Storm’s a-brewin’ The Huckesteins of Veazie combine passion, hard work in their roasting venture, Shipwreck Coffee Co.

Since Bernie and Laura Huckestein opened a family business last summer, only one of their children gets to sleep in each Saturday morning at their Veazie home. The other gets up with the coffee and heads to a European farmers market in Bangor to sell the family wares, which happen to be coffee.

Coffee from Veazie? Grab a cup of java and meet the roasting Huckesteins.

The hot idea that the Huckestein kids may resent on nonschool days actually began because of them. With three teens – one away at college, two in a local high school – the Huckestein parents put a business plan into motion last year that would allow them to hold down day jobs and transform a hobby into a second career – roasting and drinking coffee – while saving for their kids’ college education. Shipwreck Coffee Co. was launched in an old butcher training warehouse in Veazie, where the Huckesteins began their venture with a major cleaning and painting marathon to prepare the space as a pristine roasting center.

Now that the business is up and running, all three children pitch in regularly, whether selling the beans at farmers markets, driving the goods to local stores or talking to customers about the various flavors and blends of the coffee.

Bernie is chief roaster. Laura does the books and sales. And the kids make up the staff.

“This has been a family project,” said Laura, whose other job is as an organ donation coordinator for the New England Organ Bank in Bangor. “We make sure the kids are part of it. This is what we’re doing, and they’re doing it too. In order to do well in life, you have to put time and effort into things. We have to work together.”

The togetherness also includes extended family members and friends. Laura’s brother Wary Meyers, an artist in Portland, designed the company logo. Her friends at work are not only regular customers, but also have helped expand the business through word-of-mouth recommendations of the brews.

The coffee is sold on the menus at Bangor restaurants such as New Moon Caf? and Cristor’s, and by the bag – both ground and in bean form – at Bangor Wine and Cheese.

Michele Goldman also serves hot cups of Shipwreck to her customers at Fiberfilia, a knitting, embroidery and cross-stitch store in Orono.

“I’m not a coffee snob,” said Goldman. “I actually think Folgers is OK. But people who come in like it. I have customers who come in just for the coffee, and they don’t even knit.”

Best of all, said Goldman, the coffee is roasted in Maine, and she likes supporting local entrepreneurs who call attention to the viability and creativity of small businesses in the area.

“I’m here, and I’m passionate about what I do,” said Goldman. “The feeling is: Come on in and knit awhile and have some amazing coffee, too – and it was made in Veazie. You don’t expect something like that in Veazie.”

Indeed, Veazie is part of the appeal, said the Huckesteins, who hope the local manufacturing and the romance of Down East seafaring history will help sell their product to B & Bs, food boutiques and restaurants in the area and on the coast. They also sell online.

But they aren’t relying on branding alone. The couple has high standards for their coffee beans, which arrive in 60-kilo bags from Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, Ethiopia, El Salvador, Brazil, Guatemala, Malawi, Indonesia and Kenya. Although the final products do not carry the labels “organic” or “free trade,” the coffees are subjected to stringent importer’s evaluations.

“We’ve always liked coffee and we had started roasting our own at home,” said Bernie, who is also director of sales at L-3 Microdyne Outsourcing, a communications company in Orono. “We were looking originally to open a coffee shop. But as we built our business plan, we began considering the retail and wholesale side.”

They also considered the flavor. Bernie became the expert at cupping, a process for assessing the aroma, flavor, acidity, body and finish of a bean or blend of beans. He compares cupping to wine tasting, but with a hot drink – and a lot of input from Laura and a select group of other tasters, as well as his own research as a taster and a businessman.

But Bernie is the final taste tester and roast master. He’s the one who leaves early for work and comes home late to be in the family factory vigilantly watching the temperatures of the fires as the beans gently toss in a shiny red rotating roasting drum. His goal is to make sure the coffee is both fresh and delicious when it arrives in the cups of drinkers: “The benefit is: I roast it today. You’re drinking it tomorrow.”

Shipwreck’s most popular coffee is the medium roast Lobsterman’s Blend, dedicated to the hardy drinkers at sea. Mariner’s Peril is a darker roast that promises to keep drinkers seaworthy in the toughest of times, and the lighter Following Seas may calm the nerves of those left behind. The Huckesteins also offer a variety of single origin, flavored and decaf coffees.

“Although the coffee doesn’t grow here, we want to tie into Maine quality and Maine handcrafting,” said Bernie. “We’re taking two things we’re passionate about – Maine and drinking coffee – and putting them together.”

And even as the Huckestein kids may be sleepy on Saturdays, others toast the family every morning with their first cup of coffee.

“I love it,” said Madelyn Clough, who drinks Mariner’s Peril each morning at her Bangor home. “We use the whole bean, and I love the strong, bold, fresh flavor. And I love supporting local folks.”

For more information about Shipwreck Coffee Co., call 947-5511 or visit www.shipwreckcoffee.com.