What is the story about coffee behind the ARC brand?

Three 12-year-old Australians, Arlee, Rocco and Cristiano, turned a school holiday assignment into ARC Inc., a real coffee company. They visited a local roasting workshop, chose green beans, set roast quality control, designed the logo and sold door to door, blending an espresso with beans from Brazil, Australia and Costa Rica.

The three split the work: Arlee handled bean production and operations, Rocco took design, Cristiano managed supervision and sales planning. They donate 5% of net income from each bag to a children's charity, and the project grew from a casual visit to a roasting business into a partnership for learning about beans, roasting and extraction.

While most 12-year-olds are still adjusting to school life, three Australian teenagers—Arlee, Rocco, and Cristiano—have turned a school holiday assignment into a real coffee company: ARC Inc. From visiting a local roasting workshop to finalizing their blend, from designing the brand logo to going door-to-door selling, they personally completed the entire process of green bean selection, roasting quality control, packaging design, and sales planning. They blended an espresso bean combining flavors from Brazil, Australia, and Costa Rica, and donate 5% of the net income from each bag to a children's charity. This is not just a story about coffee, but a growth practicum on collaboration, gratitude, and the power of action.

Do you all remember that a few years ago in Hong Kong, there was a 12-year-old girl named Hillary Yip who, to make it easier for herself and children around the world to learn each other's languages, developed an app that enabled language exchange through video calls, and founded her own company based on it.

Coincidentally, this year three 12-year-old boys from Australia—Arlee, Rocco, and Cristiano—also founded a coffee company called ARC through their joint efforts. From brand logo design to green bean quality control, to roasting, bagging, recording, and sales, the three divided responsibilities and leveraged their respective strengths, striving to perfect every step.

This all started as a school holiday assignment, requiring students to complete something creative in teams during the break. At first they didn't plan to start a company; they just visited a local coffee roasting business to relax and grab lunch nearby.

During that visit, Arlee's father suggested: why not try starting a business? That sentence sparked inspiration in the three boys, and they began generating all kinds of ideas. After some discussion, they decided to co-found their own coffee company—ARC Inc.

They proactively contacted the coffee roasting company they had visited, hoping to learn more comprehensive and professional coffee knowledge, covering coffee beans, roasting, extraction, and more, and ultimately established a partnership with them.

After acquiring a certain foundation, the three divided the work: Arlee was responsible for coffee bean production and company operations, Rocco for creativity and design, and Cristiano for supervision and sales planning.

Using the coffee knowledge they had learned, they determined the flavor characteristics of each coffee bean through cupping, and ultimately blended an espresso bean belonging to their own company—ARC Reserve.

This blend consists of coffee beans from three different regions: Arlee chose Brazil, Rocco chose Australia (yes, eastern Australia also grows coffee, just in limited quantities), and Cristiano chose Costa Rica.

The final blend presents a strong yet balanced flavor, with pronounced cocoa and caramel notes. From bean selection to blending to flavor determination, this coffee bean not only represents their company but also embodies Australians' love and pursuit of coffee.

Arlee said: This is a very rewarding process. We learned to roast coffee beans together, ensure and stabilize coffee quality, and in the process of selling coffee beans, we also learned more communication skills.

After finalizing the roasting and blending plans, they produced their first batch of espresso beans. Since the company was newly established with no customer base, they placed part of the packaged coffee beans for consignment at the partner roasting company's store, and took the rest home, planning to sell them to nearby neighbors through door-to-door sales.

After some effort, they successfully sold their first batch of coffee beans, and even took 5 minutes to celebrate a little! They found the entire sales process very interesting, met many different types of customers, and also learned some of the market customers' thoughts and suggestions about coffee. So they made further plans—to pitch to cafés.

But they knew that directly pitching coffee beans might hardly attract cafés' attention, so they planned to carry out a charitable initiative. They partnered with a local children's charity, promising to donate 5% of the net income from each bag of coffee beans to the organization's children's fund. They also created sales flyers so consumers and cafés could learn more about their company.

Rocco, who proposed this plan, said: I think people should be grateful, and helping others is also very important. Many children are not as lucky as us, so I hope that by selling coffee beans, we can help more children enjoy life at this age, rather than worrying about the future.

The person in charge of the company that helped ARC with roasting said: They are very proud to help these children develop their own brand and company, and to have thought of an unexpected way to give back to society. They have not only launched a new brand but also planned different coffee bean sales activities. Through this collaboration, we hope to encourage people of all ages to unleash their creativity and create more infinite possibilities.

Arlee said that buying our coffee is investing in our business. This support will enable us to grow and learn many important life skills as well as knowledge about the day-to-day operations of a business. Running this coffee company is just the first step. Arlee hopes to become a forensic scientist in the future, and Rocco hopes to become a world-famous rock climber. We hope to earn money now to better realize our dreams.

Children's world is always so imaginative and unconstrained; perhaps to many adults this sounds like a fantasy. But the world doesn't run on textbooks. If children have the opportunity to acquire and apply this knowledge, it will be more useful than any tutoring class or a chapter in a textbook. Age is never a barrier to understanding the world.

Sometimes children know better than adults what they want, because they are pure. When facing their dreams, we can actually be like these children—simple and pure—and perhaps we will gain something different.

I hope everyone reading this article, who was once a child too, can also have a happy and fulfilling life and realize their dreams.

Image source: The Coffee Commune

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat of Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.