We recently caught up with Passages Alum, David Peters, founder of Ten Boom Coffee Roasters. He shared about his company’s Passages-inspired vision and the powerful legacy that fuels their mission. He also gave us a sneak peek into the hopes for the future of Ten Boom Coffee Roasters—including unique partnership opportunities for Passages Alumni!
The idea of Ten Boom Coffee Roasters was born when Peters competed in the Passages Leadership Incubator, a shark-tank-like leadership initiative with the opportunity to win seed money for a project that embodied the values of Passages. His initial idea was to open a cafe in Jerusalem that would bring together people of all different backgrounds. “I had this vision of a cafe being used to connect local Israelis, traveling Christians, Muslims, Jews, Arabs—you know all these different sects of people to come connect and converse over coffee.”
He explained that although his original vision was to own a cafe in Jerusalem, as he participated in the Leadership Incubator, he was able to better define an idea that would accomplish the goals and values he had while being able to possibly have an even bigger impact than a single cafe could.
Peters explained that as he worked with his Passages program mentors, “Each person just kept pushing me forward and just like opened up these doors rather than just shutting down this crazy idea. It was a great process. I think people really felt the sprit behind what we wanted to do.” From these discussions and seeing doors start to open, Peters’ original idea of a cafe shifted towards a coffee roasting company. “This whole journey has been divine from the Lord. People caught wind of that, and it just helped refine the process to what we have today. We don’t have a cafe in Jerusalem, but we do have partners who have a cafe just outside of Bet Shemesh, Israel, called AgroCafe. Our main focus is selling roasted, specialty coffee here in the States via an e-commerce, subscription-based model. It’s able to hit a broader market, rather than just limited occupancy of a cafe.” With this plan, Peters went on to win the top prize of $10,000 in seed money and is now making his dream a reality!
We asked Peters the meaning behind the company’s name and why they chose to connect their coffee to Corrie Ten Boom. “We wanted to connect it to Corrie for a couple reasons. First, she is very well known. That’s a name that people recognize, and they have emotions and connections and feelings to that name and her story.” Corrie Ten Boom was Holland’s first female watchmaker, a friend to the Jewish people during the Holocaust—helping to save over 800 Jews from capture by the Nazi forces—and a world-renowned author and speaker. You can read more about Corrie’s story Here.
“Second, are the values of Corrie and what she stood for. We wanted to embody those same values in today's world—love, perseverance, forgiveness, hope, goodness and standing up for the right thing.” As a company Ten Boom Coffee Roasters is committed to “Brewing Goodness” in as many forms as they can. They aim to embody these values though quality coffee, a strong mission, partnering with good people, and spreading goodness through all they do. “What better way to overcome all the bad with the good. So, we like to say we have good coffee, a good mission, and a good purpose. Everything is good from the farm to the cup. So that is really our goal—our mission.”
“Third, is our family’s personal connection to Corrie. Corrie didn’t have any blood family that survived the events of the Holocaust, but that didn’t stop her from making family. She made family with my wife’s Momma Fran and Poppa Mike. Our family really got to know Corrie on a very personal level. We got to learn about her love interests, her character, they walked through a hurricane together in Destin FL, and believe it or not Destin FL, was one of her favorite places to visit. Many of her things were passed down to us in our family. Like some of Poppa Ten Boom’s watches, some teacups, some coffee cups, but really most importantly, it felt like that legacy. It was that legacy that we wanted to steward well, that we feel the weight of—the responsibility of that story, that legacy, the mission, the values of Corrie, but really the Ten Boom Family."
Ten Boom Coffee Roasters launched April 15th, which Peters described as, “Such a special day as it was both Corrie's birthday and the day she passed away.” Which is significant as it is a Jewish belief that if you die on the same day you were born, you have completed your God-given tasks on earth. “For us, we viewed it as this beautiful day where we could honor the life of Corrie, but also make the statement that we want to bring [her] values into our world today.”
Since their launch, Peters has seen tremendous growth, “We doubled our goals in the first month, which we were really excited about. And now we’re in this phase of just continuing to grow and build—building off of a great successful first month.”
The Ten Boom Coffee Roasters team has one goal that embodies their desire to do good—they want to hit 6 million bags of coffee sold. “We have one internal goal to reach 6 million bags. That was something that was set in a conversation [by] our partner in Israel. He’s like ‘David, we are going to reach 6 million bags together!’ I’m like, ‘Yes! That’s our goal, absolutely, I’m with you!’ And it didn’t dawn on me that number at all until later [when] I was talking with my mother-in-law about it. And she’s like ‘Oh my goodness, you know what that means? That number? 6 Million Jews that died during the Holocaust.’ … So that’s an internal goal that we have here … wanting to reach 6 million bags with the whole idea to overcome all the bad—all the evil—with the good. And no better product than our coffee to do that.”
As they continue to grow and expand, Peters shared that they are looking for a space in Nashville, Tennessee, where they can have both a cafe and roasting facility. The plan is to be able to have a space that can bring the community together through classes, coffee tastings and a welcoming cafe space.
With a new roasting facility and cafe, Peters hopes to employ Passages Alumni who hold the same values as Ten Boom
Coffee and who care about Israel and the Middle East. “I know the training they’ve been through, some of the experiences, because in order to be alumni you’ve had to have gone to Israel. And if they are looking to be engaged in something like we are, then naturally they really soaked all that in and have a heart for that mission. I really value that and know that’s an instant connect.”
- Ten Boom Coffee Roasters is committed to “Brewing Goodness” and bringing people together. Peters believes that, “Coffee is a bridge in our world that brings people together.” And they are doing just that! We are excited to see what the future holds for our friends at Ten Boom Coffee Roasters!
Peters generously asked to share a 10% discount code with all Passages Alumni. Use PASSAGESALUM at checkout!
