Zen and the Art of Coffee Roasting

Tim Houlton and Rik Frankel have a passion for coffee that any coffee lover would want in their roaster. That passion led the two men to create a specialty coffee company, Zen Roasters Coffee, in Higganum in mid-February.

The brainchild of the business was Houlton, a science and language arts teacher at Haddam-Killingworth Middle School. Going to Maine on vacation with his family he found the quality of coffee there he’d always dreamed of. He loved the coffee so much he starting shipping large amounts of it to his home back here.

“I just have a passion for really good coffee,” Houlton said.

 He began making coffee for all of his friends on a regular basis, free of charge. Soon they were telling him he should make his own.

 “You are a natural born salesman,” one woman told him.

With the help of his mother, his best friend and various neighbors, Houlton and his long time friend, Frankel, started Zen Coffee with the slogan “When Flavor Matters.” With Houlton as the salesman and Frankel the roaster the two make a good team, they said.

They bought what they consider to be the best micro-roaster, the hand-built San Franciscan 6. Houlton and Frankel went with that roaster because, “ease of use was a big thing,” Frankel said, adding it’s “not overwhelming” to use.

Frankel even went down to Charlottesville, Va., to Shenandoah Joe’s Roaster and Espresso Bar where  the owner, Dave Faffar, taught them how to make coffee.

There they learned that the most important part of coffee brewing is temperature and time. It takes time for the heat to get to the beans, they cannot be over or under cooked. Luckily temperature and time are things Frankel anticipates well. He makes up to 15 pounds of coffee an hour.

Like Houlton, Frankel, a mental health case worker, also loves a good cup of coffee.

“It’s our thing…we just love good coffee,” Frankel said, “I like the idea of drinking a cup of coffee and relaxing.”

Once they started roasting, Frankel and Houlton found that local roasters were not competitive with each other. They were even willing to help the men with roasting tips.

“It’s a friendly community,” Houlton said. They can talk with other roasters and enjoy good coffee together.

Even though they’ve only been doing this a few months people are starting to seek out for their gourmet coffee. The Daybreak Café in Higganum and the Scranton Seahorse Inn in Madison, just to name a few, have begun buying their roast. They’ve also done tastings for a  youth group, at charity events and for the public.

“I’m learning every day and it’s just going to get better,” Frankel said. 

The next upcoming event for Zen Roasters is a tasting on May 1^st at Adams Grocery Store in Deep River. Any and all coffee lovers are encouraged to come, the men said.

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