Seattle · United States
Kuma Coffee
Kuma Coffee is one of 5 Seattle roasters tracked on day9, in Washington.
Since 2008 · Mark Barany
Overview
Kuma was started in 2008 by Mark Barany in his Seattle garage — Barany had spent his teenage years in Nairobi where his missionary parents had moved in 1995, and the Kenyan coffees he grew up with shaped Kuma's whole light-roast, fruit-forward African program. He left an IT job to roast on a 12kg Probat in Bellevue, then moved into Interbay in 2012 with a Loring S35 Kestrel. Peter Mark Ingalls now owns and roasts at the still-tiny four-person operation.
Known for
- Founder Mark Barany grew up in Nairobi (1995 onward) — Kuma's Kenyan and Ethiopian programs trace directly to that childhood
- Loring Kestrel S35 production roaster
- Four-person team with no retail café — wholesale and direct-to-consumer only across 32+ states
- Pays well above commodity and Fair Trade prices on origin lots in Colombia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Honduras
- 2nd place in 2013 America's Best Espresso Competition; multiple Good Food Awards
Why it matters
Kuma is the proof point that a sub-five-person specialty roaster can hold national wholesale credibility on quality alone. No café, no retail flagship, no media campaign — just a Loring Kestrel and a fanatical sourcing program built on Mark Barany's African childhood. That's why Seattle's best independent cafés (Milstead, Tougo, Empire, Mr. West) carry Kuma alongside their own house roasters.
Production
- head roaster
- Peter Mark Ingalls (current owner)
- roaster machine
- Loring S35 Kestrel
- cupping frequency
- every batch
- roastery location
- Interbay, Seattle, WA
Recognitions
- 2nd place — 2013 America's Best Espresso Competition
- Multiple Good Food Awards
- La Marzocco Café Seattle Roaster in Residence (November 2019)