Change. A polarizing conversation at best sometimes on Nantucket but there are a few things that we KNOW we can all agree on that we don't want to change. Like the chopped salad at Languedoc or the Lobster Roll at Sea Grille. Another thing we can probably all agree on is that we never really want that first cup of coffee in the morning routine to change. Our featured maker this month, Wes Van Cott from Nantucket Coffee Roasters, knows this well and one thing on Nantucket that hasn't changed in 30 years that you probably never even knew about - the roasting machine Wes uses to make his island-iconic blends and single bean roasts.
Over thirty years ago, after watching the way the original Green Mountain Roasters in Portland, Maine was getting freshly roasted coffees out the door, Wes purchased a roaster and started roasting coffee beans on Nantucket: before he even had the first customer.
It didn't take long to get those customers once he started handing out samples on around town. From those early days, Wes has created blend after blend that many now equate with quintessential morning perfection on Nantucket. He has also opened and closed his beloved coffee shop in two downtown locations as well as allowed us to all vicariously travel the world through his selection of coffee beans. He has come to know a place through the structure and expression of the beans - the altitude, the average temperature, the notes of flower or chocolate on the palate. Language and expression of place that may sound familiar to those who think about wine but also apply to coffee even if we do dump sugar, milk and pumpkin spice into some of them....
