HUDSON — There are many different types of coffee in the world, from caffeinated to decaf, light roast to dark roast and commodity to specialty. Ender Göçmen, a founder and co-owner along with his wife Cassie, of coffee roasting company Barbell Coffee located in Hudson, is working to establish a footing in the specialty coffee market.

Göçmen, 38, was looking to start a business and was deciding between a barbell training gym or a coffee roasting company. When the pandemic arrived and gyms started to close, Göçmen made the decision to start a coffee roasting company that was founded in 2020.

“That kind of, for me, closed an avenue,” Göçmen said when referring to the possibility of opening a gym before the pandemic.

Göçmen grew up in Illinois and is a first generation American with Turkish immigrant parents. Göçmen moved to Minnesota before eventually settling down in Hudson and starting the business.

Göçmen had a love for coffee that developed into a “ritual” of looking for the best coffee. When searching, Göçmen realized all of the best coffee was expensive. Göçmen later learned that it was because it was specialty coffee.

Göçmen began to roast coffee at home as a hobby and visitors often complimented it and asked where it was from.

“That kind of turned into, ‘Oh could I have some more,” Göçmen said.

This caused Göçmen to begin to look into what it would take to start the business.

Specialty coffee is coffee that receives a grade over 80 out of 100 according to Göçmen, while commodity coffee is anything graded 79 or below. Göçmen said Barbell Coffee only sells specialty coffee.

“What makes that unique is again, you can trace it, it’s free of certain defects like mold or bug damage to a certain degree,” Göçmen said.

Göçmen said in many cases the person growing the coffee earns more money due to the coffee costing the consumer more and the farming practices are generally more ethical.

“It’s a better quality product from start to finish,” Göçmen said.

Göçmen said the freshness plays an important role in the flavor of the coffee, so Barbell Coffee roasts in small batches. Barbell roasts on a weekly basis for the Hudson Grocery Co-op, one of the locations where the coffee is sold, in addition to roasting by the order for the online orders. Göçmen said freshness and the coffee being organic are both crucial to the company’s identity.

All of the coffee from Barbell is single-origin, coming from a single location.

“We do that because you can basically really isolate origin flavor in the coffee, and you can really trace where the coffee is coming from,” Göçmen said. “A lot like how with wine and all that, folks can get specific flavors and tastes depending on where the vineyard is.”

Göçmen said the best part of running the business is a tie between the interaction with customers that have a love for coffee and being able to enjoy the coffee they roasted.

“You can take one bean and give it two different coffee roasters, and it could taste different,” Göçmen said. “It’s like any other craft or artisan good. Whoever crafted it is going to have a different flavor with it.”

Barbell’s product line includes a light roast called “Clean & Jerk,” a medium roast called “Power Rack,” a dark roast called “Max Dead Lift” and a decaf called “Rest Day” that goes through Swiss Water Process to remove the caffeination without chemicals. Barbell also releases seasonal products.

Bags of the coffee can be purchased at the Hudson Grocery Co-op, Buddy’s Bakery in Hudson, C1 Athletics in Hudson or online at barbellcoffeeco.com to be delivered to you or the pick-up location at the St. Croix Valley Business Innovation Center in River Falls.