By Lee Lawrenz
For The News-Chronicle
In Algoma, where the sun greets Wisconsin by rising over Lake Michigan, Larry Mertz has made it possible to enjoy the moment with a cup of his unique coffee.
Mertz started his Thunder Brew Coffee Company in August, and early returns have certainly been stimulating.
Mertz fresh roasts the coffee at the Farm Market Kitchen, Algoma, a licensed kitchen that's an incubator project of Agricultural Heritage and Resources, Inc.
Mertz uses a cold water brewing method that he says eliminates fats, oils and acids from your cup. "You won't have the bitterness of regular coffee," he says.
Mertz bottles what's essentially liquid instant coffee. People can use a shot glass to mix one ounce of Thunder Brew in an average cup of hot water. To make it a little stronger or weaker, one merely adjusts the amount of Thunder Brew used.
Mertz said he is using a recipe to make coffee which was handed down in his wife's family through five generations in Chicago. Mertz said a family member worked for the Sara Lee company, so every family dinner ended with dessert and coffee. Meanwhile, a cigar group Mertz belonged to also enjoyed the coffee when they got together.
"Everybody said that was the best coffee they'd ever tasted," Mertz said. "So, I thought, why not sell it?"
Mertz, raised on Thunder Mountain near Crivitz (hence the name of his company), got the motivation to start a business after the Wisconsin Department of Tourism closed its regional office in Chicago, where Larry's wife, Tami, worked. She was offered a job with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation as a driver's license examiner serving a three-county area.
Larry said he was also ready to leave his job after 10 years as an educator of disadvantaged and disfunctional youth in Chicago. At the same time, he wanted to start home schooling his 5-year-old daughter, Raina Lynn.
"I needed to find something more conducive for a good life," Mertz said.
They found a fully-furnished house in Algoma to their liking. On Tami's first week on her new job, she discovered the Farm Market Kitchen, just down the street from the driver's licensing center. After meeting with the kitchen's director, Mary Pat Carlson, Larry soon had formulated a business plan for his coffee company and registered for his producers license, which came three weeks later.
"I can't express how instrumental the Farm Market Kitchen has been for us," he said. "It costs so much otherwise to start a business."
Larry does all the roasting and blending of the green coffee beans himself. Raina Lynn "is important to the business because she's the grindmaster. She runs the whole grinding operation," Larry said.
Mertz said his weekly production schedule starts Wednesday night and continues into Friday. They can make 24-28 bottles (ranging from 5-14 ounces) per run. Cost to consumers is $1 an ounce, which is similar to what one pays at a restaurant. Because people make coffee by the cup and not the pot, they can make only what they need and never waste good coffee again, he said.
Mertz has marketed his coffee at farm markets in Algoma and Kewaunee.
"The response has been overwhelming. The first day I set up over 100 cups of coffee," said Mertz, who found he soon had weekly regulars buy his product.
Mertz initially invested "my fishing boat money" into his business. Since he started, he's been able to triple production.
"It's taken off. My initial business plan didn't call for me to have (a particular) roaster until next summer, but I had to have it now," Mertz said. "It's hard to comprehend. I'm on my third business plan. It's mind boggling."
Thunder Brew can "microbrew" signature blends in relatively small amounts, based on the coffee taste someone is looking for. For more information, e-mail Larry at [email protected], or call him at (920) 487-5586. His website is www.thunderbrewcoffee.com.
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