Made on Cape Cod: Beanstock Coffee

During the time when Starbucks was taking hold of the takeout coffee industry, a small coffee company, Beanstock Coffee, was brewing its own independent brand on Cape Cod.

Beanstock Coffee was originally founded as a small coffee shop and specialty roasting business in the Inn at Duck Creek in Wellfleet by Kyle Oliver and Polly Moryl in 1996.

John Simonian became a partner in the company in 2000. She was intent on continuing the original mission of creating quality coffees while providing great customer service and connecting with the community.

Simonian took over sales and business development, and saw amazing results due to “support and quick interest from local restaurants, delis and coffee shops; the embrace of Cape Cod for a Cape Cod company was huge.”

At Beanstock they say ‘Coffee is personal,’ because there isn’t just one coffee for everyone. Which is why they offer a wide variety of roasts from bold to mellow and conventional to organic and fair trade.

The Cape Beach Blend, made with high-grown beans from Central and South America, as well as Indonesia, is described as a “big, rich, smooth, clean and earthy blend.” The Nauset Blend is organic, and the flavor is mild, smooth and naturally sweet. The Slack Tide Blend is half regular, half decaf made from Sumatra Organic and Decaf Sumatra Organic.

Beanstock also ventured into the world of craft beers with a collaboration with Cape Cod Beer. Together they produced Stock Stout, a locally brewed milk stout infused with Beanstock’s Bali Blue Moon Organic Coffee.

Beanstock is certified as organic roasters by the Baystate Organic Certifiers. To be certified organic, Beanstock must follow a closely monitored process from ordering the beans, to grinding the beans, to storing the coffee. Once a year, the certifiers go through all of their records, and tracks the beans from growth to distribution.

Simonian says they “search out the best coffees we can find regardless of fair trade, organic, but they place more organics and fair trade” than the coffees made from conventionally grown beans.

Their specialty roasting process takes between 12 and 15 minutes to complete. Beanstock’s head roaster, Peter Duff, roasts about 15 to 20 pounds of beans at a time, and gets them to a specific temperature as soon as possible. They roast all coffee in small batches in order to guarantee freshness.

The humidity, weather temperature and moisture all factor in to the roasting process, and Simonian says they “have to watch these constantly.” They also have to really pay attention to the beans as they expand, “where you are defining your roast in your second crack.”

The quality of the beans, and Simonian’s hard work has paid off. The business has grown 40 times the size they were in 2000 with accounts all the way up to Wellesley, and a few in Pennsylvania and New York.

They have also started to participate in Shaw’s hyper-local program, selling in many of their Cape Cod and South Shore grocery stores.

And according to Simonian, he would like to see further growth on and off-Cape, as long as they can stay true to their original mission and continue to foster the good local support that has gotten them to where they are today.

Beanstock Coffee can be purchased at in Osterville, the Barnstable General Store in Barnstable, and Peterson’s Market in Dennis and is served at , Theand in Hyannis. You can visit them online at www.beanstockcoffee.com.