Posted on August 17, 2011 in Coffee
Ryan of Madcap Coffee was first introduced to roasting when he worked part-time at a coffee shop while studying philosophy at a small college in Illinois. After graduation, Ryan began experimenting with a one kilo roaster, trying out different roasting profiles. He did a lot of research, both reading up on coffee and talking to experienced roasters before opening Madcap Coffee in 2008.
Travelling to the farms on which their coffee beans are grown has become the norm for quality conscious roasters and Ryan is no exception. His newest project involves working closely with a family in El Salvador. This particular project is special because Ryan and the farmers worked out a way to grow several coffee bean varieties separately on this one farm, allowing Madcap to release a varietal series with a single origin. Despite the long distances he travels to source his beans, Ryan is extremely proud that his coffees are roasted in Michigan: “Our area of the country is not typically known as the coffee area. The West Coast gets the credit. They have done amazing things, but it’s really exciting and encouraging to be part of the movement in our area. There are a lot of exciting things going on in Michigan so we were proud to represent it.”
As with most craft food producers, Ryan expresses that there is still a good amount of education that needs to be done when it comes to coffee: “I think particularly with coffee it’s a challenge because it’s just seen as fuel to start the day. Even with foodies and people who are working in the industry, it easy to separate coffee from everything else. For us it complicated to get across that it’s a beautiful process and part of the culinary world as well.” As an awards to honor craft food and beverage producers, the Good Food Awards aims to help educate consumers in this way and encourage craft producers to use their businesses to educate their communities.
Ryan appreciated winning the Good Food Award for his Los Lobos Costa Rica coffee because he is proud of the work that he does and may not get recognition elsewhere because of the small scale at which he produces. He enjoyed both meeting like minded producers at the ceremony and selling at the marketplace where he was able to see all the faces of people interested in learning about his craft.
Posted on July 6, 2011 in Coffee
As stated in his own words, Barth Anderson became involved in the coffee business “out of a complete hedonistic desire to work with coffee which I found out I loved at an early age.” At eleven Barth found himself skateboarding over to a newly opened coffee house right near his home in Worcester, Massachusetts. There he learned about the way in which coffee flavor changes based on where it is grown. As he grew older, Barth’s love for coffee only strengthened. He ended up becoming a barista at that same coffee house; he then managed it, and almost bought it before he instead started his own coffee roasterie, Barrington Coffee.
On a Wednesday morning, Barth fills me in on the various projects he currently has going on. In addition to negotiating projections for next year’s coffee usage with his growing partners in Brazil, this morning he is hosting a film crew from New York City. A friend of his has been working on a new Broadway musical all about coffee and wanted some background footage of the roasterie. This may sound unusual, but Barth explains that a recent upsurge in coffee drinking has sparked the public’s interest in the subject: “Coffee has become an enormously public product. So many people are now keyed into its nuances – things that most people didn’t know about just a couple years ago. In the ‘80s it was just a tight circle of growers and customers. Now everyone’s interested.”
That’s good news for him. Barth’s next adventure involves visiting one of his growers in Puerto Rico this fall, but for now he remains in Massachusetts where the tourist season is keeping him sufficiently busy. With all these projects going on, it is no surprise that Barth’s greatest challenge is remaining focused on his coffee production. He explains that maintaining the kind of relationship he wants with each of his growers requires an intense level of commitment: “It’s the constant challenge of revisiting new harvests from farms we’ve worked with for years. Figuring out how to bring them [the coffee beans] to the most prosaic light is why we do it. We want our customers to have this epiphany… The farms are entirely responsible for the product; all we really do is respect what we work with.”
Although Nekisse is made from beans grown in Ethiopia, it very much represents New England style roasting. Historically northeastern roasting has been lighter than in most other regions of the United States and as one of the lightest coffees out there, Nekisse is no exception. At Barrington Coffee, the mission is to celebrate the exceptional quality of the beans, so the central focus is on careful roasting. Barth believes that “the coffees are grown so well that they have an outstanding taste profile to them. Actually being able to translate that when it comes to roasting and respecting the coffee is important.” The lighter roasting style is about honoring the product at hand which ultimately is very much an East Coast approach.
Barth’s reaction to his Good Food Award is extremely encouraging. “I found it incredibly satisfying and cathartic to be around a group that just absolutely lives for what they do and the products they create. Just on a personal level it was very cathartic.” In addition, Barth finds that the award is helpful for his consumers: “It helps our customers understand that there are other people like themselves that enjoy celebrating extraordinary food products and beverages… that there is a group of producers and people committed to identifying extraordinary taste and commitment to taste, responsibility and environmentalism. It’s all good.”
Posted on May 11, 2011 in Coffee
Scott Brant is a founder and coffee-buyer for Montana Coffee Traders. The company has been roasting beans since 1981 in an old mountain farmhouse. The company does wholesale roasting, while running several coffeehouses in the surrounding area. They are involved in many community projects, including a speaker series and a youth development program.
While Scott keeps an eager eye out for any new coffees coming his way, his attention lately has turned to bringing the Montana community together around tasty food. Coffee “is pretty exotic to bring into Montana,” he said. While coffee is certainly a product of which his community is very accepting, Scott finds a more local connection in “educating people about the farmers that grow coffee beans, where coffee comes from, and what the issues are that [these farmers] are facing.”
Educating the community in Whitefish means hosting events, such as their Community Appreciation Day which they held one Saturday to announce their Good Food Award alongside local growers and food producers who all brought their goods into the store. They also run long-term programs helping to revitalize their own community as well as those from which they source their coffee beans. Scott’s wife, Barb, works with kids who come to a special high school in the area from all over the country, giving them “a chance to learn about retail and work with the public at one of [their] cafes.” Meanwhile, they also work on a local farm, making salad dressings out of fresh products, which are sold at the stores through the Youth Entrepreneurial Program.
Also in the works are ideas to aid Guatemalan coffee farmers. When Scott travels down to Guatemala at the end of May, he plans to meet with a foundation trying to provide scholarships to address local health issues. “I know that some of [the growers] we buy from go for periods of the year between crops when they severely cut back on food,” Scott said. “We’re working to address how coffee roasters and buyers can develop programs to help in that critical area. “
But despite the many food security issues that must be overcome, Scott is pleased with the progress seen on micro-lots. Montana Coffee Traders just picked up a special bean from Bolivia, a two-time Cup of Excellence winner, which he is particularly excited about. He credits Cup of Excellence for “making rock stars out of some coffee growers” and pushing small-scale micro growers to pay more attention to their particular crop of beans by providing recognition to individual crops of coffee beans. Cup of Excellence “has given [micro growers] a way to bring their coffee to the public and has also put the challenge out to their neighbors.” Miniscule, micro-crops, he said, “have changed the market.”
The results are coffees to be savored. They serve their Good Food Award-winning coffee as a single origin espresso and an individual drip in their stores. Scott said it’s a “stand alone coffee…not a normal daily coffee that you’re sloshing down at your desk.”
Photography by Marc Fiorito of Gamma Nine
