About



Coffee and people, handled with care. 



ABOUT SHORT SLEEVES

Short Sleeves is a coffee roaster and café in Swannanoa, North Carolina.

We started this place because we wanted to build the kind of coffee company we were always looking for ourselves: one that takes coffee extremely seriously, pays attention to all the tiny details, and still feels like somewhere normal people actually want to hang out.

So that's what we work on every day.

We source coffees we think are genuinely exceptional. Some are sweet, chocolatey and familiar. Others are floral, bright, fruit-forward or a little wild. We roast everything here in Swannanoa, in small batches, and spend a pretty unreasonable amount of time tasting, adjusting and trying to make each coffee as good as we think it can be.

That same attention carries into the café.

Espresso gets dialed in every morning. Batch brew gets tested and adjusted. Syrups are made in-house. Seasonal drinks get developed, scrapped, rebuilt and tested again. Milk texture matters. Water matters. Ice matters. The cup matters. The five seconds between somebody ordering a drink and somebody handing it to them matters.

We care about all of it.

Not because coffee needs to be precious.

Actually, kind of the opposite.

Coffee is one of the most ordinary things in a lot of people's lives. It's the thing you drink on the way to work. The thing you make for somebody when they come over. The excuse to sit down with a friend. The little part of the morning you look forward to.

We think ordinary things deserve to be made really well.

THE CAFÉ

Our café and roastery share a home in an old gas station in downtown Swannanoa.

The coffee is roasted here, brewed here and served a few steps away.

You can get a cup of drip coffee and be out the door in two minutes. You can sit down with a pour over. You can order something seasonal that took us an embarrassing number of test batches to finish. You can bring your kids. You can stay awhile.

The goal is simple:

Make really good things.

Take good care of people.

Make the room feel good to be in.

THE COFFEE

We don't roast every coffee the same way, because every coffee isn't the same.

Some coffees want to be round, rich and chocolatey. Some want to taste like berries, flowers, citrus or candy. Our job is to figure out what makes each one interesting and roast it in a way that brings that forward.

That means a lot of tasting.

A lot of tiny adjustments.

A lot of standing around the roaster staring at graphs.

A lot of coffee.

We work with importers and producers we trust, look for coffees with strong traceability, and buy coffees we're actually excited to drink ourselves.

If we don't think it's really good, we don't want to sell it.

Pretty simple.

Cool, but why is your name “Short Sleeves Coffee”?

Well, it’s a nod to the simple moments in life. The ordinary, but delightful things. 

We're going to make you incredible coffee, sure. We think our coffee is top notch...and we care about it deeply. However, we want to share it with you in a laid back, accessible, down to earth, friendly manner. We’re not gonna be pretentious about it; and we’ll hope we’ve got something for every kind of coffee drinker out there. 

We aren't a suit and tie kind of place...and we're not suit and tie kind of people. We're a short sleeves place for short sleeves people and the short sleeves moments of life. 

You don't have to put on a bunch of layers, and pretend. Nope…there’s no dress code here. You can be yourself, and get comfortable. You can come in your Short Sleeves. 

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Roots:
Daniel Lancaster is the founder of Short Sleeves Coffee, and previously founded Coffee Made Better where he utilized his various experiences as a barista and cafe manager to write numerous articles on coffee culture, science, trends and coffee brewing techniques that have been read and shared by hundreds of thousands. Daniel no longer writes for Coffee Made Better, but instead now contributes numerous articles to Perfect Daily Grind, and has written a book titled, The Coffee Recipe Book (we sell this btw) that has been read by coffee curious people all over the world. 

Daniel and his wife Emily opened up the shop in May 2025, and since then have been joined by about a number of other teammates between the cafe & roastery who have made the place what it is today. 

Cheers to Petey, Sara, Josh, Sierra, Luisa, Matt, Emmy, Mikayla, and Chris!
(the cafe & roastery staff). 

Come by and see us. We'll be dang excited to make you something special. 

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IN THE PRESS:


CONTACT:
Email: hi@shortsleevescoffee.com

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