Starting a coffee business can often be a family affair. This is especially meaningful when coffee farming is a matter of family heritage. “My dad likes to teach us (children) new skills on Father’s Day. A few years ago, he decided to teach us to pan roast coffee just as his great grandparents had done back in Panama. I loved the experience and have continued roasting since that day.” Explains Sean Tomlinson of Sean’s Pinched Beans. His father Troy Tomlinson could not be more pleased. “Sean has decided to make coffee his life’s work. We are thrilled to see him take up the family tradition in coffee. We are all pitching in to help him launch the business.”
Sean’s Pinched Beans has progressed from a few pounds being roasted in the driveway to 200 pounds being roasted within an hour. For the past year, their coffee has been sold on Saturdays at the Gretna Farmers Market and more recently is showing up at various restaurants around town. Troy explains, “We love to see chefs incorporate our coffee into their kitchen. We’ve been used in brownies, in baked goods, as a BBQ injection, and as a marinade ingredient in rinds to soak beef, poultry and pork. Chefs want more options in specialty and exotic coffee. We can do that for them.” NCF co-founder Jim Currie agrees, “I think it is fabulous when a chef works to pair coffee with distinct foods just like they would pair a specific wine for a particular meal. Coffee is making real progress in fine dining kitchens. We have planned several good presentations on food pairings for coffee at the festival.”
Sean is working to complete his degree at LSU while also working to build his coffee business. “I wrote our coffee business plan as my entry paper when I applied to LSU. They liked it so much that I was awarded a scholarship by the LSU Agriculture Department. I see a strong future in coffee and fortunately, this is something I happen to be very good at. We are a small coffee company; but we are very versatile. We carry liberica, pink bourbons and several exotic varieties. We’ve even learned to utilize beans that others consider to be defects…there is always an option to enhance the coffee beans origin with a good roast. Plus, we can usually find customer demand for that particular taste. We are happy to curate and to roast to any specifications that our commercial customers need. We believe the demand for specialty roasting will only be increasing in the years to come.”
CONTACT:
Sean Tomlinson
COMPANY:
Sean’s Pinched Beans
PHONE:
(504) 462-1251
EMAIL:
[email protected]