Central Pennsylvania specialty coffee company Denim Coffee is poised to grow in all directions with a new headquarters and expanded roastery in Chambersburg. The new digs have also propelled the launch of a line of Denim flash-chilled coffees.
Inside the new 30,000-square-foot headquarters and production space, Denim Coffee’s new 60-kilo-kapacity IMF Roasters system has replaced the company’s former 30-kilo drum roaster.
Denim Coffee Owners Matt Ramsay (left) and Tony Diehl.
“Moving to IMF roasting from a traditional gas burner roaster is like changing from a 90s stick shift Geo Metro to a sports car,” Denim Coffee Co-Owner Matt Ramsay said in a recent announcement of the opening. “We now have a much wider range of possibilities for dialing in our roasts while maintaining accuracy.”
Previously an ice factory and fallout shelter, the new Denim HQ also includes a tasting room and training lab, a space for flash-chilled coffee production and kegging, and a commercial kitchen and bakery.
Founded 12 years ago by married couple Matt Ramsay and Kristin Ramsay, Denim Coffee now employs more than 60 people throughout its roasting business and five retail coffee shops. The Ramsays and co-owner Tony Diehl plan to add two more cafes this year, while ramping up roasting for wholesale.
Equipment in the cold coffee factory brews hot coffee and chills it to 40°F in less than 30 seconds. The cold coffee is then kegged and purged with nitrogen for preservation. Currently, still and nitro cold coffees are available in kegs with kegerators for Denim cafes or wholesale clients.
“I first tasted flash chilled coffee at Coffee Fest Boston and was blown away by how superior it was to any cold brew coffee option that I have tried,” Matt Ramsay recently told Daily Coffee News. “I knew instantly that flash chilled was the path forward for better cold coffee.”
Denim Coffee’s most recent cafe opening brought the brand to Mechanicsburg last June. The approximately 1,700-square-foot cafe maintains the clean, minimalist interior design — dressed in denim-like shades of grey, white and blue — established in Denim’s other locations. The sixth Denim Coffee retail cafe is slated for opening this Spring in downtown Lancaster.
Said Ramsay, “We try to avoid being too on-the-nose concerning the fabric in our design, but we certainly have a color scheme.”
A Denim Coffee shop in Harrisburg, PA.
The company also maintains consistency in its coffee shops through high-end equipment, strategic use of automation, data collection and more.
“There’s plenty of tech to help us maintain fidelity in multiple shops, and we always keep an eye towards advancements, but we also recognize we’re in the culinary business, where extract ratios and yields are only helpful to a good palate and good coffee,” Ramsay told DCN. “Coffee culture is a fun mix of repeatable science and subjective artistic choice which makes the coffee community big enough for everyone.”
