How Aroma Joe’s Built a Community-Driven Coffee Franchise With National Growth Potential

For many franchise development professionals, franchising is not a career path they intentionally choose. It is something they discover along the way.

That was certainly the case for Erika Tarnowski, franchise development director for Aroma Joe’s. Before entering franchising, Tarnowski spent five years living in Brazil, working as a teacher, translator and interpreter. When she returned to the United States, an opportunity with a franchise company introduced her to an industry she quickly realized she loved.

“I absolutely fell in love with it,” Tarnowski said. “I really, really enjoyed it a lot more than I expected.”

Today, Tarnowski helps lead franchise growth for Aroma Joe’s, the Maine-born coffee brand that has spent more than 25 years building a loyal customer following across the Northeast and beyond. With more than 125 locations across eight states, the brand is pursuing an ambitious national expansion strategy while remaining focused on the community-first culture that fueled its success from the beginning.

Unlike many large coffee chains that compete primarily on convenience, Aroma Joe’s has differentiated itself through strong local relationships, franchisee support, ethically sourced coffee and its proprietary AJ’s Rush® energy drinks. According to Tarnowski, those elements have helped the brand establish itself in highly competitive markets where national competitors already dominate.

“A lot of our growth has been built on word of mouth, great experiences and loyal customers,” Tarnowski said. “That’s how we’ve grown in New England, which is traditionally a very difficult market to break into.”

Tarnowski joined 1851 Franchise Publisher Nick Powills on a recent episode of the “Meet the Franchise” podcast to discuss franchise development, franchisee support, market expansion and what continues to drive Aroma Joe’s growth. A transcript of the conversation — edited for brevity, clarity and style — is below.

Nick Powills: How did you accidentally fall into franchising? What's your franchise backstory?

Erika Tarnowski: I love that you ask it like that because I think most people in franchising sort of accidentally end up here. I lived in Brazil for five years before getting into franchising. My husband is from Brazil, so we were down there for quite a while. I worked as a teacher and then as a translator and interpreter.

When we moved back to the U.S., I connected with Linda Chadwick, who is now the CEO of Rita’s Italian Ice. At the time, she needed somebody for a franchise development coordinator role. I needed a job, so I took it.

I absolutely fell in love with it. I really enjoyed it a lot more than I expected and felt fortunate to have found my way into the industry.

Powills: How long did it take before you really understood franchising?

Tarnowski: I don’t think anybody who claims to know everything about franchising is telling the truth. There’s always something new to learn.

It depends on the environment you’re in and how quickly you get thrown into the deep end. There are legal issues, operational issues, development issues and constantly changing regulations. You’re always learning.

I think a lot of people in franchising probably know more than they give themselves credit for, but it definitely takes time to understand how all the pieces fit together.

Powills: One of the biggest challenges in franchising is that consumers may know a brand, but they often don’t know there’s a franchise opportunity attached to it. How do you think about that?

Tarnowski: Franchise opportunity awareness and consumer brand awareness are almost two completely different things.

One of the things we started doing was placing signage at our drive-thru windows that says the locations are locally owned and operated and that franchise opportunities are available. We measured traffic through QR codes and saw website visits increase dramatically.

When I joined Aroma Joe’s, one of my priorities was helping people understand not only who we are as a coffee brand, but also that they can actually own one. If consumers don’t know your brand, they certainly won’t know you offer franchise opportunities.

Powills: How much does the customer experience influence franchise development?

Tarnowski: It influences everything.

We were talking about this recently as a company. Every bad review, every customer experience, every interaction impacts franchise development. Operations, marketing, procurement, innovation — all of those teams contribute to how successful franchise development can be.

The customer experience is where franchise development begins. If somebody has a bad experience at a location, they’re not going to inquire about owning one. That’s why operational excellence matters so much. Franchise development doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It starts with creating great experiences for customers every day.

Powills: How has the franchise buyer changed in recent years?

Tarnowski: People are doing a lot more research before they ever contact us. Information is everywhere now. AI has made it easier than ever for people to compare brands, understand investment requirements and evaluate opportunities before filling out a lead form.

I actually think that’s reducing the number of leads but improving the quality of the conversations. By the time people reach us, they’ve often already researched multiple brands.

I’d rather spend time having meaningful conversations with qualified candidates than sorting through a huge number of unqualified leads. When someone can tell me they’ve researched us, researched competitors and understand the differences, that’s a much better starting point.

Powills: Transparency seems important in that process.

Tarnowski: Absolutely. One of the things I’m focused on is creating content that provides real value, whether someone buys our franchise or not. We talk about realistic buildout timelines, development expectations and what it actually takes to open a location.

I don’t want someone signing an agreement based on unrealistic expectations. I want our operations team, construction team and franchisees all aligned around what success actually looks like. That level of transparency helps build trust from the very beginning.

Powills: Why should someone be looking at Aroma Joe’s today?

Tarnowski: There are a lot of reasons.

First, we’ve proven we can succeed in one of the most competitive coffee markets in the country. New England is a challenging place to build a coffee brand, and we’ve done it through community involvement, customer loyalty and operational consistency.

Second, our culture really is centered around positively impacting people. We have programs like AJ’s Cares, our charitable initiative, and we genuinely believe that community involvement translates directly into business success.

We’ve also built strong differentiation. We’ve mastered the energy drink category with AJ’s Rush. We continue to innovate with new offerings like dirty sodas. We offer all-day food options. And we remain nimble enough to adapt to consumer trends.

Most importantly, there is still significant white space available across the country. We have tremendous room to grow. 

One thing I always tell candidates is that our growth curve can be different. Sometimes it takes time for a market to fully embrace the brand. But once customers experience the beverages, food, service and culture, the loyalty is incredible.

That’s how we’ve grown. We build with good people, we stay involved in our communities and we keep showing up every day.

Powills: Thanks for joining us, Erika.

Tarnowski: Thank you. I love talking about this stuff.

Watch the full Meet the Franchise episode to learn more about Aroma Joe’s franchise opportunity, community-focused culture and national expansion strategy.