You might want to take a look at
www.mochajoes.com , a small roasting shop on the shores of the Connecticut River in Brattleboro, Vermont. Being farely local for me, I know how you might feel if I ever lost this roaster. I've been doing business with them for about 4 years now and they have some of the best beans available from around the world, especially Kenya. The Kenyan coffees basically have wine & berry overtones while my preferences are more in the spice, chocolate, & carmel arena that is South America, my bean choices usually range around El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rico. This roaster is small but they pride themselves in attending coffee tasting & making Cup Of Excellence winning bids along with supporting fair trade coffee. Mocha Joes website does a very good job of explaining each available coffee, where it comes from, how it's harvested and what to expect from it's cup. I usually do mail order myself, it's cheaper than gas for the 1.5 hour drive but each summer, I usally make 1 trip there just to say hi to these folks who remind me a lot of the 60's culture of yesteryear. They are a very conscience minded group of young folk, which probably comes from doing business with these 3rd world countries and being concerned about the individual farmers who depend on coffee sales. It's 1 thing to just roast coffee beans but it's entirely another thing to be involved with the the culture of the coffee bean farmers. Talking to these folks makes me wish I was their age and in this type of coffee business lifestyle.
Cheers,
Robin
