The McKenzie family of Waynesboro turned to Ephesians 5:14 when looking for inspiration about what to name their new coffee business.
“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
“You grind your coffee in the morning, and it helps you grind out your day and Christ’s light is always there,” offered Andre McKenzie, whose wife, Rebecca, owns Arise & Grind Coffee.
The McKenzies also are steadfast in their belief that veterans in this country need to be taken care of and 10 percent of the profits from the business are donated to Mighty Oaks. “It’s an organization that provides free peer-to-peer resiliency and recovery programs for our nation’s ‘warriors’ dealing with challenges related to the struggles of daily military life, combat deployments and the symptoms of post-traumatic stress (PTS).
“They have intensive programs and biblically focused marriage counseling for the whole family … a Christ-first approach. We have veterans in our family and we believed this was a cause that we wanted to get behind,” Andre added.
The catalyst for Andre’s journey to start the venture began simply enough, he said.
“My love for coffee has grown in the last decade. And then we went to a nearby bed and breakfast where they served specialty coffee that you brewed at the table with a French press. It opened my eyes to a whole new world of coffee and what it can taste like.”
The next step was research, according to Andre. “You try to buy the best beans and then I started learning about the different tools to use … methods to brew your own.” The McKenzies purchased an espresso machine and he devoted a lot of time learning about the espresso process. “Then my bucket list included starting our own coffee business.”
A serious medical diagnosis this year led Andre to think about “leaving something for my family,” which includes four young daughters. “I had to rethink how to accomplish what I wanted to do in my life,” added Andre, a senior performance improvement adviser for WellSpan Health.
“I have a mass growing along my spine. They don’t think it’s cancer … all the markers are negative … but surgery is extremely complicated, so if it continues to grow …”
For now, Andre is focused on the business, which was launched in May. “Doing my research, I learned a lot about E-commerce and having a shop online. You don’t have to roast your own beans to sell them and you don’t need a lot of startup investment.”
Arise & Grind sources high-quality beans from sustainable farms across South America, Indonesia and Africa. “We have two roasters who roast the beans for us.” The work is done in small batches, on demand, to ensure freshness and quality, Andre added.
Arise & Grind’s coffee selection is available in both ground and whole bean form as well as K-Cups.
“Some of our most popular blends are A&B Breakfast Blend, 1517 Extra Nos and Sumatra Black Willow, named after our oldest daughter – Willow is her middle name. All of the reviews for our dark roast is that it’s the best dark roast they’ve ever tried and it doesn’t have any bitterness,” according to Andre.
“The reviews have all been positive and we’re thrilled about that,” Andre said. “We have a lot of returning customers and subscription purchasers, either monthly or weekly.”
Until the McKenzies obtain retail space, the best way to sample Arise & Grind coffee is through its website: Ariseandgrind.com
“Also keep an eye out online for when we begin selling at local businesses,” added Andre.
“Our next goal is to have a stand at the area marketplaces. We’ve been asked to do a wedding in October. The favors for the guests will be coffee mugs filled with our beans and we may be serving brewed coffee. We’re still working out the details.
“Research shows that most new businesses close within 12 months. When we started, our goal was to remain open 12 months from now and keep growing even if it doesn’t mean that we make a profit. We know it’s going to be a long road and we’re OK with that. Our second goal is to grow a community of specialty coffee drinkers who want really good tasting coffee.”
