Buddy Brew Coffee

The first gift Dave Ward gave his wife Susan during their dating days was a coffee maker—and the rest is history. Dave and Susan spent years in the pursuit of great coffee, trying different coffees, joining different coffee clubs, visiting different cafés around the world, exploring different brewing methods and endless different coffee equipment—until they discovered that nothing beats coffee made from freshly roasted beans. Inspired and impassioned, they began roasting their own. One Christmas, as they gave bags of their home-roasted beans to friends, they jokingly created a label for the brew, named after their dog Buddy. People fell in love with the coffee, the name stuck, and Buddy Brew Coffee was born. They bought a Diedrich IR-7 commercial roaster and started roasting right out of their garage with an online business. They opened their first roastery/coffee bar in Tampa, Florida in 2010. What started with Dave as the lone employee, a coffee can as a cash register, and a single product – a $2 self-service “bottomless” cup of coffee -- has grown into a local phenomenon.