Interview with Albany Living Magazine
written by: Rebekah mcleod
LAUNCHING GOOD COFFEE INTO THE STRATA-SPHERE: LOCAL COUPLE CREATES ORIGINAL BRAND FOR TEMP COFFEE AND BEYOND
Let’s begin with a little coffee trivia:
What are unroasted coffee beans called?
Raw coffee beans
Green coffee beans
Organic coffee beans
Shelled coffee beans
What historical event made coffee the most popular drink in America?
The Great Depression
The American Revolution
The Boston Tea Party
The French and Indian War
3. Who is the most important person responsible for producing a great cup of coffee?
The barista
The coffee roaster
The coffee bean importer
All of the above
4. What is the process called after the coffee beans are roasted but before the coffee can be
brewed?
Degassing
Deseeding
Decompressing
Decarbonating
5. What country produces the most coffee?
Guatemala
Ethiopia
Vietnam
Brazil
(answer key at end of article)
If you answered all of the above questions correctly, you are to be commended for knowing more about coffee than the average Joe. While touring the back rooms of wineries and craft breweries are popular American pastimes, the science of coffee roasting remains somewhat a mystery.
Regardless of how shallow or vast your knowledge is on the subject, chances are your morning routine is sweetened by that first sip of hot java. It is for this reason—the simple love of a great cup of coffee—that Catherine Garrett and Tyler Campbell have committed to bring their very own brand, Strata Coffee Roasting, to the Albany area.
Although Strata is the brainchild of Tyler, the story behind it begins with Catherine. Catherine, 28, and Tyler, 29, were both homeschooled kids who met in high school while serving in the Leesburg Key Club. “She ran the media and I was the president,” Tyler recalls. “Of course Tyler was president...and I just took photos,” Catherine quips without missing a beat. The two parted ways when Tyler went off to college at Southeastern University in Tampa and Catherine relocated to Atlanta. A self-described creative who is passionate about design, music and art, Catherine spent several years working in coffee shops and, though she secretly dreamed of opening one of her own, did not consider it financially feasible.
In 2018, Catherine moved back home after a year in Atlanta and was working odd jobs and considering joining the military. As fate would have it, she was working out in a Crossfit gym one day when two local investors approached her with a question about the coffee business. Brijesh Patel and Viral Patel were opening a convenience store and wanted to add a reputable coffee franchise next door. Catherine suggested that what the city really needed was a good, local coffee shop, and they agreed to help finance it. “I told them, ‘Sure, I’d be happy to help get it started,’ and I ended up doing a lot more than getting it started...and I’m still here [three years later].”
Temp Coffee Leesburg was born in November 2018, with Catherine creating the concept from the ground up, including the buildout, interior design, branding, and menu. Tyler had moved back home after college and the two reconnected and married, joining forces to bring the rich coffee culture they had enjoyed in other cities to their hometown. Temp built a healthy local following with Catherine at the helm, but a difficult pregnancy in 2019 required Tyler to step into a management role.
In late 2020, Tyler began seriously considering trying his hand at roasting coffee, motivated by his own creative bent and by the fact that it could reduce Temp’s coffee expenses by thirty-three cents per pound. He began reading books, watching Youtube videos and taking online classes, and in December of 2020 he ordered his first small batch roaster, setting it up in an old gas station. “The one kilo roaster makes two pounds of coffee,” explains Tyler, “and I worked on that for six months, roasting, practicing, developing profiles and trying to figure out what worked.”
In March of 2021, Temp opened its second location in Albany, and in August of 2021, Tyler installed a ten kilo roaster, which makes 20-22 pounds of coffee. As a result of his own learning, Tyler became passionate about sharing this knowledge with his community—the origin of the coffee, the tasting notes of each brew, and the importance of buying beans which are ethically traded and sustainably sourced. “Our long-term goal is to have a larger facility where I can host groups of people to come through a couple days a week, see the roasting process, and put some names and faces to the growers and producers of the coffee we’re selling to bring a little bit more weight to the product itself.”
Catherine shares Tyler’s excitement for bringing the community together around coffee. Temp will be opening its second Albany location in 2022, and the shops will each periodically host pop up art shows and community events. Catherine is also working on designing a line of merchandise which will combine Temp’s brand with a featured local artist.
When asked how the couple handles the challenges of working together and raising a family, Catherine says, “I wouldn’t have it any other way. We both know our strengths and weaknesses and compliment each other well in those areas. We have learned—and are still learning—how to establish a good work/home life balance, and I think that’s the key.”
Tyler and Catherine’s combined creativity and work ethic have them poised for continued success in business. Strata Coffee Roasting is already producing its own wholesale white label roasts through Temp Coffee, and in October 2021, the brand will venture into the retail market with small batches to ensure a quality experience for customers. Tyler insists on emphasizing that every step of the coffee making process is equally important: “To make a good cup of coffee it takes a quality variety of coffee, a great grower, a great producer, a great roaster and a great barista. A great barista can’t make bad coffee good and a great roaster can’t make a bad green coffee roast well. It all has to line up and a lot of people don’t see that chain. There’s just so much that goes into it that people in our region haven’t had the opportunity to realize.”
From the looks of it, Strata will be responsible for improving both our trivia game and our morning cup of joe.
For more information on Temp Coffee and Strata Coffee Roasting, visit:
(Answer key: 1. b, 2. c, 3.d, 4.a, 5.d)
