You might say Andrew Banker’s introduction to coffee was “slow roast.”
“Growing up, I would love just the cheap coffee and putting chocolate in it with my dad,” he says.
“My first real cup I enjoyed and really appreciated was once I got married. My brother-in-law gave me some fresh roasted coffee and it opened up a whole new world for me.”
Banker is now the founder of Vinculo Coffee Roasters, which offers fresh roasted coffee from Mexico and Ethiopia.
Born in Collierville, Banker used various coffee makers, but none of the coffee was satisfying. Then his brother-in-law Jake Gaines brought him coffee beans “just roasted within the past 30 days. The flavor was very unique and I’d never experienced that. So many more flavors were coming out.”
Banker and Gaines began roasting beans with a ReadyPop popcorn machine, which they put on top of a gas grill. “We needed the heat to get the beans to the right temperature. We’d be on his back porch cranking the popcorn popper and waiting for the first crack in the coffee-roasting process. As you crank, it rotates the coffee beans so there’s even cooking of the beans.
“When you get the beans to the right temperature, it sounds like a soft popcorn crack. That’s when you know you’re at the point that it’s coffee worth drinking.”
They made coffee with the popcorn popper and gas grill five or 10 times “just to experiment and have fun. Then, a few months later, Santa Claus brought us each a one-pound roaster. It’s called a Behmor. It looks like a small toaster oven. It has a cylinder inside of it and it roasts up to one pound.”
Banker’s coffee was called “Buddy’s” and “901 Roasted” before he came up with “Vinculo.” He got the idea for the name on a church mission trip to Mexico. “The church that connected us with Mexico is named Iglesias de Vínculo, which translates to ‘connection.’ They connect their congregation to God. Because they connected me with coffee farmers, it fit organically and naturally as a new name.”
His mission pastor introduced him to farmers in coffee-growing regions in Mexico. “He connected us with a guy in Pueblo and a guy in Xalpa. My first trip I bought very little beans. It was just to see the culture, see their setup.”
Banker recently received 2,000 pounds of coffee beans from Mexico. An even larger shipment from Ethiopia is due in a few months. With Mexican beans, coffee lovers get a “very smooth, nutty, chocolate, cocoa flavor coming out of the coffee.” Ethiopian beans provide a “very fruity, very floral, very bright cup of coffee.”
He plans to introduce Ethiopian coffee in a few weeks and Peruvian in a few months.
Banker first began roasting coffee commercially in 2019 after his family opened Happy Glaze Donuts in Germantown. He no longer roasts there, but he continues to sell his bagged coffee as well as his chocolate-covered coffee beans at the shop.
He now works with a commercial roaster in New Albany, MS, to create his roasted coffee beans.
Banker’s coffee is also sold at The Ginger’s Bread & Co. It can be ordered online at vinculocoffee.com.
What sets Vinculo’s coffee apart? “I think the intentionality of trying to be supportive of the coffee community where we’re getting the coffee is the biggest differentiation.
“Building those relationships, we can help those farmers produce coffee better.”
And buying the “fresher and higher-quality coffee beans” gives “a great cup to the consumers.”
Banker wants to place his coffee in more locations, including grocery stores. “I talked with a brewery in town about using our beans.”
His future plans go beyond coffee. Through his Peruvian contacts, he can buy “cacao” or cocoa beans to make cocoa — “a new avenue down the road,” says Banker, who adds, “I’m open to any door that is waiting to be opened.”
By the way, Banker isn’t a heavy coffee drinker. “Only just maybe a cup or two a day. I’ve never been an addict of coffee. But I consider myself a coffee snob, for sure.”
