About Us

Makin’ Smiles Coffee is a family-run specialty coffee roastery in Palmyra, Virginia, part of the third wave coffee movement that treats coffee as a craft instead of a commodity — started for one simple reason: to make people smile when they sip their coffee. Everyone likes their coffee a little different — some drink it black, some with cream, some with sugar, some with both — and Makin’ Smiles Coffee exists to help each person find their own favorite. Johnathan, who started Makin’ Smiles Coffee, didn’t even like coffee much until tasting fresh-roasted, specialty-grade coffee for the first time — high quality coffee from the most recent harvest, freshly roasted, ground, brewed, and enjoyed close to that roast date, not just freshly brewed from a bag that had been sitting around for months. That difference, once tasted, is what Makin’ Smiles Coffee exists to share with coffee lovers and coffee skeptics alike.

Does Your Coffee Make You Smile?

Makin’ Smiles Coffee roasts every few days — often the same day an order comes in — and keeps only a small amount on hand at any time, so the coffee reaches customers as close to the roast date as possible. Coffee begins losing its distinct flavors within a month or two of roasting — not noticeable right away, but noticeable by then — which is exactly the window this keeps you out of.

Makin’ Smiles Coffee also roasts in small batches, not massive commercial runs — 2 to 15 pounds at a time on a Loring S7 Nighthawk. Big roasters often roast 100 pounds or more at a time and have to wait for that batch to sell before it reaches a customer, and every day a bag sits on a shelf during that wait is a day of flavor lost.

When an order comes in through MakinSmilesCoffee.com:

• It’s usually roasted the same day — never more than a few days old.
• It’s ground, if needed, at no extra charge.
• It’s delivered or ready for pickup as soon as possible.
• Then it’s time to SMILE!

Want the full rundown — the equipment, the profiling process, and how new lots get vetted before they go into full batches? See How We Roast.

“Do you love coffee like we do?”

Makin’ Smiles Coffee is a family-owned business that I run together with my wife, Alyssa. I’m Johnathan, an Army veteran — she’s a military spouse. That makes us both veteran-owned and woman-owned.

Our family’s roots were in Colorado Springs, where this whole idea got started. We moved to Louisa, Virginia in 2021 after I finished my service in the Army, and in 2025 we settled in Palmyra so we could keep roasting coffee and start a small farm alongside it. We love it here and don’t have any plans to move again. We’re passionate about great coffee and about making you smile — we’d love to help you find a roast you’ll love.

If you have any questions, email us at orders@makinsmilescoffee.com and we’ll reply as soon as we can.