This month marks the 30th anniversary of coffee roasting at Winans. The seed was planted in 1993 when Laurie and Joe Reiser became the fourth generation to lead the business.
It was the early days of specialty coffee in the United States — it would still be another five years before Tom Hanks gave his now-iconic rant about the average customer ordering a “Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino.” in You’ve Got Mail.
But Joe Reiser knew there was more to coffee than the pot sitting on the warmer at the local diner (a flavor that has its place, to be sure!) and he was eager to bring an elevated coffee experience to his hometown.
“I was tired of driving 30 minutes to Dayton to get a decent cup of coffee,” Joe said. When he added a small espresso machine to the Piqua chocolate shop, it was an instant hit with customers.
In 1995, Winans began roasting their own beans, creating a signature blend — the Winans House Blend — that you can still get brewed fresh daily across Ohio. This first blend is a medium roast that’s smooth, nuanced, and balanced. A classic cup, if you will.
Not long after bagging that first roast, Joe and Laurie decided to open a new coffee-focused Winans shop in Troy, Ohio.
Joe and Laurie dove further into the coffee world, establishing direct trade relationships with coffee growers across Central and South America. This allowed Winans to access premium beans grown by farmers who are as passionate about coffee as they are.
When Joe and Laurie’s son Wilson took over the business in 2020, he knew he wanted to put his own stamp on the coffee lineup. That manifested in an updated version of the signature blend: the No. 2 Blend. This roast is lighter, which creates a bright and fruity cup of coffee. Where the original house blend is balanced, the No. 2 is dynamic.
“It’s a fresh, modern take on a classic roast,” Wilson said. “This is what I want to drink every morning.”
Wilson has continued to develop new award-winning, single-origin coffees, maintaining the Winans family tradition of elevating the coffee offerings available to Ohio.
Over the past 30 years, Winans added dozens more coffee and chocolate shops across the Buckeye State, all dedicated to the same obsession that inspired Joe to start roasting in the first place: pouring the best cup of coffee in town.