Blanchard’s Coffee Roasting Co.
Nearing two buzzy decades, Blanchard’s is a Richmond staple
Blanchard’s Coffee Assortment
Photo Credit: By Jacqui Photos
For coffee drinkers in Richmond, “Dark as Dark” and “Black Dog” are household names, and the ethically sourced bags of blends from Blanchard’s Roasting Co. are known to frequent their pantries.
“Dark as Dark is consistently 33% of our revenue year after year,” says owner David Blanchard of what is easily their most popular blend.
When David first started roasting from his garage as a hobby, he would gift samples of the batches to his friends, but one friend’s feedback was always the same — it’s not dark enough. Accepting the challenge, David roasted a dark chocolatey, smoky and sweet blend with a name that says it all — Dark as Dark, creating the first iteration of the no joke Richmond essential.
In 2005, Blanchard’s Coffee Roasting Co. officially debuted a roasting facility with a handful of employees, initially operating as a wholesaler and online retailer. A few years later, David grew the team and brought on Seth Bauserman, current head roaster, and Stephen Robertson, director of sales and communications. Around that same time, Blanchard’s would also connect with Ellwood Thompson.
“Blanchard’s relationship with Ellwood Thompson began all the way back in 2008,” says Robertson. “We were a young brand, and ET took a chance on our coffee with a small selection of our retail bags and beans.”
“As the coffee roaster for The Beet Cafe, we're able to get our coffee into the hands of customers both in the cup while they shop, and in retail bags to take home,” he continues. “Ellwood Thompson continues to be our single retail partner in Richmond and has one of the best selections of our full line of products outside of our own cafes. We have been able to grow together over the years, and most importantly, the ET team has always been willing to try new products and ideas with us, often acting as a test market, and sometimes a launch pad for some of our best ideas.”
In more recent years, Blanchard’s has been able to connect with the community and devoted coffee fans in a different way: through their cafes. In 2019, Blanchard’s introduced its first coffee shop, a modern, streamlined space in a historic building at 3121 W. Broad St. Next came an outpost at 4930 Forest Hill Ave. (complete with a coffee vending machine outside that dispenses bags of beans 24/7), followed by the location at 26 N. Morris St. near VCU campus.
“Our cafes have definitely exposed our brand and coffee to a much wider audience, locally,” says Robertson. “That connection with the community has been great, especially as COVID made community engagement harder for us in a lot of ways. The biggest impact of the cafes on our business, beyond welcoming in a lot of new team members, has been on our coffee sourcing practices. The cafes offer us a place to source, roast, and release much smaller lots of coffee from many more farms. This has dramatically improved our ability to build relationships at the farm level which leads to more resilience throughout the coffee supply chain, and it leads to a much more diverse list of coffee offerings for all our customers throughout the year.”
In its almost 20-year inception, Blanchard’s has evolved from a young, scrappy brand to a top-five coffee producer in Virginia, a feat that its founder and Robertson are proud of.
“We've been working very diligently at slow and steady growth since day one,” says Robertson. “Often young brands try to grow as fast as possible, and this can lead to trouble if they aren't ready. Growing slowly with trusted partners like ET allows us to learn from mistakes, build systems, and better prepare for the future. We’re going to keep working at growth the way we always have — slowly building strength and taking on challenges when we're ready.”