Richmond · United States
Blanchard's Coffee Roasting Co.
Blanchard's Coffee Roasting Co. roasts in Richmond, Virginia.
Since 2005 · David Blanchard
Overview
Blanchard's Coffee Roasting Co. was founded in January 2005 by 25-year-old David Blanchard, a Richmond native and University of Richmond business graduate who sold his wife Kelly's Toyota 4Runner — a college graduation present — to buy a small Ambex roaster he set up in his father's garage. Three months later a chance meeting with his old marketing professor put the coffee in front of a Ukrop's executive at Joe's Market, launching a wholesale grocery program that now extends to about 100 locations across Virginia, DC, and southern Maryland.
Known for
- First serious wholesale specialty roaster to come out of Richmond, anchoring Virginia's specialty scene
- 'Dark as Dark' signature blend, born from a sarcastically named test roast for a friend who kept asking for it darker
- Long-running customer education program — free weekly demos covering origin, equipment, and brewing
- Direct producer relationships including Finca San Jose in Nicaragua
- Three Richmond cafes plus 100+ wholesale partners
Why it matters
Richmond didn't have much of a specialty scene until Blanchard's started running cuppings and putting bags into Ukrop's; twenty years later it has become Virginia's reference point for craft coffee, with a roastery-as-classroom culture that produced both a regional supply chain and a generation of local baristas.
Production
- head roaster
- Seth Bauserman
- roaster machine
- Ambex (original); now operates at 1903 Westwood Ave roasting facility (since 2016)
- cupping frequency
- Regular in-house cuppings; team travels to origin
- roastery location
- 1903 Westwood Ave, Richmond, VA
Café
Multiple locations including a Broad Street cafe (first opened October 2019), Morris Street near VCU, and Forest Hill Avenue in the Hill Standard mixed-use development
Recognitions
- Best Coffee in Virginia nominee — Food & Wine