Ten years worth of note taking is paying off for Michael Dupuis.

Dupuis started roasting coffee beans for himself 10 years ago while living in Boston. 

“One pound at a time,” Dupuis said. 

One pound of beans would last Dupuis about nine days.

“I’ve gone through a lot of coffee beans,” said Dupuis, who was born and raised in Lewiston before moving to Rumford.

“I have tasting notes going back from the start,” said Dupuis, who would jot down notes after each batch of beans was roasted. 

Dupuis is hoping that his experience with beans from Ethiopia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Sumatra and Central America pays off with his new business venture “Great Falls Coffee Roasters.”

“Lewiston-Auburn needed a roaster,” said the 1988 Rumford High School graduate.

So Dupuis moved back from Boston to start one. 

Dupuis set up shop in Lewiston’s Pepperell Mill in January, roasting small batches of coffee beans in a room not much bigger than the average bedroom. 

“I want to see what the demand is before upgrading,” Dupuis said. 

A software engineer by trade, Dupuis is taking a grassroots strategy to his business. “I want it to be very local.”

Dupuis said he is encouraged by “a lot of cooperation locally” between businesses in the downtown areas of Lewiston and Auburn.

He has held tastings at The Vault in Lewiston and is having his logos designed by The Brand Collective in Auburn. Dupuis is talking to local coffee shop owners about possibly brewing his Great Falls coffee. 

“I have had a good reaction to having fresh and local.”

The local humane society may have a good reaction to Dupuis as well. Dupuis will donate 15 percent from every sale of “Stray Dog Blend” to help homeless pets. Half of that amount will go to the Androscoggin Humane Society in Lewiston and the other half to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“I like having a social aspect to what I do,” Dupuis said. 

Dupuis’s coffee beans are available at The Vault and at www.greatfallscoffee.com.

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