Good coffee roasting company brings fresh and organic approach to the Mission Valley

Celeste and John Russell both turned their entrepreneurial vision into a reality.

What began simply for Celeste, who struggled with health problems in 2014 and was looking to cope with ailments, turned into a full-fledged business five years later when the couple opened the Good Coffee Roasting Company.

Celeste used only a cast iron skillet to roast beans as a method to reduce inflammation, which was the precursor for the thriving business they run on 201 Third Ave East in Polson in a facility that used to be an old church building that is over 100 years old.

“It made me feel good, and I really enjoyed roasting and giving it away to friends or family,” Celeste Russell said. “Initially we didn’t have a set plan, but that is when we decided to take this hobby and see how far we could go with it.”

After the success displaying their fair trade and organic green coffee, which are cultivated from smaller farms that pay attention to how they grow all of their products, it became the precursor to them developing a niche in a crowded marketplace filled with coffee shops.

“We pretty much had an advantage from the get-go when we took it to the Farmer’s Market in Polson, and Ronan, and it was well-received because people wanted something fresh every week from an ethical and sustainable source,” Celeste Russell said.

By August of 2018, John and Celeste had bought a storefront but they faced their first adversity when their original espresso machine exploded.

By the end of January, they had ordered all of the materials necessary to open for business.

“It takes nearly 80 hours per different roasts to be able to test different ones because the roasts have to rest in between,” Celeste Russell said. “It takes time to have a fresh roast.”

The Russells, who have found a niche after being franchise owners of Service Master and transitioning into becoming coffee store owners, credit the community of Polson for what has become a successful storefront.

“Everyone in Polson is so incredibly supportive,” Celeste Russell said “Everyone has come to us with new ideas on how we can improve on what we don’t have, and they take the time to help. This is a great community and is pretty special. That close-knit community is not something you get in other communities, because people here genuinely care. That is pretty amazing.”

Using high-grade organic produce, sugars and ingredients all cultivated from local farmers that have high ethical practices and high standards of quality has allowed their product to stand out in the highly saturated and competitive marketplace of the Polson coffee scene.

“Our focus is to keep the community thriving, and we are communicating with one another a lot,” Celeste Russell said. “Anyone can come into our coffee shop and discuss anything they want as long it’s peaceful and legal.”

Utilizing fair trade organic specialty coffee, the roasting company emphasizes educating their consumers on the potential benefits of consuming their homegrown and freshly made products.

The coffee shop also emphasizes the atmosphere of their coffee shop, which features a lot of old family heirlooms with heritages that trace back to both John and Celeste’s family roots.

“There are so many things here that are near and dear to my heart since I was a little kid,” John Russell said. “We have things that are quite personal to our family, and now we have a place for these items.”

By creating this unique environment, the two entrepreneurs carved themselves a niche that allowed them to build a following in the short time they’ve been open, a precursor to a sustainable business, to meet the growing demand of consumers looking for more organically grown products.