Unpacking Coffee with Kandace and Ray: Forty Weight Coffee Roasters

In this week’s 80s-buddy-sitcom-themed episode of Unpacking Coffee, Kandace and Ray check in with Forty Weight Coffee Roasters, the two-man roasting outfit composed of a couple of buddies in Ithaca, New York — or, as Kandace and Ray describe it, “the outskirts of Ithaca, or Syracuse.”

Forty Weight head roaster Andrew Ballard initially began roasting in a converted camper before partnering with co-owner Matthew Marks in a Brooklyn space that also included a retail café, though they have since relocated to Ithaca and transitioned exclusively to wholesale.

See the video for more on Forty Weight’s name, their hand-illustrated packaging art, and their unruly approach to social media:

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.