Contract and Toll Roasting in Pensacola

Toll roasting means you own the green coffee and we roast it for you under your brand. You ship or drop off your green, we roast it to an agreed profile on a 15 kilo production roaster, and it comes back as finished coffee with your name on the bag. We never take title to it.

This is the right service if you already buy green and do not own a roaster, or own one too small for what you are selling. Inheritance Coffee has roasted in Pensacola since 2023, and contract roasting runs out of the same 1,000 square foot roastery.

Some people searching for toll roasting mean the other arrangement: renting a roaster and running it yourself. We do that too, as a membership at the Lab. If that is what you came for, go to rent a coffee roaster.

How this differs from private label and roaster rental

Three services get confused constantly, so here is the split. Private label is our green coffee, roasted by us, sold under your brand. Contract or toll roasting, this page, is your green coffee, roasted by us, sold under your brand. Roaster rental is your green coffee, roasted by you, sold under your brand.

If you already have sourcing relationships and green in a warehouse, toll roasting is your service. If you want to run the machine yourself, go to roaster rental at the Lab. If you have no green coffee and no interest in buying any, you want private label, where we supply the green coffee as well.

What you send us

Green coffee, plus enough information to roast it correctly. That second part separates a smooth first run from a wasted one.

• The green itself. Shipped in or delivered. Tell us when it arrives so it is not sitting on a dock.
• Lot information. Origin, producer or importer, process, screen size and moisture if you have the spec sheet.
• Your profile target. A profile to match, a roast color you are working toward, or what the coffee needs to do on a bar or in an urn.
• Your packaging plan. Whether you want it back in bulk or bagged, and whether your bags and labels are ready.

If you do not have a profile yet, we develop one on the 2 kilo roaster before committing your lot to production. Dialing in on a small machine costs a few pounds. Dialing in on the production roaster costs a batch.

Batch tracking and lot identification

Every run is tracked to the lot. Your green is received and identified as yours, roasted as its own batch, and recorded against that lot. Your coffee is never blended into someone else's production, and theirs is never blended into yours.

That record is what lets you answer questions later. When a wholesale buyer asks what changed between the coffee they tasted in March and the coffee that arrived in September, the answer sits in the batch record instead of a guess.

How the profile stays consistent

Consistency is most of what you are actually buying from a contract roaster. A great roast once is not a coffee program.

Roast color is graded on batches with a spectrometer rather than an opinion about how the beans look in the tray. That gives you a number comparable across months, which is what keeps a repeat order tasting like the last one. Profiles are recorded and re-run against that reference, and full charges on the 15 kilo mean fewer, larger, more repeatable batches.

The honest limit is the green, not the roaster. When your lot changes the coffee changes, and no profile fully hides a new crop year or a different producer. We can hold the roast steady. We cannot hold the agricultural product steady, and any roaster who says otherwise is selling something.

What optional packaging and fulfillment covers

Packaging and fulfillment are add-ons, not automatic.

What it covers. Bagging into your packaging, weigh-fill for accurate net weights, sealing, labeling, boxing and outbound shipping support. The equipment for all of it is already in the building.

What it does not cover. We do not design, print or source your bags and labels. We do not run your store, your customer service or your returns. We do not buy, import or broker green coffee, and we do not sell your coffee for you. Pallet storage is a separate add-on with limited availability, so ask early.

Put plainly: we roast, and we can put it in a box. The brand, the customers and the buying decisions stay yours.

Who should rent a roaster instead

Choose roaster rental over contract roasting if the roasting itself is part of what you sell. Some founders built their brand on being the roaster, and handing that off removes the thing customers came for. Others want to be in the room learning on real production volume.

Rental has a real cost attached. It runs as a membership with a base monthly fee plus an hourly fee, you complete a required roasting class, and the labor on roast days is yours. Contract roasting exists because for most growing brands that labor is better spent on sales.

What shapes the price

We quote per partner instead of publishing a per-pound rate. The same pound of green is not the same job twice. What moves it:

• Volume. Monthly pounds, and whether it is steady or in bursts. This matters more than everything else here.
• Frequency. A standing rhythm we can schedule around is cheaper than unpredictable one-off calls.
• Profile work. Matching an existing profile is quicker than building a new one on the 2 kilo.
• Packaging and fulfillment. Bulk back to you is one job. Bagged, labeled, boxed and shipped is several.

Send the application with real numbers and you get a real quote, not a range that is wrong for your volume.

How to start

Start with the co-roasting application. About five minutes, covering your brand, your volume, your preferred access model and any optional services. Approvals often come within 24 hours, though some take longer.

To see the facility and equipment, read the Lab page. If you have not bought green yet, how to start a coffee brand without buying a roaster covers the decision before this one. If you want finished coffee to serve or resell rather than production for your own brand, our wholesale program is the simpler answer, and the lineup is in the coffee collection.

Questions about contract roasting

What is toll roasting?

Toll roasting is paying a roastery to roast green coffee you already own. You keep the coffee and the brand, and you pay for the roasting rather than the finished product. It is also called contract roasting, and the terms mean the same thing.

Do you supply the green coffee?

No. You buy your own green and we roast it. We can store it on a pallet if space is available, but we do not source, import or broker green on your behalf. If you want the green handled too, that is private label.

How consistent is the roast batch to batch?

Roast color is graded with a spectrometer as standard practice, profiles are recorded and re-run against that reference, and production goes out in full charges on the 15 kilo. The limit is your green: a new crop year or a different lot tastes different regardless of how steady the roast is.

Can you package and ship for me?

Yes, as an add-on. It covers bagging into your packaging, weigh-fill, sealing, labeling, boxing and outbound shipping support. It does not cover designing, printing or sourcing your packaging, or running your store and customer service.

How much does contract roasting cost?

We do not publish a per-pound rate. Volume, how often you produce, whether we match a profile or build one, and whether you want packaging and fulfillment decide it. Apply with your monthly volume and we will quote a specific number within a few business days.

Send us your green coffee

If you have green in a warehouse and no way to roast it at the volume you are selling, this is a five minute application and one conversation. The coffee stays yours, the brand stays yours, and the production problem stops being yours. Apply for contract roasting, or get in touch first.