Meet Brett Bixler | Founder, MissionCoffeeRoasters.com and ChurchCoffee.com

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brett Bixler and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
MissionCoffeeRoasters.com and ChurchCoffee.com exist to financially support non-profits, both faith based and secular, through the sale of our delicious fresh roasted coffee, and to benefit the coffee farmers, our employees, our customers, our community, and the communities where our fresh roasted coffees are enjoyed. I began to learn about coffee starting in the trade in 1991 through 1996 with the Diedrich family, who were originally coffee farmers in Guatemala, who also manufacture coffee processing equipment and operate community coffee houses. I served in various capacities during my time with them, starting as a washer of dishes, a bathroom cleaner, later as a barista, then as an intern under Don Holly, Martin Diedrich’s business partner where I assisted with business plans, site analysis, competitive research, and more. Through the years, I’ve have served many a cup of coffee, taken out loads of trash, cleaned many a bathroom, taught coffee farmers in Costa Rica how to start and run coffeehouses to serve tourists and their communities, served as a Lab Instuctor at SCAA Espresso Labs (now SCA – Specialty Coffee Association), managed coffeehouses, helped to place a coffee cart in Children’s Hospital in Orange County, owned a coffeehouse and roastery in the inner city of Baltimore (the stories I could tell from that experience alone about transvestite prostitutes, heroin, violence, murder, coffee, and community). And, I have counted Whole Foods Markets as a blessing in our business since about 2005/6 when they first placed our coffee on their shelf. As I write this, Whole Foods has carried our coffee for almost 20 years, and I am so grateful for how they treat us as a smaller community focused coffee roaster. And, from 2005 till now, I have parented my children, while doing coffee. Jacob was six weeks old when he started coming with me five days a week from about 5 in the morning to 6 or so at night. He snuggled on my chest, hips, and back as I served guests, roasted coffee, and shipped it to churches all over the country. He had pack and play next to our coffee roaster and helped stock our coffee on the shelves of our local Whole Foods in Baltimore once he could stand and walk (just a few times until the team at Whole Foods said with a kind smile and a twinkle in their eye “hey that’s our job to put your coffee on our shelves”). He spent the first two years of his life coming to the roastery and cafe with dad. Once he could walk, talk, and knew that he was loved he started to do half days at a Baptist church sort of a preschool. Then his baby sister Rachel was born, and at twelve weeks, she started to come in with me to the coffeehouse and coffee roastery for 5 days a week all day as Jacob had done previously for her first two years. Some of the best days of my life are shared with those two, then and now.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We’d start with coffee and breakfast at home on the deck overlooking Pike’s Peak. Then we’d head to Mission Coffee Roasters to check in with the team and have a second cup of coffee. After working a bit at Mission, we would start thinking about lunch. There are so many great taco shops here, Angie and her husband own Zapata Taco Shop and they serve our coffee too so they would likely be our first place to go for lunch. We could walk to Angie’s taco shop as it is at the next traffic light up from Mission. After lunch, back to work a bit at Mission, then perhaps a drive up to the top of Pike’s Peak stopping at one or two of the lakes along to way for a cup of coffee from a thermos we brought from Mission. Later, dinner at home, perhaps a barbecue on the deck if the weather were still nice. Other days would have a similar rythym but would include visits to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, the Royal Gorge Bridge, and perhaps some time in Denver exploring the Botanical Garden and other fun spots. If there were time, we might head for a night or two in Breckinridge to rest and eat French pastries from the patisserie, ride the gondola to the summit, and walk the town. Wherever we went, there would be a thermos of Mission coffee with us, as really good coffee makes life better. And tacos, probably daily, at least once.  

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My parents (Otto, Sharon, and Carole Bixler), uncle (Terry Bixler), extended family, friends (Chris, Clark, and John), Mike from Mission Coffee roasters, and family friends (Gene Potter), along with Don Holly and Martin Diedrich from Diedrich Coffee, Dave Day from Grower’s First, Karen Gordon from Coffee Holding Company, Dave Price from CAM, Joey from Cafe Kreyol, Sammy from Keffa Coffee, shopkeepers, pastors, missionaries, inventors, engineers, importers, boat builders (Snyder Vick), coffee roasters, bankers, artists, and photographers all have contributed individually and collectively to nurture me, to add values, skills, inspiration and confidence to me over the years. Many of the above actively invested time and energy in to me, others simply affected me by example and inspiration, or by simply listening. Fundamentally and foundationally, it’s knowing Christ and his role in my life that makes every day possible.

Website: www.missioncoffeeroasters.com and www.churchcoffee.com – both sites please

Instagram: missioncoffeeroasters

Image Credits
Mike and Brett at the Roaster (adults), Jacob and Brett (Brett’s son Jacob at the coffee roastery in Baltimore – before Mission Coffee Roasters in Colorado), Brett and Marley (dog) having coffee on a hike, the Community Table at Mission Coffee Roasters this morning