Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Angelo.
Scott, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My love of coffee started back in my native country, Australia, where I was buying my coffee from a new start up coffee roaster back in the late 90’s. Then after spending many years traveling the world as a Marine Engineer, finishing up on private yachts where I had the chance to try coffee in many different countries many different ways. In 2009 my wife and I decided to move from Australia back here to Palm Beach County, FL which is where she is originally from, for a job offer I had.
Anyway in the meantime we had shipped a lot of our things back to the USA, including our Italian single head espresso machine. Sounds easy? Well the electricity in Australia is 240 Volts and here in the USA its 11o Volts, so Amy (my wife) and I were staying with her parents until our house was vacant again. Her Dad was a great sport and let me modify his kitchen slightly so I could plug in our espresso machine. I would say that was the beginning of our USA coffee adventures for sure!
For months we could not find a decent coffee or at least a coffee close to what we had been regularly drinking, we tried everything from Starbucks, everything on the supermarket shelves and one point I thought I was going to have to give up coffee! It was not good. Then I jumped online and started reading a lot of forums and general coffee chat. I found a couple of great roasters over on the West coast and began ordering bags of fresh roasted coffee, their coffees were generally good, then I received this one bag (I still have the empty bag) and it, as they say changed everything, it is the reason that Oceana Coffee Roasters exists. I decided that I needed a coffee like that everyday, so I set off on a quest to learn more about the how’s, why’s and what can I do to have that everyday. After a lot more reading, I fell into a forum about roasting.
Fast forward… I bought a popcorn popper on EBay for $35 and re-engineered it to roast coffee. (Marine engineering years came in handy) From there I converted a grill and now I was doing 4lbs at a time and people were starting to notice and wanting it for themselves. 2011 we opened our Old Dixie Hwy location with a used 7kg Diedrich commercial coffee roasting machine, from there the rest is history!
2017 we roasted nearly 60,000lbs, we have won medals for our coffees both here in the USA and in Australia, Oceana Coffee Roasters has won awards for our business and for our coffee. Not much has changed about the WHY, I am always in search of that magical cup to enjoy in the morning and my desire to share with as many people as possible, how good a cup of coffee can be and that they deserve to be drinking great coffee and not bottomless black nastiness or over roasted burnt bitter, full of artificial flavored stuff. Great coffee is for everyone. My desire if for everyone to go to bed thinking of their morning coffee with childlike excitement, because it so good!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Opening, running and growing a small business is never a smooth road. It’s takes great tenacity and courage. We have definitely had our fair share of challenges, something you learn in retail everyday I think!! Dealing with many individuals, many opinions and the fact that everyone has access to leave a review instead of dealing with the situation in the moment with the owner or manager can be a challenge.
In 2015 we were growing a little too fast and were very stretched, thankfully under the stress and in the moment my wife and I were still making decisions to help the business grow, kept our cool, kept our heads down and we came through a rough year, which only makes us stronger and wiser.
Oceana Coffee Roasters – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are Oceana Coffee Roasters. We roast Specialty Grade coffee, for retail customers, wholesale customers and grocery chains. We are known and recognized for our coffee and customer support.
I am proud of my team, without a great team (approx. 25) we would not have such a solid stable business. I am proud of our coffee, we source a lot of our coffee directly from farms at origin like Costa Rica, Guatemala and many more. I am proud that we support a lot of local charities and benefit events, recently started the “Cup of Kindness” charity awareness event.
What sets us apart from others? We focus a lot of energy into giving back, a couple of examples are the “Cup of Kindness”, we have also been using Eco products from the very first day we opened 7 years ago, all of our Eco products are completely compostable, all made from plant based materials. Our customer service and support of our wholesale accounts also sets us apart, we are there for them 24/7 and have built long standing relationships because of that.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Hmm, great question! Success for me is being able to do what I enjoy, if I am doing it well, then everything else will follow. Success in our business for me is the business is here every year and gets stronger and becomes larger, supporting more people and many more other business. Some of the awards along the way have been a great recognition for the coffee that we have had the pleasure to roast.
Contact Info:
- Address: Roasting House
221 Old Dixie Hwy
Tequesta, 33469, FL
Oceana Coffee Lounge/Cafe
150N US Hwy 1
Tequesta, 33469, FL - Website: http://oceanacoffee.com
- Phone: 5614012453
- Email: oceana.coffee@oceanacoffee.com
- Instagram: @oceanacoffee
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OceanaCoffee/
- Twitter: @oceanacoffee
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