Exploring the Valley
Discover the hidden gems, local legends, and can’t-miss experiences in Black Mountain and the Swannanoa Valley as we dive into the perks of Chamber membership and uncover what makes this mountain town a must-visit destination. Whether you're a local business or just passing through, there's something cool waiting for you!
Exploring the Valley
A Through Hike Led To Coffee, Community, And A Life In Black Mountain
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
A six-month hike from Maine to Georgia can change everything. That’s how Andy Gibbon stumbled into Black Mountain, fell for a local arts festival, and started a life anchored by family, music, and a small-batch coffee roastery that smells like pure happiness. We sit down with Andy, co-owner of Dynamite Roasting Company, to trace how a detour on the Appalachian Trail became a 25-year commitment to place, people, and purpose.
We explore the craft and the business of coffee: how the roaster grew from a cozy cafe to a custom-built facility in Swannanoa, why organic beans and careful roast profiles matter, and what happens when sourcing isn’t just transactional. Andy takes us to origin—Honduras, Rwanda, Kenya, Peru, Indonesia, Colombia, Mexico—where long-term relationships with farmers shape quality, price stability, and community impact. If you’ve ever wondered how a great cup starts on a distant hillside and ends up on a sunny porch in Western North Carolina, this is your map.
Life in Black Mountain comes alive in the details: kids biking to the church gym, porch conversations outside the cafe, and a Halloween on Church Street that brings 2,000 trick-or-treaters past a family-made art installation. We trade stories about minor league baseball at the Asheville Tourists, a middle-aged rock scene that keeps amps warm on Friday nights, and the choice to stay local because almost everything you need is within walking distance. It’s a love letter to small-town living, the creative pulse of a mountain community, and the patient craft behind a cup that converts even the skeptics.
If this story made you smile, learn something, or crave a fresh pour-over, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more neighbors can find us.
Andy’s Origin And AT Journey
SPEAKER_01Good morning, Andy Gibbon. How are you? Good morning.
SPEAKER_00I'm doing great.
SPEAKER_01I am really glad you're here. And I really just start usually and say, what's your story? Where are you from?
Discovering Black Mountain Through Music
SPEAKER_00So my name is Andy Gibbon. I live here in Black Mountain. I've lived here for about 25 years, but I'm originally from Cleveland, Ohio. Up north. I grew up there and sort of found Western North Carolina, kind of by accident. I guess my Black Mountain story starts back in 2000. I dropped out of college and was sort of looking for the next thing, trying to figure out what I was going to do with myself. So I went on an Appalachian Trail through hike. Oh. I hiked all the way from Maine down to Georgia. Took me about six months or so, and you know, some good time to be outdoors and find myself and all those sorts of things. But I hadn't spent much time, any time in Western North Carolina. I'd been out on the coast a bit, but never in Western North Carolina. I didn't even know there were mountains in North Carolina. Wow. Until I had to walk over them. Then you knew. And then I knew. Then you knew. But along the way, I stopped in a hostel in Hot Springs, North Carolina, and was talking with the hostel owner there. Before starting hiking, I'd been playing in a bluegrass band living in a barn up in Maine. So music was a big part of my life at the time. Still is. But uh the hostel owner said, Oh, you like music. You'll love this thing that is going on in Asheville area, Black Mountain, called the Lake Eden to Arts Festival. Ah, yes. I'd never heard of it before, didn't know anything about it, but I was looking for a little break. So I hitchhiked into Asheville, spent a day there, fell in love with the town, hitchhiked out to Black Mountain, talked my way into a free ticket by volunteering to park cars. And I just had the most wonderful time in this place that I never knew existed. Spent about a week here just soaking up the mountains and the atmosphere and everything that is Black Mountain. And, you know, just made a mental note that this was a really great place that I discovered. Uh, finished up my hike along the way. I met a fellow hiker who's now my wife, Ashley, of 25 years. We hiked together for the rest of the way. Oh, cool. Really from Maine all the way down to Georgia together. Six-month first date. Wow.
SPEAKER_01Six-month first date. I love that.
Building A Life And Family Here
SPEAKER_00So we saw each other our best and our worst, and things worked out. We bounced around for about a year before deciding that we were going to return back to this area. She actually was born in Asheville, but grew up in Elkon, which is about two hours from here. But we settled uh here in West North Carolina, but not just West North Carolina, Black Mountain. So made that very cool. Full, full circle and have been here ever since. 25 years. 25 years, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Wow. You are one of the owners of Dynamite Roasting Company. Is that right?
SPEAKER_00That's right. Small batch organic coffee roaster based here in Black Mountain. We roast coffee in Swannanoa, sell it online to grocery stores and restaurants all over the southeast. Um, but we've got a cute little cafe just on the west side of Black Mountain on Route 70.
SPEAKER_01Yes, you do. And I'm gonna tell you the truth here. I don't like coffee.
SPEAKER_00I don't know how you're sitting here upright.
SPEAKER_01I know. I know. I do like coffee. I've learned. I've learned to like coffee if it has a lot of that girl stuff in it, you know, a lot of cream and sugar and all that sort of thing. But I will tell you that recently I needed somebody actually said, if you have dynamite roasting company coffee in your visitor center, I will meet you for a meeting at eight o'clock in the morning. If it's not eight in the morning, it needs to be later. If it's not, if you don't have the coffee, you need to make it later.
SPEAKER_00Whatever and it takes to get okay.
SPEAKER_01Well, all we have is a K cup and we don't have a Keurig, whatever it's called. And I said, I don't know if they sell K cups or not, but I'm gonna run down there and see. So I did, and you do. We do. And so now that's what we have in the visitor center. But but I also bought a box of it to take home because we were getting ready to have a storm. So I took it home with me, and I actually like your coffee. Now it still has to have a little bit of cream in it, but not as much as we did before. Sure. I know, but I still am saying that is a true compliment because I wouldn't lie about it. I'd just say everybody loves your coffee if I didn't care about it.
SPEAKER_00Well, because we're really proud of what we You should be.
Coffee Shop Culture And Community
SPEAKER_01You should be. I want a tour. I want to see how how the how the coffee is made. I want to see all the roasting things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's actually pretty fascinating. Big machines and you know, the factory is the best-smelling factory in town. A bet.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And I do like to go to your coffee shop too. So I like it better when it's springtime and we can go outside because you have that nice porch deck, whatever you want to call it.
SPEAKER_00Lovely spot for a view and a cup of coffee, but it's nice and cozy inside too.
SPEAKER_01All right, so tell me about your family. Do you have children? Do you think I do.
SPEAKER_00So my wife Ashley of 25 years, and then I have two children. Let's see.
SPEAKER_01I have a 15-year-old who is holy cow, you don't look old enough to be a 15-year-old.
SPEAKER_00I guess 25 years. Okay, hello. Sorry. I do my best. But uh, I have a 15-year-old, he's a sophomore at Owen High School. Okay. And I have a freshman at NC State. Oh, wow. Um, yeah, just started this year. So an 18-year-old and a 15-year-old, yep, raised here in Black Mountain through the Owen public schools.
Raising Kids In A Walkable Town
SPEAKER_01I have not had a single person come on here and say it was horrible to raise children here. But tell me about raising your family here.
SPEAKER_00Best place, a really just great place to live and raise kids. You know, the community is great. I grew up in a larger city, which was nice, but I really like this small town atmosphere. You know, we chose we chose Black Mountain on purpose for those sort of that sort of vibe. You know, schools are great, small, walkable town. You know, the kids come and go and show up on their bikes and play basketball, you know, the church down the street and all those sorts of things. So really great. Just, you know, cozy small town.
SPEAKER_01What do you all like to do when you're not eating dinner, doing what you do at home, or making coffee? What else do you like to do?
Music, Bands, And Creative Scene
SPEAKER_00Let's see. You know, there's just all sorts of stuff. We're here for the mountains, of course, and the outdoor sports, which we love. I'm a musician. I've played music since I was a kid, sort of found Black Mountain because of music in an indirect sort of way. But I play bass and guitar in a couple of rock and roll bands around town. I don't think I knew that. My wife, Ashley and I have a surf band. We play around town. You know, Asheville, West North Carolina, Black Mountain, just full of creative people doing fun things. You know, so there's this name of your band. Two bands. One is called Why Y. Why question mark? That's our surf band. The other one is called Jank Spirit, and I play bass in that. Okay. There's this great sort of middle-aged rock and roll scene happening around Asheville area, really just for our own entertainment, but there's a lot of sort of folks like myself, creative people who have ended up in the area for one reason or another, who, you know, like to stay out late on a Friday night and play rock and roll in a dive bar someplace. It's a good way to keep ourselves entertained.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So you have another business partner. I was thinking when you said co-owner that it was you and Ashley.
Partnership And Roles At Dynamite
SPEAKER_00So it's you and for the sake of our marriage, we keep things we're keeping kings separate. Okay. Yes, I have a business partner, Patrick Shaw. He is also CEO currently and sort of running the show. But they're from the bigger picture side of the five. Is he into music too? Yes, he is. He plays guitar. Is he in either of those bands? No, he's not. He's a bluegrasser. So a different thing. We don't want those people in this one. Bluegrass is great, but that's a different, different sort of thing. Different genre.
SPEAKER_01Got it. Okay. So when you go on vacation, where do you go?
Travel, Sourcing, And Coffee Origins
SPEAKER_00I've been going to the Outer Banks since I was a little baby growing up in Ohio. It's probably honestly the closest peach to us. So even moving out here to North Carolina, I still meet my family out there. I have two brothers and we we go out there as a family trip out to the Outer Banks. Other, you know, part of the great thing about being in the coffee industry and the way we do our business vacation and work often overlap. I'm going down to Honduras in a couple of weeks to meet some coffee farmers. That's brilliant. Yeah, that's great. We go down annually and work with coffee farmers down there to select the coffees that we're going to buy and bring back and roast here in Black Mountain. But also they become good friends. We've been going down there for over a decade. So we'll take little side trips, go to the beach, or go visit some glide ruins or something like that. But that world of coffee has opened up a lot of travel opportunities. So you get to go to Kona? I have not been to Kona yet. We need me to carry your bags. But I'll let you know.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Fred. I'm sure that I'm the only one. Oh, yes, make it a chamber trip. That'll be perfect.
SPEAKER_00Well, we've gotten to go all sorts of places like Rwanda and Kenya and Peru and Indonesia and Colombia and Mexico.
SPEAKER_01And it's um I love learning about new things that like new parts of what you do that I wouldn't have thought. I just didn't uh I don't know why I didn't think of that.
SPEAKER_00Coffee is a big world and you know you don't have to travel in order to be in the coffee world, but it's a part of it that I hurt. It's a part that I really love. It's my favorite part of the business, so we make it a priority.
SPEAKER_01That's right. So you've lived here a long time. I had it in my head that you'd lived here less time than that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Doug, it's 18 years old. Is it really? It's been around for a little while.
SPEAKER_01Where were you originally? Where was your office? Where were where did where did you roast originally?
Growing From Cafe To Roastery
SPEAKER_00So we started roasting in our cafe building where the roaster, the original roaster is still there. We were there for a few years and sort of outgrew that space for production as our wholesale side grew. So we rented some space out in Eastside Business Park. Okay. We were there for about eight years or so until we outgrew that space and built our own roasting headquarters out in Swan.
SPEAKER_01Such a cool place to visit. I've been in there for, I think I think I talked to you about insurance before I worked at the chamber. I worked for an insurance company here in town. And I think we were in there calling on y'all or something, but it's such a you just walk in and everything just smells good. It's like wow. You don't even have to be inside before you can smell it. It's awesome.
Church Street Halloween Tradition
SPEAKER_00It's a cool spot to be able to design and build this space, knowing exactly what we're looking for that works just for us for what we're trying to do is really a great experience. Yeah, but it's cool. It's got a big, shiny roaster. It's huge, the size of, you know, the size of the building, roasts 150 pounds at a time. Just a neat, neat space, all coffee focused to do what we do.
SPEAKER_01We've talked a lot about coffee and we've talked about hiking and outdoor sports and kids. What have we missed?
SPEAKER_00What else is there about this community you want to tell us? I'll tell you my favorite part about living in Black Mountain and the community. We live on Church Street, right near downtown. And when we moved there, we knew what we were getting into. Some new folks come that move on the street, don't know what they're getting. And October 31st, everything changes as all of the eastern part of the county floods into our street. And we count, we keep track of how many trick-or-treaters we get every single year. The average is about 2,000 trick-or-treaters. We give away one piece of candy to each kid and we buy about 2,000 pieces. Then you multiply that by parents, you easily have who knows, three, 4,000 people on that street over the course of a couple of hours, which is just super fun. We love it. We love it. Okay. Love it. Yes, we we kind of moved to Church Street for that ex week. Really? You know, it's a great sp spot to be right near downtown and sidewalks and all that sort of thing. But we we are big fans of the Church Street Halloween tradition.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell I'm kind of a Halloween Grinch because I lived in a neighborhood where we gave away 700 pieces of candy and I thought that was insane. But uh I've not been to the experience, but I've heard about it for sure.
Loving Small-Town Life And Baseball
SPEAKER_00Aaron Ross Powell Well, put on some, you know, put on your costume and come check it out and see. It's just a great community event. Um, you know, just to see everybody you know from town coming through. That'd probably be really cool. It's really cool. The kids get to hang out with their friends and run around town after dark and all those sorts of things. We put a lot of effort into decorating and um it's great to have an audience. You've heard about that.
SPEAKER_01Actually, have heard about your house, actually. It's sort of this fun little art project.
SPEAKER_00We have an audience delivered to our house to look and see our decoration. So we have we have a fun family art project.
SPEAKER_01That's cool. So we both moved here from a big city, basically. I mean, maybe indirectly, but we did. I thought when I got here that I would be running to Charlotte all the time to go do something, or Asheville even or somewhere. And I very rarely leave town.
SPEAKER_00Same. When I first moved here before getting into coffee, I worked in Asheville as a brewer. I made beer for Highland Brewing Company for about four years or so. And so I worked downtown Asheville, but spent most of my time here in Black Mountain. But as my business and my life has been rooted here more recently, I leave Black Mountain almost never. Me too. I don't even really go to Asheville. I don't either except for business. Yeah. But we've got we've got restaurants, we've got mountains and hikes, we've got, you know, shops and stores and all the things you could possibly need other than the occasional tourists game. I can't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's that is my weakness right there. Tourist game. I gotta go.
SPEAKER_00But it's still close by. But otherwise, I don't really have any need to leave Black Mountain. And it's you know, it's walkable downtown. You can get everything you need.
SPEAKER_01One of our big sponsors, they're actually about to sponsor this podcast, but is Best Buy Metals. And they have, I think they've built a pole barn or something at the tourist game starting this year. They're gonna have their own section and they're gonna have Chamber Day. Oh, fun. And it's just our chamber members get to go and have a special day at the tourist game. So I assume we'll both be there.
SPEAKER_00Dynamite are proud sponsors of the Nashville Turks as well. So they spend a lot of time.
SPEAKER_01A nice little gym here that uh most people I love baseball and I love going to baseball games. It's really going to them. I don't watch them on TV, don't care. So yeah. Well, that's that is a fun. I think I grew up with the Atlanta Braves and there was a season or three or five that I didn't miss a game. I was at every baseball game, like at the field. And it was before it was even Turner Field. So it was two stadiums ago, three stadiums ago. But but I got here and I was like, well, I'll miss baseball. No, I love minor league baseball even more than I ever loved major league baseball.
SPEAKER_00I feel the same way. I grew up with my Cleveland Indians, now Cleveland Guardians. I used to go to games all the time.
What The Town Has And Still Needs
SPEAKER_01But having the tourists and a minor league close enough to that you feel like you're going on a trip because you're going to Asheville, but it's close enough. I don't know that we need it in our backyard anyway. So it's perfect. Yeah, it's great. But they are a lot of fun and I enjoy them. Last year on my birthday, my family was all out of town. Everybody I know was anybody who knew I don't celebrate and tell everybody when it's my birthday. I didn't tell anybody. And I was like, well, I'm here by myself. And I went to a tourist game by myself and had a great time. I didn't I wasn't sure if it would be fun by yourself. It it was still fun.
SPEAKER_00Every once in a while they do day games for kids. And it's like 11 in the afternoon or something like that. And my favorite thing to do is not tell anybody where I'm going. So I've got a meeting. And just and just go all by myself.
SPEAKER_01Well, if I see you at a game, don't and we didn't see each other, right? No, it's not in the middle of the day. Exactly. In the middle of the day, we didn't see each other. So we both came from bigger cities originally, and now we live in small towns and love it and rarely go anywhere else, just I mean, for anything, unless it's travel or work or whatever. But there are things we need in this town that we don't have that I would love to, I would love to get a dry cleaner here or a way to get the dry cleaning done. Not that I wear a whole lot of dry cleanable clothes, but people do. And people still take it across the street to the laundry, across the street from the visitor center, and they think they're taking their dry cleaning. It's like it is named the laundry. So I see why they think that, but what else do we need?
SPEAKER_00You know, Black Mountain has got so many things that you wouldn't expect. And as I think down my mental list, you know, we've got a specialty groceries store, we've got a great wine shop. I actually don't have a great answer.
SPEAKER_01Maybe this is that is the answer. I think that is the answer is that is that we've got what we need.
SPEAKER_00You know, we've got we've got Charlotte is close, I guess if you want IKEA or something like that. Asheville is Asheville is close, but the truth is I leave town um almost never. Me too. Really all the all the all the shops, all the grocery stores, all the necessities really right here. Everything's right here. Tractor supply, you know, for garden needs. If you need it, yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_01Okay, let's back that up a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that doesn't sound like a great.
Closing Gratitude And Community Pride
SPEAKER_01But no, it's okay. The truth is the truth is we have everything. The the the thing is that we do have we do have tractor supply, but we also have um we have to remember to think. Sometimes it's hard to remember to think about, let's see, town hardware actually has most of the things we need that that are right there. But if they don't, you have you have the tractor supply sort of stores and things like that. So you're right, we do have everything we need. I lived in a small town before that had a tiny Home Depot. Tiny. Like it didn't even make sense like why they were there. But you would go in and they did have everything you needed. And if we can learn that we don't need 8,000 choices, we really only need that much. I think it's all right here.
SPEAKER_00I wish we had a little movie theater, just a small little single screen.
SPEAKER_01I thought of that too. Even if it was like even like Whitehorse could has shown movies, they've done that. It's not a movie theater, but when they do, I do like to go to those.
SPEAKER_00I have a specific vision in mind of a small little theater with a small screen and you can get popcorn and all those things.
SPEAKER_01Doesn't show mainstream movies and that sort of thing, but you know arc pictures and I am working with a guy who's gonna do outdoor movies for us, like in the summertime. So I'm excited about that. We've been working on that a couple a little bit, but kind of excited about that in the summertime. That'll be fun. It's kind of hard to do in the winter, but it's not what you're saying. But we'll keep but keep your eyes open because it's coming. It's that's cool. I'm glad to hear it.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, I appreciate. Can we stop? Okay. I appreciate you coming today. And it was it was nice to get hi, Peter. Um, I appreciate you coming today. It was nice to get to know you. I have a face now to go with the name. We talk on the phone and email each other, but kind of fun to get to know you and thank you for coming.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, great to talk about all the things we love about our our little town. Um, you know, meet all the people in your neighborhood. That's right. We could sing a song about that. That's right.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for joining us on Exploring the Valley. Until next time, keep celebrating the pride of our community and discovering the magic of the mountains. In the meantime, you're free to move about the valley.