Wes and Debi Burton, local through and through, are connected to the area via their rich family history. Their grandparents were stonemasons and they live in the midst of several still active quarries, hence the name Quarrymen. They tell the full story of their interest in coffee and why they wanted to do it in Bloomington on their website.  Wes gives us more detail in what follows.

 

"I grew up here and after going away for a military tour I returned and went to IU, which is where Debi, my wife, and I met. After college we considered moving to various parts of the country but in the end we decided Bloomington is the place we wanted to stay. So, I am a local and since starting our business I have begun to think more about economies and what buying local means to the town you live in. In addition to all the above, our product of fresh roasted coffee is actually BETTER if purchased locally and as soon out of the roaster as possible. I like to tell prospective wholesale customers that, 'I can do something for you that a large national chain can't.' After a moment of sometimes quizzical looks I tell them, 'I can put a pound of coffee in your hands the day I roast it.' It doesn't always result in a new customer but I do enjoy giving them the 'aha' moment when they realize there are various benefits to buying local."

 

I can attest to the freshness of Wes's and Debi's coffee.  I ordered some online and Debi delivered it to my front porch. As soon as I brought in the house I was enveloped in the heavenly aroma of French Roasted Nicaraguan beans.  Deep and chocolaty, undeniably delicious and a cut above most other coffees I have purchased to brew at home. I am grateful to Wes and Debi for introducing me to their coffee and for adding yet another benefit to remaining locally focused in my purchases - better tasting coffee!

I asked Wes to offer up a few more insights into his interests in and knowledge of coffee roasting:

Q: A basic question from a novice--I always assumed that darker roasts (like French or Italian) have more caffeine.  True or False?

A: Actually, coffee drinkers should note that although coffee at the darker roasts is bolder and has a lot of body, you are actually getting less caffeine. Caffeine is a water soluble compound and during the roasting process a lot of water weight, sometimes 20%, is lost. So the darker the roast, the less caffeine.

 

Q: How did you get interested in roasting your own coffee?
A: I have always been a bit of a do-it-yourself and always enjoy various activities with my family. Some examples of things our family has done just as hobbies are keeping honey bees, brewing beer, spinning wool into yarn and then knitting items with it, tapping maple trees, keeping chickens, growing shitake mushrooms on logs. Given that kind of interest in doing things yourself, coupled with a nearly lifelong pursuit of a really great cup of coffee, led me inevitably to wanting to try my hand at roasting my own. I did that for several years and along the way shared some of my best efforts with family and friends and before long I was being asked to provide more than just samples and a small local business was born.

 

A: Keeping with my DIY approach, and the prohibitive expense of commercial roasters, I began designing and building my own roaster. It is constructed entirely from 304B food-grade stainless steel and took a couple of years for me to complete its construction. Part of what expanded that time-frame was money to purchase the parts and pieces but if I had had a lot of money in the first place I might have just purchased a commercial roaster.

 

Q: One of the beans I bought is called a "Direct Trade" product.  Can you explain this?
A: One of the newest things in the specialty coffee industry is called Direct Trade, or Relationship Trade coffee. This takes the idea of fairly traded coffees one step further by making a direct link between roaster and grower. Usually the grower can do even better price-wise for his crop than with other types of programs. We have one coffee we get from Nicaragua, called Cafe Diego, that is along those lines. Although we don't directly import the beans, we get it from the man who does. And as a result we have been able to directly contact the grower, whose name is Diego Chavaria (thus Cafe Diego), in Nicaragua. His farm is about 70 km northeast of the capitol Managua. Managua is where his daughter lives and runs the business of the coffee farm. In one of our email exchanges, Diego went to what he explained to me was the second highest hill on his farm and took GPS readings. He sent them to me and I looked up his farm on Google Earth. It wasn't real detailed but it was cool to see where the coffee I love so much comes from. I am also Facebook friends with Diego's daughter, Ana and chat with her often on Facebook. I tell her and her father how I am roasting or blending their beans which I think they enjoy hearing about. Years ago a person had no idea who grew the coffee in his cup. Well, his name is Diego (if you're drinking my Nicaraguan). I often roast that bean to a light French roast. There is a range of temperatures that count as a French roast but I usually only go to the light end of that spectrum because I want to preserve some the flavors the particular bean has in it.

 

A: Well, there are various figures out there about tasting compounds and "aromatic flavor compounds"--but there is consensus that coffee has at least double the amount of these compounds that wine has.  So, feel free to try to describe your coffee flavor and aroma in as particular a way as you want--it's likely that you're getting very specific data through your taste buds and olfactory senses.

Q: Have you worked with other roasters in the area?

A: Quarrymen Coffee Roasting Co. and another local coffee shop/roaster have gone in together ordering green coffees, thus saving each of us some money on expensive freight charges. Not only is that good cooperation between two similar local Bloomington businesses (when you otherwise might see exclusive competition) but it is also a green move in that we are together being efficient with how we are bringing our coffees to Bloomington using transportation resources.
 
Not only do Wes and Debi roast delicious beans but they are locally oriented with sustainability at the forefront of their minds; an exemplary local product offered by exemplary local and independent proprietors.