Matt’s Coffee

by B. J. Carter
Coastal Journal staff

Looking at the gold packaging of a pound of “Matt’s Coffee,” you wouldn’t be able to tell that it is in fact a one-man operation.  Matt Bolinder, by his own admission, is the “roaster, delivery boy, secretary, and janitor” of “Matt’s Coffee,” headquartered in Pownal, where he lives, and operated in Waterville.  Like so many small business owners in the region, he never imagined himself in this most unique position:  To his knowledge he is the only roaster in the nation to roast 100% organic coffee with wood fire, producing specialty coffee that not only tastes great but is environmentally sound and sustainable.

I know a lot of this information is on the website, but can you briefly walk us through the process of producing Matt’s Coffee?

I have number of importers that I work with, and they’re the ones who get to go to the cool places and get the beans.  There’s a market price set in New York, but with specialty coffee the importers and buyers that I work with are trying to source their beans ethically make sure that quality is rewarded with a higher price.  They go and visit farms and talk with the exporters from these countries of origin to try and get a sense of what’s available and what’s good.  They bring them over in containers on boats.  There are 250 bags per container, and one bag is about a 150 lbs, so when people ask me why I don’t buy directly from origin, it’s because it’s impossible when you’re just one small person.  I speak with them buyers, get samples, roast them in my little sample roaster, and figure out what I want to purchase.

How much coffee do you end up turning away?  Do you find yourself consistently purchasing beans from particular origins?

There are beans that I might want to have but can’t find in quality.  Generally speaking, a small specialty roster can find just about anything he or she wants if they’re willing to pay for it.  That’s one of the advantages of being a small operation; I buy my coffee one or two or six bags at a time as opposed to a container, where I’m sifting through large lots.  I can buy microlots that are high quality from small producers.  But generally speaking, I have coffee from each coffee-producing region.  They all have particular attributes.  I had a Mexico on my list that I ran out of, so I was looking to replace it.  I couldn’t find one that was as good as what I had, but I did find a comparable El Salvador that I really liked.  They have similar attributes, but they’re not exactly the same.

When you talk about quality, what kinds of things are you looking for?

Aromatics, the length of the finish, (does it disappear right away, does it linger), defects . . . .

What does a bad bean taste like?

In specialty coffee we’re spoiled to a certain extent, because I’m choosing from the cream of the crop.  I don’t taste bad coffee very often.  I’ll ask suppliers to send me bad coffee just to see what it tastes like.  I don’t want to be too critical or anything, but commercially produced coffee is really only screened for things like sweetness and cleanliness, whereas specialty coffee is judged on finer points like aromatics and finish, so you can taste the difference between those kinds of coffees.

I don’t think that’s too critical.

[Laughs] A common defect in coffee is called a quaker.  When harvesters pick the beans, ideally they are only picking beans that are ripe, but you can’t always tell a coffee cherry is underripe until you roast it and you see this discolored, papery bean as opposed to a darker color.  They have a husky, peanut flavor that can ruin the batch.  There are acceptable defects in specialty coffee, but a quaker isn’t one of them.

I consider myself a coffee connoisseur, so I’m keen to know how one gets into your line of work.  Describe the journey up to this point.

[Laughs] Very few people try to get into coffee.  I think it’s something they just find themselves in.  That’s certainly the case for me.  As someone who drinks coffee all the time with a little air roaster, I had thought about getting a commercial roaster, just as a side job.  But I commute two hours to Massachusettes to teach English at a college, and allowing my mind to wander and crunch numbers during the commute, I figured I might try to make something more of it rather than trying to piece together part time gigs.  The culture surrounding coffee and the business aspects--the way in which roasters have been sourcing high quality, sustainable coffee--intrigued me.  But I also just love the ceremony involved in producing a cup of coffee.  It’s an important part of every day for me, it’s great to be this involved in the process.

Let’s talk about the wood roasting technique you use.  Environmental reasons aside, how does wood roasting benefit the coffee?

At this point, it doesn’t do much to the flavor, which is by design on my part.  The coffees themselves are unique for their flavors, so I’m trying to highlight those attributes rather than do anything to them.  But primarily the coffee is roasted through convection rather than conduction.  In a stainless steel roaster the gas heats the walls of the roaster, so if you don’t know what you’re doing this can lead to uneven roasts, where the outside of the bean gets scorched but the inside doesn’t get roasted.  Wood roasting is a relatively gentle way of doing it.  The roaster is lined with brick, it takes a long time for it to get up to temperature, and there’s no director contact between the flame and the drum wall.  I think it’s the best of both worlds.

I tried the Guatemala, and the wood isn’t intrusive, although I thought I could taste a little wood smoke.

The beans do come into contact with wood smoke, but right now I’m using very dry maple, which is a very clean-burning wood.  The roaster itself looks like most drum roasters, but underneath there’s a small cast-iron fire box instead of nozzles for propane.  The wood is burned in that box, the hot air and the smoke get pulled through the back of the drum through a blower that circulates the air, so all the beans come into contact with the smoke.  The coffee has a slightly smokier aroma, and the finish is a little smokier, but it doesn’t do a whole lot to the coffee itself.  Now that I’m becoming more comfortable with the machine, I’m doing a little experimenting.  I want to try roasting with different kinds of wood.

Do you have a favorite origin?

They’re all great, I don’t really have a favorite.  Before I started doing this, I used to think it was Sumatra and other earthy Indonesian coffees.  But if I had to choose an origin, I guess I would say Ethiopia.  It’s got it all.  Wet--processed coffee from places like Sidamo are bright and lemon-citrusy, with other fruity notes like peach.  They also have naturally processed coffee, where the fruit is left intact when the cherry is picked.

So it absorbs those flavors.

Right, the fruit actually ferments.  And there are other origins, like Kenya, that produce high quality coffee that isn’t certified organic, so I don’t carry it.  I’m told there are some in the works, we could see some possibly in the next year or two.

At what point in the venture did you decide you were only going to carry organic coffee?

Pretty early, it was probably the second decision I made after the decision to go with wood.  It’s one of the cornerstones of the business.  It seemed like they were natural compliments.  It wasn’t a difficult decision.  The coffee landscape is very different now then it was ten years ago.  It used to be much harder to find high quality, certified organics.  I’ve got it easy now.  As far as I know, I’m the only 100% organic, wood-fire roaster in the country.

How long have you been in business?

September.  I sold my first bag of coffee at a  Maine fair in Camden. 

Well, if you ever need another roaster on hand, you know where to find me [both laugh].

For more information on coffee origins, available selections, and the wood roasting technique, visit mattscoffee.com