Few of life’s pleasures match the simplicity and perfection of a freshly brewed cup of coffee in the morning. The aroma induces a sense of comfort and the taste compliments most, if not all, breakfast fare. However, the journey coffee takes before reaching your mug is much more complex than your morning java ritual. Typically ignored by most people, the story behind each bean serves as the driving force behind Peace Coffee, a fair trade certified seller of organic coffee. Created by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in December 1996, Peace Coffee is based in Minneapolis and has connections with coffee cooperatives in Mexico, Sumatra, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Peru, Nicaragua and Colombia. Each year, these relationships grow stronger, ensuring farmers the best price for their crop and customers the best bean for their dollar.

Everything from roasting to bagging takes place at Peace Coffee’s eco-friendly Minneapolis warehouse. Every six weeks, beans arrive in huge burlap sacks after being shipped from New Jersey, where the Peace Coffee port is located. Upon arrival, the beans make their way into their designated silos. Each silo is marked with the bean's home country as well as a photograph of the co-op on which the bean was grown, a reminder of the personal relationship between the company and their growers.



Once organized, it’s time to get roasting. Peace Coffee employs nineteen people, of which approximately half are roasters. After receiving an order, roasters weigh out the batch size and pour the beans from the silos into buckets, each of which hold 25 pounds. The beans are then poured into the chosen roasting machine’s green bean hopper.

Roasters at Peace Coffee have their choice between two roasting machines: the smaller Primo roaster (an oldie but a goodie, according to Mel Meegan, Peace Coffee employee and coffee expert) and the much larger Diedrich roaster. Smaller batches generally find themselves in the Primo, which holds 50 pounds of beans per roast.




Big loads head to Diedrich, a whopper of a machine that roasts batches of 120 pounds at a time.



When the beans are inside the roaster, the tricky part begins. Everything from the temperature outside to the humidity inside can affect the roasting process, so roasters must watch batches meticulously to ensure a positive turnout. Two burners adjust the temperature inside the roasting machines. This is crucial to the roasting process and is documented every two minutes to be compared to the ideal roaster's curve. In addition to checking the temperature, roasters manually check the color of the beans approximately 15 times throughout the roasting process by removing the eyeglass, a small scoop located on the outside of each machine.

When the beans are in the final stages of roasting, roasters turn off the burners, open the chamber door and allow the beans to fall onto the cooling tray. After three minutes or so, the beans return to room temperature and are ready to be packaged.



All bagging, labeling and transportation takes place at the warehouse, ensuring the freshest coffee in the Twin Cities. Adding to this measure of perfection, Peace Coffee also has a coffee laboratory; a tasting space where each batch of coffee is tested for taste and quality on a score sheet.



Derek De Lapaz is the main man behind this part of the roasting process. Formerly a chef for 10 years in Napa Valley, De Lapaz hosts tastings, training seminars and triangulation coffee tests. This may seem a bit extreme to coffee outsiders, but with more scents and aromas than either chocolate or wine, it turns out this process is entirely necessary to guarantee the best coffee possible.



Roasting an average of 8,000 pounds of coffee each week, Peace Coffee’s dedication to co-ops, customers and coffee makes them the ideal fair trade, organic company, one which Minneapolis is proud to call their own.