Despite the Corona crisis: father and son open a roastery

For many people, it's like the butter on the bread at the start of the day: the morning coffee. But Buddy Stocker is convinced that coffee is more than just something to wake you up,. Together with his father Hannes  – both of whom are trained musicians – he opened a coffee roastery in Cham, right at the beginning of the Corona crisis.

"Coffee has twice as many aromas as wine, and therefore a wide range of flavours," says Buddy Stocker. Because many consumers don’t known about the complexity of the fruit, it’s not only sales, but also the awareness of its diversity that he wants to promote.

Father and son had been playing with the idea of opening their own roastery for some time. "We are both very coffee-savvy," explains Buddy Stocker. And so, when they had the chance to buy a roasting machine about a year ago, they seized the opportunity. And then they both began trying things out.

"Initially, we taught ourselves a lot of things. That was demanding," says Buddy Stocker, describing the beginnings. Once they had decided to run their own roastery, they attended a training course. "Trying out things at the beginning was certainly very valuable, because we could follow our own ideas there," he continued.

Coffee is not simply coffee
The joy of the start of this dynamic family project can be clearly heard. "In addition," adds Buddy Stocker, "coffee roasting is a bit like playing a musical instrument. Intuition forms a large part of it." The roastery takes up a lot of their time at the moment, although the roasting itself only makes up a small part of this. A roasting session takes 12 to 20 minutes. The beans are sourced from Inter American Coffee, based in Zug, which buys from various countries.

The trained musicians Hannes and Buddy Stocker have turned their passion for coffee into a business.

Because the Cham coffee roastery is still in its infancy, it is not yet possible for them to buy their coffee directly from the coffee farmers. "But it is already important to us that we understand where the product comes from, and that the work and the payment takes place under fair conditions," explains Buddy Stocker.

The really major effort is the actual delivery of the coffee. Because of the Corona crisis and the associated measures, the Chamer Rösterei offers a home delivery service in the canton of Zug. The coffee can also be sent by post, directly from Pfad 11 in Cham:

Buddy Stocker explains: "The personal delivery of the coffee was important for us, because it allows us to get in touch with the customers."

Raising awareness close to their hearts: "There is standard coffee and there is top-class coffee," says Buddy Stocker. The taste of top-class coffee is unfamiliar to some people, and Hannes Stocker checks the taste of the beans during roasting:

Not worried about the corona situation
Various events regarding tasting had been planned for this purpose, before the Corona crisis. The starting signal was to have taken place in the Café Glücklich in Zug. But everything has now turned out differently. "But necessity promotes invention," says Buddy Stocker. The two have therefore uploaded videos to their website, providing Information about both about roasting in particular and about coffee in general. While quite a lot is happening online at the moment, events in the roastery and in cafés are planned for after the crisis. The Stockers are no afraid that their business will fail now that the cards have been reshuffled by the virus.

But it was challenging. They started by setting up a Facebook page to sell their coffee. The demand was high.

"We roasted a lot of coffee, and, of course, we didn't want to let the coffee deteriorate," says Buddy Stocker, explaining the situation. At that time, everyone could pay as much as they thought the coffee was worth. The roasts were sometimes given free of charge to musicians who don’t currently have a job. In addition to his teaching activities at the Cham Music School, Buddy Stocker himself is active as a musician, and understands their situation well.

Father and son are passionately engaged in their roastery. For them, coffee is more than just something to wake you up.

Note: More information can be found here. The roastery is open on Mondays from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., and on Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.