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With deep professional roots in the oddly box-shaped state of New Mexico comes a new roasting company called Odd Box Coffee.
Sourcing high-quality and traceable green coffees, Santa Fe-based Odd Box brings the coffee career of founder Tom Patton full circle.
“The seed of Odd Box was planted 20 years ago when I first got excited about the craft of coffee,” Patton recently told Daily Coffee News. “It’s been a long and circuitous journey to find the right time and right place — but this is it.”
Formerly the roaster for Santa Fe’s 35° North Coffee, among other jobs in coffee, Patton now oversees a newly installed Diedrich IR-12 roaster inside a 1,200-square-foot roastery of his own in midtown. The business is adjoined to the production headquarters of French-inspired bakery Mille.
Near Patton’s home for the past 13 years, the roastery also supports Odd Box’s Ikawa sample roaster, additional processing and packing equipment, and storage for greens, which are currently purchased primarily from Cafe Imports.
“My two priorities when it comes to sourcing are to keep the Odd Box offerings as fresh as possible, and traceable to the farm wherever possible. I’m already discovering hurdles in achieving this, but I’m committed to continuous improvement,” Patton said. “Like many other roasters, I believe there is tremendous value in highlighting the producer and the work that is getting done at the farm.”
When creating roast profiles, Patton attempts to approach each coffee objectively, seeking the most desirable qualities of each regardless of where the final product may land on the color or roast development spectrum.
“Odd Box is a ‘full spectrum’ roastery. My early years in the coffee industry were surrounded with ‘second wave’ style dark roasts, and for the time I was there I genuinely enjoyed them,” said Patton. “I also see a lot of value in offering a wider range of roast styles within the specialty coffee industry. Not everyone is ready to sit down to an anaerobic natural or spend the money on a Panamanian gesha. I think we have a responsibility to bring people along, and I believe that means meeting them where they are.”
Beans are packed in Biotre 1.0 bags that are stamped rather than stickered.
“We have ambitions to move to fully biodegradable/compostable bags, but for now we’re proud to buy Biotre 1.0 bags and at least make sure we’re using more compostable/plant-based materials than we would otherwise.”
With direct-to-consumer sales now live on the Odd Box website, Patton is exploring collaborations with building-mate Mille, including a potential walk-up pastry and coffee shop. For now, however, the priorities are to keep overhead low and build the wholesale operation while also sourcing excellent coffees.
“Hopefully within five years I will have a more dedicated space in which I can serve my coffee and celebrate the community of Santa Fe and New Mexico as a whole,” said Patton. “It is, after all, the ‘odd box’ that inspired the name.”
Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here.
Howard Bryman Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
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