Meet Brandon Ray of InkleDeux in North West Valley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Ray.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Brandon. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started roasting coffee because, well, I’m cheap. I had a coffee club at my day job and realized that I could roast coffee for much less than I was buying it at the store. That was my white rabbit. I bought myself a popcorn popper and 30lb of green coffee and down the rabbit hole, I went. I fell in love with crafting a product and then seeing someone enjoy the work of my hands. That is what I wanted to do forever. So, I started my first coffee brand. I ventured out on my own, selling half pound bags that I roasted in my popcorn popper.

Eventually, I graduated to a roaster that was about the size of a toaster oven. It wasn’t much better than the popper, but at least I wasn’t sticking my hand into a 400-degree wind tunnel. I branched out to a little farmers market near my house and started selling pour overs and cold brew.

I came to the point where I realized that I was lonely and making bad business decisions in isolation. I also came to the realization that I had a voice and things I wanted to say but no one to talk to. My brand at the time was limiting and didn’t allow me to branch out. I reached out to my cousin AJ, who I used to meet for Taco Tuesday and deep philosophical conversations, to see if he would be interested in starting a new brand with me. Once he was on board, we began with a podcast. It took us about six months to transition the old brand over to the new one.

We graduated our roaster again and are now able to produce higher quality and much higher volumes of coffee than ever before. With that advantage, we set out to get some regular business. Our new brand focuses on craft beverages (not just coffee), so I approached a brewery about serving in their shop before they open. This has been a huge blessing because it has allowed us to have a regular location and we even got our coffee into one of the breweries beers! Our next goal is to find some local restaurants who would like to serve our coffee.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
One of the struggles I had early on and was the reason for re-branding was with my financial decision making. I got too focused on the numbers and made purchases based on cost instead of quality. This led to me serving coffee that I wasn’t proud of. In all honesty, I felt terrible selling it to anyone. One of the commitments that we made for the new brand is that we will never put anything out to market that we are not 100% proud to have our name on. We have always stayed focus on the next hurtle. We have plans, but the goal is to cover a great distance one step at a time. So, we focus on the challenge ahead of us so we don’t get overwhelmed with the nearly impossible challenge of starting a beverage shop. Overall, this has been a nice steady incline.

The Inklings were a group of scholars that met at a pub regularly for community and to discuss each other’s unfinished works. They understood two things well: that conversation is important for our development, and that those conversations are best with a delicious beverage in hand. We are working to be the second iteration of that, thus: inkle – Deux….InkleDeux

Throughout history, the coffee shop and pub were all places of religion, culture, art, politics, and philosophy. They were the center of the community, where one could both meet an old friend, or debate the affairs of the world. This is missing today and we all long for its return.

InkleDeux is working to bring this old-world sense of community and sharing of ideas to our modern time. We are working to foster meaningful conversations by providing delicious beverages.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
For me, success is the ability to support my family fulling the will of God. I have called on my life and I want to be able to live fully pursuing that life. I want the freedom to pursue my call with all my heart. That is my vision of success. It is quite simple, yet profound for me as I will never fully achieve it in this life.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.InkleDeux.com
• Email: InkleDeux@gmail.com
• Instagram: @inkledeux
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InkleDeux/
• Twitter: @inkledeux

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