Why specialty coffee roasters need to stay true to their values

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Key takeaways

• Staying true to values in specialty coffee is a long-term business strategy.
• Paying coffee producers more builds a supply chain that benefits everyone.
• Committing to coffee quality strengthens consumer loyalty.
• Investing in producer relationships gives roasters flexibility during volatile market conditions.

Specialty coffee didn’t originate from a traditional business plan. It grew from a desire to do things differently – to treat coffee as a high-quality product with a traceable origin rather than a cheap commodity.

By consistently receiving higher prices for better-quality coffee, producers can improve their practices and reinvest in their farms – critical for the industry’s future as it becomes harder to grow coffee sustainably.

Roasters also embrace storytelling in their marketing, connecting consumers with the people and places behind the product. Meticulous standards for roasting and brewing ensure that the quality producers achieved is preserved in the cup.

“It’s difficult for consumers to fully grasp just how much work goes into producing the coffee that we love,” says Ian Goodman, the co-owner of Goodman Coffee Roasters in Chattanooga, Tennessee, US. Since 2016, the roaster has been helping bridge the gap between producers and its local community. 

“Coffee is only fantastic because of the work farmers put into it,” says Ian, who has been working in coffee since 1996, when he opened Chattanooga’s first specialty coffee shop. “Helping people understand the effort that goes into creating their cup of coffee increases their appreciation.”

These values of transparency, quality, fairness, and community still shape specialty coffee today. But as roasters face a turbulent market, it becomes even more crucial to reaffirm their commitment to these principles.

You may also like our article on why coffee quality alone is no longer a differentiator for roasters.

Why running a roastery is harder than ever

Passion continues to drive the specialty coffee market, attracting entrepreneurs willing to take risks and push for genuine innovation.

However, over the last two years, operating a roastery has become more challenging. Green coffee prices reached record highs of US$4.41/lb in February 2025, driven by adverse weather in key producing countries. 

“The amount of money you spend on green coffee is exponentially more than it was two years ago, but wholesale prices come back slower,” Ian explains. “I’m buying fewer fun and exciting coffees, and focusing more on coffees to sell as wholesale.”

Smaller coffee roasters found themselves particularly vulnerable to these rapid price swings. The US administration’s decision to roll out widespread tariffs – including a 50% levy on Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer – in April 2025 only exacerbated this vulnerability. Roasters were forced to rethink long standing relationships, reformulate blends, and reconsider their offerings. 

Coffee has since been exempted from tariffs, but the financial impact still lingers. The recent conflict in the Middle East is also raising freight, insurance, and energy costs – indirectly making coffee more expensive.

Many roasters are caught between rising costs and reluctant buyers. The temptation in this environment is to cut corners; buy cheaper beans, reduce storytelling, concentrate on logistics, and treat sourcing as more transactional. But that approach undermines the very foundation that specialty coffee was built on.

Goodman Coffee Roasters offers an example of how roasters can hold firm. From the outset, the business focused on two things: its local Chattanooga community and the producers it sources from. Ian explains that bridging the two groups has been central to the brand’s values.

“Relationships have helped us the most,” he says. “When both parties are vested in mutual success, everyone can benefit. There’s more scope to work with a partner when you’re friends.”

Investing in relationships

The financial constraints are real in today’s challenging coffee market, as the costs of running a roastery are climbing. Labour, energy, and logistics costs have all risen, and coffee prices still remain above a five-year average.

But relationships with producers built over years give roasters more flexibility than a purely transactional sourcing model, demonstrating the long-term benefits of staying true to values, even when it would have been easier not to in the short term.

“For a coffee business to be successful, it needs to work with producers to serve better coffee every time,” says Sofia Cuadros, the co-founder of Unblended Coffee Company in Colombia, which supplies coffee to Goodman Coffee Roasters. “All of this aligns with staying true to your values. If you want to make an impact, you need to see producers as allies, like they’re part of your team.

“Consumers will start to recognise producers, and producers will start reserving coffees for you, fixing prices that work year‑round.”

Connecting both ends of the coffee supply chain

One of the core challenges in marketing specialty coffee is moving information from the start of the supply chain to the end consumer.

Filmmaker Davy Granberry has found that film can close the gap more effectively than any other format. “Seeing people’s faces draws you in,” he says. “You can share information, but when you learn about the people behind it and their lives, it becomes more valuable.”

A trip to Colombia to film a documentary for Goodman Coffee Roasters, showing the realities of coffee-growing communities on the ground, made this clear to him. He arrived knowing very little about specialty coffee and came back with more knowledge than he could articulate. 

“I was so excited to tell my family about it,” he says. “I wanted to explain that coffee is a fruit, how it’s processed, and what life is actually like for the people growing it.”

Specialty coffee often pulls people in different directions. Some focus on equipment and roasting; others obsess over water chemistry and extraction data. But the connection with producers and the level of care they apply to growing and processing coffee are things most consumers never encounter. Without faces and context attached to the beginning of the supply chain, the difficulty of producing quality beans remains invisible.

Ian sees this play out in his buying decisions. “Coffee is a product that changes year to year,” he says. “Sometimes years are off, but you keep working with producers because you understand that; you’re much more invested in the people and the product.”

This year, he pulled back on Brazilian coffee and shifted nearly a hundred bags to Nicaragua, a decision he says he could only justify because of the relationships already in place.

These relationships give both parties room to problem-solve. “If both parties invest in the success of the other, then everyone can benefit,” Ian says. “There’s more room to work with somebody when you’re a friend. You can say, ‘Here’s what I need, what do you need, how can we make this happen?’”

For roasters, staying true to their values means doubling down on relationships that helped their businesses grow. 

When customers are part of that process, showing them the relationships and the decisions made on their behalf, roasters give them a reason to care about the product beyond what’s in the cup.

Enjoyed this? Then read our article on why higher coffee prices don’t always mean higher quality.

Photo credits: Goodman Coffee Roasters

Perfect Daily Grind

Please note: Goodman Coffee Roasters is a sponsor of Perfect Daily Grind.

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