New Charleston coffee shop stands out with quality beans, roasting techniques

Sandwiched between two fitness centers in a Meeting Street strip center, Big Kick Coffee doesn’t have the curated, Instagrammable aesthetics of some other Charleston area cafés and coffee shops. 
But Big Kick Coffee owner Fraser Young — a partner at Spring Street grocer Veggie Bin — knows how to roast a quality cup of coffee.
His fire-roasting techniques and thoughtful sourcing are at the center of the operation at his new coffee shop, now open at 476 Meeting St. in downtown Charleston.
Young has been in the coffee business since the 1990s, when he started making and selling chocolate-covered coffee beans. He sold that business and moved to Charleston in 2010, opening Big Kick Coffee in the Charleston City Market a few years later.
The new Meeting Street space has helped Young increase his production capacity, allowing him to better serve Big Kick’s more than 4,000 online customers. Upwards of 30 coffee varieties and blends are fire-roasted at the downtown shop and existing production facilities on James Island.
According to Young, four of Big Kick’s top five selling items are directly sourced from farms in Honduras, Brazil, India and Guatemala.
“Basically we’re roasting them over live fire. That produces the low acidity and better smoothness,” Young said. “There’s a lot of care taken to make sure it’s done properly.”
Coffee enthusiasts will soon have the chance to better understand that process in person. According to Young, they are preparing to launch new coffee classes that detail the history, preparation and processing of coffee beans.