Exploring Life & Business with Brendon Maxwell of Utopian Coffee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brendon Maxwell.

Hi Brendon, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory. 
We began our coffee roasting company in 2006 with $750 as a side project. Patrick was a passionate coffee roaster, and I (Brendon) was a backpacking vagabond, exploring the developing world, and fell in love with coffee-producing countries, cultures, and people. After a couple of years as a side project, we decided to “push in the chips” and applied for an economic development loan via the city, which allowed us to purchase our first roaster (machine) and begin our wholesale company, roasting for cafes, businesses, churches, and restaurants throughout the Midwest. 

While our desire was always to connect with the people producing the coffee at the ground level, our initial budget didn’t support that in the early days. We researched and partnered with great organizations that were supporting those in coffee-growing regions. As we continued to grow, we’ve been able to spend more time alongside coffee producers throughout Central & South America, Southeast Asia, and East Africa. 

Whether we are working on initiatives to transition coca farms to coffee in Colombia, helping women secure land ownership rights in Guatemala, or constantly learning and working towards developing deep and meaningful relationships, we strive to make the world a better place to live for all. 

As we look toward the future of the industry and our company, we continue to explore new ways to create meaningful change. Some examples are: 

-Coffee bags that were made using recovered plastic from the ocean 

-Months spent at coffee origin alongside farmers to better understand their goals 

-Working with farms that are using regenerative agricultural practices 

We’re excited about the future of Utopian Coffee and where things progress from here. Better Coffee for a Better World. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Small business is never a perfectly linear path. While we’ve had a fun and wonderful journey, it has certainly come with some “bumps in the road.” We have (now) funny stories about obtaining our first roaster (machine) from Oklahoma City and how we were nervous to have it shipped. We decided to borrow a friend’s truck and pick it up ourselves. The short story is that we ended up breaking down on the way home and had to have the same friend come and pick us up with his larger truck and trailer to tow us back, only for the wheels on the trailer to explode hours from home while our precious cargo tilted perilously. We eventually made it home and got the roaster in the building, but we would have been much better off just having the manufacturer ship it…we didn’t make that mistake again! 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
We are a craft coffee roaster focused on high-impact social projects around the world. We come alongside coffee producers throughout the developing world and work with them to understand their goals and assist in creating sustainable supply chains that honor the people who most need it. We believe that good coffee is good for the environment and good for people at origin, in the roastery, and ultimately, for those who drink it on a daily basis! 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://utopiancoffee.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/utopiancoffee/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089684173676