Strata Coffee Roasting offers a taste of operation in Albany

Jan. 7—ALBANY — Out Gillionville Road a few miles, on the left side of the highway going west, is what appears to be an old convenience store. At night, if it is one's destination, it looks a little sketchy, with darkened gas pumps.

But step out of the car, and it is immediately evident from the aroma generated by big bags of coffee inside that this is indeed Strata Coffee Roasting.

It can even be confusing during the daytime for some, as would-be customers walk in and ask about lottery tickets or just stand and stare for a few seconds as the reality of the interior sinks in, said owner Trey Campbell.

"This was a fully functioning gas station," he said. "It had shelves; it had carpeting; it had lottery tickets in it, all the things you'd expect a 45-year-old gas station to have."

Campbell has removed the shelves, threw out the carpet and installed two gas roasting machines from Mill City Roasters. A few shelves hold bags of coffee and large bags containing coffee beans from all over the world rest on pallets on the floor. On the walls are maps showing the countries where coffee is grown, along with a chart showing what months of the year coffee is harvested in the various locations.

On Thursday evening, Campbell had the roastery in operation for the first demonstration to an audience of 15 that included a toddler and Labrador-mix dog. He and assistant Jared Thompson showed how the green coffee beans that arrive from Asia, Africa and South America are transformed into drinkable form with the gas-powered roasting machines.

"My wife owns the Temp coffee shops in Dougherty and Lee County," Campbell told a reporter who arrived before the demonstration, which was organized by Edward Newcombe, program coordinator for the Georgia Arts Guild of Albany. "Roasting is kind of a result of the need to control our costs, our coffee quality. We really wanted to have our hands on it a little more."

With the $80,000 worth of equipment, Strata roasts small batches of 20 pounds or less. Customers also can pick up bags of coffee at the roastery, and the company offers delivery and subscriptions for a monthly batch of their favorite morning brew.

"We roast probably 300 pounds of coffee a week, sometimes more, sometimes, less," Campbell said. "We kind of source from all over the world ... Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Brazil, India, Columbia, Papua New Guinea."

The roaster and owner opened his demonstration by telling the audience of the origin myth that an Ethiopian farmer noticed one of his goats behaving strangely after eating some of the berries from a shrub.

Campbell, who is mostly self-taught when it comes to roasting, worked at Starbucks years ago. He installed the equipment in 2021 before beginning operation in November of that year.

"I did a lot of education online and reading," he said. "There was a lot of trial and error. I did two online courses in early 2021 with Mill City in Minnesota. In early 2021, I brought in Mark Michaelson, a world champion coffee roaster. He stayed with us for four days, and we did one-on-one training."

Campbell, whose "day job" is with fluid power engineering company SunSource, trained Thompson, who roasts three days a week and at the screen printing shop that is located in the other half of the same building, as his apprentice.

"I was working at Temp, and one day Tyler asked me if I wanted to be his assistant," Thompson said.

Tyler, who gives talks about coffee to various groups, thought Newcombe's suggestion of a demonstration was a good idea.

"I thought that was a little more interesting than me rambling about coffee, which I can do," he said. "It's easy for me to get out in the weeds when I'm talking. (This) is a form of giving. I enjoy it."

Newcombe, who is a school teacher, was impressed.

"I think coffee is a craft," said Newcombe, who left with four cups of coffee that Campbell and Thompson had brewed for the occasion. "I was wondering what we could do. I asked him about a demonstration."

Wimberly Giardinna also seemed to be impressed.

"It's awesome," she said. "You can't beat locally (produced) to me."

"It always seems like it tastes better fresh," Nyame Fields added.