Roaster Revival Fueled By A Resurgence In Coffee Drinking, Small-Scale Roasters Are Making A Comeback
The smell comes first.
The sweet, smoky aroma of toasting coffee emanates from two massive metal Probat roasters and welcomes visitors to Cravens Coffee Company just off Trent.
Two men hover over the hot machines, rapidly checking the color of the beans rattling inside or vigorously stirring the crackling, smoking dark Columbian or Guatamalan beans as they pour out.
In roasting coffee, every second counts.
Too long and the coffee burns and develops a bitter taste. Too short and the roast is incomplete and the full flavor of the bean is sacrificed.
“I’ve had to throw batches out,” said roaster Paul Moore as he tugged his apron over his shorts. “It’s not one of those things you want to do. It’s the ultimate failure.”
Moore was taught to roast green coffee to a rich, dark brown by Simon Thompson, who founded Cravens with his wife Becky Templin five years ago.
Thompson and Templin are wedded to the business as well as to each other.
Their first year they roasted 11,000 pounds of coffee, with Thompson running the Probat machine through the night to meet orders.
While Thompson roasted, Templin dropped off coffee to the customers late into her pregnancy with their first child. In fact, she delivered coffee just four hours before she delivered the baby boy.
At first Thompson was the only roaster, since he created the special recipe of heat, air, timing and mixing to get the Cravens taste. But the orders kept coming and the work load got too heavy, so three years ago he taught Moore his secrets.
“The craft of roasting is why we do it,” Thompson said.
The process involves checking on the beans every few seconds and constantly watching the moisture and adjusting the heat.
“We developed a very unique roasting style,” he said. “It is fantastically inefficient. We couldn’t do it more inefficiently.”
Even so, his wholesale business is soaring. This year Thompson expects to roast 300,000 pounds of coffee, 80 percent of which he’ll sell in the Inland Northwest.
His clients include Tidyman’s and Huckleberry’s grocery customers as well as diners at restaurants including Europa, Luna’s, Patsy Clarks and Lindaman’s in Spokane and Capers in Coeur d’Alene.
With Simon Thompson’s mug on the coffee bags, his lilting British accent featured in radio commercials and his presence in the community, Craven’s is one of Spokane’s better-known roasters, but it’s certainly not the only one.
Like micro-breweries, coffee roasters now dot the Inland Northwest. They range from large wholesale roasters like Craven’s, to originals like 4 Seasons, to the roasters who supply coffee stands and drive-through stations like Thomas Hammer and Uccellos, to the tiny mailorder mom and pop home roasters like High Trail Coffee Co., all trying to capture area coffee drinkers by the taste buds.
The Inland Northwest is waking up to smell the coffee. But that wasn’t always the case.
“Back at the turn of the century, virtually every community in the United States that had more than 25,000 people had its own coffee roaster,” said Ted Lingle, executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association, a trade group in Long Beach, Calif. “They used to be like bakeries.”
But following the Second World War, the industry consolidated to meet supermarket sales demands and local roasters disappeared, he said.
Though a higher percentage of people drank coffee in the 1960s than the 49 percent of Americans who do so today, they had fewer choices. Because of limited variety, health concerns and image issues in decades past, the number of regular coffee drinkers declined.
“There were many other beverage alternatives,” said Robert Nelson, president of the National Coffee Association. “Also, we found that coffee in those decades was considered an old-fashioned beverage for older folks.”
The number of coffee drinkers dropped steadily through the 1970s and 80s, plateauing late in the 80s when specialty roasters such as Seattle-based Starbucks and the Bay Area’s Peets Coffees took hold.
With their special roasts, their special lattes and cappucinos, they captured a new generation of coffee drinkers and educated customers’ palates for fresh roasted coffee. They paved the way for other roasters.
“We’ve watched the retail roaster (list) grow from approximately less than 50 back in 1970 to more than 1,200 small roasters today,” Lingle said.
When Leslie and Tom Hutchinson came to Spokane in 1976, they were the only coffee roasters in town. They moved from the Bay Area because they wanted to set up in an untouched market and because Tom wanted to live in a four-seasons climate. In fact, in honor of the move, they named their coffee-centered business 4 Seasons.
“People back then were not as well attuned to specialty coffees,” said Linda Hutchinson. But the couple found Spokane receptive.
Their coffee roasting and retail operation runs the length of their store on Howard Street downtown, leading back to an espresso cafe in a homey room with a large window, brick wall and wood tables.
After two decades of roasting coffee for Spokane, the Hutchinsons know their customers and the business well.
“A lot of people think they can just wade into this and apply heat to a green bean,” Linda Hutchinson said, her fingers cupping her morning latte in a large ceramic mug. “But roasting is an art form. You’re aiming for a pre-conceived idea. It’s very much like winemaking.
“You have a roasting style and that defines your business,” she said.
The area’s other roasters agree.
In fact, David Ge liked the roast at Uccellos so much, he bought the company from Duane Byrd in November. Owner of several Java Hut stands, Ge now roasts his own coffee using the Uccellos name and method. He prepares all of the coffee for his stands one day ahead. “The ability to do that pretty much makes the smaller roasters unique,” he said.
It may seem daunting for smaller businesses like Uccellos and 4 Seasons to be roasting in the shadow of Seattle-based coffee giant Starbucks. But the java giant may have done the little guys a favor.
“Large and medium-sized chains that sell gourmet and specialty coffees have created a visibility and educated the consumers,” said Nelson of the National Coffee Association. “As consumers become more educated, then they seek out better coffees.”
And the smaller roasters may have an edge over the national companies.
“In coffee, size can be a disadvantage,” said Lingle of the Specialty Coffee Association. “It limits your choice of raw product to coffees that are at a certain volume.”
That means that Cravens and the smaller companies can be more selective about their beans. And, as any roaster will tell you, the first requirement to good roasting is a quality green bean.
“We try to get the best of the best,” said Jim Jones, owner of High Trail Coffee. His mail-order business, which he runs from a commercial kitchen, has him roasting between 50 and 300 pounds of coffee a month. “We’re just a real small little company,” Jones said.
That allows them to wait until the beans they want reach the Bay Area. “Because we’re so small, we tell them to send samples when the best of their batches are in. Then we try to buy our Columbians for a year.”
The beans come green in 100 to 150-pound burlap bags from plantations in Ethiopia and Guatamala and Columbia.
“We pay top dollar for our green coffee,” Simon Thompson said, gesturing to the mountains of bags stacked in his roasterie. “The green coffee side is the most difficult part. It can make or break your business.”
Storms, rain and political unrest can make getting coffee at a reasonable price a difficult task. Last year getting Columbian coffee was a problem for roasters because of a dock and trucking strike there, Thompson said. This year getting good Guatamalan beans might be a problem because of of the country’s changing political structure.
“We’re dealing with a Third World agriculture commodity,” Thompson said. “These things are going to happen.”
Local roasters get their beans from ports in the Bay Area. Though they all have different roasting styles, besides beans, one ingredient roasters must share in order to be successful is a passion for roasting.
“After the first few years, this business in a sense loses its glamour,” Lingle said. “It’s a lot of work and a lot of attention to detail to crank off a good product week after week … If you don’t have a passion for the product, then you shouldn’t be in this industry.”
With the growing ranks of roasters in the region, there seems to be plenty of passion. But has the growth reached a saturation point?
“I think we’re probably nearing it,” said Thomas Hammer, who started roasting and selling coffee four years ago and now has six stores. “That doesn’t mean people don’t open up and try to do better than the competition down the street.”
But each roaster is looking for a niche, trying to make coffee better and more unique than his neighbor.
“We all do it differently,” Thompson said. “And we all think we’re right.”
On the bright side, more roasters mean more choices for consumers.
For people like David Lindaman, who owns two restaurants in Spokane, there is no choice when it comes to choosing between 4 Seasons and Cravens.
“I do both,” Lindaman said. He likes the variety.
“For a town this size,” he said, “I’m always amazed to see how many people are roasting their beans and peddling their wares.”
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