Jake Elster & Ben Heins

Expertise: coffee importing, coffee sustainability, coffee entrepreneurship, coffee supply chain, Q-grader

Coffee insight:  Jake expects to see more focus on fermentation and innovations in coffee processing, like thermal shock and co-fermentation, which gives coffee producers more opportunities to add value to their green coffees.

Coffee fun fact: The sweetness of coffee is not determined by the sugars in the coffee cherries; it comes from volatile aromatic compounds, which is why coffee’s flavor changes as the beans are stored.

After graduating from college, Jake and his Crop to Cup co-founder, Taylor Mork, were living in Iganga, Uganda, running a nonprofit they’d founded. In 2006, some connections asked them to run an audit on a coffee co-op in a neighboring town. As part of the process, Jake and Taylor ended up doing a lot of tastings from these different farms, and they noticed that some of the coffees stood out as being truly exceptional.

“We found that some people were putting a lot of pride into their work,” he explains. In spite of being paid the same as the other producers, these farms were investing significant time and energy to create quality coffee. Jake saw an opportunity to help these kinds of farmers see a financial payoff for their efforts by helping these deeply invested smallholders bring their products to the specialty coffee market.

Ben, on the other hand, started working in coffee straight out of undergrad, leaning into his entrepreneurial spirit. At the time, saccharine-sweet bottled coffees were dominating the market, and Ben saw an opportunity to ready-to-drink coffees that were “a bit more intentional and probably back off the sugar just a smidge.” Jake co-founded Bean & Body Coffee with a focus on healthier coffee options. After seven years, Ben found that he could step back from the constant cycle of fundraising and invest energy in learning more about “how coffee actually happens.”

In his quest to educate himself, Ben joined a supply chain forum at the University of Chicago, where he met Jake, who had returned to the States and was working on building Crop to Cup Coffee Importers. For more than a year, their two businesses ran out of the same incubation space, until Ben officially joined Crop to Cup as a co-owner in 2013.

Today, Jake serves as CEO and Ben is Director of Sales for a people-first importing company that serves more than 110 coffee producers from a dozen countries.

On the producer side, their team provides market insights, pre-harvest recommendations tailored to their unique position in the market, assistance with the export process, marketing that leverages each farm’s coffees and story, and transparent reviews of their yearly strategy and recommendations. For roasters, they not only offer an opportunity to identify unique specialty coffees and connect with the producers behind the beans, they also run their operations centered on transparency—focusing on traceability, consistency, and financial accountability.

Jake and Ben say that one core belief underpins everything they do: “Good coffee comes from good people.” Their focus is on helping those good people—specialty coffee producers and roasters—connect to create incredible coffees while maintaining transparency across the supply chain.

That believe in the power of intentionality also inspires their own approach and work. “Most coffee flows down a mountain and is weighed out, tared out on a truck, and then the good stuff is sorted through and that becomes specialty,” Jake explains. “That’s not how we work. We work with very intentional coffees, and they’re separated from the community level on out.”

For Ben, the best thing coffee drinkers can do is lean into their curiosity, dig deeper, and ask questions about the stories behind the coffee they drink.

“The reality of coffee is that a lot of people are going to pretty great lengths to make this whole thing happen,” Ben says. “Yes, it’s our job, but a lot of people are in an industry that doesn’t really pay them as much as they might make in a different sector.” Those stories are worth knowing. You can learn a lot by just asking questions of the people you buy your coffee from, which will help you better understand and appreciate the work that goes into producing your daily cup.

Crop to Cup connects producers and roasters, building relationships beyond business to foster mutual understanding. When producers understand what roasters are looking for, they’re better able to shape their planting and harvest plans; when roasters understand what new, unique green coffees are available and can count on consistency, they’re better able to plan their offerings. That helps both sides work together to create delicious coffees.

But most importantly, the Crop to Cup team serves as invested ambassadors, connecting underrepresented coffee-producing communities with roasters who are excited about their offerings. For Ben, the most fulfilling access of their work is being able “to support farmers that weren’t already being supported, people who were smallholders in situations that wouldn’t allow them direct access into a specialty coffee market. … We’re able to work towards greater access for specialty producers in that way.”

Crop to Cup website: https://www.croptocup.com/

Crop to Cup Instagram: croptocup

Brick-and-mortar offices: Chicago and New York

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