Today we’d like to introduce you to Derrick And Erica Kratt
Hi Derrick and Erica, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
We both worked corporates jobs, knowing that’s not what we wanted to do with our lives. We’ve always wanted to own our own business, something that allows us to spend more time with our family. We love to travel, and always seek out the small coffee shops wherever we go. When we were in northern Georgia, we went to a coffee roastery, met the owner/roaster and talked for hours. It peaked our interest in learning how to roast coffee on our own. When we got home, we immediately ordered green coffee and roasted it in a cast iron skillet on an outdoor stove. We instantly fell in love with the process, then our friends and family wanted to try our coffee. It snowballed into selling our coffee during the holidays, then the pandemic hit and our coffee roasting business blew up, because we offered local delivery.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Since our start, there have been quite a few learning experiences we had to adapt to along the way. Neither of us have any background in the food industry, so navigating that alone, was a task in itself. We started off as a coffee roaster only, offering coffee beans at farmers markets. We knew we wanted to grow, so we needed to learn the ins and outs of a commercial facility. This was right at the same time as the covid-19 lockdowns happened. So when that happened, we offered home delivery, so that helped our business grow, and as it grew, we needed a larger area to roast. We were able to build a roasting facility at our residence in Clarkston to become a wholesale coffee roaster, and at the same time that happened, we were approached to open a café in an existing location in Lake Orion. That again came with its challenges, as we had to learn more about the health food requirements and in person dining. We had a very successful run for nearly 3 years before we were ultimately given a lose lose situation regarding our space and current lease. Without going too far in to details, we were offered something, and that was never delivered, and then we were given an ultimatum we had already addressed was not going to work for our business to grow. With the current landlord, and tenant of our space not willing to budge, nor allow us to be our own entity, we had to announce to our customers we would be closing the doors to our café.
We had a very successful run at our café and wanted to continue that momentum with the opportunity to have a coffee trailer to offer for events, parties, weddings etc. That itself, again, came with many challenges that we did not expect. For the entire Summer of 2024, we had to work with the Oakland County Health Department and try to navigate what was needed to open our coffee trailer to the public. While that was being drawn out, we had missed many opportunities to make money with the trailer, so then that didn’t help with the loan process of actually securing the trailer to become ours. The longer the health department took with each and every request they had, it just made a loan approval that much more difficult to obtain. During this time, we also decided to move all of our café equipment from the café in Lake Orion to a commercial kitchen inside of Essence on Main in downtown Clarkston. This would allow us to have a walk up window to go style coffee shop. Hopefully, this will help us show an income, and constant transactions to not only alleviate some stresses financially, but also help with the loan for the trailer. This again proved very difficult, and we needed to work with the Oakland County Health Department again. Some emails would go weeks before being answered. This lead to our decision to back out of the loan for the coffee trailer, sell it as quickly as possible, and focus on the walk up window only. This was our final decision in the fall of 2024. Since then, with the help of Emma Donnay, and her father Dave, we have successfully opened a walk up window located in the alleyway behind Essence on Main. I would say it has not been a smooth road from the moment we decided to roast coffee. We knew owning our own business would come with its own challenges, and we have been able to adapt and grow from each and every one so far, I do look forward to less challenges.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Shaded Bloom Coffee Roasters?
We are a SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) certified coffee roaster. We try our best to source the highest quality we can, being organic and fair/direct trade. We order samples of green coffee to first sample roast, to see what qualities and tasting notes we can get from the coffee. If we like it and order it, Derrick (roaster) figures out the best way to roast each coffee to get the most out of it. It’s kind of like an art, coffee roasting 🙂 Every different region of coffee roasts differently, and that makes it fun.
We are known for our high quality, smooth coffee. Everyone always tells us that they cannot go back to grocery store coffee after having ours. We are known for owning our craft and being consistent. We even take our drink building seriously at our walk up window. We are also known for being very family oriented, our kids are always around in some aspect. We also treat our employees like family. Family first, always.
We are most proud to have a product that we love ourselves. We are very health conscience, and knowing that we get to share high quality, organic coffee (that tastes good) with everyone, makes us happy.
We also offer wholesale, and along with that wholesale we offering training. We both went through a pretty intense SCA barista/entrepreneur course before we opened our first café, and we learned a lot. We love to pass that on to our employees and our wholesale partners.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
Nick at Black Diesel Coffee has helped us from day 1. He has helped us with our SCA barista training and SCA roaster training. He’s always there to answer any questions we ever have, and has cheered us on along the way.
Our family and friends, who have supported us from day 1.
Our community has been a huge cheerleader for us, so many people welcomed us from the get-go, talk about us, always trying to get our name in someone else’s ear. We are so grateful for our community.
Emma from Essence on Main who made sure we had a spot to land when we closed the doors to our coffee shop in Lake Orion.
Our customers- we wouldn’t be where we are without them. We have customers that have been buying coffee from us regularly since the beginning, who tell their friends and family, and so on.
Fellow Michigan Coffee Roasters- the coffee community is awesome. Everyone willing to lend a hand and advice, always supporting one another.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shadedbloomcoffee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shadedbloomcoffee/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shadedbloomcoffeeco/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZujkUIbCdRinQDx996UDtA
