Full circle: NRHS alum opening Aroma Joe’s

 

By MAUREEN DOHERTY

 

MIDDLETON — North Reading High School volleyball fans of the teams in the 1990s would remember Kate (Wohlfarth) Beland as she was one of the stars of former coach Vicki Hill’s successful program. She continued playing competitively at the collegiate level at two different universities in Massachusetts and even met her husband Jamey when she was competing at UMass Lowell where he worked as the athletic trainer.

“I was a public middle school teacher and left teaching to start my family,” the mother of three teenage girls said. During this time she was involved in other ventures, including online writing and managing fitness centers but in the back of her mind she had the goal of “opening up this Aroma Joe’s franchise.”

“Aroma Joe’s started in New Hampshire by four cousins that traveled across the country with a kiosk trailer,” she said. Based out of Rochester, N.H., they “started making all kinds of beverages, iced and hot coffees, energy drinks, frozen lemonades, and testing them out on their family and friends.”

Aroma Joe’s eventually found its sweet spot in the franchise beverage industry. “They’re everywhere in New Hampshire and Maine,” she said, adding, the original Aroma Joe’s remains based in Rochester.

The North Reading native lived in town for over 20 years. She and her husband Jamey eventually settled in southern New Hampshire. Once they made the decision to pursue the dream of opening an Aroma Joe franchise they were eager to find the right location.

“One day my husband Jamey came home and said, ‘Have you heard of Middleton, Massachusetts? There’s a potential location.”

She was so excited to see the location was “right down the street from Richardson’s and the house I grew up in was four miles from that street,” she said.

They immediately drove to the site at 210 South Main Street on Rte. 114 to an existing plaza called The Shops at Middleton. The available space had an end cap that would be ideal for the drive-thru necessary for the Aroma Joe’s design.

It is located in front of the Market Basket Plaza and shares space in the same plaza as a popular breakfast spot called Freddie’s.

In addition to the drive-thru they will have a walk-in shop for customers. She described the interior design as “beautiful.”

The menu features handcrafted beverages including hot and iced coffees and lattes. “One of our signature beverages is energy drinks for those who like caffeine but not coffee. They’re called ‘rushes’ but they don’t have those artificial flavors you find in canned energy drinks that you’d buy in a grocery store. They’re very popular with teenagers and young adults.”

The energy drinks have interesting names like Rock It Pop It and Blue Hawaiian.

Kate is also excited about their line of frozen drinks and smoothies and their ability to appeal to younger customers by offering “flavored handcrafted soda that does not have all the sugar or any caffeine.”

“My kids love the lavender lemonade. It’s really good in the summer and it’s pretty,” she said.

“You’ve got Dunks and Starbucks. We are more like a Starbucks but we are at a friendlier price point. And if you are thinking about how coffee tastes, our coffee taste is right in the middle. It is robust but it is not overly strong. And our beans are roasted in Maine,” she said.

She discovered the Aroma Joe’s brand because she is a coffee aficionado. “I am a coffee drinker; I could drink it all day, and I do like it. It has a flavor but it is not too strong.”

Aroma Joe’s also offer a line of their own organic hot teas.

To complement the beverages they offer “light bites” such as baked goods, bagels and five types of breakfast sandwiches. “Our jumbo pretzels are a huge hit” she said.

“I did a lot of training during Covid. Each shop is independently owned. The corporate headquarters is based in Portland, Maine, but due to Covid she had to take all of her training virtually.

“Recently I was finally able to do a lot of in-person training with their trainers and have been working in other shops learning the business,” she said.

Kate obviously believes in the product Aroma Joe’s offers but what solidified her decision to enter this venture was the company’s philosophy.

“The company motto is ‘Positively Impacting People.’ Part of our duty is not only bringing a great product and one-on-one customer engagement but is being a part of the community and giving back,” she said.

Anticipating drawing potential teenage employees from her alma mater at NRHS as well as customers from her hometown, she attended two of the Masquers musicals Pippin “and gave out free samples and coffees” during intermission. She was extremely impressed by the production and the level of involvement of the entire community in supporting the Masquers too.

Each week she’ll ask herself and her employees who will they be supporting in the community and seek out those opportunities to make a positive impact.

One difference customers will see at her shop is a lack of intercoms. When customers drive up to the window they will have a face to face interaction with their personnel. It’s another way of creating a relationship with the customers as opposed to just pushing them through.

Eventually she will be employing about 20 people, a mix of young adults, part time college students and adults with families. She has another four or so openings to fill prior to their soft opening their eventual grand opening.

“What cemented it was when I went back to the high school and did that event for Pippin. I was there early before the doors were open and it was so amazing just to see the theater booster club and all the parents and that real community effort. I forgot how much I just love this area. It was a really cool thing to see. And the kids were amazingly talented and the staff who prepared them for it were too. That what it comes from. I was a teacher and I like to work with kids. That is where my heart is. I was fortunate when I grew up in North Reading I had great people that guided me and helped my trajectory in life. Someone can really change somebody’s life and their day. Seeing that happening in the high school was nice to see in this day and age.”