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Inside the Powder Hounds Coffee roastery in Park City, Utah. All images courtesy of Powder Hounds Coffee.
Anyone following the scent of freshly roasted coffee up the mountains in Park City, Utah, is likely to come across a new outfit called Powder Hounds Coffee.
Founded by avid skier and children’s yoga instructor Mark Robinson, the company recently launched with a selection of blends and single-origin coffees that borrow names from the skiing and yoga lexicons, including darkly roasted Brazilian coffee named Heli Drop and a Warrior II blend.
These and other Powder Hound coffees have been heading direct to consumers via e-commerce, local delivery and at a counter at the yoga studio where Robinson teaches. Robinson is now seeking partnerships with additional stores that align with the brand.
“This is obviously a ski town, and I want to support the skiers. I’m an avid skier myself, so I’ve found a couple of partners that we’re in talks with to sell my coffee at their countertops,” Robinson told Daily Coffee News. “From a brand awareness standpoint, I think that’s probably the best bang for my buck right now.”
Robinson, a former medical company executive, roasts the coffees on Diedrich Roasters equipment in a 700-square-foot space attached to his Park City home. At the roastery, Robinson seeks to set Powder Hounds apart by gravitating towards earthier flavor proviles with deeper chocolate and nut sweetness in the cup.
“There’s a lot of companies that are running towards the fruit bombs. I just love earthy coffee. I love Sumatras. I love the smoothness of a Colombian or Brazil,” said Robinson. “A lot of my palate developed from living overseas in Australia for three years. And then getting a chance to go around Indonesia, how they harvest coffee is completely different. It brings a nice, subtle component to the coffee from an enjoyability or a drinking sessionability standpoint.”
Roasting at high altitude is another point of differentiation for the new roasting brand, presenting some interesting challenges.
“It takes me a long time to warm up my roaster. It probably takes me another 15 minutes, and then water obviously boils at this altitude between 12-14 degrees Fahrenheit higher than it would at sea level. So, it affects everything that I do,” said Robinson. “It affects my roast time, I have to be much more diligent because some of the data in the software that’s set up in some of the roasting profiles is meant for sea level, and so you do have to tweak it.”
As someone familiar with navigating business growth through his previous career, Robinson is bringing a measured approach to Powder Hounds, building the roasting business with no immediate plans to dive into coffee shop operations.
A new production facility is already in the works, and within the next 18 months Robinson intends to be behind the tryer of a a 12-kilo Diedrich machine surrounded by plenty of green coffee storage space.
“We’ve caught a little bit of momentum and I obviously want to seize on that, but at the same time, this isn’t my first rodeo when it comes to understanding how to scale an organization, hit expectations and fulfill your market promise,” said Robinson. “Right now, we need to walk before we run.”
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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.
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