Cervantes Coffee

My wife surprised me yesterday with an early Valentine's Day present and a trip to Cervantes Coffee in Springfield.  It is an out of the way café and roastery, that doesn't look like much from the outside, but is pretty nice once you step inside. They are an artisanal, small batch roaster, that focus on single origin coffees.

We took a tour with one of the owners (Alex), who gave us a nice overview of their company and how they got started. He also gave a nice talk about sustainable coffee and their interactions with farms where they purchase coffee.  After the brief presentation, we went downstairs to their sample roaster.  Here they pulled out some green coffee from Honduras and fired up the small (2lb) roaster.  He talked us through the roasting process and some of the tasting notes, which ended with everyone on the tour taking home an 8oz bag of freshly roasted coffee.  After Alex was done talking and we were just milling around, his wife came over (she is one of the primary roasters) and talked to us a little more about the process. As a home roaster, I was all ears to understand more about how the roasting process works and how they determine when different types of coffee are done roasting (temperature) and why they prefer a medium-dark roast.

Overall it was a good tour. The facility isn't that large, but it was good to understand a local company and how they got started (roasting out of their garage), how they roast, and how they go about business (selling to restaurants, among others, by talking to them and getting them to taste their coffee).  If you are interested in coffee roasting, I would recommend this as a good introduction.  If you just like drinking coffee, Cervantes has a nice café area with a multitude of brewing methods and coffees available. Definitely a good spot to check out.

Over the next week or so, I plan on taking the fresh roasted coffee and tasting it at home using three techniques: 1) drip coffee machine; 2) French press; 3) slow pour. I will let you know my thoughts on each method and what I think tastes the best.

As a side note, the other person (Ayanna) on the tour with us is starting up a single origin coffee company (She Brews Coffee Company), focusing on selling coffees primarily online for now. The company is just getting started, so if you are interested in single origin coffees, keep an eye out.