About Us

What makes us special?

At Ross Street Roasting Co., our mission is simple:

"We turn coffee drinkers into coffee lovers."

We execute on that mission by focusing on three two words: Quality, Freshness, & Relationships

Quality​

We source only Specialty-grade coffees, the top quality segment of coffees in the world. We then apply craft roasting techniques and quality control measures to ensure consistency and quality to all our customers.

Freshness​

We roast and ship twice a week for all of our customers. No one gets coffee that’s been sitting around for weeks.

Relationships

• With ​Producers​, we maintain two direct sourcing relationships to maximize our financial impact to coffee growing communities and families.
• With Customers​ large and small, we work hard to deliver on our promises and listen ​and respond ​when customers have questions or concerns.

Sourcing Ethics

• Over 50% of our coffee is sourced through direct relationships with producers, which ensures a great portion of our money goes to farming families and their communities
• Our Nicaraguan sourcing partner, Gold Mountain Coffee Growers, won the 2016 sustainability award from the Specialty Coffee Association for their sustainable coffee farming & processing practices
• Through another supply relationship, we support the important work of World Coffee Research, whose mission is to "Grow, protect, and enhance supplies of quality coffee while improving the livelihoods of the families who produce it."

Our Team

• Brian Gumm - Founder, Chief Coffee Nerd
• Jenny Rosario - Operations Manager (incl. Roasting)

Our Story

Ross Street Roasting Co. was founded in 2015 by small-town Iowa native, Brian Gumm. Brian spent a year and a half hobby roasting in his garage on Ross Street in Toledo, Iowa. The business scaled up from local word-of-mouth customers to begin serving cafés and retail stores in the Central Iowa area, as well as maintaining an online store that serves the entire US.

We have won awards in national roasting competitions, been featured in national coffee subscription services, and received great feedback from our customers, coffee reviewers, and professional tasters. How do we do it? By staying true to our mission that we love doing every day: "Turning coffee drinkers into coffee lovers."

RSR in the News

• Iowa’s Ross Street Roasting Opens Doors Online and Off, Revamps Brand (Daily Coffees News - January 25, 2019)
• Our Town Tama-Toledo: Ross Street Roasting Company (KCRV TV-9 - June 19, 2018)
• Quality-Forward Ross Street Roasting Has Sights on the Hawkeye State (Daily Coffee News - November 1, 2016)
• Iowa coffee-maker turns hobby into growing business (Des Moines Register - May 13, 2016)
• Coffee bean roasting: Hobby to new enterprise? (Toledo Chronicle - March 10, 2014)

Our Facility

In our production facility in Tama, Iowa, we roast on an Artisan X-e manufactured by Coffee Crafters of Post Falls, Idaho. For bean inventory, roast profiling, and logging cupping scores we use the Roastmaster iOS app from Rainfrog, Inc, and RoasterTools for wholesale ordering and production workflow management.

Below is the our roast production space in Tama. The table was built by Roaster Brian's father and brother, including some wood reclaimed from the Gumm family farm in rural Jasper County, Iowa. The original roaster is visible behind the table. We are inspected and licensed by the State of Iowa for food production.