Bellwether Coffee

The bellwether roaster is so bad that we stopped using it. In the last 2 years of my 5 year lease it spent more time inoperable than in working condition. The service and the experience is so bad that I am counting the months left in my lease and I wouldn’t care if they came pick up their metal box from one of my stores. It’s nothing but a cute piece of furniture. When signing a lease with them pay close attention to the clauses pertaining operating condition and repair times. Takes several business days for a tech to fly into your town (if there’s not one in your city) and any day not roasting is money out the window. The leases are inflexible and I do feel robbed because I’m paying for something that doesn’t work. If you think this is a KEY ASSET in your business model, stay away. You’d be walking into trouble.

Great machine and service only question is the beans we use go out of stock often. How long does it take to come back ?

Update 9/11/24: After communicating my dissatisfaction via alternative and social media channels, I received a solution and communication that my refund was initiated. I can stress enough the importance of communicating with your customers promptly, no mater what the situation. Thank you. Original post 9/10/24: Very disappointed with Bellwether. It's sad when a customer needs to resort to other forms of communication after being respectful and patient to their minimal and vague communication. Can I please get an estimate on my $8K refund after I cancelled my Shop Roaster order placed in March 2024?

Bellwether's sales team mislead me into a $52,894.25 purchase of their series 2 coffee roaster under the guise of a "media and PR case study", and after multiple reassurances that no new models were coming out, 3 months later released a model at less than 1/3 of the price with less human labor and higher coffee throughput. They've since gone out of their way to avoid making the issue right, allowing me to keep a machine worth a luxury car that is now obsolete, accumulating interest on a loan for a $53,000 machine that does not suit my needs. Avoid doing business with these scammers at all costs. They don't care about small business.

Amazing, innovative company. Looking forward to getting our hands on the new Shop Roaster with continuous roasting!

It was amazing to meet this company and its people. Their machine is really high tech and roasts amazing coffee. Teresa and Liz were all very nice and made our stay really welcomed.

Bellwethers mission is to democratize coffee. We live in a current market where the Commodity market (C-Market) dictates a lot of the coffee prices that the world sees. Many of which are inadequate for the people who work the farms. The cost of opening a specialty coffee roastary where you can put your money to your values, to support good farms is high. Too high for many people to open the cafe of their dreams. Bellwether changes that. If you have the will and the hustle to sell your coffee; coffee with values to your community , a bellwether is the most innovative and pragmatic choice you can make. You can purchase the machine or lease it. You can buy your own green coffee to roast, or purchase green from their marketplace. You can focus on wholesale, or be a cafe first and foremost. As a businessowner and a bellwether roaster, I'm really proud that I see a machine in the market that gives coffee lovers a business that they can define themselves.

Really awesome roasting machines I would love to have one in my house for neverending perfect coffee