Growing Pasco coffee roaster buys longtime Richland coffee shop
Ahava Coffee’s location on Sandifur Boulevard in west Pasco offers spacious seating alongside its signature drinks and pastries made in-house. The Pasco coffee roaster recently purchased Richland’s Barracuda Coffee Co., making it Ahava’s third location and second brick-and-mortar store.
Photo by Ty BeaverA Pasco coffee roaster and shop that aims to elevate the coffee-drinking experience is expanding to its third location after buying Richland’s Barracuda Coffee Co.
Cameron Robbins, co-owner of Ahava Coffee, confirmed the purchase to the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
He said that the shop at 2171 Van Giesen St. will be rebranded as an Ahava location with a grand reopening in mid-February. Remodeling will take place during off hours allowing the location to remain open throughout.
“We’re going to refresh it but keep the spirit of Barracuda,” he said.
Ahava, which is the Hebrew word for “love,” started in January 2020 with mobile coffee kiosks before acquiring the fixed-stand at Argent Road and Road 68 in Pasco. It opened its first brick-and-mortar coffee shop a year ago when it took over Raan Coffee at 9425 Sandifur Parkway, Suite 105.
Ahava Coffee’s location on Sandifur Boulevard in west Pasco offers spacious seating alongside its signature drinks and pastries made in-house. The Pasco coffee roaster recently purchased Richland’s Barracuda Coffee Co., making it Ahava’s third location and second brick-and-mortar store.
| Photo by Ty BeaverRobbins said the business has about a dozen employees and that its ethos is to welcome each of its guests with love.
Barracuda has been a fixture on Van Giesen just east of the intersection with the Highway 240 bypass since 2003. Its most recent owner, Jake Shupe, purchased it in 2009. Shupe expanded to a shop at 320 Kellogg St. and had a mobile trailer before selling the Kennewick location to a former Barracuda employee in 2021.
Ahava was already roasting coffee beans for Barracuda prior to the sale, Robbins said. Now he and his staff will bring the full Ahava experience to the Richland location. That includes drinks made with syrups and caramel sauce made in-house, as well as pastries and other baked goods made by Ahava’s pastry chef, who was trained at Le Cordon Bleu in London.
The Pasco location recently hosted its first event, where customers could sample eight coffees from around the world and also connect with other coffee enthusiasts.
