Enjoy Eco-Friendly Specialty Coffee at Monsoon Roastery, Springfield’s Local Coffee Roastery

At Monsoon Roastery, every bean is ethically-sourced, locally-roasted, and sustainably-produced, so you can feel good about that morning cup o’ Joe. Plus, the coffee just tastes bomb!

This post is part of Swallow Estates Group‘s Best in the Nest Series, which highlights the best local businesses in Springfield, Western Massachusetts, and the Greater Pioneer Valley region.

Monsoon Roastery coffee is coffee made with craft, impact, and community in mind. When you walk into the roastery, you can feel the mission, even if one isn’t formally crafted—make excellent coffee, with a big impact on the community, and as little impact on the environment as possible.

Every bean is ethically-sourced, locally-roasted, and sustainably-produced, so you can feel good about that morning cup o’ Joe. Meanwhile, the crew is always partnering locally, dreaming up inventive new coffee roasts, and building new experiences for its following.

So you want to enjoy some of Monsoon’s java? You’ve got some option.

The roastery has a walk-up espresso bar and garden patio, for those looking to have a chill, outdoors sipping experience. Order a nitro coffee, join your friends at a picnic table, and admire the graffitied walls and plant-power atmosphere.

Or stay at home and get Monsoon delivered to you—the roastery offers online ordering and shipping, so you can stay in your slippers.

Monsoon’s hand-crafted and unique products bring a bright, playful energy to the ritual of coffee drinking. (Photos courtesy Monsoon Roastery)

Plus, you can also find Monsoon’s coffee at local restaurants and venues, including some of our favorites: Granny’s Baking Table and Nosh in Springfield, and Chrissy G’s Bakery in Westfield. All three offer delectable pastries which pair nicely with a classic pourover.

We spoke with Head Roaster and CEO Tim Monson and Creative Director Andrea Monson to dive into the roastery’s past, present, and future. The duo is a creative force in Springfield, always imagining new ways to improve the city. We weren’t surprised when they shared a vision for Springfield’s future and how they’re contributing to it through their perky projects.

Monsoon Roastery is the only coffee roaster within a 20-mile radius, and we aren’t even mad… because what else could you ask for from a roaster?

A Java Daydream

Tim and Andrea Monson began their entanglement with Springfield about a decade ago. Tim was raised in nearby Huntington, and Andrea’s family—originally from Costa Rica—had relocated to Springfield when she was a kid. Though Andrea’s family relocated to Florida for a bit, she returned for high school and graduate school, and that’s when her and Tim’s worlds collided.

Tim and Andrea met in 2012, fell in love, and started a life together, bringing a daughter into the world in 2014. It was that year when the couple started dreaming about entrepreneurship. Tim was working in the restaurant industry in front-of-house management, and Andera worked in corporate America as a market researcher.

Coffee is an art at Monsoon Roastery, and it’s all radiating from Springfield’s Gasoline Alley. (Photos courtesy of Monsoon Roastery)

“Monsoon was birthed out of a dream of not wanting to live for other people’s dreams,” Tim says. “We were trying to figure out something we could do where we didn’t have to depend on anyone else [for employment]. That’s when I started roasting coffee, in 2015.”

On January 1, 2018, Tim finally opened his first retail operation, to great fanfare, in “a tiny closet on Main Street,” in the Monkey Wrench Building. “We threw a party and almost 100 people came through the door on our first day. It was a middle-of-nowhere warehouse, no signs, no parking, no anything, really.”

The roastery quickly outgrew the closet and relocated a year later to Gasoline Alley, where it still currently resides in a spacious industrial space that’s been outfitted with psychedelic art and homey furnishings.

The roastery uses a unique “fluid bed roasting” technique that uses hot-air instead of gas-fired roasting, reducing gas particulates and burning, which gives the beans a “clean and truer profile,” Tim says. Monsoon’s roaster is powered by wind and solar electricity.

When you pair Monsoon’s eco-friendly roasting with its ethical sourcing from small, specialty coffee forms from around the world, you get a wholesome, feel-good, positive-impact bag o’ beans on your hands.

Up next for the team is the impending launch of the Urban Food Brood Collaborative, a collaborative food manufacturing and retail space located in Gasoline Alley. The collaborative will feature five local businesses, including Monsoon Roastery, Urban Artisan Farm, Nosh Restaurant & Café, Corcello Butcheria, and Brood Bar. Monsoon will build out its cold brew operation in a portion of the Collaborative space and says there is another unit up for grabs for any interested local food operators. 

Brewing a Community

Whether they’re launching sustainable packaging; teasing an upcoming roast, like their innovative brandy barrel-aged Cameroon bean; or launching a new space, the Monsoon Roastery team has a consistent rad vibe. They just get it—they’re local, cool, fun.

That’s because, unlike big coffee chains, they’re thinking about Springfield, its people, its businesses, and its beautiful ecosystem.

Monsoon is a people-first roastery. (Photos courtesy of Monsoon Roastery)

Their local partnerships run deep. Each day of the week, for example, Monsoon supplies baked goods from a different local business, including Springfield’s Nosh on Tuesdays and Thursdays; Springfield’s Granny’s Baking Table on Wednesdays; Holyoke’s Comfort Bagel on Fridays; and Agawam’s Auntie Cathie’s Kitchen on Saturdays.

Last year, during The Big E—the world’s only multi-state fair, based right in West Springfield—the Monsoon crew, in partnership with other businesses in Gasoline Alley, threw “The Big G.A. (Gasoline Alley) Everything Fest, boasting local artisans, craft beer, food trucks, and live music.

For Monsoon, business is about growing together. Life’s short—drink coffee and be friendly, right? If you want to support a local coffee business that gets that, Monsoon Roastery is your spot.

Tim & Andrea’s Local Recommendations

Monsoon Roastery’s Head Roaster and CEO Tim Monson and Creative Director Andrea Monson get some sun on the roastery’s outdoor patio. (Photo courtesy Monsoon Roastery)

Tim and Andrea are local diehards, through and through. Here are some spots they love:

• Dewey’s Lounge is perfect for girl’s night, says Andrea. “The service is incredible, and the ambiance is number one,” she says. “You’re in this dark bar—it has this giant window, with a beautiful mural outside of it. And the drinks are fantastic. They’re sweet with just enough alcohol.” Get the wings, she says. “The skin falls right off the bones.”
• White Lion Brewing Company has a delicious line-up of brews, particularly its extensive line of sours. The Monsons are a fan of the bellini sours.
• Nosh Restaurant & Café is all about community, too. “Check out the summer series,” Andrea suggests. “Hang out on the patio, listen to music, and try the delicious Tim’s Espresso Tonic,” she says, which features Monsoon’s specially-made Nosh Blend coffee, tonic, tequila, and Grand Marnier.
• Smith’s Billiards is a classic, Tim says. “I really don’t think anything inside has changed in the last 40 to 50 years,” he says. “It costs next to nothing to go play pool. But the thing that’s great is, their tap list is absolutely killer! It’s one of the best tap lists in the city for sourcing local beer. If I want a good beer on draft, and I’m not hanging out at White Lion, I’m gonna go there.”
• Student Prince & The Fort is another Springfield classic. “You can’t NOT have fun there,” Andrea says. “Get the Killer Bee shot.”
• Cellf Juice is a morning staple. Get the Everything Smoothie or an açaí bowl, Andrea says.
• Peaked Mountain, with its 1,227-foot summit and 2,000 acres of nature reserve in Monson, is a spot Tim and Andrea love to take their daughter. The two-mile Peaked Mountain Trail is accessible for all skill levels and swoops around picturesque Lunden Pond.
• The Apple Place farmstand in East Longmeadow is another kid-friendly adventure. Take your family to get ice cream and baked goods, grown right on the farm, then visit with the chickens, pigs, and goats that live there. Make a special trip in the fall for the famed corn maze!

Find Monsoon Roastery online and on Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, and Google.