For Immediate Release
South Portland, Maine - May 14, 2018. Marcia Wiggins started Cape Whoopies, a gourmet whoopie pie company in her Cape Elizabeth home in January, 2013. When her business required more work space and larger ovens to keep up with the increasing demand for her Cape Whoopies, Wiggins moved her production line to Portland's Fork Food Lab, a kitchen rental space for food business startups. That's where she met White Cap Cold Brew Coffee co-owners, Ben Graffius and Tom Marlowe, who brew nitro cold brew coffee using beans from Rwanda and Michael Mwenedata, and Nick Mazuroski who started Rwanda Bean, a coffee bean wholesale company in 2014. Last year the two coffee bean companies merged under the name Rwanda Bean Company and named their special nitro cold brew coffee White Cap.
This Friday, May 19th, Cape Whoopies, and Rwanda Bean Company officially launch a partnership with a soft opening of a state of the art bakery, roastery, coffee shop and coldbrewing facility at 185 Cottage Road in South Portland. The Maine companies will share the renovated space which used to be "Cherished Possessions." The neighboring businesses are Ruby Thailand Cuisine, Red's and Ottos.
"I have spent good, long years growing and perfecting Cape Whoopies with the help of family, friends and my husband Dennis, who has always been a good sport about wearing a hairnet while preparing the whoopie pies," says Wiggins. "Cape Whoopies and Rwanda Bean Company will
now share a space in a wonderful community and continue to support one another. I like to think of South Portland as our international headquarters."
Every week dozens of hundred pound bags of bourbon arabica beans will be delivered to the new coffee shop and roastery from Rwanda's mountainous Karora province where Rwanda Bean Company founder Michael Mwenedata lived until the age of 9. During the 1994 Rwandan genocide rebels stormed his village, killing hundreds of people, including his parents and five siblings. Mwenedata lived in refugee camps before immigrating to the United States in 2009. He eventually came to Maine and attended the University of Southern Maine in Portland where he met his business partner Nick Mazuroski, who was already working in the food service business.
"I was determined to find a way to give back to the families in my homeland and to help coffee bean growers succeed. We reinvest fifty percent of our profits to help farmers, their families and communities," says Mwenedata. "Partnering with Marcia and Cape Whoopies and opening our Rwanda Bean Company flagship roastery and coffee shop in South Portland is now a dream come true.
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Cape Whoopies and Rwanda Bean Company's regular hours are 6:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday - Saturday at 185 Cottage Road, South Portland, Maine 04106.
For more information contact: Cape Whoopies, marcia@capewhoopies.com. 207-409-0957
Rwanda Bean Company, info@rwandabean.com. 207-651-0150
https://capewhoopies.com and https://rwandabean.com/pages/about-us.