The appreciation of coffee has risen to an art form, following the path of fine wine and craft beer. And while the city is dotted with culinary coffee establishments, most are serving products shipped in from distant locations. A new company, inspired by single origin roasters like
Stumptown and
CounterCulture, brings craft roasting to Philadelphia.
ReAnimator Coffee was founded in April by
Drexel University grads Mark Corpus and Mark Capriotti.
Corpus says that while coffee has been his stimulant of choice for years, visits to New York's
Cafe Grumpy and
9th Street Espresso changed his opinion about how a cup of joe should taste. "These were coffees that were not only roasted to perfection, but were selected purposefully. At the time, there weren't many places in Philadelphia doing this type of coffee so I began looking into home roasting," says Corpus. "It was an interesting hobby that appealed to my nerdy tendencies and produced super fresh and delicious coffee with relative ease."
It was only through conversations with partner Capriotti that Corpus looked at his hobby with an eye toward a business. Using personal savings, the java-jolted duo took on the purchase of a roaster, which can run upwards of $8,000 for a starter model, and purchased inventory. Coffee bean prices are now at an all time high, according to Corpus.
Both partners are still working day jobs, but have been pleasantly surprised by growth in sales during a hot summer. It's no surprise to anyone who tastes ReAnimator, which goes down easy, lacking the acidity and charred taste of the big name brands. "When you roast a coffee until it's burnt, all of the oils that hold all of those interesting aromas and flavors are lost. You see them on the outside of a greasy burnt bean where they do not provide any additional flavor to the brew," says Corpus. "When you take the time to figure out what roast level makes the coffee flavor best, you get the full potential of a bean."
ReAnimator has relied almost entirely on social media marketing using
Facebook and
Twitter, and they can almost always be found on Saturdays at
Greensgrow Farmer's Market, just blocks from ReAnimator world headquarters in Fishtown. In addition to online sales,
Quince Fine Foods and
Green Aisle Grocery both stock the local roast, and
Circles restaurant sells it by the cup.
As far as the name? "We wanted something that sounded different, not so burlap baggy wholesome. I had been reading HP Lovecraft's ReAnimator and it struck me as a great, unique term, and in my own experience reanimation and coffee go hand in hand," says Corpus, whose name, fittingly, translates as "body" from Latin.
Source: Mark Corpus, ReAnimator Coffee
Writer: Sue Spolan