Trent Abrego: Fred Coffee Co. delivers beans to Aberdeen customers who place online orders

Greg Fred grew up watching his dad Mike roast coffee beans when the family lived in Springfield, Mo.

That was some 20 years ago. 

The Fred family would often have college students from what was then known as Southwest Missouri State University over to drink coffee. The college is now known as Missouri State University. 

“Some of my earliest memories are actually my dad roasting coffee,” Greg said. “It was always a way that we kind of built relationships, so a lot of conversations (with) a lot of people.”

Now, the family has decided to bring its roasting operations to the public, including Aberdeen, with Fred Coffee Co.

The business is a dual proprietorship between Greg and his wife, Kendra, and his parents, Mike and Denise. Fred roasts its beans in Bismarck N.D., and the orders are processed and shipped out immediately. 

Most of the orders are local and stay around the Dakotas, Greg said. Folks ordering in Aberdeen can receive their package with next-day shipping. 

Fred Coffee unveiled its business operations in January, followed by a website launch in March.

“COVID presented just really unique opportunities because everyone was online, so it was a lot easier to get a business started online,” Greg said. 

Not only that, but with the uptick in online shopping through companies like Amazon and Wayfair and online shopping with pick-up options for grocery stores growing, customers have adopted the online model of businesses. 

COVID-19 also forced coffee shops to scale back their business operations and forced some people to find a different way to get coffee instead of going into a shop. 

“No one could actually go to coffee shops,” Greg said. “So then, if you want a coffee, I mean you could go through a drive-thru, but beyond going through a drive-thru (options were limited) … The drive-thrus were just slammed, so we just made coffee at home.” 

During the summer months coffee consumption slowed a bit with the warmer weather. But with fall and winter approaching, the business has seen an increase in orders.

Since starting, Fred Coffee Co. has seen 30 to 40 returning customers who regularly place orders, Greg said. 

How coffee is roasted

There are two main ways to roast coffee — air or drum. 

Drum roasting, the more traditional way, uses natural gas that heats an oven and tumbles the beans. This gives the coffee a little more of a “smoky” flavor, Greg said. 

Air-roasting has grown in popularity and has been around since the 1970s, he said. The process includes a hot fan and a thermocouple, which measures temperature. The fan blows the coffee and stirs the beans in a way that's quicker, cheaper and more environmentally friendly, he said. Unlike drum-roasting, air roasting doesn’t contain the same “smoky” flavor. 

“In my opinion, you get a little bit more of the true flavor of the bean and the origin,” Greg said. 

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Where Fred's coffee beans come from

Fred Coffee gets its beans from commodity traders, which enter the U.S. at a port in Seattle. Beans come from all over the world. Fred Coffee's beans come from Colombia, Brazil, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia and Kenya. 

Each bag, no matter the origin of the beans, costs $15. 

“We kind of had a little bit of the Sam Walton approach with our business model rather than basically charging more for some of these other single origins and less for some of the ones that were cheaper,” Greg said. “We said, ‘Let’s just keep it at $15 no matter the origin you order from us.'”

This winter, Greg is headed to Peru with the goal to talk with a local coffee farmer from in hopes of forging a partnership for the future.

“We’d love to direct-source, which would be basically a coffee co-op that we would buy coffee directly from, so that money basically bypasses third-party sources and actually goes directly to those farmers,” Greg said. 

That would come with logistical issues, though, which can be hard and expensive to navigate.

For those who don’t need quite as much caffeine, Fred Coffee offers both a half-caffeine option and a decaf option.

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Fred Coffee's goals for the future in Aberdeen

Eventually, the business hopes to have its coffee available at shops in town.

“We would love to wholesale to the community so that people can actually, in Aberdeen, go somewhere and actually get a cup of coffee,” Greg said.

“The goal is just to provide good coffee," he said.

Some coffee shops get their wholesale beans from places like Costco or Sam’s Club, Greg said. Fred's working to buck that trend.

Currently, the business has its beans for sale at Boho Bean, a coffee shop in Mobridge. That started over the July 4 holiday. 

“They were slammed. Like they ran out of coffee, so we had to speed deliver some to them, so it worked out really good,” Greg said.

Fred Coffee Co. gives 10% of its revenues to charities, he said. The business also offers free shipping on orders more than $25 — in other words two bags of beans.

Fred Coffee is whole-bean coffee, not ground. That allows for extended freshness of the beans. The business is planning to sell grinders down the road for customers who might not have them.

“The emphasis on whole-bean coffee is preserving freshness. We want the freshest cup of coffee that it can be. If we grind it, we can’t control how good the cups of coffee (are_ … The way to maximize their best experience is by selling whole bean coffee,” Greg said. 

To order from Fred Coffee Co, visit https://www.fredcoffeecompany.com/. 

News and notes 

• Three22, at 322 S. Main St., is now open seven days a week, according to a sign in front of the new restaurant. It's open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Previously, it was closed on Sunday and Monday.
• Crady’s Radiator in Aberdeen closed in November. The business's former phone number, 605-725-2202, is now for Aberdeen Area Radiator. That business is at 3011 Eighth Ave. N.E. 
• A building permit for an interior remodel of T-Mobile was applied for. The $75,000 permit is for the inside at the Lamont Strip Mall LLC., 3711 Sixth Ave. S.E.