault.”
The father and son team enjoys working together and is hard at work developing new products and planning for expansion from their 1,400-square-foot space on Corporate Square Boulevard off Southside Boulevard.
“Business usually hits a lull in the warmer summer months,” said Jay. “We wanted to develop a product to help offset that slump. So we developed ‘Brisk Brew Organic Coffee Concentrate’ to serve that iced coffee customer.”
Customers only need to add water to the concentrate for a quick coffee fix. The business is also educating the public on the different uses for coffee and the development of a coffee culture in Jacksonville.
“We are finalizing a coffee ‘Grub Rub’ for pork and beef,” said Jay. “We are also developing a seafood version.”
In five years, the duo would like to see the company move away from purchasing greens from brokers and make direct contact with the farmers. They are planning trips to South America to start to develop those relationships. They would also like to have their own coffee shops to sell their coffee.
“Jacksonville has always had a relationship with coffee, but it
hasn’t developed a coffee culture that you see in other cities,” said Jay. “We have pockets of that with some of the independent shops in town, but we need to further develop that.”
The artist in Zack looks forward to the day that the coffee shops are open, so they can offer the walls to local artists.
“We will also promote the local arts scene,” said Zack. “We’re not going to be a gallery asking for money from artists to display their works. They help us out as much as we help them out by drawing customers.”
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