We have proudly been roasting specialty coffee in downtown Kalamazoo for over 20 years.

A passion for fresher, more interesting coffees and a desire to have greater control over the quality and sourcing of the beans, led Water Street Coffee owner, Mark Smutek, to attend a roasting course, purchase a Probat L12 roasting machine and begin learning the craft of coffee roasting.

In 2001, Water Street Coffee began roasting. Water Street continued to help in the downtown revitalization efforts with the purchase of another abandoned building in disrepair. This location, a former machine shop and cigar factory, resides in the historic Stuart neighborhood, and became the home of Water Street’s roasting operations and business office.

We take pride in paying close attention to the details necessary to produce a quality cup of coffee: selecting quality beans, knowing our importers and farmers, understanding processing methods, roasting with precision, assessing water quality, calibrating equipment, properly training staff and consistently monitoring quality.

That’s why we work closely with our importers to select quality coffee. Each coffee crop is tasted in our cupping lab where we carefully assess its aroma, flavor, acidity and body. After purchase, we create a coffee’s roast profile by determining which of the bean’s inherent characteristics we wish to highlight. Enhancing a coffee’s aroma, intensifying a desirable acidity, or accentuating a nuanced flavor can occur with subtle manipulation throughout the roasting process of temperature, time and air flow. With Water Street, coffee is always roasted to order because freshness is key.