Jefferson County residents now have a new option for their morning cup of coffee.
Jonathan and Katy Goldstein of Pevely recently opened Conductor Coffee, a coffee bean-roasting company based in De Soto.
Jonathan, 36, who works in the IT field by day, is Conductor Coffee’s head roaster. His wife, Katy, 31, is the social media and marketing manager for the company.
Jonathan said his interest in coffee roasting started last year.
“I began roasting during the pandemic. That was more for ourselves and learning the techniques,” he said.
Katy, who described herself and her husband as “coffee snobs,” said their interest in roasting their own coffee beans at home came from a lack of options in Jefferson County.
“Honestly, yeah, it was just for us, but I kept telling him as he was roasting this coffee that it just kept getting better and better. I told him, ‘I would be honest with you if this was bad. It’s really good. It’s some of the best coffee I’ve ever had.’ And, we’ve tasted coffee all over the world. We’ve had the privilege of traveling to Argentina, and we’ve been to Hawaii. So that’s when we decided that we’ve got to share this with people.”
In June 2022, the couple decided it was time to create a website and start selling their products online.
Katy said the company name, Conductor Coffee, comes from her time growing up in De Soto.
“I just remember being a little kid and going over the train tracks and the railroad being such a pivotal part of the town, a cornerstone of the town, and wanted to call it Conductor Coffee.”
Jonathan said their 2-year-old daughter, Olivia, also was an inspiration for their business and its name.
“She is one of the reasons also why we named it Conductor Coffee. It was the trains in De Soto but also that she absolutely adores trains. So she’s very much involved with this. She’s our model sometimes when we do social media posts.”
Jonathan said several factors make Conductor Coffee unique.
First, Jonathan is a micro roaster and makes a single bag of coffee at a time, which, he said, allows him to pay close attention to detail.
“I can do a lot more with the control of it when it comes to temperature and time,” he said. “I’m detecting aromas and listening for specific sounds.”
Jonathan said there is no one recipe that works perfectly for every type of bean, and the roasting temperature and roasting time have to be altered based on where the beans are sourced. For example, beans originating from Africa tend to be more heat sensitive and need to be roasted at a lower temperature than beans from South America.
He said he has perfected his recipes through trial and error.
The second factor he said is crucial is the quality of the beans themselves.
Jonathan said he specializes in “single origin” coffee, using coffee that all comes from the same region, such as Ethiopia, Columbia, Rwanda or Burundi.
Each region has subtle flavor differences, depending on altitude, amounts of rainfall and the plants growing near the coffee plants.
“All of these nuances can be detected straight from where it’s grown,” Jonathan said. “So in a way you’re tasting this delicious cup of coffee but you’re also getting to know the people who grew it while you’re drinking it. You’re getting to know the region you got it from.”
Jonathan said he provides descriptions of the natural flavor notes for each bag of coffee. For example, he describes his Ethiopian Benti Nenka coffee as having flavors of raspberry preserves, stone fruit and star jasmine. Those are naturally occurring flavors, not flavors he added during the roasting process.
Katy said she and her husband opened their business in De Soto to provide quality options for other local coffee lovers.
However, they said they have customers from all over and have sold their product to someone as far away as Israel.
Jonathan said a long-term goal is to eventually transition from a home roaster to a brick-and-mortar business.
“It’s not something we’re going to do overnight, but something in the next five years,” he said.
Conductor Coffee is sold online at conductorcoffee.com, as well as at Lola B’s and Moonlight Stitchery Boutique on Main Street in De Soto.
The Goldsteins said they also plan to sell the coffee at De Soto events, like the De Soto Fall Festival on Sept. 17 at Walther Park.
