College design project a perk for coffee roasters

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This article was published 26/11/2019 (1998 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It has been a few years since Dayna Lepp and her dad roasted coffee in a popcorn maker on the deck, but that was what sparked the idea for a college project that has gone on to be a growing home business for the graphic designer and her husband Josh.

Josh and Dayna Lepp launched their Hitch+Boler brand of roasted coffee beans 14 months ago, and what started as an enterprise involving sales to a few friends has taken off.

Dayna said her college project was an assignment during her second year of graphic design studies at Red River College, which involved designing packaging and creating a product for the grad sale.

“Josh and I were dating at the time and came up with the idea of Hitch+Boler as a name for my roasted coffee.”

The first sale of Hitch+Boler was the 15 bags of coffee created by Dayna for the Red River College grad sale, which went very quickly. People asked Dayna to keep selling the coffee after graduation, because they wanted to buy it.

Josh and Dayna, both originally from Steinbach, were married a year and a half ago, and when the requests for the roasted coffee continued, they decided to buy a small roaster and sell to friends, to see if they would “make a few bucks.”

After two months they were surprised at how popular their coffee was, Dayna said.

“Oh my goodness! There’s a market for it. Let’s go for it!”

It was just around Christmas last year that the Lepps ordered a larger roaster and began roasting Hitch+Boler coffee in one kilogram batches.

Pouring a carefully measured kilogram of beans from Brazil into the hopper of the coffee roaster, Josh explains the process.

“It takes nine to 12 minutes, with temperatures reaching 196 degrees Celsius, for our light roasted coffee.”

The roasting temperature is carefully monitored on a nearby computer screen, which also serves as a way for the Lepps to keep records of their inventory and sales.

Hitch+Boler roasted coffee beans are priced a little higher than regular coffee, Lepp said, but the green bean selection and the roasting in small batches are things you don’t get in regular coffee. Hitch+Boler coffee is a craft coffee as opposed to the mass-produced varieties, Josh explained.

Josh said they roast seven different types of coffee beans, depending on the season and what they can get from Brazil and Peru in South America; Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica in Central America; and Ethiopia in Africa. Hitch+Boler beans are all fair-trade coffees.

“For a special request we will grind beans but typically all the coffee we market is whole bean.”

Hitch+Boler also roasts a special blend of beans for Chino’s Restaurant in Steinbach, which is delivered in one-kilogram packages. Mostly though, the brand is marketed as single country of origin roasts in 340-gram packages. (Brewing 70-80 grams for 10 cups of coffee makes the package a one to two-week supply for the average coffee drinker.)

Currently, the Hitch+Boler coffee is available at Main Bread and Butter in Steinbach, but the Lepps are hoping to add more retail outlets and cafes in the future. They also have a website and sell online at hitchandboler.com.

The Lepps roast about 50 kilograms of coffee a month, spending 15 hours a week at their craft. Both Josh and Dayna work full-time and are not in any hurry to give up their day jobs for a full-time coffee roasting career.

Dayna is a graphic designer with Print Studio One and Josh is with Prairie Accent, a deck and patio company in Blumenort.

But they are both passionate about coffee (perhaps Dayna even more than Josh) and are excited about the way their home business has been growing. Josh said it has been a wonderful year and two months. They have met a lot of amazing people in the community and have received good feedback from their customers.

Dayna is even more enthusiastic when it comes to their coffee roasting business.

“I am very passionate about it…..and it happens to be profitable. There is a difference in the way we roast coffee from each region to ensure it is at its peak flavour.”

Hitch+Boler does a light roast, because a dark roast means the coffee is already past its peak flavour, Lepp explains. It is important to stop the roasting process before it becomes dark, in order to taste the differences in coffee from the different regions.

“People who are into coffee will tell the difference.”

And judging by the ever-increasing demand for the many varieties of their coffee, it would appear that locally there are any number of people who are “into coffee.”