Perks of progress: New showroom lets people stop and smell the coffee in Stevensville

Ravalli County’s only coffee roasting company finally has a showroom.

By ROD DANIEL Ravalli Republic Staff Reporter

http://www.ravallinews.com/articles/2003/12/17/bitterroot/60-business.txt

After three years of roasting, blending and selling coffee beans from all over the world in western Montana grocery stores and restaurants, Bitterroot Coffee Roasters http://www.montanacoffee.com/ opened a storefront near the Stevensville wye on U.S. 93. Now coffee lovers can stop in and sample some of the 25 blends that have won the business many loyal customers over the last three years.

According to Deb Lackas, co-owner of the roasting business, opening a store has helped them promote blends that seldom made it on to store shelves.

"The demand for our coffee is definitely increasing, but we’re limited by the shelf space the stores give us," she said. "We have a lot more marketability here."

In addition to their popular "select blends," including Bitterroot, St. Mary’s, Main Street and Sapphire, Lackas and her partner, Bonnie Ehrenberg, have developed an entire line of premium blends, like Kauai, Zimbabwe, Mad Biker, and Tanzanian Pea berry. The high-end premium blends feature estate-grown coffees from around the world, meticulously selected and roasted to perfection.

Ehrenberg, an oncology nurse at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, tested many of the new blends on some of the doctors with whom she works. She even named the very popular Dr. Walters blend – a dark roast consisting of Sumatran, Guatemalan and Ethiopian beans – after one of her coffee-loving colleagues.

Because all their coffee varieties are roasted and blended by Ehrenberg in small batches at her home northeast of Stevensville, customers are sure to get an incredibly fresh product, Lackas said.

"This is about as fresh as you’re going to get it," she said. "Sometimes we actually have to wait for the beans to cool before we bring them to the store. It’s not high volume, but I’d challenge anyone to go out and find a better coffee."

Opening a tasting room has also allowed Lackas and Ehrenberg to offer more than just coffee to people who bother to stop in.

"We’ve expanded into gift baskets and complementary edibles," Lackas said, "and we’re trying to keep as much of it as local as we can."

Lining the shelves of their Stevensville store are bottles of honey and bars of soap from Sweet Bear Orchard, jams, jellies and preserves from ABC Preserves and teas and spices from Montana Tea and Spices. Also available are T-shirts, coffee mugs and tea cups.

Lackas encourages people to stop by and create a custom-made, holiday gift basket.

"Our 12-pack sampler with a lot of international coffees has been popular during the holidays," she said. "Samplers are nice because it encourages people to try different blends that they otherwise might never taste."

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Bitterroot Coffee Roasters

Ph: (406) 777-9896

Fx: (406) 777-3006

P.O. Box 294,

Stevensville, MT 59870

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Nowanna Wanzer stopped by the store Tuesday to make her regular order for three pounds of espresso. As owner of a food-concession trailer featuring custom-made sandwiches, soups and drinks, Wanzer said she and her husband tried different blends of coffee before settling on Bitterroot Coffee Roasters’ Espresso.

"We buy it because it’s wonderful coffee," she said. "And since we’re a local business, we try and support other local businesses."

The new showroom opened in October, but their business really spiked during the last month. As of this week, Lackas said, they’ve sold almost 300 holiday gift baskets. After the first of the year, she said she plans to have monthly taste testing at local restaurants to further promote their premium blends.

And to ensure they stay abreast of the local food market, Lackas said she plans to continue going to trade shows like the Made-In-Montana show in Great Falls.

"We’re learning more and more about the many great local products," she said, "and will continue to feature them as much as possible."

Lackas also has another job that she does from a small office next to their new showroom, involving photographs from space. She licenses satellite imagery to stock photograph companies, weather visualization companies and broadcast media businesses.

Standing in front of a huge satellite image of Earth, Lackas explained how the seemingly unrelated vocations fit together for her.

"What I’m trying to do is provide a slight reference to the world," she said. "If you look into coffee you’ll realize it comes from everywhere. I’m trying to bring the geography and nature and combine it with where our coffee’s come from."

Lackas said she envisions having coffee tasters at the store where people try and find on the huge image of the Earth where the coffee they’re sipping comes from. "It’s just a way to educate," she said, "to make people a little more geographically literate."

Currently Bitterroot Coffee Roasters employs five people. Lackas said she hopes to see the business grow within the Bitterroot Valley and Missoula.

"We’d like, maybe in five years, to have stores in Hamilton, Stevensville and Missoula," she said. "And provide a quality product and give good customer service to more people."

Reporter Rod Daniel can be reached at 363-3300 or [email protected]