Here at Root and Stem, we have a commitment to working with top quality vendors for our food and drink, not only in terms of taste, but also in quality and environmental friendliness. By ordering from Red Rooster Coffee Roaster in Floyd, VA, we are ensuring a commitment to quality through serving their organic, tasty local coffee that has been grown, roasted, and packaged while considering sustainability, health, and the funding of local businesses. Haden Polseno-Hensley and his fellow co-founders at Red Rooster Coffee Roaster dedicate themselves to their logo, “coffee with a conscience,” in even the smallest details of their business.
Haden co-founded the company in 2010 with his wife Rose with another couple they’d grown up with in Floyd. He said the team has been a perfect fit for the coffee roasting business. His wife ran a coffee shop in Floyd for eight years. Their co-owners Benjie and Rebecca Osborne brought woodworking and building skills, along with an MBA to the business creation process.
“We’ve worked really hard to make sure our business is as sustainable as possible. Besides the quality of our product, the sustainability question is the thing that weighs heaviest on our minds,” explains Haden. Haden says the knowledge that farmers who cultivate and pick his coffee do not risk exposure to dangerous pesticides by growing 100 % organic coffee helps him sleep at night.
“We also buy Fair Trade coffee whenever possible to ensure that the people in the supply chain are paid a living wage, while using bio-degradable bags for all of our bulk coffee deliveries. Also, all of our bags are printed by hand using water-based eco-friendly inks,” says Haden.
According to Haden, the majority of their customers appreciate their well-crafted product and attention to detail and quality. They have a lot of local support in Floyd and from people in Virginia and who to buy locally crafted products and care about quality.
Taking care of the community through utilizing local creativity is a core company value of Red Rooster Coffee Roaster. Local artists print bags by hand, and Haden says they are proud of knowing they can pay someone who lives close to the store to work for them. Haden emphasizes his company’s focus on quality and dedication to the craft of roasting coffee, and says that he views roasting coffee as half science and half art.
Beyond coffee and collaboration with the local Starr Hill Brewery, a local potter in Floyd creates a line of handmade mugs for Red Rooster Coffee Roaster. The company also carries a lot of manual coffee brewers and is in collaboration with a local organic farm to grow herbs and dry them so Red Rooster Coffee Roasters can offer a limited line of certified organic tea.
Red Rooster Coffee Roaster began among four friends with minimal expense and a lot of unique artisan touches. As the business has continued to grow, the owners stayed true and committed to the original vision.
“Our products are always handmade, always artisanal, always a labor of love,” says Haden.