>>wafting in the air outside ofthis nondescript strip mall, hints of burnt sugars with aslight malty floral background escape the confines of roasthouse, a small spokane coffee roasting company. in the midstof cooking up small batches of beans, coffee roaster aaronrogers diligently scoops up
small batch coffee roasting equipment, green coffee beans from burlapbags and dumps them into a roasting convection ovenone-bucket load at a time. by offering only 100 percentorganic coffees that are fairly traded and sustainably grown,roast house has created a niche
for itself in the spokane coffeemarket that only they populate, coffees that owner deborah dibernardo characterizes as ethical sustainable anddelicious! (deborah di bernardo)besides dealing in fairly traded sustainablygrown coffees, coffee, soy, cotton, sugars area major cause of third world deforestation and coffee beingthe heaviest traded commodity of those contributes significantlyto that so one of the tenants of the business is, can we sharethat model and how many people
can we share it with, so usingthe company as a sustainable model for food production andusing that, that's one of the goals. we're just delighted thatrecently we have been asked to speak of it and i believe partof that is because of the good food awards. >>the annual good foodawards held in san francisco, is a premiere competition forsome of the best new artisanal boutique productsnation wide. ten different categories of goodscompete for a best
of award in theirrespective groups. (di bernardo) we enteredit with no thought to actually winning we just hopedto be critiqued and then use that critique to kick up ourgame. what the parameters are for the award is the product hasto be transparent, you have to be able to clearly define whereit came from, who produced it, it has to be fairly traded andit has to be grown sustainably. and since all of our products onthe floor are sustainable and fairly traded it was fairly easyfor us to compete we just one
day after roasting scooped somecoffee out of the bin and sent it and won it very much to oursurprise. (aaron jordan) i was shocked - there were severalnominees and then finalists i respect every single one of themi've had most of the coffees i was just kind of honored to beup there next to them so if anything it was kind of ahumbling experience for me it was really exciting it was coolthat something that we are doing on a small scale in a small townspokane was being recognized by
guys that i think are changingthe world of coffee, guys that i respect and love what they doand so to be up on a stage with them so to speak was prettycool. the coffee that we submitted - from guatemala -batzchocola, when you buy that coffee in the grocery storethat's the exact same coffee that was entered into thecompetition so it's cool to get that pat on the back i guess. >>that pat on the backwas a direct result of deborah and roast housedeciding to bring on
a young aspiring 19-year-oldcoffee roaster, with a penchant for roasting very small batchesfor his friends at school. aaron rogers, now 21 years of age,began apprenticing with dave reier, roast houses' originalcoffee roaster., and after spending 9 months under histutelage, deborah decided to give aaron the reins after reierleft the business. (di bernardo) oh mygoodness he's one of those young hipster boys thatwants to roast everything super light he was tobring out the citrus
notes loves african coffees thatare very fruity very citrusy very lightly roasted i thinkhe's come to understand that 80% of our customers like thosemedium dark coffees so the relationship is sweet enoughthat he's open he's receptive we butt heads at times but we'vealso allowed him to create a whole line of coffees that hefeels the younger people will really enjoy and were callingthat our 20%. (jordan) i tend to gravitate towards the lighterspectrum of roasting because i
find that there's a lot moretransparency in the flavors darker roasts you can taste moreof the roaster, you can taste more of the roasting process thesmoke the kind of burnt sugars it's almost borderline bitterbut in a positive way it's my job to produce something thatpeople enjoy darker roasts are what people enjoy we're alwaysstriving to create something that's extraordinary. >>extraordinary organic fairtrade sustainably grown coffees start with extraordinarybeans and roast house
has committed their businessmodel to support the farmers and communities thatproduce these products. (di bernardo) the coffee we buythat one percent is less than 1% is all that's left of naturalcoffee production so everything else is grown in the clear-cutenvironment heavy chemicals. so i think more importantly to meis that coffee has to be grown sustainably it has to be grownwithout chemicals it can't be
mucking up the water systems inthese countries, it has to be something that can go on and canbe continued for generations to
come we need to be moresustainable in everything we do especially when it comes to foodproduction.
