Coffee Enterprises Featured on NPR

For a product that can’t be commercially grown here, coffee is a growing industry in the Green Mountain State. Coffee roasters are proliferating and we wondered why, and what, makes coffee ‘local.’

The guys who do know what’s in the bag are working in a luxe, waterfront facility in Burlington’s South End called Coffee Enterprises. It’s a coffee company that does make coffee (though they do provide coffee extracts to Ben and Jerry’s, among many other major companies). This outfit specialized in testing coffee – a very scientific-looking process that involves lab coats, timers, clipboards and some very funny sounds:  sniffing, slurping and spitting.  One tester was overheard describing a bean as having watermelon flavors, another saying a blend is “very sweet, has a nice fruitiness, the acidity and body were balanced.”

The company is run by Dan Cox, who formerly helped build Green Mountain Coffee Roasters into the giant it is today, partly by trading on Vermont’s image. Cox says specialty coffee came in the heels of specialty foods.  “That whole emerging foods industry that started with Green Mountain Coffee, Ben and Jerry’s, Cabot Cheese, Rhino Foods, Lake Champlain Chocolates, Magic Hat Brewery we’re all in the same class together.  We all grew up together,” Cox explains.

While he says Vermont has many fine roasters, Cox says it doesn’t really matter where coffee is roasted. “I don’t like to harp on the Vermont mystique that we do things better up here. I don’t know if that’s true.  It’s hand crafted? It’s all hand-crafted. All coffee is hand-picked. Give me a break. Mountain grown?  It’s all Mountain grown. Cut it out,” Cox says.

To listen to the entire story, click on the link: http://digital.vpr.net/post/what-makes-coffee-local