The owners of a unique coffee-roasting commercial enterprise that began in Norway four years ago and moved to rural Caledonia nearly a year ago use espresso beans from around the sector.
They particularly like using beans from international locations that aren’t as widely recognized.
“I want to (get espresso beans which might be from) locations like Bali (in Indonesia) and Zambia and Tanzania, no longer simply Columbia and Brazil,” Tricia Babinski said final week inside the small Heart Rock Coffee roasting residence close to the house wherein she and her husband, Houston County Administrator Jeff Babinski, live. “They have such fantastic coffees there.”
Heart Rock Coffee’s espresso beans come from Africa, South America, Central America, Southeast Asia, and India.
Jeff “is the IT guy and the upkeep guy,” Tricia said of her husband. “I do the roasting part, and he helps with all the other stuff.”
Since May, Heart Rock Coffee has been selling its coffees at the La Crescent Farmers Market, which is held from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays at Oak and South Second Street in La Crescent, and the Hokah Root River Farmers Market, which is held from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursdays in the parking zone of St. Peter Catholic Church in Hokah.
Since early July, Heart Rock Coffee’s baggage has also been on the market at The Wired Rooster Coffee Shoppe in Caledonia.
Heart Rock Coffee is also bought directly by clients who touch the commercial enterprise. Most of this income had been to people in the Caledonia location.
So, some distance, most of Heart Rock Coffee’s income has been spent at the La Crescent and Hokah farmers markets.
Tricia is interested in promoting additional retail and coffeehouse outlets. Shortly, she plans to have hours “maybe one morning per week, or one afternoon every week, where people can just stop here and buy a bag” at the roasting house.
But she has no plans to open a Heart Rock Coffee coffeehouse.
“I could just love to keep being the only one to deliver the coffee beans,” Tricia said. “I’m not interested in that a good deal overhead and a lot of pressure” that would be involved in commencing a coffeehouse. “I’d like to keep participating in this and enjoy speaking to people about espresso.”
The Babinskis moved to Caledonia in September after Jeff was named Houston County administrator. They have five kids.
“Jeff simply finished 24 years inside the Air Force,” Tricia said and has been stationed at a NATO base at Stavanger, Norway.
The Babinski’s started roasting coffee approximately 4½ years ago while Jeff was stationed in Turkey, another member of the NATO army alliance.
“We’ve constantly cherished espresso together,” Tricia stated. “We concept to ourselves, we revel in excellent espresso, we had been ordering it, and why no longer make it ourselves?” So they offered a small coffee roaster for their private use, which roasted one pound at a time.
“We took that gadget to Norway, where we met folks who said, ‘Hey, you ought to sell this.’ And it naturally grew from there,” Tricia said.
She started promoting roasted coffee beans about four years ago at the NATO base in Norway.
After shifting to the Caledonia vicinity, income was directed to clients via word of mouth. Then, in May, Heart Rock Coffee became a dealer at the La Crescent and Hokah farmers markets.
So some distance, Tricia stated, Heart Rock Coffee’s biggest dealers have been “anything that’s a medium-roast coffee. That’s a form of what human beings gravitate towards. When you watch a pleasing sipping espresso, it will be a medium-roast espresso.”
Heart Rock Coffee’s new, larger roaster can roast 2.2 pounds of espresso beans at a time. “A light roast espresso will take about thirteen to 14 mins” to cook, Tricia said. “And a dark roast will take slightly over 15 minutes.”
Tricia said she enjoys the whole thing, approximately coffee.
“I love the scent and feel of it,” she said. Roasting the coffee is nonviolent to me. I love talking to people about espresso and assisting them with their desires.”
Tricia started the Heart Rock Coffee call from the heart-shaped rocks she and her husband have loved accumulating their travels.
