Get Caffeinated with Cafeciteaux Coffee Roasters

by Sydney Blanchard

Stevie Guillory, left, and Chris Peneguy, right, are the co-founders and roasters at Cafeciteaux in Baton Rouge

If there's anything you can learn from the roasters at Cafeciteaux, it's to never doubt the power of a hairbrained idea. 

Stevie Guillory and Chris Peneguy, the co-founders of Cafeciteaux Coffee Roasters based in Baton Rouge, met when they lived across the street from each other. The two became friends, and it was inevitable that after a couple of beers they'd dream up all sorts of potential business ventures.

Cafeciteaux is the one that stuck.

The Louisiana natives found themselves searching Baton Rouge for the best cup of coffee around and coming up empty-handed. Commercial coffee companies and national chains dominate the area, and only a few locally-owned coffee shops exist. 

When "cupping" or tasting coffee, a chart can be used to pick out certain flavors in each roast

In July 2014, the pair decided to start responsibly sourcing coffee beans and roasting them at home. With eight pounds of beans and a whirly pop, Guillory, a PA, and Peneguy, a CPA, taught themselves everything they now know about roasting coffee.

A coffee bean's flavor depends on a number of factors including how it's roasted, where it's from, what the planting conditions were like, etc. 

When they started, they were only able to produce and sell 40 one-pound bags of coffee that year. But by 2015, they had jumped to selling thousands of pounds of their responsibly sourced, locally roasted beans from places like El Salvador, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Sumatra, to name a few.

Now, their online sales are picking up, and you can find Cafeciteaux's single origin, blend, and espresso roasts in both Calandro's locations, at Alexander's Highland Market, and at other specialty shops across the state.

Cafeciteaux prides itself on responsibly sourcing beans from around the world to ensure quality

Guillory and Peneguy plan to eventually transition into roasting full-time and expand their reach to coffee shops and restaurants across the state whose passion for that perfect cup of coffee matches their own.

Check them out on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with the latest Cafeciteaux news, and listen to the podcast we recorded on site at Cafeciteaux!