Hidden Gems: Meet Sydney Ballentyne of Americano Ammunition Coffee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sydney Ballentyne.

Hi Sydney, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
We are constantly getting asked how we got started in such a unique and frankly random business – coffee and ammo. To put it in a few words – we love America, our freedom, the Second Amendment, and coffee, so it just made sense to put it all together! The long story involves us getting our start in the gun show industry.

We are a family business consisting of myself (Sydney Ballentyne), my husband (Kevin Ballentyne), and my father-in-law (James Ballentyne). James has been the promoter of Arizona Gun Shows, which are well-known, high-quality shows around the state of Arizona for the last decade.

That’s where the concept basically started – we would sell ammunition and our AMAZING locally roasted in-house coffee side-by-side. A handful of the shows are at the Big Tin Cotton Gin Event Center, which is caddy corner to our shop now, so when the building opened up we knew we had to try out the concept for real! Drive-thru (and walk-in) coffee and ammo – such a great pair!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Some people assume we are politically one-sided and might avoid stopping by. However, as we tell every customer, by no means do we fit into one political box. We are America-based, freedom-based, and Second Amendment based. We love our country and are proud to share that with everyone that drives through.

Support for operating our business has definitely been struggled in our current “woke” and anti-American value society. Just the fact that we sell ammunition, classified as a “weapon”, gets us denied by a majority of insurance companies, payment processing companies, etc.

As you know, we’re big fans of Americano Ammunition Coffee. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are a local, family-owned and operated, small business in Queen Creek / San Tan Valley area. We have been in business for almost 8 months, opening to the public in August 2022. We specialize in sourcing and roasting some of the highest-quality organic coffee beans from around the world. This is apparent in the taste of our coffee – it’s fresh and amazing and better than anything else around!

We offer drip coffee and also have a full espresso coffee bar. We also specialize in offering a large array of hard-to-find antique as well as common modern calibers of ammunition. Brand-wise, we go by the motto – Calibers, Coffee, Country – the 3 things we have proudly centered around! Also, we stand by our mission statement – “Serving true American patriots the means to defend their freedom, one caffeinated caliber at a time”.

What’s next?
We recently bought a coffee trailer and are looking forward to hitting the road this summer. We plan to do some events in the valley and also in Northern Arizona, as well as scope out where we might be opening our next location!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ammoandcoffee.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/americanoammunitioncoffee/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americanoammunitioncoffee