Coffee roaster Peter West’s startup story reads like a page from Bend’s voluminous book of microbreweries.

He started his career in 2009 at Backporch Coffee Roasters, a Bend specialty roaster with three retail locations. Last summer he left to become the general manager of Spoken Moto, a vintage-motorcycle shop, cafe, bar and food-truck lot. He also began roasting coffee to sell through Spoken Moto under the name Megaphone.

Megaphone is one of at least 12 specialty coffee roasters in Deschutes County, meaning there’s now one independent roaster for every 14,605 county residents. Established roasters say the Bend area is reaching saturation, but West thinks there’s an opening for neighborhood-size shops, like the 240-square-foot space he recently opened on NW Columbia Street.

“I know the sales that happen in the shops,” West said. “I feel like there’s still plenty of room and plenty of markets to hit.”

The specialty coffee industry used to measure its growth in retail shops, but there has been so much interest in roasting that the Specialty Coffee Association of America recently made its first estimate of the roaster population — about 4,200 nationwide in 2015, said Heather Ward, market research manager.

Ward said many of the new roasters are people who own coffee shops and learned to roast because their customers are interested in the story behind the coffee. “It puts that business owner a step closer to the farmer,” she said.

While the exact saturation point of coffee roasters in Bend is yet to be determined, established roasters are finding their growth outside the local market.

Thump Coffee Roasters turned to Denver in 2013 to open its second cafe, co-owner Bobby Grover said. At the time, Denver’s boom was not quite under way, so rents were still affordable, he said, and the coffee-roasting scene was not as competitive.

Indeed, Denver County, Colorado, has 20 wholesale coffee roasters, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and almost 650,000 residents. That’s one roaster for every 32,474 residents.

Thump opened its first Denver shop in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood and now plans a second location on the campus of Denver Health. Thump is also trying to expand its retail presence in Bend by taking over the former Stackhouse coffee shop inside the 1001 Tech Center on SW Emkay Drive. “Right now there’s so many roasters in town fighting over the same (wholesale) customer,” Grover said. “It makes it hard to grow your wholesale and stay profitable.”

Coffee roasters are still not as common as craft breweries. As of July, Bend had 26 craft breweries, and Central Oregon had 34, according to the Oregon Brewers Guild.

Veteran coffee roaster Brent Kennedy believes one reason Bend can support so many breweries for its population is that beer is a major tourism draw. While tourists drink coffee, he said, it’s not the reason people vacation in Bend.

“We don’t necessarily have tourists coming here to drink coffee,” he said.

Kennedy has been a wholesale roaster since selling the Looney Bean coffee shop three years ago. His company, Bend Roasting Co., still roasts primarily for Looney Bean, as well as other clients outside of Bend. “I’m making it because I have stores outside the market I sell to.”

Kennedy, who also installs roasting machines for his brother’s company, San Franciscan Roaster Co., in Nevada, said he’s astounded by the number of upstart roasters across the country. “It’s getting pretty saturated everywhere,” he said.

Grover and Kennedy were at onetime upstarts on a local scene inhabited by Strictly Organic, Bellatazza and Backporch. Grover, a native of Grants Pass, started his roasting company in 2007 after selling his shares in Dutch Bros., a drive-through espresso chain that he’d expanded and managed in Central Oregon. For several years, Grover, who partnered with retired Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe in Eleven Roasters, said he couldn’t own a retail coffee shop because of his noncompete agreement with Dutch Bros. Then in 2011 he and a new business partner, Jay Junkin of Jackson’s Corner, bought the Thump cafe downtown. (Junkin sold his half of Thump in 2015.) “It was a place for us to showcase our coffee,” Grover said.

Grover said Thump sets itself apart by making items such as syrups from scratch and emphasizing quality as well as customer service. Thump expanded on the handmade theme in Denver by adding a mini-bakery inside the cafe. Thump now has its own chef in Denver, Grover said, and he plans to bring the food program developed there back to Bend at the Tech Center location, which is in a section of town without many places to grab a quick meal.

Almost every purveyor of specialty coffee is trying to set itself apart with high-quality products and distinct flavors.

At Megaphone, West said he plans to offer more dark roasts than one will find at most coffee shops. About one-third of the houses within 2½ miles of Megaphone’s new location are vacation rentals, West said, and he thinks vacationers are looking for a unique cup of coffee within walking distance.

“People want to taste Bend,” he said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7860, kmclaughlin@bendbulletin.com

Deschutes County coffee roasters

• Backporch Coffee Roasters

• Bellatazza

• Bend Roasting Co.

• Bonsai Beans Coffee Roasters

• Brewed Awakenings

• Coffee4Kids

• Green Plow Coffee Roasters

• Lone Pine Coffee Roasters

• Megaphone Coffee Co.

• Sisters Coffee Co.

• Strictly Organic Coffee Co.

• Thump Coffee Roasters