Swing's Coffee

The M.E. Swing Co. was established in Washington, D.C. by Michael Edward Swing and his son, Edward Swing, in 1916. Father and son found a ready market for premium Arabica beans which were imported from Africa, Latin America, and the Far East. In 1920, the company opened its now historic Mesco (M.E. Swing Co.) Coffee Roasters building at 1013 E Street. The E Street retail store, with its hand-crafted, gleaming mahogany interior and bright-red, wooden coffee bins occupied the first floor of the Mesco Building. On the second floor, M.E. Swing made hand-dipped chocolates, and on the third floor, a huge German roaster turned out hundreds of pounds of expertly roasted coffee every day. The smell of roasted coffee beans became part of the downtown experience for the next 80 years. In the mid-1990’s, we moved our roasting plant and wholesale offices just across the Potomac river into Alexandria, VA.