How to Start Your Own Coffee Brand: A Step-by-Step Roadmap

Starting a coffee brand comes down to six decisions: what the coffee is, who roasts it, how it is packaged, what the label must say, what the bag costs you, and how much you order first. At TiA Coffee a first order is 50 lb per blend, and a house blend can ship in about a week.

The short version:

• You do not need a roastery. You need a roasting partner, artwork, and a first order.
• TiA Coffee’s minimums are 50 lb per blend for house blends and 100 lb for a custom blend, from $10.50 per pound. The minimum is per blend rather than per format, so a 50 lb order can be split between whole bean and ground.
• Grinding is $0.50 per pound on bags of 1 lb and larger, and a flat $0.50 per bag on anything under 1 lb.
• Lead time runs from about a week for a small house-blend order to about a month for a large order with a blend developed from scratch.
• Some brands send us their own bags. Others have TiA Coffee source the bags, at an added cost. Either way the label is yours: you choose the designer, you own the artwork, and you cover the printing.
• Plain roasted coffee is exempt from Nutrition Facts labeling, and if a roaster packs for you, the roaster holds the FDA facility registration. General guidance, not legal advice.

What Starting a Coffee Brand Actually Involves

Six decisions, and only two of them are about coffee. Most first-time brand owners are surprised by how much of the work is packaging and paperwork, and how little of it requires equipment.

None of that requires you to own a roaster, a warehouse, or an FDA facility registration of your own. That is the point of working with a private label roaster. TiA Coffee handles roasting, packing and date coding so a new brand can spend its attention on the parts only it can do.

Decide What the Coffee Is Before You Design the Bag

Choose the coffee first, because everything downstream is priced off it. Roast level, origin and blend composition drive your cost per pound, your reorder rhythm, and whether your product survives a bad year in one growing region.

Blend or single origin? A blend can be rebalanced when one origin gets expensive, and the cup stays consistent. A named single origin cannot, because the origin is the product. That follows your brand promise, not your budget.

House blend or custom? A house blend already exists, carries a 50 lb minimum, and can ship in about a week. A custom blend is developed with you, carries a 100 lb minimum, and takes longer because cupping and approval rounds take real time.

At TiA Coffee, custom blend development and roast-profile engineering are complimentary, and so are samples. We usually cover sample shipping too. You taste, we adjust, and we lock in the recipe together.

Choose a Roaster and Check the Minimums

The minimum order quantity decides whether a roaster is realistic for you, so ask it in the first conversation. Minimums vary widely, and a roaster built for national brands will quote a figure a first launch cannot absorb.

TiA Coffee’s minimums are 50 lb per blend for our house blends and 100 lb for a custom blend, with pricing from $10.50 per pound depending on blend and volume.

That minimum is per blend rather than per format, so a 50 lb order can be split between whole bean and ground. Most roasters count each format separately; we do not.

What Grinding Costs, and Why Small Bags Cost More

Grinding is $0.50 per pound on bags of 1 lb and larger. On bags under 1 lb it becomes a flat $0.50 per bag, which works out higher per pound the smaller the bag gets.

Bag count is the reason. Filling four 8 oz bags is more work than filling one 2 lb bag, and the fill line does not care that the coffee inside weighs the same.

So the format you choose changes the number. A 50 lb order in 12 oz bags is about 66 bags, and grinding adds roughly $33. The same 50 lb in 2 lb bags adds $25. Every line of that first order, bag by bag, is worked through in what a first order actually costs.

Pricing excludes packaging materials, labels, grinding, labor and freight, which is worth knowing before you compare it against anyone else’s number.

Five Questions to Ask Any Roaster

Ask every roaster you talk to, including us:

• Is the minimum per order, per blend, or per format?
• What does the quoted price exclude?
• Do you charge for blend development, samples, or sample shipping?
• Who owns the recipe, and can I get exclusivity on a blend developed for me?
• What formats do you not make?

That last one saves everyone time. TiA Coffee does not make flavored coffee of any kind, artificial or natural. We also do not make K-Cups or single-serve pods, instant coffee, or vacuum-sealed brick packaging.

The chocolate and toasted nut notes in our blends come from the beans and the roast, not from added flavoring. If flavored coffee is central to your brand, we are probably not the right fit, and we would rather say so up front.

Packaging and Labels: Two Routes

You have two ways to handle packaging, and the labels are yours in both. This is one of the most common places a quote gets misread.

What TiA Coffee does in both cases is make it easier. We will introduce you at no charge to designers, packaging manufacturers and label manufacturers we already work with, so you are not starting from a search engine.

Sizes matter more than people expect. TiA Coffee fills bags from 12 oz up to 5 lb, and 8 oz is sometimes possible depending on how wide the bag opening is. Ask before you buy packaging, because a bag we cannot run is an expensive thing to discover late.

What the Law Requires on a Coffee Label

Four things: what the product is, the net weight in US and metric units, the name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer or distributor, and an ingredient statement if the food has more than one ingredient. Plain roasted coffee has one, so no ingredient list is required.

This is general information rather than legal advice, and worth confirming with your own counsel before you print.

Plain roasted coffee does not need a Nutrition Facts panel. The FDA has identified coffee beans, whole or ground, among the products treated as exempt under 21 CFR 101.9(j)(4), because they contain insignificant amounts of every nutrient that would have to be declared. Add flavoring, sweetener or dairy and the exemption falls away.

You also do not need your own FDA facility registration if a roaster packs for you. The facility that manufactures, processes, packs or holds the food carries it, and for TiA Coffee partners that is our roastery in Honeoye Falls, NY.

Registration is free and renews every even-numbered year between 1 October and 31 December, with no grace period. If you hold or repack inventory yourself, that may change. State licensing is separate, so ask counsel.

Beyond the requirements, TiA Coffee prints a lot number, a roast date and an expiration date on every bag we pack. None of the three are mandatory for coffee. They matter anyway: the lot number makes a problem traceable to one batch, and specialty buyers notice a missing roast date immediately.

How TiA Coffee Works With a New Brand

TiA Coffee is a family-owned roastery in Honeoye Falls, NY, in the Greater Rochester area. Our team brings more than 25 years of blending experience creating beautiful, high-performing, premium blends. When you partner with us, you talk to the people roasting and packing your coffee, not a call center.

Lead times. A small order of a house blend can be ready in about a week. A large order that includes developing a new blend runs closer to a month. Where you land between those depends on volume and on whether the recipe already exists.

Recipe ownership, plainly. TiA Coffee retains ownership of the recipe, and the roast profile is our proprietary work. If you want exclusivity on a blend developed for you, ask for it in writing and agree it with us before development begins. We would rather set that expectation at the start than have the conversation after your label is printed.

On pricing your bag, work backwards from the shelf price you believe your customer will pay. Roasting removes weight: industrial arabica roasting loses 15 to 19 percent, and a medium roast sits at the lower end, so a 12 oz bag carries roughly 0.89 lb of green coffee. Green is the part that moves, and it has been volatile this year. There is more on that in what’s driving green coffee prices, and what it means per bag.

Complimentary: blend development, roast-profile engineering, samples, sample shipping, and introductions to designers and manufacturers. Outside the per-pound price: packaging, labels, grinding, labor and freight.

Smooth. Balanced. Never bitter or sour. That part does not change with your order size.

The full terms are on our private label coffee program, with more answers in the private label FAQ. If you are buying coffee to serve rather than to sell under your own name, TiA Coffee’s wholesale coffee program is the better starting point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I split one 50 lb order between whole bean and ground?

Yes. At TiA Coffee the minimum is per blend, not per format, so a single 50 lb order of one blend can be split between whole bean and ground. Most roasters count each format as its own minimum, which is what makes a first launch expensive. Grinding is charged separately.

How much does grinding cost?

$0.50 per pound on bags of 1 lb and larger, and a flat $0.50 per bag on anything under 1 lb. Small bags therefore cost more per pound: 8 oz works out at $1.00 per pound, 12 oz at $0.67. A 50 lb order in 12 oz bags adds roughly $33.

How long does a first coffee order take?

About a week for a small order of a house blend that already exists. Closer to a month for a large order that includes developing a new blend, because cupping and approval rounds take real time. Artwork and label readiness on your side often decides where you land in that range.

Who owns the blend recipe?

TiA Coffee retains ownership of the recipe, and the roast profile is our proprietary work. Exclusivity on a blend developed for you is available, but it must be requested in writing and agreed before development starts. Ask about it early rather than after launch.

Does my coffee bag need a Nutrition Facts panel?

Plain roasted coffee, whole bean or ground, is treated as exempt because it contains insignificant amounts of every nutrient that must be declared. Add flavoring, sweetener or dairy and full nutrition labeling applies. TiA Coffee only produces plain roasted coffee, so the exemption applies to our partners’ bags.

Do I need my own FDA registration to sell coffee?

Usually not, if your roaster packs for you. The facility that roasts, packs or holds the coffee carries the registration, and for TiA Coffee partners that is our roastery in Honeoye Falls, NY. If you hold or repack inventory yourself, you may have your own obligation. Confirm it with counsel.

Ready to Start Your Coffee Brand?

If you are working out whether your idea is realistic, we are glad to talk it through, whether or not you end up roasting with TiA Coffee. Bring the questions you have not been able to get straight answers to.

You will be working with Eldad Hinga, our Director of Private Label. He knows how to get a new brand from an idea to a delivered pallet, and you should not hesitate to ask him anything, including the awkward questions about cost.

The fastest next step is a short call. Reply with a couple of times that work for you and we will get on the calendar. We would love to hear what you are building, and we will be back to you within one business day.