Mission Coffee & Tea, which opened in southeast Chandler in February, was founded with the proceeds from selling the building that housed Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church in Gilbert after its small group of congregants found that their church was not sustainable.
However, rather than put a coffee shop in a church, they put a church in a coffee shop, said Chip Stoecker, managing partner of a five-member board of directors. “We were looking at an alternative way to keep our congregation alive and yet maintain mission work.
“That’s what was important to us.”
Mission Coffee & Tea is not your run-of-the-mill coffee joint or drive-through. Larger than the average outlet for caffeinated beverages, it invites gathering and lingering. The atmosphere is helped by piped-in music played at a volume that doesn’t obstruct contemplation or conversation.
The craft coffee is carefully and personally selected by Stoecker from producers around the world. The teas come from Infusion Coffee and Tea. Just don’t ask for tea bags here, fruit infused loose-leaf varieties reign.
The bread comes from Wildflower and the featured pastries are made by Mark Chaconne, a gourmet pastry chef in Scottsdale. Gourmet protein cookies from The Scheming Cookie are a sellout every week. If chocolate is preferred, Mission Coffee stocks a Costa Rican high-end brand of single source dark chocolate that is pure chocolate and sugar, without additives.
Mission’s motto, “great coffee, greater purpose,” indicates the operation’s different facets.
“This is a community gathering place that serves fine coffees and teas from around the world with an emphasis on doing mission work in the community,” is how Stoecker sums it up.
Every Sunday at 9 a.m. worship services are held in its main gathering space that holds about 60 people. On other days and at various times, organizations rent the space at $65 an hour for meetings, workshops and even parties. Upstairs, meeting space is available for rent as well.
Just four months in, the store is starting to hum. The calendar is filling up, with yoga classes, homeowner association board meetings and networking group meetings. A new choir called the Southeast Valley Children’s Choir is being founded by local music educator Jana Minov; auditions are slated for Aug. 8 and 14.
Mission has already completed two local drives: it donated over 600 pounds of food to the Matthew’s Crossing Food Bank in February and March and collected sports equipment and arts and craft supplies for the Boys & Girls Club of Chandler in April and May.
This month and next, it will benefit the nonprofit AZCEND with a water and heat relief drive that will collect water, sun protective items such as sunglasses and sunscreen, electrolyte packs, lotion and similar items.
“We just ask our customers and the people from the church to come in and make donations; we don’t ask for money, we don’t ask them to round up a tip,” Stoecker said.
Managing the coffee shop with its eight-member staff keeps Stoecker on his toes, but he has an even larger undertaking: the international mission work consists of supporting coffee farmers and teaching them to grow good coffee.
Accordingly, Mission has enlisted the help of international coffee connoisseurs and educators, 3 Coffee Guys, which organizes trips to learn and experience coffee growing around the world.
“We work with farmers to produce quality coffee, which gives them a higher price. And we do direct trade, which means we buy our coffee at a higher price, without using a wholesaler, from the farmer,” Stoecker said.
His coffee mentor is Tempe-based Patrick O’Malley, from 3 Coffee Guys, who is a proponent of the global coffee scene. The two other partners of the company are in Colombia and Italy.
Stoecker, who is retired from his dual career of combat medic in the military and pharmaceutical sales, funds the coffee trips himself.
“This is a calling for me,” he said.
So far, he has been to Colombia, Vietnam, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Panama. His next trip will be to Nairobi, Kenya in November, when he will meet a new group of “coffee people.”
Stoecker learned first-hand that “coffee school” is intense. There are classes on roasting and brewing, barista skills, sensory training to detect different aromas and flavors, tasting and cupping in the lab, measuring acidity, and so on.
His chemistry background came in useful. Even after two years of study, he found there is much more to learn.
In Vietnam, the group travelled to multiple plantations and evaluated varieties of coffee looking for premium beans that rate the highest. It’s similar to sommeliers judging wine.
“If it doesn’t judge in the highest category, which means it scores 85 or above on the coffee grading scale, we don’t buy it,” Stoecker said. “It’s got to be a premium coffee before we’ll sell it.”
Details: missioncoffeeandtea.com
