Meet Your Merchant: Company brings fresh roasted coffee to Carson

Landon Roser said he and his family have spent the last 12 years traveling back and forth to Nicaragua on humanitarian and religious missions.

The family runs the Rose International Ministries in Carson City, which sets up churches in the Central American country. It's also where the family got the idea for their new business: San Rafael Coffee Company.

The Rosers, which include Landon's parents Shawnna and Randy, opened the coffee shop a month ago, which roasts coffee beans imported from Nicaragua as well as other countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Jamaica and Colombia.

"We wanted to help support the (Nicaraguan) community so we wanted to bring their coffee beans up here," Landon Roser, 26, said. "And that's how it started with Nicaraguan beans."

Their coffee shop, named after one of the Nicaraguan cities they visited, includes a large red coffee roaster prominently placed behind the counter. Proceeds from the business also are sent back to Nicaragua, Roser said.

Roser, who also runs his own graphic design business in Carson City, spent a week in San Francisco learning how to roast coffee beans. He said he plans to return for more training.

Randy Roser said the family has visited Nicaragua about 45 times. While in the country, he said the family noticed the coffee tasted better.

"It's literally fresh grown and fresh roasted, it was just a whole different coffee experience," he said. "That's where we got the idea."