Meet Dan Blumeyer of Blu’s Brews

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Blumeyer.

Hi Dan, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I, Dan Blumeyer (Blu), began roasting coffee in college back in 2008. Around that time, I became a big fan of craft beer in addition to roasting my own coffee, and I came up with the name “Blu’s Brews” one night as I joked about owning my own coffee roastery/microbrewery. Initially, I would only roast coffee for friends and family as gifts. I had never really considered roasting for others on a larger scale until much later. Logistically, I was limited by the batch size of my roaster. Plus, working in education as either an English teacher or a school counselor didn’t leave me with a lot of spare time. After many years of wearing out small, home roasting machines, I decided I needed to make a change. I have since engineered my own roaster using inexpensive, easily replaceable parts that can roast 4x the amount of my previous roasters while also generating brighter and more nuanced flavors than ever before. With this, I was also encouraged to start my own business once I saw how common subscription services and no-contact delivery became during the pandemic. After ten years of working in education, I professionalized my counseling license and decided to start slingin’ beans on the side too, and Blu’s Brews was officially born.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a smooth road?
I’ve faced challenges finding the most efficient methods to operate, creating the best storage system for my coffee beans, and connecting with businesses who will work with a micro-roastery like mine. I’d absolutely love to collaborate with a local bar or brewery, but making the right connections has proved to be a challenge.  It took me a while to get some traction, but after a few months, I connected with the KCPlates account owner on Instagram, who also works in an office in the Crossroads, SafetyCulture. They were looking for a more sustainable coffee option that didn’t include plastic bags, and I’ve delivered coffee to them in refillable containers with valved lids every week since June 2021.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Blu’s Brews is a micro-roastery based in Overland Park, Kansas that delivers to the KC metro area and ships to the rest of the continental US. And it’s run by just me, Blu. I value freshness above all, which is why I roast in small batches and roast every batch to order. Coffee is a perishable product. It starts to taste stale or flat 3 weeks after the roast date, and coffee goes stale within 15 minutes of grinding, which is why I only offer Fair Trade organic *whole bean* coffee. Since freshness is so important to me and many other coffee drinkers, why shouldn’t there be a roast-to-order coffee business? And why shouldn’t it be delivered directly to your door from your local roaster?

I am also the only officially endorsed Café Femenino roastery in Kansas. Café Femenino beans come from plantations owned and operated by women, often marginalized groups in coffee-producing countries, which takes Fair Trade to the next level. I like being able to offer my community the ability to choose to empower women with their coffee purchases. Beyond the freshness I guarantee and the ethical nature of the coffee I sell, I don’t think there’s another roastery that offers quite as much direct roaster-to-customer contact in KC. I get to know my subscribers’ preferences and curate their subscriptions accordingly. I like to leave funny audio messages when coffee is delivered by me directly to their doors. A unique amount of thought and care goes into every roasted-to-order bag that other larger roasteries cannot provide.

What is something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
My goal for Blu’s Brews is to be an ethical and environmentally sustainable roastery. I hope to construct a roasting studio that runs on solar power and to deliver my coffee beans with an electric vehicle to operate on as much sustainable energy as possible. Something else people might not know is that I’ve been a cartoonist as long as I’ve been able to draw, and I drew the owl that is my logo (who my wife named Buzz). I’m married to Liz Blumeyer, a fabulous graphic designer who helped me design my packaging and branding. She’s the bomb.

Pricing:

• Most affordable coffee subscription plan in KC
• Most affordable *freshly-roasted* coffee in KC
• Free local delivery within 15 miles of Overland Park

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blusbrews.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blusbrews/