I can’t believe it. You can’t believe. We, together collectively, cannot believe that this is the final day—the final entry—in the 2024 Build-Outs of Coffee feature series. And my goodness has it been one for the ages. Our best, our most vivid, our most exciting and culturally urgent edition in the feature series, which dates all the way back to the year 2012, which was roughly one million years ago in terms of the coffee industry. Every year this series surprises us, delights us, and ultimately becomes all about you—our readers, and the cafes who make us part of their opening story by taking part in the Build-Outs process.
But before we bid you adieu, one more beautiful build. We’re in Roswell, Georgia—yes!—around an hour north of Atlanta, give or take y’all’s infamous traffic situation. Belux Coffee Roasters is a gorgeous new space, originally opened in Alpharetta now celebrating its second location in Roswell. Join us one last time for 2024 as we take a closer look together, and thank you so much for reading and enjoying this year’s Build-Outs of Coffee feature series.
The 2024 Build-Outs of Coffee is presented by Ceado and Dona. The 2024 Build-outs of Coffee is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series, La Marzocco, Acaia, and Ghirardelli.
As told to Sprudge by Lucy Liu.
For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?
Belux Coffee Roasters opened its retail roastery in 2018 at Alpharetta, GA. The owners, Ben and Lucy, who love to taste various kinds of coffee began to source green beans and roast coffees due to the limited options offered in retail venues/coffee shops. The goal is to deliver premium quality specialty coffees to people locally and around the world, who enjoy brewing a nice cup of coffee in their everyday life, whether at home, at the office, or even outdoors. From auction grade coffee beans to unique or rare varieties to coffee beans, Belux Coffee Roasters strive to provide a variety of coffees and options to meet different needs. With continuing trying new samples and working with farms and importers, only quality green beans is sourced. Also, by micro-batch roasting all coffees, the proper roasting profile is developed per the characteristic of each lot and only fresh roasted coffee beans is delivered to customers.
Can you tell us a bit about the new space?
The driven need of customers wanting to sip and experience unique variety of coffees at Belux Coffee Roasters opened up the thoughts of a second location in 2021. The location was secured at the new development of Southern Post, part of the historic downtown area at Roswell. Due to the pandemic, the construction of this mixed-use development was delayed for almost two years and finally the space was delivered in March 2024 to Belux Coffee for interior buildout. With the unique customer base from Belux Coffee Roasters, the owners Ben and Lucy insisted on keeping the concept of manual pour over for the special coffee varieties that’s micro batch roasted at the Alpharetta roastery. Thus, an independent pour-over coffee bar is designed just to deliver the concept of specialty coffee which are carefully hand brewed by experienced baristas. An example of a regular pour-over coffee menu includes Panama Gesha Esmeralda Special, Colombia Gesha, Mokka, Pacamara, etc. Besides the pour-over coffee bar, the espresso coffee bar is set up with a monthly SOE (Single Origin Espresso) besides the popular Jumping Lapin espresso blend. The machines used at the espresso bar are La Marzocco Linea PB with Mahlkönig G80w gbs and G65gbw grinders to extract coffee consistently and precisely. Customer can ask for their espresso-based drink to be made out of SOE or enjoy it alone. The selection of SOE is set to rotate each month so customers can try different single origin coffee out of the espresso brewing method that is either fruity/floral forward or with complex flavors.
What’s your approach to coffee?
For the pour-over coffee bar, we use coffee to water ratio of 1:15 with 195F water temperature. For the espresso bar, a different recipe is developed base of each single origin.
Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?
The machines used at the espresso bar are La Marzocco Linea PB with Mahlkoenig G80gbs and G65gbw to extract coffee consistent and precisely. For the Pour-Over Coffee bar, Hario V60 drippers, Acaia scale, and Mazzer Philos single dose grinders are used. Siphon brewing method is also set up at the pour over coffee bar for customer to explore a third method of brewing coffees.
How is your project considering sustainability?
Belux Coffee emphasized the concept of fresh roasted coffee beans to everything used in store to provide a great coffee experience. We selected Loveramics ceramic cups to present our espresso, cappuccino, and latte for dine-in customers to minimize the use of disposable cups. All syrup is house made and all food items are either freshly made or baked in house. Utensils, straws, and to-go packaging used in store are made out natural or composable material.
What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?
Belux Coffee has soft opened on July 27th, 2024 with grand opening date set in mid September.
Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?
Amy Hsu with Kaisen Design is the architect that we worked with since our first location at Alpharetta. We also worked together with her to design the space and interior for the Roswell location. The space is delivered to us in grey shell, that means we need to work diligently with our architect and general contractor (Southern Choice Construction) to build the walls, finish the open ceilings and pipes, and pour the concrete floor. Amy Hsu is also involved in our interior design as helping to pick the color theme, coffee bar material and lighting and painting the murals. We asked for a very clean, modern, and Scandinavian vibe so that the spotlight can be on our La Marzocco espresso machine, slow coffee bar and coffee products. All the indoor chairs, bar stools and tables are locally custom made with wood or natural material with colors to match the build out.
Thank you!
The 2024 Build-Outs of Coffee is presented by Ceado and Dona. The 2024 Build-outs of Coffee is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series, La Marzocco, Acaia, and Ghirardelli.
