Nectar of Life Coffee offers organic experience

Perhaps the whole idea started brewing on the early train to U.C. Davis when Martin Jennings heard the conductor announce that “piping hot nectar of life” was being served in the café car. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘That would be a really cool name for a coffee company,’ even though I had no intention of starting one at the time,” said Martin, co-founder and part owner of Nectar of Life Coffee Company, a Coeur d’Alene-based organic coffee roaster whose product is now available throughout the continental U.S. and Canada. In fact he was enrolled in the viticulture and enology program (the scientific study of grape-growing and winemaking) at University of California at Davis from where he graduated in 2002 with high honors. Upon graduation, he accepted the position of assistant winemaker/enologist at local Spokane winery, Arbor Crest. However, while still at UC Davis, his “love of coffee and organic products,” had slowly turned a visit to a café into a learning experience. He started to become more aware of the coffee he was drinking and interested in how an organic coffee could be roasted to have the same full-bodied flavor as many of the world’s finest non-organic gourmet coffees. “UC Davis was really [one of the] first on the scene in serving Fair Trade organic coffee,” said Martin. “It was at their on-campus café that I first discovered this kind of coffee…and it was really good coffee.” Then while honeymooning in Southern California, Martin and his wife, Hannah—the other founder and owner of Nectar of Life—visited a café in San Juan Capistrano where they tried a single origin coffee (coffee from a single geographical location giving it distinctive characteristics such as flavor, caffeine content, and acidity). It was from Huehuetenango, Guatemala and so impressed Martin that when he started his business years later, it was the second coffee he chose to offer. It was 2003, and Martin was still at Arbor Crest Winery, but had convinced Hannah that they should start Nectar of Life Coffee. Then in 2005, the couple realized their business had staying power, so Martin left the winery to pursue roasting coffee full time. Located just outside Coeur d’Alene, Nectar of Life Coffee Company is a kosher-certified coffee roaster that only roasts shade grown, certified organic Fair Trade coffees. A global movement, Fair Trade aims to build equitable and sustainable trading partnerships and create opportunities to alleviate poverty for men and women. In addition to negotiating a fair price, working relationships are kept open and transparent, safe and healthy working environments are provided and better environmental practices and responsible methods of production are encouraged. “Sustainably shade grown” designates the traditional method of growing coffee, whereby the shade trees not only nourish the soil by dropping their leaves, resulting in full flavored robust coffee beans, but at the same time provide natural habitat for animals and insects. Primarily a wholesale business, Nectar of Life sells retail on their website and also offers flavored syrups, travel coffee mugs, coffee gift baskets, and large tote bags that Hannah crafts from recycled coffee bags, in addition to coffee. The company also operates various programs that benefit the purchaser as well as the farmer. There’s the Gourmet Coffee Club which sees that 2 pounds of rotating selections of coffee are delivered to customers’ doors monthly. There’s also the “Feed the Farmers” program, in recognition of our struggling economy, which offers discounted coffee for $5.99/lb., donating 2 percent of all sales to Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade. Nectar of Life also works with schools and non-profits on fundraisers, providing custom-made labels and the opportunity to make a profit. Roasting only the finest gourmet Arabica coffees (believed by some to be the first and finest species of coffee cultivated) from countries like Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, East Timor, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Sumatra and more, Martin chooses each coffee based on meticulous sampling. Very similar to wine making, coffee beans are picked with familiar principles of ripeness and clear regional distinction, and roasting variables bear resemblance to the myriad stylistic options available to a winemaker—time, temperature, vessel and so on. “I think winemaking gave me a good basis for tasting and blending,” said Martin. His talents of tasting and blending have distinguished him as a coffee roaster, inspiring his practice of roasting each coffee separately to its own unique “flavor profile” prior to blending, unlike most coffee companies which roast a blend in one batch. Martin says the extra time and effort allows him to really taste how the coffees affect one another, creating an end result more than worth the labor. Offering the finest coffee, certified both organic and Fair Trade, was key on the Nectar of Life’s business plan, but to offer it at a reasonable price was also paramount. To do this, Martin and Hannah run the business themselves, occasionally contracting out sales, and work on a lower margin, hoping that by offering finer coffees, produced on environment-friendly, hard-working family farms who are paid a fair price for their crop, they can help organic, Fair Trade certified coffees to become a staple, rather than a novelty. Their strong belief in preserving the environment is practiced not only by their choice of coffee, but by their everyday operations. In addition to using an energy-efficient roaster, the Jenningses work with their clients to reuse and recycle their coffee delivery boxes, donate the chaff of the coffee beans to local organic gardeners, provide the option of eco-friendly coffee bags, and conduct as much business electronically as possible.” “It’s very rewarding to know that I’m providing people with outstanding coffee and at the same time, helping hardworking farmers and the environment,” said Martin.