Actually, let’s back up a little bit.
There we go. It’s a shiny new 5 kilo Ambex, sitting under a window in an old brick warehouse. Now, let’s back up a little more.
Wow, this place is kinda creepy. But, I kinda like it.
The guy with the glasses, that’s Payton. I used to hang out with him between classes in college, but that was a long time ago. I hadn’t seen him in 13 years. Of the people we meet, we never know who we will meet again, and who will fall into the depths of the most inaccessible corners or our minds.
Payton had fallen pretty far back, but from time to time I would see his name mentioned on Facebook. I found out that he was part of a startup coffee roaster, located in a sorry excuse for a town, North Wilkesboro, NC. I sent him my address, and to my surprise, 8oz of lightly roasted Ethiopian Harar showed up in my mailbox THE NEXT DAY.
I messaged him and asked if I could pay a visit to witness some roasting.
When I first arrived, I couldn’t even find the door. Turns out it’s not a front door. It’s a back door. Sweet.
First, I was introduced to the 3 member team:
Greg - Greg is the coffee guy (Thus the beard). He’s the force driving the team to pursue a great roast. Greg has been passionately brewing coffee for a long time, and even started roasting 8 lb at a time in a massive smoldering drum over his gas grill.
Payton - Yeah, we know Payton. He’s the charismatic sales manager, which is a good fit for the guy. Oh, he’s also a clown on the side. Maybe he practices in that creepy corner with the abandoned chair...
Nate - Nate never liked coffee. He only drank two cups his entire life before joining Greg and Payton. But Nate did study chemistry in college, and that brings me to this next image.
Science!! Nate figured out a way to store cold brewed coffee in a pressurized Nitrogen immersion. Nitrogen is inert, meaning the brewed coffee can be stored indefinitely without spoiling. It also has the added benefit of allowing it to be served on tap, complete with visually dramatic “beer like” foaming and cascading. The taste is also dramatic, with the nitrogen bubbles awakening your palate to the complexities which properly roasted coffee has to offer.
This cold brew was a single origin Guatemalan, which is exactly what we were roasting today. I grabbed my camera. “Is that a Leica?” asked Greg. “Why yes” I replied. “I have a Voigtlander” he said. “What film do you shoot?” I asked. “Mostly Tri.X and TMAX” he said. It just so happened, those are the two film stocks I had selected to bring with me. We swapped cameras for a bit, and Greg actually took the first shot in this post. Neat.
Greg, dropping the green beans into the drum.
Payton, waiting for that magical first crack.
“The Trier” I love the symmetry between man and machine here.
Obligatory cooling tray action shot.
Checking the temp by touch.
Nate, packaging the freshly roasted beans for the local farmer’s market.
I hung around for a while. Long enough to chat with the guys about coffee, and talk vintage camera technique with Greg. I also saw a lot of local folks stop by, simply out of curiosity. I have no idea how they found the place, but it’s good to see interest in such a small town.
This is a small company with big potential. The Nitrogen cold brew alone is enough to seriously change the NC coffee scene.
That’s all for now, but soon I hope to post some brew photos and tasting notes on the Ethiopian.
If you are interested in learning more, you can visit their website.
http://anchorcoffeeco.com