The Peruvian is an Organic and fairly-traded single-origin bean that is heated to the sweetest stage of caramelization to create a velvety Vienna roast. At Press Coffee, they provide us with two roasts from the darker end of our selection. They deliver to a variety of places in Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, Cedar Rapids, and Mount Vernon. As the longest independent roaster in the area, and likely the state, he has seen other roasters come and go but is now sharing the community with the likes of Java House, Capanna, Dash, and Wake Up Iowa City, not to mention the larger chain cafes that have popped up.Ĭafe del Sol’s beans can be found at grocers such as Hy-Vee and New Pioneer Co-op as well as the Iowa City Farmer’s Market. With the rising popularity of coffee, Cafe del Sol has been feeling the heat of competition. He likes to pass that on to his current employees by providing them flexible part-time work that can fit into their busy lives, but at the same time laments that he can’t afford to provide any of them with full-time work. Starting this business was a way for Stephen to elevate his passion for good coffee, but it also made it easier to raise his daughter at the same time. Each bag of coffee has a tracking number that follows it from farm to roaster. Many of their business practices support not only the farmers at origin but the local community as well. The beans they deliver to Press come in reusable jugs, eliminating any single-use packaging for the journey across town. They donate leftover beans to local organizations such as Shelter House and have sent coffee to the Water Defenders at Standing Rock. Otherwise, they use recyclable and biodegradable packaging, reuse what they can, and compost the rest. That’s why many of the coffees have a lowercase ‘ft’ next to the name instead of a capital ‘FT’.Īs far as their local impact on the environment, Cafe del Sol adds less than 30 pounds of waste to the landfill a month. Most of their beans are in fact Fair Trade certified through the importer, but since they could only afford to pursue one certification, Stephen chose Organic. That doesn’t mean Cafe del Sol’s coffee isn’t fairly traded, however, they aim to work with farms that are socially and environmentally sustainable. This certification ensures things like a minimum price per pound and environmental stewardship. The intensive nature of certification is the reason why Cafe del Sol has the Organic label but not one for Fair Trade.
It’s time-consuming and costly, and as we’ve previously mentioned, the poor wages of coffee farmers these days may prohibit them from getting certification despite growing coffee organically. Even still, they have to maintain organic practices for three years before getting their official certification. At the end of the farmer, an Organic label means that they have to go through a strict vetting process, get tested for 140 chemicals and more. Obtaining it in 2003, they have to maintain meticulous records of a bean’s journey from the importer to the hands of the customer. Keeping a strict inventory of what they sell and roast is not only good for business but necessary for Cafe del Sol’s USDA Organic certification. Stephen’s first 40 batches were roasted in the basement of his townhome for friends but he has now roasted over 100,000 batches, eight pounds at a time.
This method is a more efficient way of roasting and is said to have a cleaner-tasting end product. This also means that the bean is hotter than any surface, removing the possibility of burning or charring. (A machine you can use at home to roast your own beans, by the way.) A traditional drum machine rotates the beans so they heat evenly, but in the Sivetz they get fully roasted by levitating in the hot air. At Cafe del Sol, they use a Sivetz fluid bed air roaster which uses heated air to roast coffee, much like a popcorn popper. A typical coffee roaster spins the green coffee inside a drum, using radiant heat, similar to a clothes dryer.
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