Downtown bakery
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555-555-55-55
Uptown bakery
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Our Story
At Great Minds, we are happy to introduce new and exciting coffees to our customers by offering coffee from all over the world.
We strive to maintain a coffee offerings menu that is sure to please every type of coffee drinker. Through extensive sampling and rotating our offerings to optimize the harvest seasons, we ensure you are getting the freshest beans which must first pass our quality standards.
About Us
The idea of Great Minds Coffee Roasters was born mostly out of years of the entrepreneurial itch needing to be scratched, as well as an accumulation of developed skills learnt from past experiences.
Opened by husband and wife team, Chris and Emily, in 2019. We knew we wanted to source and serve high quality, specialty coffee to our local community; but not in the traditional cafe sense. Taking Chris’ previous experience as a coffee roaster, we ran with the vision of creating a craft roastery as a place for wholesale and retail customers to enjoy unique and high quality coffees in a very down to earth and approachable manner.
We now serve a variety of businesses and customers who know they can go directly to the source to buy their fresh locally roasted coffee. The perfect place to call home for our business has been The Old Pin Shop in Oakville, CT; a local landmark rich with industrial history. All coffee is roasted weekly, and we currently open our doors to the public twice a week for retail hours.
Customers are welcome to come in to shop our current and rotating list of coffee offerings, home brewing equipment, check out our roastery, chat about coffee, home brewing, or whatever is on your mind, and of course enjoy free samples of whatever we decide to brew for the day while you visit.
Our Philosophy
We place a strong emphasis on honing the craft of creating exceptional coffees, and are always striving to improve in any way we possibly can. It all starts with working to source high quality green coffee. Coffee is a seasonal agricultural product, where there is a lot of quality control needed along the way. We receive many green coffee samples throughout the year from our import partners, where we analyze the greens, sample roast and cup them before we decide on what we will bring in.
As a small-batch coffee roaster we elect to keep a small but diverse roster of rotating coffees on our menu that change throughout the seasons. We strive to be as intentional and deliberate through every phase of handling the coffee before it makes its way to your cup. From sourcing, to roasting, to packaging and brewing; we want to be a source for you to rely on to enjoy and serve amazing and delicious unique coffees, either at the comfort of your own home or from your favorite place of business .
Just as important and focused as we are on quality, relationships are every bit as much valued to us as a business. We strive to build lasting sustainable relationships with everyone we do business with; be that from some of the farms and producer groups we elect to work with year after year, to our import and export partners, and to our business partners and customers. We value transparency and approachability with every person we work with throughout the supply chain and choose to exude those same values in those we decide to work with.
Our Roastery
We are so proud to be located in the historic Old Pin Shop of Oakville, CT. The Old Pin Shop was originally The Oakville Company, a leading manufacturer of stainless steel safety pins, garment hardware, paper clips, and other metal fasteners. The Oakville location operated for 121 years and
is now home to many local businesses and enterprises.
We currently open our roastery to the public on Thursdays and Sundays so customers can check out our roastery and buy directly from us. We keep a small variety of coffees on hand, so it is encouraged to order ahead on our website if you are hoping for a specific coffee. We have a local pick up option to save customers shipping costs. While we are not a sit down cafe, we do offer free samples on the days we are open, often having new offerings brewed up for customers to enjoy. We’re not alone in this big building either, you can also visit Lasting Brass Brewery or The Hive at The Pin - a honey house.
