New coffee roaster taps into a growing trend
GENA KITTNER gkittner@madison.com608-252-6139 | Posted: Friday, January 7, 2011 6:43 pm
FITCHBURG — Scott Pederson personally sees to the roasting of every coffee bean that is packaged and sold or ground and served at True Coffee Roasters.
Five days a week, he stands in the back roasting room of the coffee shop and cafe at 6250 Nesbitt Road, clipboard in hand, monitoring the time and temperature for every batch of beans. "It's more like being a chef," Pederson said of his job as master roaster.
True Coffee Roasters, which opened in a strip mall not far from Quivey's Grove this fall, focuses on small batch or "micro-roasting" — a practice that's becoming more prevalent in the coffee business, experts say.
"I think people really enjoy that connection of knowing their coffee is roasted in small batches," said Connie Blumhardt, publisher of Roast magazine and member of the Roasters Guild Executive Council. "It's been building for the last five years."
Blumhardt said small-batch coffee roasting follows other trends in the food and beverage industries, including the growing popularity of artisan cheeses, micro-breweries and micro-distilleries.
"I think that the people serving small communities are really gaining a lot of power from just being the community place to buy your coffee," she said.
Darlene Murphy, who does public relations for True Coffee and is one of the business's five owners, agrees.
"People are focusing on quality, this idea of craft, of one at a time," she said.
True Coffee Roasters, which also has a location in Stoughton, roasts about 3,000 pounds of coffee a month for its cafes and wholesale business. The Stoughton coffee shop opened in March 2008 and changed its name to True Coffee when the Fitchburg location opened this fall.
In addition to the two True Coffee cafes, the beans are sold wholesale to about 20 cafes, restaurants and other businesses throughout the Upper Midwest, making up about 75 percent of the company's business.
"We've actually doubled our production since we've opened," Murphy said, adding the company expects the business to grow about 15 to 20 percent a month.
True Coffee Roasters is one of several small coffee shops in the Madison area that does small-batch or "micro-roasting."
Tracy Danner, owner of EVP coffee, which has five locations in the Madison area, said the business has been roasting coffee since it opened in 1997. During that time it has grown from a 12-pound roaster to a 38-pound roaster and currently roasts about 3,500 pounds a month.
She said it's "not unreasonable" for people to expect to be able to buy freshly roasted coffee, just like they buy freshly baked bread. "We roast six and seven days a week because we want people to have an understanding that a 4-day-old bean tastes different than a 10-day old bean," she said.
Danner said she knows of between five and eight small-batch roasters in the Madison area. "I think Madison really does represent the trend," she said.
Lindsey Lee, owner of Cargo Coffee and Ground Zero Coffee in Madison, said he's been roasting beans for his cafes for more than 12 years.
"It does cut down on the product costs, but also it allows me to manage the product," Lee said, adding he roasts between 1,200 and 1,500 pounds a month, which is only sold at his two stores. "It's fun creating a product instead of just selling a product. I feel like I'm an artisan coffee roaster."
Owners of True Coffee also consider their coffee roasting to be an art.
Steve Yeazel, an owner who handles True Coffee's wholesale business, and Pederson each has more than a decade of experience roasting coffee and previously worked for Ancora Coffee Roasters based in Madison. Yeazel said the two devote much of their time on the "craft of roasting and art of blending."
"We want to use our palate to roast great coffees," Yeazel said. "That's what I hope sets us apart."
Pederson describes the roaster as a "big dryer," that continually tosses and heats the coffee beans, turning them from a green to a rich brown color. Each batch makes about 17 pounds of coffee and takes between 13 and 15 minutes with additional time for weighing and cooling the beans.
Two-thirds of the coffee roasted and sold at True Coffee is fair trade. Yeazel said the other third is purchased from growers with whom their coffee importer has a relationship and knows the estate and pickers receive a fair wage.
"We're now tasting every single batch that comes out of that roaster," Yeazel said. "The challenge will be to continue to do that as you grow, as well."