Biz Bits: Owner of Backwoods Brew continues to follow her master plan

LEWISTON -- Shania Woods took a day trip to Doma Coffee Roasting Company in Post Falls to select espresso beans when she was preparing to open Backwoods Brew in Lewiston.

Based on her descriptions of what she was seeking, the proprietors provided three options. Of those, she easily picked the one that’s the base of every Backwoods Brew espresso drink.

“The blend we use is a medium roast,” Woods said. “It has notes of brown sugar, dark chocolate and caramel. It’s smooth and delicious on its own. It blends well with anything you add to it.”

Her customers have consistently confirmed her decision.

The volume of business at Backwoods Brew exceeded what she anticipated when it opened in April 2022 and has steadily climbed so much that Woods added a second location in November. The new Backwoods Brew is at 636 Thain Road, Lewiston, near Crosspoint Alliance Church. Its hours are the same as her first location at 1101 Snake River Ave. — 4:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The brick-and-mortar location along Thain Road has one drive-through lane. Next winter, the trailer on Snake River Avenue will be replaced with a brick-and-mortar structure. Like the trailer, it will have a walk-up window and a drive-through lane.

The walk-up window is particularly popular in the summer when people are outside with family and friends on the nearby levees and Kiwanis Park, Woods said.

With the Backwoods Brew on Thain Road, her staff has doubled to 15 employees.

The expansion and upgrades follow the blueprint she made for the business when she started, she said.

Those plans draw on what she learned in eight years as a barista and later a manager at an espresso business, jobs she held in high school and college.

After she earned her bachelor’s degree in exercise science at Lewis-Clark State, she worked as an exercise physiologist in the cardiac rehabilitation department at Pullman Regional Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But following 1½ years in that job, she realized that she missed the espresso business, Woods said.

She loves witnessing the emotions customers feel surrounding coffee – the joy it brings when people are headed out early in the morning on a road trip or the comfort it provides as they start a stressful work day, she said.

At Backwoods Brew, she said, she strives to have an experience where customers have short waits and consistency in everything they purchase, whether it’s a Lotus energy drink, a matcha tea or an espresso drink.

“The science behind the drinks is a big thing for us,” Woods said.