An exclusive interview with Barth Anderson; environmental scientist and the co-owner and head roaster of Barrington Coffee Roasting Company based in Lee, Massachusetts.
Where and from whom do you source your beans? Do you personally visit these farms yourself?
Barrington Coffee began making inroads for direct-sourcing coffee when we [Barth and Gregg Charbonneau pictured above] established our company in 1993. Since then we have had decades-long direct trade relationships with the vast majority of our coffee producer partners. In the process we have had the opportunity to make origin trips around the globe, from the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica to the Malabar Coast of India.
Briefly explain the importance of origin flavour and single-origin beans (as opposed to blends).
Origin flavor and origin profile refer to the characteristic aroma and taste of a coffee that comes from a specific country or farm. The complex narrative behind each origin profile is derived from the intersection of the coffee variety being cultivated, the soil in which it is grown, how it is processed as a green coffee and how it is roasted.
Identifying and replicating the perfect roast profile for each single-origin coffee that we source is a big part of what we do every day. Keeping each roast consistent allows our customers to experience the origin profiles that they know and love, year in and year out. Relationships we establish with new farms, new coffee varieties and different processing methods keep us expanding our flavor horizons.
The way we craft a blend involves elaborate and sometimes seemingly endless tasting of combinations of single origin coffees in different ratios to create something even more complex than you would typically find in a single-origin coffee on its own. All of our blends are created from single farm coffees. We never use “blenders” during this process. In this way, we preserve the integrity of each coffee through careful combination of synergistic ratios and sensitive roast treatments.
What is your most popular coffee? Is this served at The Brasserie?
Our most popular single farm coffee is our Kalledevarapura. We established a relationship with the Shankar Family in Chickmagalur, India in 1995. Each year we carefully evaluate their harvest and each year it remains tried and true. The Shankar Family are incredible coffee producers. The Kalledevarapura has been served at The Brasserie since we began working together in 2009.
How do you support the fair trade coffee market?
We purchase our coffees from individual coffee farms and coffee cooperatives that set their own pricing. We typically contract in advance to guarantee our support of each farm prior to harvest. In some instances, we make additional investments in education, advocacy and child care programs on the farms. When we do this, we are paying forward additional premiums that help our producer partners improve their infrastructure and the health and wellbeing of their staff and families.
How do you track the journey of the coffee beans?
Each coffee that we import makes a considerable journey prior to becoming a part of our menu. The shortest distance one of our coffees will travel to get to us is around 1,500 miles and some of our most popular coffees come from over 8,000 miles away. Typically, our coffees make the longest leg of their journey on a cargo ship inside of a container. Some, however, are air transported to us. Regardless of how they travel, each stage of their transport is carefully tracked and monitored with each handler being held accountable for safe and secure food transport.
Why is bean traceability so important for you and for consumers? How do you share this transparency to customers?
Traceability and transparency are tenets that we hold dear to our mission at Barrington Coffee. We feel that the best way for us to be transparent about the coffees that we source is to share the specifics of each coffee producer we work with and the details about what makes their coffee special. Naming our single origin coffees after the producer or farm helps to create recognition for all of their hard work and to reinforce their brand.
How do you define “coffee purity”? What should we be looking out for?
There are no happy accidents in the world of coffee. Each step from farm to cup involves undivided attention on the part of the producer, roaster, and barista to bring a pure coffee experience to light. When your barista serves you a perfectly prepared coffee, you can smell that purity even before you taste it. The experience transports you all the way from the farm where the coffee was grown to the cup that you hold in your hand.
What are your biggest accolades?
Back in the late 1990’s we were celebrated on the cover of the Sunday Food Section of the Boston Globe. We came to work the following Monday with one hundred new customers and one hundred orders that we guaranteed would be roasted and shipped that same day. We still roast-to-order to this day.
In 2008, the adventurous food writer, Rebecca Gray, wrote an entire chapter about us in her book, American Artisanal; Finding the Country’s Best Real Food. This remains an incredible honor for us.
In 2014, we were asked to participate in a TEDx Conference at Northeastern University in Boston which was a blast. For that event we used cold drip brewers to create luxurious, single farm coffees that we served in cocktail glassware with hand cut ice cubes.
In 2017, we spoke at the Harvard University HUB Conference, Coffee & Chocolate: Climate Change, Sustainability, and Gender Equity in Tow Global Supply Chains. That same year, our coffees were featured among the highest-level antioxidant and polyphenol coffees evaluated in Dr. Bob Arnot’s book, The Coffee Lover’s Diet.
In both 2011 and 2020, Barrington Coffee received Good Food Awards for our coffees. [Notable achievements that focus on quality and integrity with a rigorous judging process that requires a commitment to transparency and traceability].
We’ve also featured in Bon Appétit, Forbes, Fortune, InStyle, Rachael Ray Everyday, Imbibe and other glamorous publications and periodicals.
What’s your favourite way to drink coffee?
Whether brewing drip coffee or pulling espresso shots, we love to drink small quantities of really good coffee with our friends. Throughout our work day we are constantly brewing, pulling shots and tasting coffee together. We taste and talk about the coffees while we are producing them. Because we love coffee so much, this process is somewhat hedonistic, but most of all it is inspires us and keeps us in constant, close proximity to the coffees that we are roasting and sharing with our customers.
How did your relationship with The Brasserie evolve?
Years before they opened The Brasserie, Clarence and Lisa Flowers visited the Berkshires of Massachusetts and had coffee at our shop, Lenox Coffee, in Lenox, MA. They reached out to us and told us they were planning to open a cafe on Grand Cayman and that they would like us to roast coffee for them. I like to think that we delivered a pure coffee experience to them that day.
As their project developed, Lisa Flowers encouraged us to create an on-island barista training program for their staff. Next steps involved equipping The Brasserie with the finest, hand-built coffee grinding, brewing and espresso equipment available. Just prior to their doors being opened, we roasted and shipped them their first Barrington Coffee order.
Our on-island barista training program at The Brasserie continues to this day, but no matter how frequently that takes place, we never get to spend enough time on Grand Cayman.
