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What your state allows

Updated October 2026

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Roasting raises questions other food businesses do not The food side is usually straightforward Tea blending can sometimes be cottage food Herbal products invite a different question Ask about the venue as well as the product Record who told you what Selling brewed coffee is a different permission References

The product rules are thin here, so the state conversation is mostly about the premises rather than about what you are making.

Roasting raises questions other food businesses do not

Smoke, smell and sometimes chaff are emissions, and they attract attention from parts of local government that never look at a jam maker. Ask about air quality and about what the building is zoned for alongside the food licensing, because they are frequently different departments with different answers.

The food side is usually straightforward

A roasting and packing operation is a dry food business with no refrigeration, no process control and no pH to document. Relative to the dairy or acidified crafts the inspection burden is light, which surprises makers who expected the opposite.

Tea blending can sometimes be cottage food

Blending dry, shelf-stable ingredients is close to what cottage food laws were written for, and some states list it. That is genuinely worth asking about by name rather than assuming it follows the coffee answer, because the two often land differently.

Herbal products invite a different question

A tisane containing botanicals sold with any suggestion of a health effect moves toward being treated as something other than a food, which is a much heavier regime. Describe the product as a beverage and keep the claims off it if that is not the business you want to be in.

Ask about the venue as well as the product

A market stall, a retail shelf, wholesale to cafes and mail order can sit differently. An answer about whether you may roast does not settle where you may sell.

Record who told you what

Name, date, what you described and what they said. Guidance gets restated and staff change, and a specific conversation you can point at is a different position from a recollection.

Selling brewed coffee is a different permission

A roastery that also serves drinks is a food service business as well as a manufacturing one, with handwashing, seating and sometimes a separate license. Many roasters end up doing both, so it is worth asking about both in the first conversation rather than discovering it later.

References

Michigan State University Extension. Cottage food law: which preserved products are covered. canr.msu.edu

21 CFR 101, Food Labeling, which carries the general requirements that apply here in the absence of a standard of identity: the statement of identity, net quantity, ingredient list and the name and place of business of the responsible party. law.cornell.edu

Written from federal regulation and from the published physics and chemistry of staling, not from a laboratory. There is no standard of identity for coffee or tea, so most of what governs a product here is the general requirement that labels be truthful and claims be substantiated. Anything here is a starting point for a conversation with your state department of agriculture, not a determination that you comply.