Specialty roaster Look Alive cements itself in St. Pete's bustling coffee scene

In a city where residents have made it clear how much they love specialty coffee, Look Alive coffee roaster is a welcome addition.

Located at 1920 1/2 1st Ave. S,  the coffee roaster made its online debut in February. Customers can order beans online through letslookalive.com, and wholesale partners can visit the roasting space in person to see owner Kelly Packard in action.

Packard, the one-woman force behind Look Alive, recently gave an exclusive look at what it’s like to be a newcomer in the St. Pete coffee scene. We talked all things coffee, business and The 'Burg.

“We’re going for Gen Z and millennials, like we really just want to be this fresh, energized and exciting brand,” said Kelly, noting that she recently had dropped off some samples at USF St. Pete’s Campus Grind. She wants to appeal to a younger crowd and thought the local university coffee shop would be a perfect partner.

'Youthful' is certainly the word that comes to mind when seeing the space. On the left is a workstation and coffee brewing setup—grinders, a La Marzocco espresso machine and all of Look Alive's products on display. Its logo, a skull with the brand’s initials in place of its eyes, sprawls across the wall in its signature lime green shade.

On the adjacent wall is a packing station; rolls of holographic silver stickers and pastel-colored bags featuring disco balls and skateboarders lined the counters. Across the room stands a 22-pound roaster, accompanied by a few burlap sacks of coffee beans. It’s a no-nonsense, inviting space that conveys a commitment to high-quality coffee and a fresh, modern attitude.

“We’re really passionate about staying involved with the community and trying to help it grow and flourish. There’s so many amazing roasters and coffee shops here and we are just very into that collaborative effort,” Packard says.

As she added some beans into the grinder to make us both a pour over, she recounted her journey with Look Alive. Packard holds a degree in painting from Savannah College of Art and Design, and did independent freelance design work while she and her husband worked in the service industry. The couple spent much of their lives in Atlanta, and always shared a passion for specialty coffee. Two years ago, they moved to St. Pete and decided to open a roaster of their own.

Since October of last year, Packard has been documenting the process of securing a location and opening the business on their Instagram. “The build-out of a café is a lot more expensive than that of a roastery, and then timewise, it’s so much. With two little kids at home, we can’t really do that,” she explained.

We sipped on our coffee like old friends, even though we had just met, and it was the smoothest, sweetest cup of black coffee I have ever had. Currently, Look Alive offers two blends and three single-origin coffees for purchase on their website.

Then, Kelly got to work roasting the beans that were on the schedule for that day.

Perched on her black work stool, she adjusted a program that showed a complex graph and three differently colored lines. One of those, Kelly explained, is called the “rate of rise” line which shows the increase in temperature per minute inside the main roasting drum.

“As the roast goes on, we can decrease that gas pressure which will cause the rate of rise to lower, and depending on the coffee, it’ll just allow those caramel and chocolatey flavors come out,” she said.

While she scooped coffee beans out of the sacks, I tried to stay out of her way while still observing the entire process. One batch of beans is roasted in around 10-13 minutes, and then they get sorted and packaged, Kelly explained. She also mentioned that they cup their coffees every day to ensure freshness and quality. Cupping is a standardized method for evaluating the qualities of a coffee. Baristas, producers, roaster, and others involved in the production process use this method for quality control and to assess its flavors and attributes.

“We just had a cupping for fun; it was super fun and it’s a good way to develop your palate,” said Yazmin Harris, owner of Only Child coffee, a specialty coffee cart that pops up throughout Tampa Bay.  She met Packard at an event, and the two quickly developed a supportive internet friendship. The friendship made it out of the DMs and the two are now close as fellow coffee entrepreneurs. Packard, while gesturing to the workstation area in Look Alive, happily told me how the cupping was set up and her vision for events in the future.

Both Only Child and Look Alive are unique identities in the Tampa Bay coffee market.

“The St. Pete coffee scene is definitely ever-growing, but I think it’s so cool to have so many options, and we can all stand out but also complement each other,” Harris said.

Both Harris and Packard share a common love of small-scale, producer-oriented coffee sourcing. We walked around the roastery as the beans churned in the machine, and Packard named the people and countries that her beans came from, clearly expressing an interest in their origin. These shared values, Harris said, is what makes the pair such fast friends in business and in life.

Look Alive’s beans are currently featured at several eateries and cafés in town, like Pete’s Bagels (St. Pete location), Little Tina in downtown Tampa and The Crumb Factory.
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