It may not have been part of their plan, but the lives of Kerry and Jocelyn Clouse changed three years ago by a wandering thought, a Christmas gift and some beans.
Kerry had been curious about roasting his own coffee beans so he and his wife, Jocelyn, could drink fresh coffee every day. Jocelyn took note and bought Kerry his first “green beans,” the fruit seed of the coffee plant, and a popcorn popper to try his hand at it.
When family and friends tasted what he did, they saw the potential for something more.
The Clouses, who are Noble REMC members, decided that during Jocelyn’s next open house (where she sold primitive items) they would package and sell a few bags for a little extra cash.
“We sold out, and then the messages kept coming and the bigger orders,” Jocelyn said. “We had no idea. It has literally snowballed since.”
What was once done as a hobby with a quarter cup of beans at a time in their popcorn popper, now has expanded over the past three years to include two commercial-sized roasters that process 1,800 pounds of coffee beans every month for their business, Country Roads Coffee — headquartered in Green Township near Albion.
Country Roads’ coffee is now available in grocery stores, cafés and businesses across northeast Indiana. The company sells a variety of roasts, including a different flavor each month, coming in one- or five-pound bags, ground or whole bean, in K-cups or a custom pouch.
“We feel as if we’ve been in a whirlwind these past three years,” Jocelyn said. “We sometimes have to stop and just take it in because it just keeps growing.”
That growth is thanks, in part, to word-of-mouth, but also to the couple’s work at local farmers’ markets and area partnerships. Kerry and Jocelyn can be found at a market nearly every Saturday, whether it’s in Columbia City, Fort Wayne or somewhere nearby.
For Kerry, the business has fulfilled him in a way he wasn’t expecting. It has pushed him outside of his normal routine and boundaries, though he still works full-time outside of the business.
“It’s kind of opened me up and out of my comfort zone. I have an inner salesperson that I didn’t know,” Kerry said. “People think I’m crazy, especially people that I work with, as far as markets, but it’s fun. I find it fun — the community, the people we’re around.”
Meeting new customers at markets, they soon become friends, and that’s been one of the greatest gifts for the couple.
After three years, they say they still don’t quite feel like professional roasters, but the community, which has embraced the business and its coffee, would say different.
“We’ll tell people, we’re not professionals. We are a couple who wanted to drink coffee, good coffee, every day, and we wanted to help others to do the same thing,” Jocelyn said. “Everything we do is probably ‘against the rules,’ and we just do it.”
For more about Country Roads Coffee, visit countryroadscoffee.com or follow them on Facebook or Instagram.
