There is no shortage of coffee experience among the partners behind the forthcoming
Hyperion Coffee Company in Ypsilanti. Dan Kubera has been a barista, roaster and manager in the coffee business for more than five years, Alex Merz is a longtime coffee connoisseur and Eric Mullins has spent more than a decade in the industry. Together, they plan to create micro-roasted coffee with a focus on relationships, science and education.
"Our specialization will be in working as much as possible with farmers when we can and to develop that work into lasting relationships that our local community can invest into," says Mullins. "We are trying to focus on educating our customers and wholesaling our coffee so that we can reach a wider audience and to get great coffee into more hands."
Hyperion Coffee Company will be located on N. River St. in a 1,200 square foot space Depot Town location. As Kubera and Mullins are both former managers at the Ugly Mug Cafe, the Ypsilanti location was a great way to capitalize on their established local network of coffee lovers, a well as position themselves well between Ann Arbor and Detroit.
"When we first took a tour of the place a few months ago we kind of fell in love with the old brickwork, the giant green doors, great location in Depot Town, and amazing neighbors," Mullins says. "When we all met up after our initial walkthrough we were in awe that such a cool spot had gone unused in Depot Town for so long, we fell in love with it and immediately picked it up."
The Hyperion Coffee team hopes to have their roasting operations underway by mid- to late March. While their focus will be entirely on roasting initially, they hope to eventually add a small cafe to the business. Mullins says they expect to hire two to three employees in the first year, and can foresee employing 10 to 12 workers in the future.
Source: Eric Mullins, Hyperion Coffee Company
Writer: Natalie Burg
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.