Inside the new Blueprint Coffee production headquarters in St. Louis. Photo by Roy Brady, courtesy of Blueprint Coffee.
Specialty coffee company Blueprint Coffee is ready for a high rise in production with the opening of a new roastery and forthcoming headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri.
Inside an 11,000-square-foot building that formerly housed a Kroger grocery store in the Tiffany neighborhood, the new roastery is exponentially increasing Blueprint’s roasting and storage capacities, while allowing for a new cafe, bakery and offices. Blueprint was previously roasting at its Delmar Boulevard cafe, with green coffee storage largely offsite.
Production roaster Alex Eppenauer (left) and production assistant Ben Nilsen. Photo by Roy Brady, courtesy of Blueprint Coffee.
“Climate-controlled storage was a big priority with the new space,” Blueprint Coffee Co-founder Mike Marquad told Daily Coffee News. “For the past 5-7 years, we had been storing green coffee in a couple different offsite locations. Moving it among spaces was very time consuming and very physically challenging.”
The company’s 1937 Gothot 23-kilogram roaster is up and running in the new building, where Blueprint Coffee Production Manager and Co-founder Mazi Razani leads a crew churning out about 1,800-2,000 pounds of roasted coffee per week. Additional space is reserved for a second roaster.
“We built out this space to accommodate growth,” said Marquad, “but it comes in waves.”
Blueprint Coffee’s first was was its founding in 2013 by Marquad, Razani, Kevin Reddy, Andrew Timko, Brian Levine and Nora Brady.
Photo by Roy Brady, courtesy of Blueprint Coffee.
The latest wave is in response to gowing online sales and wholesale orders, increased demand for cold brew, and the anticipated needs of the forthcoming fourth Blueprint cafe.
The cold brew demand has spiked through a partnership with local beverage distributor Craft Republic, according to the company.
“Our cold brew demand is already up by about 800%,” said Marquad. “We’re brewing a lot of cold brew with local brewers Main & Mill out of Festus, Missouri. It’s been great to have more input and direction to give our co-packers/brewers, as we had been using co-packers outside the metro area for the last couple of years. We now have a great partner and look to expand our Linear brand of RTD product in 2025.”
Assistant production manager Marija Lajsic. Photo by Roy Brady, courtesy of Blueprint Coffee.
As the dust settles on the new digs, Blueprint plans to also add a training center and a quality-control facility.
“We’d love to get even more creative and functional with the amount of space we have at HQ,” said Marquad. “These things take time, and funding, so we’re being patient and trying to make sure we continue to support our team and existing customers, who support us so well.”
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Howard Bryman Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
