Calico Jack Coffee Roastery to open in Mentor [Video]

MENTOR, Ohio—In 2018, Chris and Charisse Barbian, and their nephew Austin, bought a popcorn machine at Goodwill. They modified it to reach higher temperatures and used it to roast coffee. The new hobby was a distraction for Chris, a mechanical engineer, who was undergoing chemo/radiation treatment for cancer.

Chris, 54 has beat three Stage 4 cancers — throat, lung and osteosarcoma — and has been cancer-free since Fall 2020.

“He found that roasting on our popcorn popper was grounding and could be used as a much-needed distraction from the hard treatments,” says Austin. “We started giving the coffee we were roasting on the popcorn machine to our family and friends.”

The positive response surprised them, and the hobby grew into Calico Jack Coffee Roastery.

Soon after, a family friend gifted them a coffee roaster. So, Chris studied coffee roasting to learn the science and processes. That led to three varieties of roasts, an online …