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It’s all about the beans for local coffee roasters |
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Friday, 14 August 2009 |
By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 Submitted photos Matt and Gracie Hammer roast their Black Velvet Coffee in Mammoth Lakes. Here, they drop roasted beans into the cooling tray.
Local roasters Gracie and Matt Hammer had no plans for a storefront when they started up.
“We were just going to sell online and wholesale,” Gracie said.
Then Shields Richardson approached them and began selling their Black Velvet Coffee at the Side Door last November.
“I’ll put it to you this way, I’m very excited for the coffee,” Richardson said in a phone interview.
“It is Mammoth’s only locally-owned, locally-roasted coffee. We have had tremendous success, especially with the Europeans and people from New Zealand and Australia who are probably the finest connoisseurs of espresso. To get those guys to buy it – and they’ll have two or three cups of espresso – I get comments all the time saying, this is the best coffee we’ve had in the United States,” he enthused.
The Hammers roast locally at a warehouse near McDonalds.
“We get green beans and have a five-kilo roaster,” Gracie said. “We roast in small batches, and that helps with the consistency. We can really pay attention to each bean, and how the green bean is being roasted.”
The couple’s business philosophy is that every bean is important and should taste the way it was grown to be. Roasting in small batches enhances the natural flavor of each bean.
“I think they’re growing their brand, and the passion that both Matt and Gracie have for their coffee is infectious,” Richardson noted. “We sell their coffee by the pound.” It comes with a free cup of coffee, he added.
“We buy from all different regions all around the world – South America, Africa,” Gracie said.
And the recession hasn’t seemed to have affected their business.
“We have not noticed,” Gracie said “People have to have their coffee!”
“We love community – we love hanging out with our friends. And we always do that around great coffee, so that’s where we desired to start.”
Gracie was born and raised in Mammoth. She met her husband, a professional snowboarder, about seven years ago when he decided to buy a place and move to Mammoth permanently.
The Hammers have a 2-year-old son, Preston, and Gracie was 14 weeks pregnant with their second child as of a July 31 phone interview.
“We live in Mammoth, we love Mammoth, but our market is worldwide,” Gracie said. They are waiting to complete their online store, which has proved to be a lengthy process.
In the meantime, the buzz about Black Velvet Coffee has come from the tight knit community they enjoy here in Mammoth.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 22 August 2009 )
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