Prior to opening the roastery, Eiland was an authorized reseller for Apple and sold computers and other items. In early 1998, Eiland received a letter informing him that Apple would discontinue the store’s authorization to resell its products.
“I was kind of getting burnt out,” Eiland said. “My parents had a [coffee] shop in the 1990s, so I got a job with the people who sold them coffee for a while before I started my company.”
Initially, Eiland Coffee Roasters had a private label, meaning someone else roasted the coffee beans, but in 2003, he decided to start roasting so that he could have more control over the coffee’s flavor and consistency.
“I wanted to source my own coffee, [and] I wanted to roast it the way I wanted it,” Eiland said. “I wanted to control the profile of my coffee.”
To learn to roast, Eiland said he traveled to the Pacific Northwest where began roasting coffee with a friend. The store owner said when he first learned to roast coffee, consumers didn’t have the same palate for coffee, so he could flavor his coffee if it wasn’t roasted perfectly.
Eventually, the store owner became a quality grader, or “q grader,” a certification earned through rigorous testing. According to Eiland, 94% of people fail the test the first time they take it, and most roasters will never pass the test.
Eiland has two locations—Eiland Coffee Roasters, located at 532 N. Interurban St., which primarily sells coffee beans and has a limited drink menu; and Eiland Coffee at Canyon Creek, located at 2701 Custer Parkway, Ste. 917, which is a full-service coffee shop that serves pastries, breakfast and lunch options in addition to a coffee and tea menu.
“The roastery has more of a laid-back feeling," Eiland said. "People come in and buy beans, they talk a lot more, and there is more of a relationship, whereas the coffee shop has a lot more hustle and bustle.”
In addition, Eiland recently purchased two additional properties near Old 75 Beer Garden in Richardson, which he plans to turn into a second roaster and a coffee shop.
Eiland uses a Probat roaster, a cast-iron roaster made in the 1960s, which produces a much more developed bean than many newer roasters. Eiland said undeveloped coffee beans can lead to coffee that tastes good hot but starts to become more acidic as it starts to cool.
“There is a big difference,” Eiland said. “Once you know that as a consumer, you’ll start to pick it out because It isn’t as good when it isn’t hot.”
972-991-0100. www.eilandcoffee.com
