A scenic landscape painting featuring mountains, river, waterfalls, and historical ruins, with a chicken in the bottom left corner and text overlay that reads "Ternary Coffee Exchange" and "Because we can, so can you!"
A collage with a rooster, a geometric design, a painting of a man with a violin, and an orange pour over
A collage with a rooster, a geometric design, a painting of a man with a violin, and an orange pour over

What We Do

The Ternary Coffee Exchange is a collaborative program focused on strengthening independent coffee businesses through shared resources, knowledge, and opportunity.

We help small shops to punch above their weight by accessing roastery-level resources that would otherwise take years to accumulate and get their business to the place they’ve always wanted. Ternary is a pressure release valve that makes room for all of your best ideas to bloom.

Ternary helps cafes improve margins and have more control over their most important product via our shared roasting space. From here they can roast, bag, label, and store beans for their retail or backbar use without worrying about wholesale up-charges.

Close-up of roasted coffee beans covering the entire image.
Close-up of roasted coffee beans covering the entire image.
A close-up of green coffee beans covering the surface.
A close-up of green coffee beans covering the surface.

Ternary offers this access at no cost to its partners, but they are required to source their own beans and packing materials. Rest assured, this is easier than it sounds and only gets better as connections are made between partners.

About those beans…

Information about green coffee from Puebla, Mexico, displayed on paper signs and surrounded by brown paper bags.

Ternary is proud to host Lima Coffee importers as our preferred direct trade partner. They maintain an inventory of green coffee from their family farm in Puebla, Mexico, right here in our roastery.

It is pre-portioned into batches that can be purchased directly from Lima and roasted by you just a few feet away. This low-friction option is ideal for cafe owners who want high-quality, ethically sourced beans, but don’t have the time or infrastructure to make direct trade connections themselves.

Our roasting partners are free to use the beans of their choice from the importers of their choice, but having Lima on site cuts out the middle man and only brings you closer to your product.

Why? What’s the catch?

Because we can, so can you!

Ternary is uniquely positioned to offer its infrastructure to the NE Ohio coffee community for free, but only under the condition that our partners have or are willing to implement something that benefits their local community.

A bag of 'Dumpster Cat' coffee from affoato Cat Cafe held next to a tabby cat with green eyes and a purple collar sitting on a wooden surface.

Our roastery has had its share of success, and it's time to share it. We want to do something measurably good for our community simply because we have the resources to do so, and those resources are yours as much as they are ours. So because we can, so can you!

We’re not here to help anyone expand into a grocery store brand or start wholesaling out of our roastery. When roasting with us, we’d encourage you to reinvest your savings into your business while also finding a way to pass it on somehow.

Additionally, collaboration is key and our partners only grow stronger through mutual support. Being as accessible for them as they are for you goes a long way.

For these partners, their kindness was in place before Ternary opened its doors to them and was an integral part of their mission well before we became acquainted.

You can thank them for inspiring the kindness forward approach of our Exchange!

Some of Our Partners

Two women are behind the counter of a cafe, smiling at the camera. The cafe has a maroon wall with shelves filled with mugs, jars, and decorations. There are signs, a cash register, and various items such as cups, papers, and a small plush toy on the counter.

AffoGATO Cat Cafe

Since opening, AffoGATO has cared for and facilitated the adoptions of over 1700 cats, with many more to find great homes in the future.

Cafe
Two employees, a woman and a man, standing behind a white counter at Street Brew Coffee, wearing purple shirts and red caps with the company logo, smiling for the photo. The background features shelves with coffee bags and bottles, and a large sign reading 'Street Brew Coffee'.

Street Brew Coffee

Roaster and Coffee Trailer

Every bag of Street Brew Coffee sold helps fund programs that directly support people experiencing homelessness in Toronto, Canada.

Outside view of Ana's Attic coffee shop with large glass windows, a green sign with white lettering, and outdoor seating with two visible customers, one reading and the other drinking coffee.

Ana’s Attic Coffee and Books

 Cafe

Along with serving as a community hub for underrepresented groups, Ana’s has a Kindness Wall where people can buy a stranger a cup of coffee or receive one.

Everyone wants their cafe to be a place of community and collaboration, but that’s not always possible when just keeping the lights on gets more expensive every day.

While our exchange is primarily focused on roasting at this time, we’d like to create more opportunities for members to learn and support one another. That could mean training, consulting, pallet sharing, collective purchasing, warehousing, or whatever it is you’ve been looking for. Odds are good that someone else is looking for it too!

Let’s Work Together.

If you're interested in the exchange, please fill out the form here. We’ll reach out to ASAP to answer any questions or schedule a time where you can come in and learn how this all works.

We look forward to hearing from you!