By JORDAN ESSOE/YachatsNews.com
In the summertime, when tourist traffic is at its peak, Adrian Beatty sometimes shows up to work at the Green Salmon Coffee Company as early as midnight to roast coffee beans. Alone, hour after hour, batch after batch, his smokestack fills the night streets of Yachats with the beguiling, caramelized aroma that many residents have grown to treasure.
Green Salmon has been around since 2005. Adrian, 41, who first moved to the central Oregon coast when he was 13, has been with them almost a decade. He trains cashiers and baristas, prepares merchandise, and packs and ships orders. But his title and primary job is coffee roaster.
Bringing out the desired taste profile in a coffee bean is an exacting process. Cook times and temperatures determine whether a batch is light, medium, dark, or somewhere in between. Adrian controls his roast times to the second. He used to roast during business hours, but after some changes to the layout of the dining area, he now finds it easier to spread out the bags of product and his necessary tools when no one else is around.
Tell us about coffee. To some people, all coffee is coffee. Other people have more rigorous preferences. What makes your coffee artisan and why is it better than something garden variety?
Adrian Beatty: We run a three-kilo machine. It’s all electric, and to run about 150 pounds takes you about five hours. What makes small batch coffee better is the control you have over many different aspects of the work, whether it’s the heat output or your roasting temp. Certain beans are more dense than others, or have a different moisture content, and they will roast differently. Some of them come up to temp faster. Some of them exhibit different flavor characteristics depending on where you take your roast. Some of them are more acidic. When you go into the dark roast range, some of that acidity really shines. I don’t force the oils out – I want them to rest and let them develop that way. People love dark roasts. And I enjoy serving the public. It’s gratifying when you have all these people coming through, and their hotel or vacation rental has Pete’s Coffee or something like that … and then they come here and get to enjoy their first cup of great coffee.
Do you think that coffee in general plays a significant social and cultural role in a community?
Beatty: Oh, God, yes. Coffee is a language that is just about universal. It allows strangers to open up conversations with each other, whether they are reading an interesting book or doing remote work or working on a midterm. One of our customers goes on photography trips and takes outstanding photos that he likes to share with the community. He’ll have just finished some Photoshop work on them and shows the before and after images. People share ideas over coffee and these conversations build friendships.
You order coffee beans from all over the world and even introduced your customers to a coffee bean infused with CBD, which has been a big hit. Personally, what is your go-to bean?
Beatty: I drink between 5-10 cups a day of black coffee. Our house coffee is a medium dark Guatemalan, which is my favorite. It has a chocolate or dark chocolate note and also a red fruit or citric note, which gives you that little bit of bitter taste to it. It also has a really great body. It’s not too heavy. To make our house coffee, it’s five hours and gives me about five 10-gallon buckets of coffee to go through. In one shift, there are times where we’ll go through one and a half of those 10-gallon buckets. That’s just for coffee and espresso. That’s a lot.
Owner Deb Gisetto is very clear about Green Salmon using only fair trade coffee and tea. What is important about fair trade?
Beatty: Well, with fair trade, farmers get their dollars without being ripped off. Basically, the beneficio or the small farm is getting the value of their crop without being gouged and treated unfairly just because they might be in a different country. You know, corporations like to give people the shakedown, so to speak, by increasing their prices while trying to just pay pennies. And fair trade is not about that.
What do you think is the most misunderstood aspect of what you do?
Beatty: [Pauses. Thinks.] That it’s hard. [Laughs.] It really isn’t hard. Other people see it as being super labor intensive, but I see it as enjoyment and having a little bit of fun. It’s so gratifying that it’s easy.
Tell us a secret.
Beatty: When I show up at work, the first thing is always a cup of coffee. The second thing I do, especially on days that we’re closed, is I put on documentaries, news, TV shows, or anime. While my first cup of coffee is brewing, I turn it on. I’ve seen Ancient Aliens, every season, every episode, countless times. I also watch a lot of Doctor Who. I’ve probably watched all of the most current seasons – except for last year’s – over seventy times, from start to finish. And it’s just for white noise. Just like an AM radio on in the background. I always have it on while I’m bagging, doing labels, and roasting coffee.
- Jordan Essoe is a Waldport-based freelance writer who can be reached at alseajournal@gmail.com
Adrian and his coffee are the best