Boalsburg Company Helps Customers Explore Good Coffee with Freshly Roasted Beans and Education

Four friends who bonded over good coffee in college are helping others savor a fine brew through fresh product and education with their Boalsburg-based company, Idou Coffee Co.

Mike and Mikala Swanson and Tim and Christine Schafer started the small-batch roasting company in December 2020 to share their passion and help customers explore the world of specialty coffee.

“A part of our friendship is that we bonded over drinking good coffee,” Mike said. “When you have a good cup of coffee, like when you have a good glass of wine or something like that, you tend to savor the moment you get to spend with people who also enjoy it. I think our relationships for the four of us together were kind of deepened along that.

Each had some background in coffee. Tim started roasting coffee at home in a popcorn popper as a high school student eight years ago, while Mike, Mikala and Christine all have experience as baristas.

While they began bonding over coffee around 2015, last year they decided to turn it into an enterprise, roasting beans right in the Swansons’ Boalsburg home.

“We started dreaming about what it could look like to have a business built around people just appreciating coffee, slowing down a little bit and sharing the same kind of interactions that we have as friends,” Mike said.

After starting with online sales through idoucoffee.co, they also offer local pickup and delivery and are at the Downtown State College Farmers Market, 11:30 a.m-5:30 p.m. every Tuesday and Friday.

“We prefer [the farmers market] because we get to interact with people and tell them a little bit more about the coffee than just what’s on the website,” Tim said.

Idou is a Greek word meaning “behold,” “pause,” or “take notice,” and that’s what the company aims to do: help people take a moment to embrace the joy of a good cup of coffee.

“We want to set up someone for an ‘idou’ moment in their day, when you’re pausing and really enjoying a cup of coffee to rest or just as a break, whatever that looks like for someone,” Mikala said.

Idou sources beans from all over the world with a rotating supply of what is fresh and available via supplier Sweet Maria’s Farm Gate program, a direct-trade system that establishes a relationship between the farmer and buyer and ensures fair wages and environmental sustainability.

“The coffee that’s a part of that program, they purchase at at least 50 percent above fair-trade market price for whatever that coffee is,” Mike said. “It’s part of their commitment to actually turning that supply chain into something that’s sustainable from top to bottom. All of the coffees that we offer are a part of that Farm Gate program because we believe it matters that we compensate people fairly for the work that they do. We want to provide delicious, high quality coffee but to do so in a sustainable way.”

Fresh, quality product is one part of Idou’s equation for helping people explore and get the most out of their coffee. The other is educational resources.

The Idou website features a “Beginner’s Best Coffee Guide,” a series of articles that includes everything from grinding to water filtering to brewing methods.

“I think some of the barrier … is that specialty coffee can be really intimidating to people… We want to try to break down as many of those barriers as possible for people to actually brew delicious coffee at home,” Mike said.

“Because we’re deeply passionate about helping people enter into the world of specialty coffee, one of the pillars of our company will always be providing accessibility for those who want it. A lot of that up until this point has been us developing resources for people.”

The friends also want to be a trusted resource for those who are already experienced with specialty coffee. They’ve already developed a relationship with the Penn State Coffee Club.

“They’re not your average coffee consumer,” Mike said. “So we want to be able to also cater to folks like that who know their stuff and trust us not just as a guide in starting out but also as a reputable [source], like ‘These folks know coffee; they put out good coffee.”

While Idou’s co-owners are looking at ideas for the future, for now the focus is on establishing the roasting component of the business.

“The roasting has been the first step of establishing … that we really like it and it’s going well to set the groundwork for anything in the future.” Christine said. “Just establishing the roasting really well is our first goal and then more things to dream about in the future.”

They also want to help a community continue to grow around the idea of exploring good coffee.

“Long term it would be really, really cool to see that community of people grow who are just curious about coffee,” Mike said. “We just want to invite people to try good coffee. We love building relationships with anyone who’s interested in learning more about specialty coffee. We try to be people who are pretty approachable, pretty accessible for those reasons because of our desire to share good stuff.

“It’s one of the world’s oldest products. Coffee’s been in circulation for thousands of years. We want to help people do it well. Take a shot at it. If you’re interested in learning more about it. Reach out to us. We’d love to talk to you and start building that relationship so you can just explore good coffee.”

To check out Idou’s current selection, place an order or read articles in the beginner’s guide, visit idoucoffee.co.