Family Brews Successful Local Business

Editor's Note: In honor of Small Business Saturday, we are re-featuring this article on one of Westborough's small businesses. The original publication date was in March.

On a busy weekday morning, customers stream in and out of Red Barn Roasters on South Street. The door opens and closes, tables fill and neighbors share a morning cup of coffee. It has become a routine on the rotary that all started in a red barn in nearby Hopkinton.

In 1997, Mark and Lisa Verrochi launched a business in a converted horse barn in their back yard. Mark changed the barn loft into his office, which for several years was the hub of the couple’s specialty-coffee roasting business.

In the early 2000s, they moved Red Barn Coffee Roasters to its Upton location. But the New England-style red barn remains.

“I had been a Naval officer and Lisa a nurse before starting Red Barn," Mark said.

He explained that in 1993, the couple was looking for work which would allow them to be available to their two young children. " We saw opportunity in the roasting business, and thought how hard can coffee be? Little did we know,” he said with a grin.

During its 14 years, Red Barn has become one of the largest specialty coffee roasters and retailers in the region.

In addition to Westborough, the company operates cafes in Southborough and Boston. It sells coffee wholesale to a number of restaurants, groceries, bookstores, and other businesses. They are also working on licensing their product.

Red Barn specialty coffee includes a large selection of organic, fair-trade and solar-dried/fair-traded/organic coffees.

“Specialty coffee is very clean and higher quality than commercial grade," said roastmaster William Trull.

"The higher the altitude the beans are grown, the higher the quality," he said. "And very green coffee beans indicate freshness.”

Trull has more than 30 years experience roasting. He has been with the company since Red Barn operated out of a, well, a red barn.

He explained how the entire process, from beans being picked on the plantation to their arrival at Red Barn for roasting and packaging, takes from six to eight weeks.

In its worldwide purchasing, Red Barn chooses only beans that meet the company’s high standards and specific flavor profiles, Mark noted.

As roastmaster, Trull oversees roasting the fresh green coffee beans into beans you buy at a store or drink in a café.

The roasting process on average takes from 12 to 15 minutes.

“Store your whole beans at room temperature and in a tightly sealed container to maintain freshness," Trull said. "Never store your coffee in the refrigerator because coffee is very absorbent and will absorb the food flavors around it.”

To give back to the community, Red Barn offers a unique fundraising program. Red Barn will sell bags of coffee to organizations and individuals for minimum cost, and the people fundraising are allowed to set the price for selling the coffee to the public.

The charitable organization then keeps the difference between prices. Because so many folks enjoy their morning cups of coffee, past participants have raised several thousand dollars through the program.

The three Red Barn locations include:

17 South St. (at the rotary), Westborough, 508-898-2091

205 Turnpike Rd. (Rte. 9), Southborough, 508-481-9556

Longwood Galleria, 350 Longwood Ave. (in the heart of the Longwood medical area), Boston, 617-738-2620.