Tim Curry pushes a split of oak into his wood-fired coffee roaster.He'll be in the room, within earshot of the roaster, until the beans are browned and the room is sweet with the aroma of fresh-roasted coffee.
Curry, like most coffee roasters, has a passion for the process.He loves the fragrance, revels in the sound of the roast and delights in the taste.
A few miles away, Carl Staub sticks close to scientific analysis as he roasts coffee by the numbers at Agtron Inc., parent company of the Academy of Coffee Science.
In the tiny world of coffee roasters, the division looms large between those who approach their work as an art and those who believe it can be boiled down to a science.
Curry, one of a handful of roasters making coffee a business in northern Nevada, launched Wood-Fire Roasted Coffee Company about three and a half years ago.
Specialty roasters are like micro-brewers, says Curry.
They're small operations with limited product capability and a focus on the art of coffee.
They sell their product on the Internet, jockey for wholesale restaurant accounts, and some sell at their own retail outlets as well.
"The Reno market is fairly saturated," says Curry.
"I knew that I was pushing the envelope by adding another roaster to the area, and I wouldn't have done it if I were doing the same thing as others."
The others range from the highly scientific Agtron to the artisan-run Comstock Coffee Roasters.
Agtron roasts coffee the high-tech way.
That's high tech plus artistry, says Staub, its owner.
He uses his own Agtron roast analyzer to evaluate coffee beans as they roast.
The Agtron feeds information to the roaster.Artistry enters the process as the person monitoring the roaster decides to use the information.
Staub, a controversial figure in master roaster circles, teaches roasting at the Academy of Coffee Science in south Reno.
The controversy? Traditional master roasters work on their craft for years, decades even, before pronouncing themselves ready for the title of master.
Staub teaches a fast track to the mastery of roasting, turning novices into pros with the use of a micro-computer and a series of workshops.
His influence is felt in Reno's roasting circles.
Bob DeGraffenrein, roast master for the Eldorado, uses the Agtron method."It's the way to go," he says.He roasts about 300 pounds of coffee every week,most of it going to the casino's 10 restaurants.
The rest is sold in the Eldorado's shops.
For the most part, other local specialty roasters stick to the old ways.Mark Fleming, owner of Reno's Laughing CAT, 14-year veteran of the Reno coffee business, sees roasting as pure art.
It's an art learned over several years, too, he says.
Laughing CAT coffee sells at Dreamer's Coffeehouse and Deli, along with a few other places, but most of the business is via the Laughing CAT's own retail outlet.
Sahara Coffee, on Longley, claims first place as the oldest coffee roast establishment in the area.
"We've been here since 1976," says owner Donna Hubach."When we started,most of the people didn't even know what a coffee bean was."
And now? People do.
They seek out Sahara Coffee for its Jamaica Blue and Kona coffees.
But what keeps her working long hours at a competitive business hounded by big boys like Starbuck's? "Coffee is an art and a love," she says.
Comstock Coffee Roaster, a relative new entry into the arena just five years old is owned by Mark Sewell,who also owns The House of Blend, where he sells his coffee.
But his biggest revenue, he says, is from wholesale restaurant sales, some large, some small accounts.
Coffee roasters compete for regional clients - a limited market that most see as in desperate need of an infusion of fresh coffee.
All restaurants have coffee, says Curry, but few go the extra inch and serve specialty roasts.
To sell, even to chefs with sophisticated palates, is a process of education.
The challenge, he says, is that even restaurateurs often believe that coffee doesn't matter.
"They'll put Maxwell House in the restaurant," he says."It tastes the same every day tastes bad, but the same." His belief: "Coffee is the main staple of the breakfast meal for many; at dinner, it is the final taste the customer is walking out with."
And that's not a meal moment a chef should skimp on.
