Support Local: Evan’s Brothers Coffee + Giveaway

Where do you buy your coffee?  Are you a Costco coffee person?  A grocery store “whatever’s on sale” buyer?  How about a Folgers drinker?  Whatever the case may be, today’s post is about supporting a local coffee roaster (and a pretty amazing giveaway).  Small batch, perfectly roasted, coffee beans from Evan’s Brothers Coffee located in Sandpoint, Idaho.

I had the opportunity to meet Rick Evans at Chef Retreat at Quillisascut Farm in February.  He made some mind-blowing pour-over coffees for all of us that changed the way I thought about coffee.  I will admit, I’m a “Costco Coffee Person” and really had no idea about the different coffee berries, the roasting process (other than watching the lady at Costco) and had definitely never heard of a “cupping” before.

While at Q Farm, Rick and I talked a lot about supporting local business and decided we wanted to do a collaboration.  Evan’s Brothers is a small roaster that wants to get the word out about what they’re doing and I was willing to help.  I gassed up the car and headed to beautiful Sandpoint, ID, a small community right on Lake Pend Oreille that will blow you away with it’s beauty.  Rick’s brother, Randy, worked for some time for a small roaster on Maui called Honolulu Coffee and then back on the mainland he was the Head Roaster for Storyville Coffee located in Seattle.  He decided to start his own coffee roasting business in Sandpoint and soon brought on his brother Rick and EBC was born.

Randy & Rick treated me to a traditional “cupping” which is the practice of observing the tastes and aromas of brewed coffee.  Here’s how it goes: beans of a specific roast are ground and put into 3 cups, then hot water is added and you let it sit to form a “crust”.  You start by smelling all 3 cups, then you break the crust with a spoon and smell some more.  Next up is the fun part – the tasting.  You swirl the coffee around a second and then you take some on your spoon, place it to your lips and take in a deep inhale through your mouth so the coffee “sprays” the inside of your palette and the back of the tongue.  It’s loud, it’s funny and man if it doesn’t give you an instant coffee high.  The real reason for doing this is to get the flavor of the coffee all over the inside of your mouth to really taste it.  Experienced cuppers can actually tell you where the coffee berries were grown.  How amazing is that?  It was definitely an experience I will never forget.

After our cupping Randy showed me the process of roasting a batch of coffee.  He uses the tester shown above to smell and visually inspect the beans for doneness.  As he explains it, it sounds like popcorn popping when the beans are just about done.  They get poured into a hopper that then stirs and cools the beans.  Let me just say that my nostrils were in complete coffee heaven that day.

Randy & Rick would love to share their coffee roasting experience with you and have offered to do a giveaway of some of their delicious coffee, a handmade pour over station and some mugs to sip your java in.  (see the picture above)

Evans Brothers Coffee Giveaway

Thank you for reading my first installment of Support Local.  This is going to be a new feature on Farmgirl Gourmet to share local companies that I admire and support.

Disclaimer: I was not provided compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.  One winner will be chosen via random.org and the prize will be shipped from Evans Brothers Coffee.