Startups

Keffa Coffee opens new office in Baltimore County [PHOTOS]

Keffa Coffee, one week after graduating from the TowsonGlobal Incubator, has moved to new office space on Cromwell Bridge Road in Towson. If it's not a technology story exactly, it's one of entrepreneurship and the power of using Baltimore's geography to benefit from welcoming innovative immigration.

Founder Samuel Demisse with his imported coffee roaster.

Keffa Coffee, one week after graduating from the TowsonGlobal Incubator, has moved to new office space on Cromwell Bridge Road in Towson.
If it’s not a technology story exactly, it’s one of entrepreneurship and the power of using Baltimore’s geography to benefit from welcoming innovative immigration.
Inside the new space is an imported roaster from Japan with capacity for up to 200 grams of coffee beans, two tasting tables and the equipment needed to do different brewing tests (pour-over coffee, siphoned coffee and so on) on each batch of coffee beans.

Keffa's coffee brewing apparatuses.

Keffa’s coffee brewing apparatuses.


Founded by Samuel Demisse in 2006, Keffa Coffee imports coffee beans from Ethiopia, which it then sells to independent roasters throughout the U.S. Some of those roasters, in turn, sell Demisse’s imported, grounded coffee to several coffee shops in the Baltimore area, including:

Demisse, a 42-year-old who emigrated from Ethiopia to Baltimore in 2004, said that starting a coffee company in Baltimore made sense largely because of the city’s port. He employs four people, three of whom work at Keffa’s warehouse near the Port of Baltimore.

The tasting tables where Demisse will try espressos brewed using different techniques.

The tasting tables where Demisse will try espressos brewed using different techniques.


Coffee beans imported from Ethiopia.

Coffee beans imported from Ethiopia.


Demisse's specialty roaster.

Demisse’s specialty roaster.

Companies: TowsonGlobal Business Incubator

Before you go...

Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.

3 ways to support our work:
  • Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
  • Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
  • Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
The journalism fund Preferred partners Our services
Engagement

Join our growing Slack community

Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!

Trending

Tech lab space opening in new 4MLK building, thanks to $2M in public funds

EDA officials are ‘hopeful’ Tech Hubs program will live on under Trump

AI is being used in more and more of the hiring process, especially at high-volume companies

The 'person of interest' arrested in the UntedHealthcare CEO shooting had a ton of tech connections

Technically Media