Brothers brew beans into big, budding business.

Mitch and Kyle McMullen know that gourmet coffee is a “hot” commodity in the Santa Clarita Valley.
The brothers McMullen, owners of Newhall Coffee Roasting Co., have been selling their micro-roasted coffee en masse to businesses throughout the community for four years.

The siblings’ business doesn’t end there. The duo has been keeping executives and other employees at high profile companies such as The Walt Disney Co., DreamWorks SKG Studios, Warner Bros. Studios, Princess Cruises, The John Paul Getty Center Museum and Nickelodeon sufficiently supplied with caffeine.

No beans about it, the company has experienced high growth since it was formed— triple digit growth for four years in a row, to be exact.

“The micro-roasted craft is extremely hot in San Francisco and in the Pacific Northwest right now,” said Kyle. “We start with the top 1 percent raw coffee bean, hand roast in small batches and deliver to our corporate clients usually within 24 hours of the roast.”

“Our client, The Getty, changed from Starbucks to Newhall Coffee because it tastes fresh and lively, not like it has been sitting on a shelf,” said Pete Slabich, director of operations for Bon Appetit at The Getty.

Newhall Coffee is not the brothers’ first coffee business venture. When an injury ended his professional basketball career in France seven years ago, Mitch decided to open a Country French coffee house in the SCV. Mitch’s Java ‘n Jazz first opened on Lyons Avenue in Newhall and grew to include a location on Town Center Drive. (The Lyons location has since been sold).

Mitch sold his lucrative business to Kyle in 1997 when he left to work in the film industry and then for Sprint PCS.

“I wanted to take on corporate America,” Mitch said.

He soon found that corporate America wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and he decided to go back to supplying the coffee to corporate America instead.

In 1996, however, he became disenchanted with the quality of coffee that was being delivered to his coffee house from roasters in other states.

“It wasn’t fresh,” he said.

Thus, the idea for the Newhall Coffee Roasting Co.

The McMullens have “only the finest” beans imported from all over the world to make their 50 types of coffee on location at the roasting company. The beans are used to make fresh coffee at Java ‘n Jazz as well.

“In the beginning, we only intended to roast coffee for our own coffee house customers,” Mitch said. “However, locals who love fresh roasted coffee have created a demand that reached well beyond our coffee house, and Newhall Coffee Roasting Co. is now considered to be one of the premier coffees on the West Coast. The company micro-roasts close to 25,000 pounds of coffee a month for Southern California consumption.”

Newhall Coffee, Mitch says, is the only roaster in Los Angeles that delivers coffee fresh no more than 24 hours after it’s roasted. The company delivers throughout the county and ships packages of coffee throughout the nation.

Most gourmet coffee retailers usually deliver within 10 to 20 weeks of the roast, claiming the packaging process keeps the coffee fresh, say the brothers McMullen.

However, they say, “coffee is fresh for just up to two weeks after the roast, regardless of the packaging.”

Recently, the brothers have embarked on the mission of brewing up their coffee to benefit local charities.

The brothers will soon be selling their packaged coffee at all six SCV Ralph’s supermarkets to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Committed to the cause since the child of a friend developed muscular dystrophy, Mitch made the pledge to donate 20 percent of all sales to the MDA to coincide with its “awareness” event that will continue through the mid-November. When that event is over, the brothers plan to help yet another cause.

In memory of their brother who died of leukemia, the McMullens will donate 20 percent of sales thereafter to charities devoted to finding a cure for the disease, Mitch said.

The duo will sell their coffee at the market as long as sales stay high.

The coffee gurus also struck a deal recently with the Canyon Country division of Costco.
The wholesale giant will set up a booth in several weeks for customers to sample some of the season’s most popular Newhall Coffee brands such as Pumpkin Spice. High sales may also lead to a future contract, Mitch said.

Newhall Coffee is also the first choice of an upcoming SCV Historical Society’s upcoming fund-raiser; society members will be selling packages of the coffee to raise funds for the organization at the annual Fall Harvest Festival in Mentryville this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

According to Carol Rock, a historical society board member, the society will use the proceeds from the coffee sales to raise funds for historical restoration projects and the future hire of an executive director for the society.

“We’re delighted to be selling Newhall coffee,” Rock said. “The historical society hosts a booth annually at Mentryville Fall Harvest Festival. The Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society (is) there to help educate the public about its community’s past, and Mentryville is certainly part of our colorful past.”

The Mentryville event will also feature cowboy poetry and Western music, arts and crafts, a haunted one-room schoolhouse, antique cars, food and pumpkins for sale.

“Mitch and I have been residents of the Santa Clarita Valley for over 30 years, and we’re delighted to donate our coffee to such a worthy cause as the Santa Clarita Historical Society,” Kyle said.
Newhall Coffee can also be purchased online at www. newhallcoffee.com. Shipping is free.