Pierce Brothers Coffee Roasters™ article in the March 2002 issue of the Amherst Bulletin

One of the things that sets Java Hut Roasters apart from other coffee shops is its drive-up window, where customers can pick up a fancy cup of coffee without getting out of their cars. Four years ago that drive-up window drew owners Sean and Darren Pierce to the property conveniently located on a busy stretch of Route 116 in Sunderland.

Table Talk

BY
CLAIRE
HOPLEY

Darren and Sean Pierce infront of their 1/4 bag air-roaster at their Cafe in Sunderland, MA

Brothers Sean, left, and Darren Pierce roast and blend their own coffees at Java Hut Roasters in Sunderland, where they couple their brews with comfortable chairs, reading matter and games and a selection of sandwiches and pastry. And for those in a hurry, there's the drive-up window

ALMOND AND RASPBERRY BARS
For the base:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
6 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons chopped almonds
1 teaspoon almond extract

For the top:
2/3 cup raspberry jam
a half stick (4 tablespoons) butter
7 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1 egg, beaten

   "That was the third time we got started," explains Darren. The first time was nine years ago when the brothers from Amherst agreed that they wanted to go into business together. Darren was living in San Francisco, where the rage for fine coffees was going strong, though it had not yet hit the East Coast. The Pierces were looking for a product that would be recession-proof and coffee seemed to be the answer. They began by blending coffees and selling them to retail outlets.
   The second business start occurred a year and a half later when they began selling coffee from a kiosk in the Newman Center at the University of Massachusetts.
   Opening Java Hut Roasters took them to another level. With an eclectic collection of comfy old couches and chairs to sit on, an array of books, business and computer magazines to read, chess and other games to play, and a menu of sandwiches, pastries and of course coffees to choose from, it requires more organization and a lot of work, especially since the two brothers started roasting their own coffee as well as blending it.
   "We did all of the work ourselves," says Sean, "We have a lot of sweat equity in this place. It was hard at first, very hard, because both of us were working other jobs. I was commuting to Boston three times a week. Often one of us slept for a few hours while the other served customers."
   The aim was to save money. Now the two brothers note that many of their old friends from Amherst Regional High

School own houses, while they are still putting money into their business, but they say, "Houses will come. Perhaps we'll buy a duplex and have one half each."

Good coffee starts with a good roaster
   In the meantime, their coffee roaster is their pride and joy. It's called a Fluid Bed roaster and it roasts the coffee beans on a bed of air. "Like a popcorn popper," explains Darren.
   And just as popcorn poppers do a better job of popping corn than the old skillet-based methods, so the air based roasters work better than drum-style roasters, they say. Sean explains that as coffee beans whirl around in a hot drum, inevitably the side of the beans that touch the hot metal get burned. Not only does the bean fail to roast uniformly, but the burned part makes the finished coffee bitter.
   "The chaff burns too, and you get bitterness from that as well," adds Darren, showing a cup of fine husks. "The green beans still have these on them - they are called chaff - and drum roasters burn them and bond them to the bean so you get that awful taste."
   Achieving a good-tasting coffee is a complicated art. The Pierces use only Arabica beans, a category of coffee that tastes better but does not produce such big crops as the Robusta coffees used by the big-name companies making supermarket coffee brands.
   Typically Arabica varieties grow at a higher altitude, and altitude makes a

difference in the coffee. Other characteristics depend on the soil and climate of the coffee-growing areas - Central America, Kenya, Sumatra, Ethiopia among them.
   "There can even be differences from plantation to plantation," notes Darren. When a Guatemalan plantation whose beans were included in one of their blends shut down, they had a long search for another bean to reproduce the same taste.

Then there's the search for the perfect blend
   Blending takes place after the beans have been roasted. "The aim is to fill the palate," explains Darren. "You want to have a full range of flavors, so the first sip is lighter but the coffee has a darker finish. It's a lot like wine really."
   And like wine, tasting is important. This stage is called cupping, and the taster works by sucking the coffee from a silver spoon, which has less impact on flavor that spoons made from other metal.
   Among the blends they create are Fogbuster - which Darren describes as "rich, spicy, smooth and dark but not burnt" - and River blend, which is a medium roast but "robust and with a long after-taste."
   Roasting coffee and grinding it in small batches every day is important to the Pierce's business - both a Java Hut and in their wholesale business that supplies retailers and restaurants.

   "Somebody asked me if we could guarantee that our coffee would stay fresh for six months" says Darren. "I told him "no way." Nobody's coffee stay's fresh that long. Bags with valves won't do it for you."
   Sean explains that while green, unroasted coffee beans are stable, roasting brings out the oils and from that moment the aging process begins.
   "Roasted coffee gives off gas," he says. "If you put it in a sealed bag it would eventually explode the bag. It will even explode a Mason jar. That's why coffee bags have valves. If you want to keep roasted coffee fresh you have to freeze it."
   Roasting and blending in small amounts is thus a form of quality control.
   The Pierces's wholesale customers are mostly in the Pioneer Valley, but with a Web site they are getting lots of out-of-state interest. In the meantime, customers come in Java Hut to relax with coffee or pick up blends to take home. In addition to specialty blends, they offer single varieties such as the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe - Sean's favorite - and a variety of organic, fair-traded and bird-friendly coffees that are grown without the chemicals that can make farmed plants dangerous to our feathered friends.
   A good cup of coffee fairly cries out for a delicious cookie. Here are a couple of recipes to try.

BUTTER NUT COOKIES

1 stick butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
4 tablespoons evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 teaspoons orange zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sliced almonds or chopped walnut or pecans
about 4 tablespoons strawberry, cherry or apricot jam

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth.
In a small bowl, mix the egg yolks, evaporated milk, vanilla extract and the lemon and orange zest. Mix it into the butter mixture. Then mix in the flour, and knead with your hands until you have a smooth, non-sticky dough. Chill for 2 hours or overnight if more convenient.
To shape and bake the cookies, turn the oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 cookie sheets or line them with parchment paper. Crush the nuts until they look like coarse crumbs. Take lumps of the dough and roll into balls the size of a small walnut. Dip them in the egg white then roll them in the chopped nuts then place on the prepared cookie sheet. Flatten them slightly so they form 1 1/2-inch circles. Make a hollow in the middle of each one the the end of your little finger. Fill with a little of the jam. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Makes 2 1/2-3 dozen cookies.

Grease and flour a 8-inch square pan. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, mix the flour and sugar, and then blend in the melted butter, 2 tablespoons of chopped almonds and the almond extract. Form the base by pressing this mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan, Spread the raspberry jam on top.
In a bowl, cream the butter and confectioners' sugar together. Mix in half a cup of chopped almonds and the egg. Drop teaspoons of this mixture over the jam. Spread gently with a knife or spatula. (Some of the jam will probably peek through; that's fine.) Bake for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 350 and continue to bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the surface is firm to the touch. Let cool in the pan then cut into 16 squares.