"It's an amazing, amazing business," says Tyler Ornstein, 16, who sells his acid-free coffee on the Internet.

dean knuth / Arizona Daily Star

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Tyler Ornstein started selling coffee door-to-door when he was 10, but it took getting behind the wheel to test-drive a sleek car to convince him it was time to expand and start his own business.

Ornstein, a 16-year-old junior at Catalina Foothills High School, has been selling Tyler's Coffee online for six months and is already looking to expand into the retail and restaurant markets, with interest from a local restaurant chain and AJ's Fine Foods, which is negotiating to set up the coffee as a test product.

Tyler's Coffee's big selling point is the unique roasting process used by the Tyler's Coffee roasting partner in Phoenix, which produces "acid free" coffee beans that are then ground and immediately vacuum packed. Ornstein describes the brew as smooth, robust, heavily caffeinated and, since it's acid-free, easy on the stomach.

"It's an amazing, amazing business," he says. "People love coffee. Everyone in the world drinks coffee, or knows coffee."

A cup-a-day coffee drinker for about a year, Ornstein says his first taste of coffee came from his baby sitter when he was 2 years old. Growing up with coffee led to selling an Italian roast door-to-door, he says, but that was just the start.

Ornstein and his father partnered with the Phoenix roaster, who uses a fully automated system to precisely roast the Brazilian arabica coffee beans. The roasting time must be precise to within three seconds to assure it's acid free.

The roaster has the capacity to roast 40,000 pounds of coffee a day, which Tyler's Coffee doesn't come close to needing yet.

Ornstein set up the business with help from his father, Ian Ornstein, an inventor who developed and sells a non-petroleum-based roof coating.

"I've never seen a product with the retention of buyers rebuying. It absolutely blows me away. As competitive as the market is, the customers he has had on the Internet are consistently rebuying, rebuying, rebuying," Ian Ornstein says.

Sharon Hansen, who sampled Tyler's Coffee at her office, said she and her husband had been committed to another brand, but now they purchase Tyler's Coffee regularly.

"He's a unique young man. He just has the gift of gab and has a great instinct for marketing," she said. "I had never heard anything about acid-free coffee, but it's incredibly smooth and not bitter."

Tyler Ornstein designed his coffee company's logo on his computer, built its Web site and handles most of the sales calls.

He's had Tyler's Coffee in two industry shows and plans on designing trailers to serve as mobile coffee shops at athletic and community events.

"Every week we do a lot more business. We haven't seen a down curve yet," he says, declining to discuss sales figures. "As soon as people find out we have a product everyone likes, we're going to start doing distributorships and also franchise out Tyler's Coffee shops."

The coffee sells in 2-ounce fresh packs, which will brew 12 to 18 cups, for $2.25 each.

The younger Ornstein said it's good sense to be in a business selling the world's second-largest commodity after oil, but he sees it as a hobby as much as a business.

Ian Ornstein, who used to take Tyler to trade shows when he was as young as 5, said his son loves people and is a born salesman.

Both are looking to a strong future for Tyler's Coffee.

"We are definitely going to grow," Tyler Ornstein says. "We really think it's going to hit. We've had a lot of good feedback so far."

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