Scot Pears didn’t expect to have any issues relocating his coffee roasting and shipping business from Oregon to Arizona. Instead, he found himself navigating a maze of regulations that delayed the opening by weeks.

Pears and his wife moved their family and business to the Villages at Rancho El Dorado for a homeschooling community with more resources and to live next door to his brother. What they didn’t want was trouble re-locating their business.

The family business, aptly named the Roasting Shack, is exactly what it sounds like: a company that roasts coffee beans in a detached building on their property.

Though the shack is compliant with building regulations and the city of Maricopa granted a home occupation permit in June, Pears is still at a crossroads when it comes to Pinal County business regulations.

Pears said the business doesn’t fit into FDA criteria because it is not located on commercial property and, according to private property business restrictions in Pinal County, shipment across state lines is prohibited.  

“It’s a gray area,” Pears said of his business type.

Pears said the fact that it’s in an adjacent building and not in his kitchen has become a sticking point.

Pinal County’s Cottage Food Program specifically requires any home business to prepare food inside the home kitchen. While the intention is for the beans to be prepared and roasted on his home property, Pears said his roaster is too big to fit inside the family kitchen.

The other issue is that about 70% of his clients purchase coffee for shipment across state lines.

The business has been stalled while he waits for word about possible exemptions.

“It’s frustrating because all I want to do is be compliant,” Pears said.

His passion for roasting coffee began during a deployment in Iraq, where his daily caffeine intake was relegated to terrible coffee prepared through a rarely cleaned percolator. That inspired him to begin roasting his own beans, which later became a career after his wife had a stroke.

The family relocated to Oregon in 2017 and opened the Roasting Shack, an online and local pickup coffee roasting business where Pears continues to act as a walking cornucopia of coffee knowledge, “geeking out” on information from where the best beans are grown to the ethics behind farming practices.

“I believe in small farmers,” Pears said. “Any bean is traceable back to the farm through me.”