Thomas Varep-Popov fell in love with aviation at the early age of 4, and his passion for it has only grown. Now, he has combined those feelings about aviation with his ability to brew signature coffee and opened Hangar 22 Coffee Roasters. Thomas and his wife, Jenna Kitchings, together sell coffee that is inspired by various airplanes and pilots.
“I took an introductory flight when I was 15, and that was pretty much it. I was sold,” Thomas said. “I started in flight training right away, got my license when I turned 17, and from there I kept going. I was roasting coffee since I was 15 as well, actually. That was just another passion project of mine.”
For Thomas, the idea of brewing coffee just for pilots came about organically. And once he started the process it began drawing people in.
“I just love coffee, and I wanted to save money from buying coffee, so I ended up roasting my own, and from there I was roasting in a hangar. The scent started coming out, everyone loved the smell of coffee, and I started [giving away] cups of coffee, and then that took off into a business.”
Hangar 22 has in the past during AirVenture handed out free coffee cups and sold bags of coffee beans, but this year Thomas wanted to kick things up a notch and decided to donate $50,000 worth of coffee to the volunteers at AirVenture on top of that.
Thomas knows the importance of the volunteers and that the great experience that is EAA AirVenture Oshkosh wouldn’t be possible to enjoy without them and all the demanding work they put into helping at the event.
Thomas and Jenna have always donated a part of their profits to organizations that help support aviation and specifically the next generation of pilots and know that EAA does a wonderful job with that, especially with our Young Eagles program.
“I love the Young Eagles program. I think for so many people who are young, being able to at least be exposed to it and just try it out,” Thomas said. “That intro flight is life-changing for a lot of youth. For EAA to help with that in such a tremendous way is absolutely crucial to ensuring we have a future generation of aviators, whether that be pilots or just other professionals in the industry.”
Within the next few years Thomas and Jenna want to start a scholarship fund to help support a future pilot who needs financial aid for flight training specifically.