Our Story

It was a cold, drafty morning in December 2010. I walked into the Oakton Farmer's Market and made my way to the sole coffee vendor. Snow blew into our faces as she offered me a sample. I took a sip, and my world changed.

Growing up in eastern India we drank mostly black tea. Coffee was Nescafé instant, and the occasional cup of south Indian filter coffee at a restaurant. There may have been a glass or two of Vietnamese ice coffee as I ricocheted through southeast Asia in my youth, but that was it till my wife and I moved to the US in 1999. Starbucks left an evil aftertaste with the bouquet of dead rat, and Dunkin gave me headaches. I finally settled into a Krispy Kreme donut-and-coffee habit when I began working in Chicago's south side. Coffee kept me awake for the pressure cooker of broadcast television. Then McDonalds came out with its "Premium" coffee, and I stopped by for a cup at two different locations. The stark difference in taste spurred the creation of killbadcoffee.com. I was learning, but coffee was still just coffee. That changed when I met Kathy Huff. The sample she offered me that fateful day at the farmer's market opened up a Pandora's box of flavors and nuances that changed the way I experienced coffee forever.

My wife Jhumur gifted me a Behmor 1600 home roaster, and I got busy roasting batches of beans from Kathy and Sweet Maria's. First it was for myself, then friends and family. Soon I began a subscription program for custom-roasted coffees. Kustomcoffee sprang into life as I sent tiny shipments to customers across the US. I built roasters with heat guns and bread machines, tinkered with roast profiling, and started taking classes with the Roasters' Guild (a sub-organization of the Specialty Coffee Association of America) and master roaster Willem Boot of Boot Coffee in California. I felt confident I could expand a bit.

One morning in 2012 I went back to the farmer's market and met Jean Janssen, the owner. Jean was a force of nature, whose sweet Southern charm could mask a steely resolve. She ran seven markets under the Smart Markets banner, and built them to a redoubtable presence. Jean guided me through the arcane rules and laws of foodservice in Virginia, and helped me gear up to sell at her new market in Bristow, Virginia. That's when I leased my first drum roaster, a 1kg Toper Cafemino. It is still our pride and joy. We have since added an Aillio Bullet R1v2 as well.

In September 2025 we left Fairfax forever to relocate to New Castle, Delaware.

Today we work with selected logistics partners like Genuine Origin and Royal Coffee to source ethically grown and harvested specialty coffee to roast for discerning customers in Virginia and beyond. We have been blessed with Golden Bean awards and Coffee Review 90-point ratings, but what keeps us going is the pure satisfaction in the faces of customers when they take a sip of one of our roasts. Our work is but the penultimate step in a long journey, and we are grateful to all who make it possible.