David and Angie Weigand started Whispering Bean Coffee Roasters in their kitchen in 2014. By 2016, the longtime Rio Rancho residents opened a brick-and-mortar store on Albuquerque’s West Side. In February, the Weigand’s expanded the company to the City of Vision, opening a store on NM 528 near Tap N Taco.

“We roast our own coffee, so that’s one of the unique things about this,” David Weigand said. “Everything is fresh roasted; we use only specialty grade coffee. And so we started doing this at home and then decided to expand it because it was so much better than anything you can buy in the store.”

Whispering Bean is family owned and operated. The Weigands want to have everyone experience fresh-roasted specialty coffee. Each batch is roasted with particular attention to the unique characteristics of the bean while ensuring consistency in the profile of each roast.

“I do all the roasting; I’m the only team member that knows how to do all that,” David Weigand said. “It’s kind of an art and a science. To make it taste good, you have to strive to bring the best out of every coffee.”

David is a self-taught roaster who picked it up as a hobby.

“I just learned on my own; it’s amazing what you can learn nowadays with the information that’s out there,” David Weigand said. “It was just trial and error and reading.”

That hobby has turned into a successful business that the Weigands are now able to run in their home city.

“We really thought this was an opportunity we couldn’t pass on,” David Weigand said. “Having the drive-thru and this location, there’s really nothing close by. People don’t want to get out of their rhythm. So we’re trying to get some awareness and make sure that we can get people recognizing that when they’re going to work, they can come in here and get their morning coffee.”

Whispering Bean serves a full line of espresso-based drinks, pour-over, frozen drinks, cold brew and nitro brew that make for a wide variety of coffee drinks. There are also several gluten-free food options on the menu, which are made from Angie Weigand’s recipes and the creations from the other bakers on the team.

“WB Coffee would not be successful without the outstanding team members,” David Weigand said. “Whispering Bean Coffee Bar has excellent baristas and they are ready to serve you.”

Whispering Bean also has a full espresso coffee bar in Cleveland High School and serves cold brew at Rio Rancho High School. Both shops are staffed by the schools’ food contractor.