1. Environmental Impact

Quality hospitality means we care for you and care for the earth. In other words, we treat Mother Nature like family. Cause she is. That’s why we only roast organic coffee, compost, and treat our environment with respect.

Helping Our Neighbors

Being a good neighbor means taking care of your community. We donate used coffee grounds to local gardening groups and farmers to keep things growing. We also help fund the Comedor Children’s™ Lunch Program in Posoltega, Nicaragua, which is organized and run by Bloomington & Posoltega Sister Cities, and give in-kind donations to local non-profits.

2. Ethical Sourcing

Where coffee comes from matters. That’s why we ethically source our certified organic beans from farmers that love coffee as much as we do. We offer both direct trade and fair trade coffees. What does this mean for you? 

Direct Trade

We’ve built direct, collaborative relationships with farmers in Honduras and El Salvador to ensure environmental, economical, and social sustainability. Because coffee? It’s about relationships.

Fair Trade

We also buy beans from Fair Trade Certified™ coffee growers and cooperatives. This network helps farmers get better prices, keep their kids in school, and protect fragile ecosystems. It’s just one way Needmore Coffee puts our values into your coffee cup.

3. Small-Batch Roasting

Roasting turns the raw, green coffee beans into something that can be consumed. All our coffee is roasted on-site at Needmore Coffee Bar & Roastery. We only roast in small batches using our three-kilo gas drum roaster. Drum roasters offer a slower, more gentle roasting process which allows our roastmasters to more closely monitor the appearance and aroma of the beans during the process. We typically roast on Mondays and Wednesdays. Small batches also mean we avoid waste and always have the freshest coffee on hand. Visit our roasting page to learn more about our process.

June 2014

In June 2014, Needmore Coffee started with a woman and a one-pound, electric roaster. Owner Katie Mysliwiec Slavin named her new business after Needmore Elementary School in Springville, Indiana (that’s in northern Lawrence County, about 19 miles south as the crow flies of our roastery today) because of her fond memories of the place she went to school as a child. Those first roasts were mostly sold at the Miller Beach Farmers Market in Gary, IN, and the Valparaiso Farmers Market in Valparaiso, IN. 

September 2014

In September 2014 the business moved to Chesterton, IN and production increased thanks to a three-pound roaster built by Katie’s father, Lee Mysliwiec.

It turned out that people wanted more Needmore Coffee than that roaster could handle.

February 2015

Come February 2015, Katie purchased a brand new three-kilo drum roaster built in Oklahoma City by US Roaster Corp. But installing this new machine meant moving. Again. Thankfully the folks from a local food truck business welcomed having a coffee roaster in their shop. That summer our freshly roasted coffee also began being served at every Saturday at Chesterton’s European Market.

March 2017

It was time to move again. Katie came back to Bloomington and opened Needmore Coffee Bar & Roastery on the east side of town. Now we have more space to roast, brew, and serve our coffee seven days a week. We also have been doing more baking in house, making quiche, scones, coffee cakes, biscotti, and breads. Our space also lets us show off some of our favorite things from Indiana: the coffee bar is built from nearby Hancock Country wood, our walls feature rotating artwork by local artists, and we serve food from Piccoli Dolci Pastries. 

Today

Needmore survived the COVID pandemic because of the amazing community in Bloomington, IN and customers around the world who gave us their support. Today we say thank you to those who helped us by continuing to produce fantastic coffee and provide a place for the community to thrive and grow. We’ve built a spot where people aren’t just another drink order, but where you can slow down a little and feel like a local, even if you come from somewhere else.