R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press | At UP North Roast in Escanaba, employee Bridget Bichler stocks products in the Yooper line.

EDITOR NOTE: The Daily Press will be featuring a series of articles on local businesses, highlighting their history and what makes them unique. The series will run on a regular basis in the Daily Press.

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ESCANABA — According to Jacob Cass, founder of UP North Roast, his father, Gary, first became interested in roasting coffee at home after learning about it through a Bible study at church. After learning under Gary “apprenticeship-style” for a few years, Jake opened his own business that has a storefront in Escanaba and delivers coffee across the Upper Peninsula and beyond. He now runs UP North Roast with his wife, Julia, at 506 Ludington St.

When Jake was in high school, his father bought some green coffee beans and roasted the first batch in a spinning, “1980s-style” popcorn popper.

“He knocked it out of the park,” Jake recalls. “My dad’s like a mad scientist. He finds all these cool things, and then he does them.”

At first, Jake helped out once in a while, watching and learning. After graduating, he worked in a sawmill for about a year and a half before returning to expound upon the roasting operation that was then just a hobby in a garage in Brampton. He borrowed the funds to move to a storefront in Escanaba, which opened 10 years ago in October.

“Our first customer was Rachel Stone with the Stone’s Deli — for like, an actual cafe,” Jake reported. He said that he is grateful Stone was willing to take a chance on a young startup.

UP North’s foray into retail wholesale began with Elmer’s County Market. The local grocery helped explain the proper way to label products for stores.

“They (Elmer’s) kind of gave us some pointers,” Jake said appreciatively. “We learned a lot from them.”

From there, his coffee launched into Super Valu in Gladstone (now Pat’s) and other distributors

around the central Upper Peninsula after doing a few demos on sales floors. Then —

“Marquette, Menominee, Marinette, pretty much the whole central U.P. … Super One in Iron Mountain,” Jake rattled off.

He started off with a five-pound roaster that Gary collected from Montana.

“We upgraded to a 24-pound roaster I think in 2018, and then in 2021 we bought another 24-pound Diedrich roaster. We roast about 50 pounds every every half hour,” said Jake. “On average, I’d say we go through about 4,000 to 5,000 pounds a month of coffee.”

The most popular coffee is the “Premium Blend,” Jake said, followed by “Hunter’s Brew” and “Yooper Fuel,” both of which are part of the Yooper line, which was added last year. The four roasts in that line come in bags featuring illustrations of local sites by an independent artist. As far as flavored coffee, “Highlander’s Grogg” is a favorite, as is “Cherry UP.”

Jake explained that while they’ve branched out a little, he’s mostly kept using the recipes his father perfected. But UP North Roast has also experimented some, including at one point producing a white coffee upon request for Jenah at Express Coffee.

The roastery next to the Elks Lodge on Ludington is primarily a producer of wholesale coffee, but the storefront, which serves drip coffee and espresso drinks and carries a few local gifts — is open to the public Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The hours allow for deliveries — which were originally done by Jake — and family time.

Jake and Julia currently employ one person who makes deliveries in a company van, and another two individuals who work in the store. The couple does the roasting.

Jake says he loves having the storefront and chatting with regulars and tourists.

“One guy, he started buying my coffee early on, and now he comes into the shop about once every other month, and I look forward to saying hi to him. ‘Hey dude! You were buying my coffee when I was doing my demos at Elmers.’

“You get to know your customers, and you get to have a little bit more of a relationship with the community, and it’s kind of fun,” said Jake.