Women-Forward Soulside Coffee Blends Vintage Gear and Fresh Roasts in Sacramento

A bag of Soulside Coffee next to a vintage Gaggia Guilda. All images courtesy of Cher Grosse.

Sacramento, California-based Soulside Coffee has expanded its dual missions of preservation and progress, offering refurbished vintage espresso machines alongside freshly roasted coffee and fervent support for women in the coffee industry.

While maintaining a fantastic collection of stylish espresso gear, Soulside Founder, Owner and Roaster Cher Grosse is helping to break down tired old notions in a craft coffee industry that has historically been dominated by men.

“I feel it is important that the industry itself reflects the diversity that coffee attracts,” Grosse recently told DCN. “Coffee itself is diverse; and to have one note, one perspective, limits an industry that has so many aspects to it.”

Grosse has almost 80 pieces in her current collection of fascinating, sometimes wacky refurbished espresso machines, most of which are manual lever machines. Some she sells, some she keeps, and some she rents out as props for film and video productions.

“It’s an idea I had years ago from a James Bond movie, where in one scene James uses a La Pavoni to serve his boss coffee,” Grosse said of the rental program. “Of course I cringe at how it was used, but I felt the idea was a good one.”

The collection fluctuates in size as interesting new pieces come and go, but it is generally always growing.

“The count bumps up weekly,” Grosse said. “I know there are other collectors out there with larger collections but as a woman collector, I have the largest one in the world.”

The Soulside Coffee Arc roaster against a backdrop of vintage coffee charms.

Grosse’s first experiences roasting coffee while traveling through Panama 30-some years ago featured even simpler and older technology: a cast iron skillet. Since then, Grosse has been honing her skills on more modern equipment, including a Probat machine in Berkely that Grosse rented time on to launch Soulside’s roasting brand last March.

By the end of 2020, Grosse acquired an Arc roaster and moved production to her home. There she endeavors to capture the nuances of terroir within coffees selected not only for quality, but also for their underdog status.

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“I like the challenge of offering a varietal that hasn’t been given much notice,” said Grosse. “I seek out lesser known coffees. I’m also really interested in ‘ignored’ coffees, ones that other roasters might dismiss as boring or not worth offering.”

As Grosse pursues additional grocery and wholesale accounts, she hopes to further promote women in the coffee industry by sourcing more from women farmers and developing an education program for women home roasters.

“I want to take the fear and mystery out of roasting coffee, and show just how zen-like and inclusive roasting can be,” said Grosse. “I would like to be able to source only from women-owned farms, but there isn’t enough variety to commit to it all the way. I feel that that future is around the corner.”

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