WHILE OTHER HOOSIERS spent the pandemic lockdown making pickles or sourdough, Jenny Holland and her husband, Billy, started roasting coffee beans. It began as a stovetop hobby, but the couple quickly realized it could be much more. “My husband is a mechanical engineer,” Holland says. “He loved the process, while I imagined building a business
around it.”
Eventually, they opened Sun Bean Roastery—Indiana’s first fully solar-powered coffee roastery—from their Fall Creek–adjacent home. Their three-car garage has been modified to house a commercial kitchen, the centerpiece of which is a $25,000 electric roaster operated by Billy but powered by 31 solar panels harnessed to the garage’s roof. Many other aspects of Sun Bean are also sustainable, including compostable bags, labels, and even the tape used to seal in the beans’ flavor.
Jenny’s day job is vice president of brand strategy at The Children’s Museum, so she naturally gravitated to the marketing and collaborative side of Sun Bean. She instituted creative partnerships with like-minded businesses and engages in teacher appreciation and fundraising efforts with local schools.
While solar-powered roasteries are still novel in the Hoosier state, Sun Bean is otherwise quite similar to any other small-batch coffee company: They roast to order with a focus on local wholesale customers, farmers markets, and online subscribers.
“I go to bed excited for my cup the next morning,” Jenny says. “We just want to make good coffee accessible, joyful, and kind to the planet.”
