BUTTE — There's nothing like the smell of fresh roasted coffee. Florence Coffee started in a tiny kiosk in the town of Florence over 20 years ago; now they’ve expanded their operations here in Butte where they’re going to be roasting their own coffee and expanding into the future.
“We’re from Butte; this is a cool lot, Harrison Avenue, we just decided to build it in Butte, it’s kind of going to be our family legacy,” said Florence Coffee Co. President Nathan Tamblyn.
The Tamblyn family opened their business in Florence in 2003 and have since expanded to 23 locations around the state. They used to have their beans roasted in Washington State but now built their largest store off Harrison Avenue in Butte where they now roast the beans themselves.
Head roaster Jeff Tamblyn said roasting coffee is an art.
“Attention to detail. It takes a strong back at times. These bags are heavy,” said Nathan’s brother Jeff Tamblyn.
They roast about 2,500 pounds of coffee a week to be sent to all locations around the state.
“And we’re roasting it fresh every week, so you’ll never find fresher anywhere,” said master roaster Dave Stewart.
Jeff Tamblyn added, “So each one of these buckets has got a coffee from a different place around the world: Brazil, we got Indonesia, Mexico, Columbia, Guatemala.”
Butte’s location for their roasting operation will also fit into the company’s plan to start selling its coffee in more stores.
“It’s on I-90 and I-15, so as we grow we have good distribution lines, so we can move a lot of coffee through here and that’s our plan,” said Nathan Tamblyn.
Loyal customers like the new location too.
“Love Florence Coffee, we’re so excited they’ve opened this up and have the freshly roasted coffee. I’m a coffee girl at heart, so this is really cool,” said Susan Wood.
The family takes pride in their work.
“A ton of pride. I mean, there’s a lot riding on this, right? I mean, it’s got to be done right,” said Jeff Tamblyn.
The business will host its grand opening celebration on Friday, Sept. 13.
