black and bittersweet then you are in the right place.” In his little workshop, Coffey has everything he needs to fill a variety of orders. “Most of my buyers are from Ingleside or Cornwall, but I do have some in the United States and even out West.” The man also caters to several local restaurants. “I could start selling my coffee to several more establishments, but I’mnot equipped to roast that much coffee. I’d rather keep it small.” To further his coffee roasting knowledge, he attended the Coffee Training Institute in San Francisco. “They told me some things I already knew, but they taught me ways I had never even heard of.” With that, he quietly exits his workshop and makes his way towards another small room.Through a big window, a beamof hot sunlight illuminates the room, much to the delight of two tiresome looking felines lying on a couch. Next to the window is an odd-looking plant, one you certainly can’t find it in your backyard or in a nearby forest. It measures around 5 feet tall, bearing small red cherry looking fruits. “These are coffee cherries,” Coffey explained, grabbing a hold of them. “The coffee beans come from this fruit. I’ve always been fascinated as to why coffee in itself is so cheap, considering the amount of labor that is used to make it.” According to the coffee connoisseur, only about two countries utilize machinery to process the fruit. “I believe only Brazil and Jamaica use machines to separate the fruit from the bean,” he said, pondering. “The rest of the countries use actual labor, meaning someone is in the fields and picking only the ripe fruits, one by one.” Always been in the food industry The food industry sure isn’t a new thing for Coffey. Born and raised in Cornwall and a graduate from St. Lawrence College in 1975, he was recruited right out of college by the federal government and moved to Toronto to work in the lab at the Health Protection Branch of the Department of Health and Welfare, now called Health Canada. Over 30 some odd years, he has been employed in a wide variety of roles in the food industry: process development project leader, research scientist, analytical chemist, quality assurance manager and regulatory affairs manager, tomention a few. “I was a food technologist at one point,” he explained. “What I can say about the food industry is that it’s not about the product anymore. It’s about the marketing and the costs.” So what does the coffee expert think of the Keurig cups? “Well, I think you’ll never be able to put enough coffee in there to make a great tasting cup! I always put too much, it gives it a great taste.”
Reg Coffey offers an array of different beans. Here, he’s pictured with only a small fraction of what he offers. — photo Francis Racine
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The Journal Cornwall
9
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
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