Roaster of the Year: Macro Category Winner 2022—Huckleberry Roasters
By Ever Meister
So much about Huckleberry Roasters is a kind of gentle contradiction. The coffee is phenomenal, yet Huck considers itself a “people company.” In spite of roasting more than 240,000 pounds of coffee last year, maintaining national wholesale distribution and running two successful cafes in the greater Denver area, everyone on staff insists that it still feels like a small operation. The brand embodies Colorado’s laid-back, “hobbyist enthusiast” energy, yet here it is winning Roast magazine’s 2022 Macro Roaster of the Year.
Perhaps one of the most amazing contradictions within the culture of Huckleberry is the combination of self-deprecation and deep mutual admiration among the team. It is not unusual in a conversation with the company’s leadership to hear a chorus of, “No, you are awesome,” in rebuttal to “aw gee” statements, like how the first few years of the business were “horsing around mostly.”
“We’re the most self-conscious,” says Huckleberry co-owner Jason Farrar. “You’re just going to have to get used to it.”
The self-consciousness is part of the equation that has made Huck not only successful over this last decade, but also beloved. While the overall vision has stayed constant, so has a culture of self-reflection and evolution that enables the company, affectionately called Huck, to stay nimble, press forward and grow with and within its communities.
“It’s just been constant growth at Huckleberry, which has been kind of interesting,” says head roaster and 2019 U.S. Roaster Champion Shelby Williamson. “No matter what company I’ve ever been at, there’s always a period of stagnation where the company just is what it is. [At Huck] we haven’t had a period of stagnation since I started, and that seems pretty consistent with Huck’s story in general.”
Homeground, But Not Homebound
Koan Goedman and his opening business partner, Mark Mann, understood the unique connectivity of coffee and coffee shops first-hand. They met across the counter at a Denver specialty cafe where Goedman was a barista and Mann a customer asking what music was playing. When the two pals connected a couple of years later, they still shared an entrepreneurial spirit and started to think seriously about going into business together. It helped that they had an earnest belief that business should build a sense of collective culture and community through investment in people, and it did not hurt that they could tap into some of that magical sense of community that coffee seems to effortlessly foster.
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