Mad Catter Coffee Roasters is Up and Purring in Pennsylvania

Inside the new Mad Catter roastery in Allentown. All images courtesy of Mad Catter Coffee Roasters.

The specialty coffee rabbit hole for Pennsylvania’s Mad Catter Coffee Roasters got exponentially deeper last month with the opening of the company’s spacious production roastery and training facility in Allentown.

At one end of the wide open 1,800-square-foot space stands a red Diedrich IR-12 machine. At the other end, a cupping and barista training area is outfitted with a La Marzocco Linea PB ABR espresso machine, a Fetco batch brewer and multiple Mahlkönig grinders.

Mad Catter Founder Jeffrey Wetzel.

In between sits a comfy couch and a coffee table with matching midcentury-modern lounge chairs. Mad Catter Coffee Roasters founder Jeffrey Wetzel is currently cooking up plans for the space that might involve education or just general coffee-related hangs. 

“I’ve got a big space for it. I’ve got a nice machine to work on,” Wetzel told Daily Coffee News. “It’s a great place to have a party.”

Wetzel founded the coffee company in 2022, appearing at farmers markets, then in a mobile espresso cart with a La Marzocco Linea Mini, with coffees he sourced and roasted through an arrangement with Allentown’s Wanderer Coffee Company.

Wetzel first fell under the spell of specialty coffee in New York City, where he was busking as a magician while spending long hours practicing magic in coffee shops.

“I tried to get a performing career off the ground, a magician career, in New York City,” said Wetzel. “Unfortunately that did not work out for me, but that’s where I discovered my love for coffee.”

Wetzel took barista jobs at various cafes and eventually arranged to visit farms in producing countries, reaching out to importers, exporters and producers via the web. Through family connections, he managed a six-month stint on farms and mills in Costa Rica, and later spent time working on farms in Nicaragua, learning about the coffee production process. 

“I don’t know how many people I hit up on Instagram, maybe 50,” said Wetzel. “I just kept going, ‘Hey, can I come? Can I come? Can I come?’ Eventually Ben [Weiner] from Gold Mountain Coffee Growers was like, ‘Yeah, man, you can do that.’ So I went down to Nicaragua and worked on a really high-end specialty coffee farm, and it was one of the most amazing experiences.”

Wetzel maintains that relationship, sourcing greens from Gold Mountain Coffee Growers. Additional coffees come through Royal New York and Cafe Imports, with roasted beans heading direct to consumers and wholesale accounts. There are no plans for a Mad Catter Cafe. 

“I really do want to stay wholesale. It just fits better with my goals for my life,” said Wetzel. “I can still work with young baristas, and I can still train them and get in a cafe setting, but also be able to have somewhat of a work/life balance.”

Wetzel, who has SCA certifications as a barista, roaster and green coffee buyer, aspires to earn SCA certification as an instructor. As a roaster and consultant, his priority is helping wholesale customers design new coffee bars, trailers and cafes.

“I’m trying to set a date to do a latte art throwdown, and before I do a throwdown I want to do some latte art classes and stuff like that,” said Wetzel. “Really try to draw the coffee community together and get them here. [And I’m] really trying to assist my wholesale customers as best I can.”

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