KANSAS CITY –As The Roasterie Air-Roasted Coffee turns 20, Owner Danny O’Neill is proud to announce Jon Ferguson as the company’s newest team addition. O’Neill roasted the first cup of The Roasterie coffee 20 years ago in his Brookside home’s basement.
Now, 20 years later with more than 400 wholesale customers and operating a 33,000-square-foot facility and three cafés in the Kansas City metro area, O’Neill is excited to enter into the company’s third decade with Ferguson filling the role as Bean Hunter.
The aptly named Bean Hunter is responsible for the pursuit to find the highest quality coffee in the world and bring it back home to Kansas City to air-roast in The Roasterie’s factory, one of only two coffee air-roasters in Missouri. Ferguson will also be responsible for all aspects of quality control in the roasting and packaging process, as well as at The Roasterie’s three metro cafés.
Furthermore, Ferguson will be a primary face for The Roasterie throughout Kansas City, leading the company’s redevelopment of its “Coffee College,” a popular training program for coffee enthusiasts, while also working with The Roasterie’s more than 150 local restaurants and eateries for menu collaborations and assisting The Roasterie’s independent coffee shop customers in order to perfect operations.
Ferguson attended the University of Nebraska and received a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology. He went on to receive training in basic organic processing and completed the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s (SCAA) Instructor Development Program to receive his credentials as a SCAA lead instructor in 2011.
Ferguson is a Coffee Quality Institute Q Grader, won the 2012 and 2013 North Central Regional Brewer’s Cup Championship, and in 2012, placed second in the nation at both the SCAA Brewer’s Cup and the U.S. Cup Tasters Championship.
In 2006, Ferguson founded Cultiva Coffee Roasting Company in Lincoln, Neb. and eventually sold it to pursue a professional career in the coffee industry. He was the director of quality control for Dogwood Coffee Company in Minneapolis, Minn. and started a coffee technician servicing company in Lincoln before joining The Roasterie.
