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HOW BUFFALO MOUNTAIN COFFEE ROASTING COMPANY CAME TO LIFE
Buffalo Mountain Coffee Roasting Company is a labor of love, quite literally. After my husband Dominic and I moved to the rural remote mountains of Green Bank, West Virginia, we realized we were living in a region that did not have freshly roasted coffee. In the past, we always had access to great coffee, but for the first time in our lives, we felt clueless as to how to get hold of a fresh coffee. Our choices were to go to the local dollar store for stale lifeless coffee or travel 2 1/2 hours out of town to find fresh coffee. Our neighboring state of Virginia had a number of fantastic roasting companies, and even our new state of West Virginia had a few roasting companies to choose from, but again, distance kept us apart.
Our marriage was one forged in coffee. Okay, well, maybe not coffee, but when I think of the early days of us being newlyweds in 2004, it was the coffee love dance accompanying our Saturday mornings that caused me to truly cherish my coffee time with Dominic. Each morning and especially on Saturdays, Dominic would grind the fresh coffee beans, measure out the grinds for the French press, and he would become ensconced in what I would describe as a ceremony of sorts (often there was a little dance he would do). It was important to him to serve me coffee that he found in some obscure little roastery or other place prized for its unusual coffee offering or blend.
Through the years, our lives always seemed to revolve around coffee. Coffee was the tie that kept us passionately tuned in towards one another. When we didn’t have coffee something seemed like it was lacking from our day. We grew to love the habit of sharing our lives, our hopes, our disappointments and failures, and everything else over a good cup of coffee. We didn’t need to drink it all day, but it was a part of our lives, like that first passionate kiss of the day. It was my lover’s excuse for spending just a little more time with me as he shared his deepest thoughts or intimate feelings.
That’s what coffee is to us. It is the gift of our lover’s kiss, that passionate embrace, and the ever increasing desire to make a way for it to happen the very next morning. Coffee does that to our souls…every day.
To solve this dilemma of Dominic being coffee-less, I began searching for a way to roast coffee at home for him. I became obsessed with finding a solution as I watched him wither on a Saturday morning without a good ceremony or offering for his wife. You see, he needs to make me coffee every morning and regular store bought coffee in a vacuum sealed bag just wouldn’t do!
I searched craigslist for a simple home coffee roaster when I came across one that would be perfect for our needs. It took 6 hours round trip to get my new roaster, but I knew it would serve us well. I had no idea at the time just how well it would serve us. I ordered coffee beans and my journey began. Our very first roast we did together. We were scared, didn’t know what to expect, or if we would utterly fail, but we knew it was worth trying.
That first roast was a success and I became hungry to find new exciting coffees from far off lands to surprise Dominic with. After roasting about 50 pounds of coffee from all over the world, I realized I had a gift for roasting coffee. Never in a million years would I ever have thought I would fall in love with roasting coffee. We started sharing it with our friends and family, and from there Dominic felt that I should start a coffee company. He didn’t want to keep my roasts to himself. He felt my coffee was a gift that should be shared with everyone.
Buffalo Mountain Coffee Roasting Company came to life the day we made the decision to share coffee as a gift.
Coffee is a gift. It brings joy, happiness, fulfillment, contentment, bravery, and even a little moxie. From the time it is planted in the ground until we grind it up and serve it to one another, it is a gift worth giving, worth having, worth sharing.
Buffalo Mountain Coffee is my gift to you. Every time I purchase green coffee I get this giddy feeling in my belly, like when you purchase that perfect surprise gift for a loved one. And each time I roast that green coffee, I squeal a little on the inside in anticipation because I know that my slow roasted coffee is often the first thing our customers and friends think about when they rise to greet the day.
Evangeline Knipfing: Owner & Slow-Roast Mistress