Coffee aficionados can tell when coffee is good. They know what they like and they will return time and time again for the right blend.
Swift River Roasters in Raymond listens
to their customers and creates blends, roasts and flavored coffees based on
that feedback. The roasting started five years ago by local couple Linda and
Walt Manchester. The beans are mostly sold as whole bean in bags, but some,
like the flavored coffees are pre-ground. Customers can also grind their own
bags in their flagship store, The Good Life Market on Route 302 in Raymond.
Coffee is roasted fresh to order every week, which equal between 200 pounds in
the winter to 400 or 500 pounds in the summer.
Ian Ballingall is the head roaster at
Swift River Roasters. It’s his job to determine how long to roast the beans, to
flavor the beans when needed and to generally keep the coffee flowing through
the production and onto the store shelves.
The beans, about 25 pounds at a time,
are gas heated as they are roasted for 15 minutes on average. They are then
cooled on a cooling tray that blows air up from the bottom while the beans are
being stirred. Because of the small batches, Ballingall is able to keep things
very consistent with each roast.
The beans come from all over the world.
They do fair trade beans from Honduras and Indian Monsoon Malabar beans that
are left out during the rainy season. The coffee beans come in on pallets
containing 1,300 to 1,500 pounds of beans.
What makes the coffee stand out in
flavor? “The quality of the beans we start with and keeping things moving, not
having them sit around much,” said Ballingall. “We are very responsive to our
customers.” The half café roast was created because of customer requests, he
added. Ballingall and the Manchesters do lots of training, read lots of books
and then get hands on experience in coffee roasting to make their coffee the
best.
Opening the coffee roasters came out of
necessity. The Good Life Market was having trouble finding a reputable coffee
distributer, so they cut out the middle man and started making their own.
The flavored coffees are also made in
the Swift River Roasters production plant. From vanilla and hazelnut to
Jamaican Me Crazy, which smells like maple syrup, they have close to 40
varieties ranging from dark to light roasts and decaffeinated blends as well.
This week Swift River Roasters
celebrates its fifth anniversary. To celebrate they are putting out a blonde
roast. It does not have a name yet, so Linda and Walt have decided to host a
contest to name the blonde roast, which is described as lively and fresh with
nutty tones.
“We want to get everybody involved,”
Linda said. To enter your name in the contest, visit the store. The winner will
get one bag of coffee a month for a year. At the store there will also be
coffee tastings and small promotions throughout the month of February.
“I always interface with the customers
to get direct feedback. We have grown with our customers,” said Ballingall.
“We’ve had a very positive response.”
When the company turned two years old,
they created an Anniversary Roast, which became such a popular blend, that they
kept it. At four years, they created an Italian Roast (dark).
They also create special roasts for
private labels to be sold for fundraisers like Project Graduation, or for other
organizations. “We design the labels for them,” said Linda.
One of the goals for the company is to
have an online presence. They have some wholesale accounts and ship across the
country for those who have tried the coffee in the summer and can’t live
without it year round.
The quality coffee is competitively
priced at $9.99 per pound and can be purchased either at The Good Life Market
or at seven area businesses (see ad below for list of dealers). 
For more about Swift River Roasters
email walt@swiftrivercoffee.com or call the store at 655-1196. They are also on Facebook. 
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