Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea
Located in Waterbury , Vermont , Artisan Coffee & Tea stands in a strikingly prominent red barn building that pays an aesthetic tribute to the agricultural history of the surrounding Northern Vermont area . The impressive Waterbury complex houses a full-fledged roasting operation , a café featuring their house-roasted coffees , an internationally-renowned coffee school , and a world-class coffee testing lab - all under one roof . Owner and founder Mané Alves developed and refined his sensorial skills during the years he spent working as a winemaker in the Alexander Valley in Sonoma County , California . After working there for six years , he became inspired to pursue a different path in the coffee industry , and moved to Vermont to start fresh in a new and exciting market . By applying the tasting skills that he had cultivated during his time in the wine industry towards his coffee business , he was able to create a distinctively delicious high-end coffee experience for his customers . In addition to running the roasting business , Mané now devotes a good portion of his time to teaching other aspiring roasters the finer points of coffee tasting .
According to Mané , it all started in 1995 when he decided to open up Coffee Lab International ( CLI ) in Waterbury . “ The reason that I started my own lab here is that I wanted to open up a place where I could teach people about coffee as well as just work with it . Over time , CLI expanded beyond just testing to include the roasting part of the company - which is the Vermont Artisan Coffee and Tea line that our customers know today . That was in 2001 . Then the CLI school officially opened in 2004 , which allowed me to host several classes per year at the Waterbury facility here . It ’ s just continued to grow from there .”
Mané and his CLI team offer a wide range of services to coffee companies around the globe , including comprehensive quality assurance programs . By examining each step in their manufacturing process from the shipment of the raw “ green ” coffee beans through the final roasting and packaging stages , Mané helps businesses improve their practices to create a better product and avoid production problems .
Mané says that “ Coffee Lab also analyzes samples of green coffee for farmers , and roast coffee for both corporations and small businesses . Let ’ s say you ’ re a coffee farmer in Brazil , Costa Rica , or Colombia , and you want to figure out how your coffee tastes from an expert view - you can send the sample over to us and we ’ ll evaluate it . If you are a fast food company with its own coffee blend , you might want a second opinion to really understand the quality of the coffee you are dealing with . In this case you send a sample of your brand ’ s roasted coffee . We then do the physical work and eye the sample and examine it for visual characteristics . Then we do the sensory tests on it . After the testing is done , we can tell you where your coffee falls in terms of specialty and quality .”
Mané applies the same principles and judgment criteria that he uses in his testing procedures towards the educational program that he runs at the CLI coffee school . Mané believes that the ability to taste and evaluate coffee on a visual and sensorial basis is an invaluable skill for anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in the coffee industry . He insists that “ in order to learn how to roast coffee properly , you have to figure out what type of green coffee you need to buy . In order to do that , you need to be trained in the sensory part of the evaluation process . If you don ’ t have any way to understand the subtleties of one type of coffee versus
Write and Shine Vermont .
If you ’ re an aspiring or accomplished writer in Vermont , now ’ s your time to shine . It ’ s the Vermont Magazine and Green Mountain Power Vermont Writers ’ Prize – honoring the literary legacy of Ralph Nading Hill , Jr ., writer , historian and longtime member of Green Mountain Power ’ s Board of Directors .
This year , there are two categories : prose and poetry , each with a $ 1,250 prize . To enter , write an essay , short story , play or poem about Vermont - its people , places , values or history in 1,500 words or less .
The deadline to enter is January 1 , 2021 . Enter today at vermontwritersprize . submittable . com / submit / 86155 / vermont-writers-prize
For details , visit greenmountainpower . com , vermontmagazine . com or call ( 888 ) 835-4672 .
Entries must be unpublished . Must be a Vermont resident . Previous winners and employees of GMP and Vermont Magazine cannot enter .
18 VERMONT MAGAZINE