Made in the Hudson Valley: Westchester County man shares taste of the world at Matters Coffee in Croton-on-Hudson
Owner Trevor Ashley officially launched Matters Coffee in the summer of 2022.
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The smell of freshly roasted coffee beans fills the air inside Matters Coffee in Croton-on-Hudson as Trevor Ashley starts another day making coffee to give customers a taste of the world.
"We get coffee from, say, Indonesia, South America, Central America, and then we bring the green coffee in here," said Ashley, owner of Matters Coffee. "Then, we roast the green coffee how we want. So, we can profile coffee. We do single-origin coffee. We do blends of coffee, and what's really nice is [that] we do it in a small batch, so we have a ton of control over the actual flavor profile."
Ashley first developed his love of coffee more than a decade ago when he was working as a barista.
"It was something that I definitely sought an interest in," he said. "I loved learning about the different origins of coffee, where coffee came from, flavor profiles, how we can get coffee to taste a certain way, etc."
From there, he soon moved to the marketing industry. After many years in that profession and a visit to his hometown, however, Ashley realized he wanted to fully immerse himself in the coffee industry.
"I was upstate from Manhattan, and I saw the building [in the Van Wyck Shopping Center]," Ashley explained. "We were driving by with a couple [of] friends, and I said, 'I'm going to open up a coffee business there.'"
Ashley officially launched Matters Coffee in the summer of 2022. Matters Coffee is a name that signifies the importance of every step in the coffee-making process.
" When we do get green coffee in, we first have to profile it so we [can] see where we can take it," Ashley explained. "Once we kind of get an idea, then we hone it in. After numerous iterations, we do what's called 'cupping.' So, we'll do a bunch of different versions of the coffee, and then we'll taste it and say, 'OK, this one's really working out. This one needs a little more work here.' From there, we'll actually be able to hone everything in and then come to a final product, which is what you ultimately end up seeing on the wall [of packaged coffees in the store]."
Those coffee roasts are what is served right at the shop. Ashley prides himself in also selling bagged versions of his roasts both in store and online.
"We can ship the coffee," he explained. "We do a lot of pickups. We also do a lot of pre-orders as well. We're roasting seven days a week right now, so as we're roasting, the coffee is going out the door. There are days where it's literally coming out of the roaster and it's going straight out the door."
While the coffee is the shop's main draw, Ashely stresses the importance of their relationship with the community, saying it's just as important as the coffee itself.
"We've gotten very close with the customers," he said. "It almost feels like they're family, to be honest with you. So, it's amazing. It's truly amazing... I think [one] of the nicest things people have said to us was, 'Your coffee is amazing.' You know, we're drinking it every day, so we're like, 'Yeah, this tastes really good,' but it's always nice to hear that and be reminded that people do really love it. That's literally all we do here is just coffee. It's what we stand for."
Matters Coffee is located at 50 Maple St. in Croton-on-Hudson.
