Craig Brooks & Kory Nauseef, Coffee Depot

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What: Retail coffee drive-thru and wholesale roaster
Where: Courtland, NY
Find online: cnywholesale.com • www.cnycoffee.com
What they drink:
Craig: A regular, black, drip coffee first thing in the morning. Mocha's where his gateway into coffee.
Kory: Hot. Black. Drip. #purist

"Every year it feels like we have to work a little harder to make the same money, sort of. I think that one thing that hasn't changed is that we've always had a strong emphasis on customer service. We're always putting the customer first, and that really seems to help us.

As the industry changes to where there are—there are a lot of AI, there's a lot of automation in certain elements of the wholesale element of it, having a human touch is really important to us."
• Craig Brooks, Co-Founder

Editor's note: You may seem some formatting issues on our website this week. We're going through some backend code updates making our pages easier to share, and working through the details.

Craig Brooks and his wife founded Coffee Mania as a drive-thru coffee shop in Courtland, NY, in 1999. Relocating from the Pacific Northwest, they brought the established concept of the drive-thru cafe that focused on both convenience and quality with them.

In the beginning, they sourced their coffee from other roasters. In what has become a more popular move, as of late, they transitioned to roasting their own coffee in 2008. Eventually, Coffee Depot became the dedicated roasting arm of the business that provided roasted coffee to the Coffee Mania shops and acted as a wholesale roaster for other cafes.

In our chat with Craig and Head Roaster Kory Nauseef, we talked about the evolution of the business within the greater regional scope of the coffee industry, and how they maintain balance between keeping their long-term customers happy, while also recognizing a new generation of coffee shop customers have different expectations.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE POD

• Coffee Mania started as a drive-thru in 1999. They've been roasting since 2008. Coffee Depot has become the wholesale side of the roasting business.
• Every year we have to work a little harder to make the same money" 2m
• They aim to always put the customer first. Even though the industry has changed with a lot of automation, having a human touch is still key to their success.
• Their business has expanded beyond coffee, more than half their cafe sales come from other beverages and items like energy drinks and pastries.
• Paying attention to trends only goes so far when you're working with a local, rural community that may not be as attuned (or care) about the trends. For Kory, evolution on the roasting side is about adding in new flavor profiles without abrupt change that alienates their brand's long time supporters.
• The Kohl's Theory: Kohl's is a Midwestern clothing and home goods store that is know for their heavily "discounted" price tags on brand names. It was often the only place to find those brands at affordable prices, in part because they were putting styles from previous seasons on the shelf. It was commonly joked that if you could find a trendy item at Kohl's, it had already been popular and discarded on the coasts.

WHERE WE'VE BEEN

Earlier this week, we left the comfort and safety of our porch for our morning cup of coffee. I planned to check out Wallflower Coffee Company on SE Division in Portland, but when I arrived, there was a long, long, loooonnnng line. Life is too short to wait. I walked a block and grabbed a black drip coffee at Flying Cat Coffee before looping back to my original destination.

I walked in thinking, "Espresso." Instead, I ended up with a mug of Colombia Geisha Washed from Mel Coffee Roasters based in Osaka, Japan, brewed at a coffee pop-up inside of Wallflower. The barista, Seiji Nanbu, was sharing some of the numerous coffees from Japanese roasters he had acquired on a recent visit.

First, shout out to Wallflower for opening up their space to someone who, for the day, was selling coffee (cash or Venmo) in direct competition with their own register. It is an example of coffee industry people lifting each other up. Seiji's coffee shop, Electrica, opened in 2022 in Portland's industrial area northwest of downtown. It closed earlier this year.

I was thinking, "Espresso," but I'm a sucker for a handwritten sign and the opportunity to try something new. I proffered that I'm really enjoying a lot of Colombia coffees lately, and Seiji made the final call on the coffee for me.

I sat in the window with an aesthetically appropriate vintage-looking mug, enjoying the company of a plant and some fellow customers aggressively photographing their latte art and each other on a social media livestream. America, Japan, and Colombia all coming together in a cup of coffee.

STUDIO UPDATE

The new podcasting space is operational-ish. Earlier this week, we chatted with Jonathan Bass for an upcoming episode. We ran into some technical difficulties, but ultimately succeeded in recording the show. Exciting stuff! Stayed tuned for that episode to drop* later this month.

I'd note that the new studio is still in a closet, still way too hot or too cold, and still filled with books about coffee. But it does have a window and quite a bit more space. A notable upgrade. I don't even have to share the space with our clothes!

COFFEE PEOPLE ARE SEXY...ON ETSY

Speaking of fun! Be sure to check out all of our Coffee People Are Sexy gear in our online Etsy shop.

We've got new CPAS brand ambassadors! Welcome to Kyle Layton from Prismatic Coffee onto the team. We do not condone his shower posts, but we do love what he does with a cup of coffee. Follow Kyle and Prismatic Coffee (Salem, OR), ASAP. Get your own Coffee People Are Sexy merch at the link below.