Mr. Bill’s Beans

Mr. Bill answers the phone. That is the headline for this small-batch fresh-roasting operation run out of Athens, where the relationship with the roaster is the actual product. The beans show up at farmers markets, at retailers like Ace Hardware and Chibugan Cafe, or by direct pickup from Bill himself, and the recommendations come over the phone if you ask for help with what to try next. The Braselton Blend is the most-named favorite, the bag people keep ordering. Haitian Blue runs second. The Revenant blend has its own loyalists, and the East/West sits in the rotation for customers who want to taste origins set against each other in a single roast. Espresso beans are there if that is your home setup, and Bill will walk you through what works with which machine if you call and ask. This is not a cafe. Do not show up at the Mary Collier Road address expecting seating, a barista, or a drink made on the premises, because none of that is what this operation does. This is a roaster you call, drive to, or find at a market, and then take the beans home and brew them yourself. The fresh-roasting part is the case for it. Bags are roasted close to the date you pick them up, which is not how big-box bean shopping works and is the whole reason people who know what they are doing buy from operations like this one. For home-brew customers who want a roaster who picks up the phone and tells you what is fresh that week, this is exactly the operation, and the phone-call model is the whole point of buying from Bill rather than from a label on a shelf. For everyone else, the cafe down the road is the better stop, and that is fine, because Bill is not trying to compete with cafes and is not pretending the Mary Collier Road address is one.