since its discovery in theninth century in the highlands of ethiopia, coffee has becomethe most widely consumed beverage on earth. coffee has become a lifestyle. and that's good news forspecialty coffee roaster simon
great lakes coffee roasting company, craven-thompson. since 1993, this englishentrepreneur and his company, cravens coffee, have beenproducing some of spokane's best beans.
when someone says cravens,they know it means coffee. people who are drinkingcravens coffee have got that discriminating palette;they're looking for something more than just to chug downcoffee. it's a little more of anexperience. we're essentially appealing tois the discriminating consumer who wants to taste thedifferent characteristics of a certain varietal like anorganic nicaraguan or an ethiopian and that's who we'rereally trying to appeal to.
craven's is a wholesale coffeecompany. it is one of the largestroasters of specialty coffee in the pacific northwest,producing over half a million pounds each year. the difference in our coffeeis in our roasting style, in the way we steward the coffee. that's our biggest differenceis the way we steward the coffee through. longer roast times, lowertemperature, a lot of air
flowing through. coffee making is a lot likewine making without as much of the chemistry. we're still very craft andartisan oriented, so we're roasting on a 1940 cast-ironprobat coffee roaster. now, you might think simonwould prefer tea over coffee, but like many of his coffeecolleagues, simon stumbled into the business of specialtycoffee. leaving england in the lateeighties, he found work in
seattle at a small coffeeroasting facility. there he would be exposed tothe aromatic art of crafting specialty coffee. it wasn't long before simonbegan building a business plan for his own slice of theamerican pie. corny as it sounds this trulyis the land of opportunity. if you are twenty-somethingyears old and you've got a good idea and you work hard atit and stick with it and be humble and have some humility,people are going to embrace
you and you are going to besuccessful and that is unusual, that's different froma lot of other countries in the world. as craven's globe-trottingcoffee buyer, simon travels to the far reaches of the earthin search of the world's finest coffee. for simon, these adventuresyield many delicious discoveries. the great thing about buyingcoffee is that you're so far
off the beaten track and thatyou really get to see how mayan indians live inguatemala, you really get a feel for what nicaragua is allabout and you go down to southern columbia and youunderstand the very tense relationship there is downthere, but within that very tense environment they'regrowing some of the greatest coffee in the world. i love to able to build thoserelationships in coffee-growing countries.
that's huge for me. i love that part of it. i love that international,global nature of it, different cultures, different people,love that part of it. simon protests that coffeeroasters are not the magicians. rather, the magic happens onthe farm. all the flavor components ofthe coffee, how coffee should taste all happens in thatplant, in that soil, on that
farm with the surroundingvegetation with that climate and then the picking and thedepulping and the fermentation, the cleaning,the washing, the rinsing, the drying, the grading, all ofthose factors, that's the magic of coffee. today, coffee remains one ofthe most popular beverages on the planet. and while he comes from acountry famous for its tea drinkers, make no mistake,simon knows joe.
with its uniquely englishaccent, craven's continues to be a suitable voice in theworld of specialty coffee. were flattered by how manypeople drink our coffee. there's a lot of peopledrinking our coffee everyday and that we never ever takethat for granted. coffee is as you like it. do to it what you will, butit's as you like it.
if you like it with caramelsauce and sprinkles on the top and half and half, fabulous!
all i ask is that you use thebest coffee you can as part of your concoction.
