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Meet Kristina Madh of Cloudland Coffee Company

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristina Madh.

Kristina, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My love for coffee began when I was in my early twenties. I worked at a coffee shop in Orlando, Florida while going to school. The company I worked for roasted their own coffee and were really adamant about their employees learning about the story of coffee from seed to cup. From that point, I became really interested in coffee and have always been particular about where it comes from, how it’s roasted and prepared. Fast forward about 10 years later, I am married and living in Tampa, FL, I have my college degrees and have had a career in banking. The market crash of 2008 took me out of banking for a little time as I was laid off so my husband and I started our family. I had two children and was a stay at home mom for a while. My husband ended up getting transferred by his company to Atlanta, GA. A couple of years later, my kids started school and I found myself wanting to turn my hobby and love of coffee into a little business. Over the years, I had kept up with coffee as pretty much a hobby. Got all kinds of brewing equipment, a home roaster and started roasting coffee. Nothing tastes better than fresh roasted coffee. I started giving away coffee to friends and neighbors and eventually thought that I might have a shot starting it into a business. I did some research and found that I could sell the coffee I roasted at home through a cottage food license. So I took the food safety class, got my home inspected and eventually got my cottage food license. I was then able to sell online and at the farmer’s market. About a year later, sales started to pick up and I started looking at how I could expand because I could not keep up with my little home roaster. I found a larger roaster that was affordable and allow me to expand. Then I had to find a place to put it, because in order for me to sell in stores and wholesale, the Department of Agriculture would not let me do it in my house. Eventually I came across a shared kitchen in Atlanta called Prep ATL. They set up a little dedicated unit for me and then helped to get the roaster installed. Since, then I have been able to expand my business at the farmer’s market, starting selling wholesale and I am working on getting into some retail stores.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
So while I was transitioning from a cottage food business and getting the roaster and licensing to expand, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. This of course came as a complete shock to me and my family. I had to go through about 4 months of chemo, had a mastectomy and went through radiation for about a month. All the while though, I kept my focus on expanding my business. I think that had a part with getting me through this time in my life, but the biggest thing that got me through this was the support of family, friends and neighbors. They sat with me through chemo sessions, had housekeepers come to clean our house, brought meals, and watched our kids. The list goes on. My dear friend from Chicago even flew down for a few days to watch our kids for us while I had my surgery. So while it was definitely a bump in the road, all of this support helped me to get through it. I am now officially a survivor. As a matter of fact I had my last reconstruction surgery right before the Thanksgiving Break.

Please tell us about Cloudland Coffee Company.
Cloudland Coffee Company is a small batched coffee roaster. Our focus is to provide responsibly sourced coffee that is freshly roasted to our customers. We work with importers that get their coffee through programs including Fair Trade, Women Coffee Producers and sustainable farming practices.

We roast our sales to order, deliver coffee to local offices and have started wholesale sales to restaurants, bakeries and cafes. Having coffee that is freshly roasted makes a huge difference in the taste of the coffee.

I am most proud of selling coffee that is sourced responsibly. By this I mean that the importers I work with are paying a fair price for the coffee (which also means my costs are higher), but with this the coffee producers are able to produce better quality coffee as they have more money to reinvest into their farms. Ultimately it is a win-win for everyone. The Women Coffee Producer coffees are also very important to me as they are from farms that are owned or managed by women. This program is offered by coffee importers Cafe Imports and La Bodega, from whom I get a majority of my coffee.

What sets me apart from others includes the attention to detail as I roast in small batches. I also tend to roast mostly a medium roast as I think this brings out the best in the coffee. A lot of people are used to the darker roast coffee from companies like Starbucks. I have offered a dark roast (I have one right now with the Colombia coffee I’m selling). But I also tend to do dark roasts only as special orders for clients.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Sometimes I think I should have waited to start a business until the kids were older, because it is challenging having younger kids while trying to start a business. But I am also a huge advocate of Carpe Diem and the opportunity came and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me, including cancer.

Contact Info:

  • Website: www.cloudlandcoffee.com
  • Email: kristina@cloudlandcoffee.com
  • Instagram: @cloudland_coffee
  • Facebook: @cloudlandcoffee


Image Credit:

Personal photo: Lynda Nicolay

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