Unpacking Coffee with Kandace and Ray: Madcap Coffee

In the latest episode of Unpacking Coffee, Kandace and Ray talk about the coffee and branding at the heart of Madcap Coffee, which since its founding eight years ago by Trevor Corlett and Ryan Knapp in Grand Rapids, Mich., has grown to become one of the most well-respected upscale wholesale roasters in the country.

Knapp, who is also the company’s director of coffee and spends approximately a third of the year at origin sourcing coffees, said he and the roasting team logged some 3,000 samples last year in coming up with the two or three dozen single-origins and blends that actually made it onto shelves. That number could increase this year as the company expands its retail reach.

In recent years Madcap’s coffee operation has been complemented and augmented by the design work of Seth Herman and Chuck Anderson, who came to the company as devotees of the coffee and have since helped develop branding that reinforces the core concepts of craft and handiwork through flourishes such as the fabric labels that appear on Madcap’s retail bags.

Unpacking Coffee is a weekly show discovering new coffee roasters one episode at a time led by Kandace and Ray of the Portland-based studio Needmore Designs, which specializes in coffee, wine and lifestyle brands.