The Ragged Edge Coffee House, located on Chambersburg Street two blocks from the square in Gettysburg, is creating a cross-marketing coffee movement in south central PA that has even this non-coffee drinker feeling excited.
A familiar presence to locals and tourists alike for 15 years this spring, The Ragged Edge is not only a neighborhood coffee house but also a forward-thinking entrepreneurial adventure. Here, coffee is not something brown from who-knows-where that comes in a cup. Coffee is a highly nuanced, international agricultural product that has incredible versatility in the food and beverage world.
The Ragged Edge Coffee House founder Jake Schindel grew up in the Gettysburg area and has created a business that offers great products in varied markets as well as a destination and gathering spot for coffee lovers. Boasting a wide front porch, multiple rooms inside to pull up a seat and more seating available in the backyard, the old red brick home lends the welcoming warmth and comfortable setting one expects of a coffee house.
Offering a wide variety of their own roasted coffee, The Ragged Edge constantly strives to stay ahead of trends and offer customers options they didn’t even know they needed. A big part of their capability to do this comes from The Ragged Edge Roasting Company.
The Ragged Edge Roasting Company came about in January 2014 through a collaboration between The Ragged Edge Coffee Shop founder Jake Schindel and roaster Chad Close. After traveling the world exploring the process for coffee roasting and preparation, Chad made his dream a reality and started a boutique roasting company.
As the specialty roastery for The Ragged Edge Coffee House, local business partners, farmers’ markets and individual customers, Jake and Chad aim to provide the highest quality specialty coffees. In fact, the roastery prides itself on its ability to trace every bean from tree to cup. Chad and Jake are interested not only in the end product, but in developing a socially responsible company that makes sure to better the region that it buys from.
“I get coffee from farmers around the world, and we track how it’s sourced … fair trade, direct trade and organic,” Chad said. “Coffee is grown by poor people in poor countries. We want to be socially responsible, know who is involved from the tree to the cup and bring a great product not only to the coffee house but to the Gettysburg community and the greater PA area.”
Oftentimes coffee houses are given very limited roast selections, and because knowledge is power, Jake and Chad knew they wanted more. This partnership means that The Ragged Edge Coffee House has control over where the coffee beans come from, how they are processed and roasted and ultimately the final product served to customers. Chad sources the raw beans from around the world and focuses on single-origin roasts. To hold the fullest flavor, the beans are not ground until they are ready to be brewed, so you know the coffee Chad roasts is as flavorful as possible.
“Each region offers a different variety and taste depending on the soil, the climate, the altitude … the environment,” said Chad. “Varying tastes of coffee are large, just like with wine. You might get a dry, red wine from Bordeaux or a sweet white wine from Napa.”
Jake and Chad also introduced cold brews to The Ragged Edge Coffee House lineup about a year and a half ago. But don’t think iced coffee—that doesn’t necessarily mean cold brewed.
“There is a difference between cold brewed coffee and iced coffee, “ said Chad. “When coffee is brewed hot and then chilled, it gets bitter tasting with harsher notes. Think ‘skunked’ beer. It has to do with breaking down the cellulose wall of the coffee particulates and the volatile oil that gets in the coffee itself. Similar to skunked beer, the heating then cooling brings out bitter notes.”
Cold press, or cold brewing, is a process that is actually prepared, from start to finish, cold or at room temperature. Instead of heating and then chilling, the grounds are steeped in a large bag for 12–14 hours in cold water and refrigerated. Because hot brewing pulls more acidity from the grounds, cold brews can be considered smoother and less bitter. This is an interesting consideration when choosing hot or cold brewed coffee, and something the everyday coffee drinker may not realize.
In addition to offerings at the coffee house, sharing their knowledge and products with the Gettysburg area means partnering with many other local businesses that one wouldn’t immediately associate with a coffee house.
“We’ve really done a lot of cross-marketing to get our products out there, and it’s great. It’s very exciting to get to work with new and different businesses, and it’s a good way to work together with people I have known for years,” said Jake.
Some products where you’ll find Ragged Edge coffee include an oatmeal stout beer at Battlefield Brew Works, an espresso ice cream at Mr. G’s, a soap using coffee grounds at Sunrise Soap Company and an emerging Kahlua-like liqueur at Mason-Dixon Distillery. The roastery allows The Ragged Edge’s partner vendors to have a choice to use local coffee in their local products and therefore further increase the quality of their products.
“We look at each project as completely separate and will match the coffee roast to that specific taste,” said Chad. “Each cold brew for our vendors is usually customized for their needs. We’re able to complement the beer better because the cold brewed coffee is not bitter and offers a mellower taste. The geeky process comes out … we’ll sit around and try the beer without the coffee and try to match acidity levels or flavor notes to match what they’re looking for in a final product.”
The next time you visit The Ragged Coffee House or any of its partner vendors, feel good knowing that the company is socially responsible, the coffee is delicious and the benefit of Jake and Chad’s entrepreneurial spirit is being reaped not only in the Gettysburg area but also around the world. And that’s something to mull over a delicious cup of hot, or cold, coffee.
Find The Ragged Edge Coffee House at 110 Chambersburg St. in Gettysburg; phone: (717) 334-4464.
- Photos: The Ragged Edge Coffee Shop and The Ragged Edge Coffee Roasters
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