DeRusha Eats: Dogwood Coffee Company
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The man behind one of the most acclaimed small coffee roasters in the country got his start like so many Minnesota teenagers: he took a job at Caribou Coffee.
"I think in college I started with mochas," Dan Anderson, co-founder of Dogwood Coffee Company, said.
"In tasting and being exposed to that a coffee from Kenya can taste different from a coffee from Ethiopia," said Anderson.
Today, his Dogwood Coffee sells coffees from Colombia, Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Nicaragua among other countries.
The company's small roasting facility in Northeast Minneapolis is often humming, trying to keep up with demand for the highly-regarded beans.
"How much is the bean and how much is the roasting?" asked WCCO reporter Jason DeRusha.
"Yes, the answer is yes," Anderson said. "There are so many variables from seed to cup. How it's grown, what varietal, how it's roasted, how it's brewed. All those things culminate in the cup."
Anderson started roasting at home, using a whirly-pop popcorn maker over his stove.
"You could turn green beans brown. The flavors were … whatever," he laughed.
Today his company uses an imported Probat coffee roaster perfectly, precisely monitoring the heat inside and the temperature of the bean, all designed to help build the perfect cup.
Dan Anderson co-founded Dogwood Coffee in 2010, leaving his career in commercial real estate. Today, Dogwood has three retail locations, a roasting facility and headquarters in Minneapolis, and a new roasting and training facility in Canada.
"We get excited, for instance, that a washed Ethiopian coffee will have a floral note or almost as tea-like note. There are some natural processes will have big berry or strawberry notes, which are fun," he said.
Most of Dogwood's coffees are labeled with the home of that specific bean's farm: like Rwanda or Nicaragua, but the Neon espresso blend has become a local icon.
"We really focused on sweetness. It's a bright, sweet shot of espresso. Neon seemed like a good fit for that," he said, referring to the name and the brightly-colored label on the bag.
Dogwood has had success selling in its own locations, and also in providing coffee to other shops. Educating customers has been important, as people learn that there's more to coffee than dark or light roast.
"I think sometimes with coffee there can be a stigma of you have to know that right things, or the cool side of it, but that part we work hard and strive to just make it comfortable for everybody," Anderson said.
As for that newly opened roaster and training facility in Winnipeg, Canada, Anderson said they did it because so many Canadian coffee shops wanted Dogwood beans. Beans from Minneapolis were getting held up at customs, delaying deliveries.
"Ultimately it felt really natural to grow that way," he said.
As for the brand's future, Anderson hopes to see more coffee shops using Dogwood, and more growth in Canada.
"At Dogwood: we like to take what we do seriously, but not ourselves seriously. At the end of the day, it's coffee and there are more important things in life," he said.