drinkable reno tahoe
FIRED UP
Coffee roasting the old-fashioned way.
WRITTEN BY HEIDI BETHEL
PHOTOS BY ASA GILMORE
Achieving coffee roasting perfection is no easy feat. But Tim Curry, owner of Wood-Fire Roasted Coffee Company in Reno, nearly achieved that goal with his Kenya Gichatha-ini Nyeri coffee. In November 2011, the coffee earned this local roaster an Exceptional rating of 97 out of a perfect 100 by Coffee Review, the world’s leading coffee-buying guide.
What’s the secret for such phenomenal coffee? According to Curry, it’s the fuel.
Just a handful of commercial coffee roasters in the U.S. roast with wood and, of those, even fewer do so exclusively. Wood-Fire Roasted is one of those few.
Curry employs a traditional, Old World style of roasting.
“It’s much more prevalent in Europe, but my technique is indicative of the long history of coffee being roasted over the fire,” he says. “It gives it a unique taste that is unmatched.”
Coffee Review agrees in its nod to Curry’s work, calling it “pure, complete, resonantly complex … an almost transcendent expression of one of the world’s finest coffee types.”
Wood-Fired Roasted Coffee blends and products can be found in markets, coffeehouses, and restaurants in Reno, Sparks, Truckee, and Lake Tahoe, including Dish Café and Catering, Great Basin Brewing Co., Daughters Café, Dreamer’s Coffee House, Kona Gold, FiftyFifty Brewing, Great Basin Community Food Co-op, and Whole Foods Market. For a complete list of locations or other details, visit http://www.Woodfireroasted.com.
A former enrollee in her grandfather’s Lumberjack Apprentice Program, Heidi Bethel appreciates this nod to an age-old roasting tradition.
