Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Shane and Jessica Monroy of Tekoa began Tobra Coffee Roasters last January and have been roasting, packaging and selling the product around the area since.
Their first batch was served at a coffee shop operated by Shane’s sister’ in Post Falls and it can now be bought at several area stores and cafes.
It began as something the two of them always wanted to do.
With a long history together – they first dated as seventh-graders – Shane and Jessica graduated from Tekoa High School in 2003 and 2002. They were married in 2005 and now have two boys, Toby and Braxton.
The Tobra name derives from their names.
Living in Tekoa with Shane working as an outside serviceman for Avista, after time spent as a conductor for Burlington Northern, the couple began thinking about starting a business.
One night while looking online for something else, Shane came across a link about green coffee beans and started to look into it, finding out about the process of making various kinds of coffee, the grinder required, packaging and the beans themselves.
A coffee bean is a hard, dense dried out seed from the coffea plant, which is grown in temperate climates around the world.
Soon the Monroys decided to buy a roaster, which came with a bonus; one of the world leaders in coffee roaster manufacturing is a company named Dietrich in Sandpoint, Idaho.
So Shane took classes there and bought a 2.5 kilogram roaster and set it up in their basement, which he and Jessica remodeled for the business.
From there they learned how to get the beans and found an importer in Seattle who supplies the fair-trade certified raw material in 150-pound sacks from places such as Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Nicaragua.
From there, the Monroys began to develop the different varieties of coffee they would sell, using the hand-operated roaster.
“It takes awhile to get a coffee profile,” Shane said.
Adjusting the air flow and heat levels across a 15 to 18 minute period, Shane would hone in on a certain taste.
“Every coffee acts differently. You can mess up pretty easily,” Shane said. “Ten more seconds and you change the flavor entirely.”
Eventually, Monroy had six varieties; a Costa Rican, Colombian, Palouse Blend, Breakfast blend, French Roast and a decaffeinated option. In addition, he developed three espresso options and one type of restaurant coffee.
After the debut in Post Falls, Tobra coffee was next on display at Tekoa’s Slippery Gulch Days last June. From there, the Monroys picked up more sellers, including Crossett’s Market in Oakesdale, Plummer Market, Benawa Market, three locations in Tekoa as well as others in Potlatch and Palouse.
Roasting on Sundays and Monday nights, the Monroys were at the infrared burners most every night in December during the Christmas rush.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Shane said. “There’s a lot of work involved in starting your own business but well worth it.”
After growing up in Tekoa riding dirt bikes, Monroy worked at Les Schwab in Spokane Valley before his job at Burlington Northern. They in turn wanted him to move to Seattle, while he and Jessica had other intentions.
“We really wanted to raise our kids in Tekoa, with the small-town feel, to grow up the way we did.” he said.
In 2007, he started work for Avista which he still does, while the business grows, now selling 450 to 500 pounds per month.
Jessica delivers the new coffee (in 12-ounce and five-pound bags) by car on Tuesdays.
“Everyone has been super-supportive and if you’ve got a good product they’re happy to sell it,”said Shane, who is also a member of the Tekoa school board and volunteer fire department.
Plans for the near future include a shop-style pole building on their property to house a new 12-kilogram roaster, which will allow them to seek more and bigger orders.
The larger roaster, which is being assembled in Sandpoint now, will be hand-operated as well.
“Not having an automated roaster, I can bring out a lot of flavor,” Monroy said.
All told, Tobra Coffee is sold at a lesser price in general than from larger makers, who have more overhead.
“I don’t have to charge as much as bigger roasters,” he said. “We’re generally a dollar per pound under.”
Aside from the new roaster, they will pay attention to their website as well.
“The website is horrible – we’re working on that,” he said.
This month they added a back label to the consumer bags and got a UPC code for stores.
Overall, they hope to keep growing.
“We saw an opportunity because of where we live, no one really did this,” Monroy said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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