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About Cottonwood
Brookings,
South Dakota.
Since 2006.
Two cafés, a roastery running vintage Probats, and twenty years of pouring coffee for the same town. Specialty coffee from the Great Plains, tested on the people who know us best.
Great coffee, good manners.
From the owner
Coffee is agriculture and science. I've done both.
I grew up in rural South Dakota and left for Carleton College to study biology, with medicine in mind. After a rocky start and a stint in a research lab at the Mayo Clinic, I figured out that what I actually missed was home. In 2003 I came back, bought a small farm, and grew organic produce.
Farming was rewarding, but it didn't pay the bills, so I took a job as a community organizer in Brookings. A lot of that job happened over coffee, and Brookings, a college town, didn't have a real coffeehouse. So I drew one up on the back of a napkin, with no business experience at all.
That napkin became Cottonwood. Farming taught me that coffee is a crop, grown by people who know their land. The lab taught me to measure, test, and test again. Both show up in every bag we roast.
Jacob Limmer, owner
Jacob also advises small business owners. Meet the owner
How we got here
- 2003Back to South Dakota and a small organic farm.
- 2006Cottonwood opens at 509 Main Avenue in July.
- 2008Cottonwood Bistro opens in Brickwood Plaza.
- 2010We start roasting our own coffee.
- 2026A vintage Probat UG22 joins our L12.
The cafés
Where our coffee gets tested
Downtown
The classic coffeehouse: big windows, wooden booths, high ceilings, and the espresso bar where our coffees prove themselves every morning.
Cottonwood Bistro
Open and airy, with a from-scratch menu that brings the farm and the prairie to the table. Hearty breakfasts, casual lunches, and breakfast is always on the menu.
The roastery
Roasted on vintage Probats in Brookings
We roast on two vintage Probat drum roasters, a UG22 and an L12. Our coffee can only be as good as the green coffee we buy, so sourcing comes first: we look for producers who are paid fairly and farm sustainably.
Jacob is a certified Q Grader and an award-winning roaster. Our roasts are cupped regularly, and every coffee is tested in our cafés before we sell it. We roast for our own bars and for coffee businesses across the region and the country.
What we hold to
Expertise, authenticity, pride of place
Expertise
We work to be experts at every step, from roasting to brewing to service, and we don't settle for good enough. We just don't think expertise should come with attitude. Great coffee is for regular people.
Authenticity
Our baristas don't work from scripts. We hire people who are kind, open, and honest, and we let them be themselves.
Pride of place
Brookings, South Dakota, the Upper Great Plains. We support local nonprofits, local athletics, and conservation, and we name our coffees for the land around us.
Our guarantee
If it isn't right, we'll make it right
We stand behind every cup and every bag. If anything we make doesn't meet your expectations, tell us.
Great coffee, good manners.