the farmer’s market
2022 Marked our first year as an “official” coffee roastery selling amazing beans at the local farmers market, at our home, in various parking lots, to coworkers to friends both old and new. We are a micro-roastery, but we put out some volume! 2023 was even more amazing than the year prior, and our second market is in the books!
An observation has remained true for both 2022 and 2023, and that is that in our estimation, 98% of the newcomers to the area have been the largest supporters of everything they CAN support, including our area artisans. We smile when we remember the new folks from Jersey, or Chicago, or Seattle, Miami, or an obscure town in Maine. They’d come back the next week and quickly realized that it wasn’t just a show, the way we treat one another.
From our view, it was if they couldn’t believe our little town even existed. We’d see people surprised when someone paid them a kindness of something we think nothing of, but something they have never seen. We really and truly believe these are the people that will fight hard alongside the community when and if the chips are down. We believe they are very motivated to support the exact same things we support – We believe they want what we all long for – to belong, and our hope is that they find that here, and my guess is that if they aren’t already, that they will be soon.
For many people that get “transplanted”, there is a real panic at the thought of losing a hair stylist, your dentist, or favorite doctor. For the people that hail from all of those “coffee meccas”, in addition to the doc and dentist, often number one on their list is the quest to find and hopefully keep forever, is a small, knowledgeable, personal coffee roaster. We see this influx as a great opportunity to also reach our long-time local neighbors, as THEIR interest is piqued to something new – to re-introduce ourselves if you will; to introduce you to what a quality bean roasted just right a week ago, down the street, tastes like.
The BEST thing EVER other than watching someone loving on a cup of our coffee, HAS to be the folks out there who are new to the whole scene. We never knew this before, but we really enjoy teaching people about the bean, the myths, the truths, the “things” one truly needs, the things that are for show. Those things, as well as being committed to staying informed about the farms the beans come from, and the conditions of the workers who are essential to the whole thing, is always at the back of our minds. We are also fair, and have spent more hours than can be counted, to arrive at our price-point which we have adjusted very slowly to arrive where we should be. If you want to know more, there is a long story about that. That’s who we are and who we strive to be. Let’s talk, lets meet, let’s get you some beans. If we don’t know you, and you seek a business like ours for the long haul, we can’t wait to meet you! You are just one of our people that we haven’t met yet.
We pride ourself for the lowered carbon footprint we have had since 2010 when no one really talked about it, especially in light of the fact that we are located at the foothills of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The way we roast is different. We don’t roast with anything other than electricity, and we rely on convection heat. No big gas tanks, no propane. We believe there is a marked difference in coffee that is roasted “our way” vs the “mass majority way”. We can flat out tell the difference. You can be assured our coffee has not been sitting on the shelf for ten months or worse. We want you to taste the difference, we want you to be picky and particular about YOUR most important beverage of the day. It sets the tone and starts the day off as it should – with a morning, and therefore a day, made better by excellent KC Roasters coffee.
This has become our passion and is something we believe is ordained. So, for as long as God and the universe keeps leading us this way, we are leaning in and trying to execute what we believe we are supposed to be doing.
KC Roasters of Maryville
616 Darby Cir
Maryville, Tennessee 37804
