Denver Magazine / July 2009 / The Optimistic Omnivore: High-Altitude Roasted Coffee — Getting to the Bottom of the Buzz

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The Optimistic Omnivore: High-Altitude Roasted Coffee — Getting to the Bottom of the Buzz

I first heard the term “high-altitude roasted coffee” from Colorado’s Ink. The company’s marketing person explained that, at elevation, beans are roasted at a lower temperature for a longer period of time, resulting in a more developed cup. It’s the reason Englewood-based Scottish Roaster recently changed its name to Elevation Coffee Traders. The theory sounded plausible, but it’s low-altitude places like Seattle and Vienna that are associated with a good cup — so I set out to get to the bottom of the buzz.

Roasting, I learned, is a lot like popping popcorn in a clothes dryer. Green coffee beans are heated to 400-plus degrees and continuously moved. As they go from green to gold to brown, the sugars begin to caramelize, and eventually, they pop. The longer the coffee beans are roasted beyond this “first crack,” as it is known, the darker the roast.

Ink, Elevation, and other proponents of high-altitude roasting say the effects of our atmospheric pressure, dry climate, and clean air during this process lead to a smoother, fuller, less bitter cup.

Chris Chantler, cofounder of Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Co. told me, “We were at a trade show, and one of the Italians said, ‘Vail? You have black gold.’ He was referring to roasters in Switzerland that were at 3,000 feet.” Chantler, who roasts coffee in Minturn at 7,861 feet above sea level, decided to look into the Italian’s theory.

In the mid-1990s, Vail Mountain partnered with a roaster in Pasadena, California. Both used the same Guatemalan coffee beans. “The conditions were not laboratory controlled,” Chantler says, “but we used the same weight, the same temperature.” Just like boiling water, he found that first crack happened sooner and at a lower temperature at altitude. “When we compared the two coffees,” he says, “they both had that classic Guatemalan brightness, but we had a little bit more body in the cup.” His theory is that because the sugars start to caramelize at a lower temperature it slows the process and leads to deeper, richer flavor profiles.

Chantler also mentioned our dry air. Roasting coffee drives so much moisture out of the beans that, he says, “They want to absorb moisture and odors.” Vail Mountain’s Website indicates, “Dry mountain air minimizes moisture absorption by the bean as it cools.”

The quality of our air is another advantage I heard about. Referring to the idea that there are fewer pollutants to contaminate the process, Copper Door’s Sinjin Eberle, who roasts coffee in his Park Hill garage, says, “we have less problem getting the real clean, crisp flavor here.”

The list of considerations went on — I was also told our atmospheric pressure keeps coffee fresh longer; that roasts need to be darker when brewed at an altitude with a lower boiling point; that the pH level of our water makes for a better cup; even the romantic notion that high-altitude roasting is more in keeping with the environment from which some of the best beans come, farms at altitude.

But as with most things in the coffee world, there is great debate about these theories, even from others roasting at elevation.

“The idea that the air is cleaner makes for good ad copy,” says Mark Overly, owner of Denver’s Kaladi Brothers Coffee. He and other skeptics argue that, while there are certainly scientific differences, other parts of the roasting process matter far more than elevation.

“It absolutely makes a difference,” says RC Gartrell, who was at Portland’s famed Stumptown before opening Tomboy Coffee Roasters in Telluride at 8,100 feet, “but as far as cup-quality goes, you can get to a good cup of coffee in either place; you just get there in a different way. That’s my job as a roaster.”

For Denver’s beloved Novo Coffee, it’s the beans. “Altitude is not the determining factor,” says Novo’s Mike Lair, whose roasts are poured at New York’s scrupulous Café Grumpy. “The quality is directly proportional to the green product. Whether you are roasting in New York or Denver, that is under your control.”

Not only did many high-altitude roasters refute the notion that our elevation is an advantage, they actually talked about it as a disadvantage. In 2007, Conscious Coffees moved from Breckenridge to Boulder, in part, to make roasting easier. “Coming down to this lower elevation allowed me more airflow and shorter cooling times,” says Mark Glenn, the owner and roaster. And the dry climate? Glenn, whose coffee is poured at Frasca, has a humidity-controlled storage room for his green coffee beans. “When your beans get the moisture sucked out of them, you can’t reintroduce it. That is a huge challenge with high elevation,” he says.

The other concern, critics say, is the amount of coffee that can be roasted at one time. Because heat transference is less efficient, roasters have to use less coffee than the amount their roaster is rated for. Lair, who uses a Novo-blue half-bag vintage Vittoria roaster, uses 10 percent fewer beans.

But the storage and load challenges these roasters cited were ones of efficiency and investment. I was concerned not with business models, but with cup quality.

Tim Thwaites, Seattle-trained co-owner of Denver’s omnipresent Coda Coffee Company, summed up the two sides of the debate well: “I’d like to tell you it’s an advantage, but there isn’t enough scientific evidence to back it up. Nobody’s spent the time to figure it out.”

So what if someone did? I called Colorado State University, and food science expert Martha Stone, PhD said it sounded possible that there could be a link. In a recent article about high-altitude roasting, Tea & Coffee journal echoed this opinion: “There is scientific logic to back up the theory.”

What if we took equally tenured roasters on the same small-batch Probats with the same Cup of Excellence beans and perfectly pure air, but at different altitudes?

In the mean time, one thing’s for sure. Whether because of or despite our elevation, there is incredible coffee roasting going on in Colorado and no doubt the state deserves a place on the world coffee map.

Cupping Colorado

There’s so much coffee-roasting going on in Colorado we decided a blind cupping was in order. We gathered a group ranging from latte-lovers to black-only purists and French-pressed our way through an entire afternoon. Here are five favorites available in Denver.

Allegro Coffee Company, Rainforest Blend

We loved the lemon zest and caramel in this limited-edition, light-roast blend of beans from three farms in Central America. Roasted at 5,342 feet; allegrocoffee.com.

Copper Door Coffee Roasters, Colombia Monserraté Espresso

The “chocolate goodness,” as one taster called it, in this truly artisanal espresso is so appealing that we brew it as a regular cup of Joe. Roasted at 5,280 feet; copperdoorcoffee.com.

Kaladi Brothers Coffee, Sulawesi Toraja White Eagle

Kaladi swears by dark roasts for our lower boiling point. This one has the characteristic tobacco but plenty of nutmeg to keep it interesting. Roasted at 5,280 feet; kaladicoffee.com.

Novo Coffee, Ojo de Agua Volcan Panama

You know you’re doing something right when your competition admits they like your coffee. We like it too, especially this nutty, woody, “easy drinker.” Roasted at 5,280 feet; novocoffee.com.

Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Co., Guatemalan S.H.B.

Whether it’s the roasting altitude of nearly 8,000 feet or the hand-picked, sun-dried beans, this coffee is balanced perfection. Roasted at 7,861 feet; vailcoffee.com.