The Perk: Noble Coffee Roasting

By Elisabeth Swarttouw
For the Tidings
Posted: 2:00 AM March 26, 2013

People can’t help but notice the black hoodies with an outline of a white lion and the “Noble Coffee” logo being worn around the Rogue Valley. This isn’t a fashion statement, but a representation of the public following Ashland-based Noble Coffee Roasting has built in four years.

At almost any given moment inside Noble’s coffee house in the Railroad District, visitors can see the roasting machine in action and an expert, called the roaster, beside it, cradling a small sample of beans in hand and taking diligent notes.

The roaster considers the beans’ color, smell and temperature as well as dozens of other variables to tease out features distinctive to those beans.

Related Stories
The Perk: Case Coffee Roasters
Hands That Feed
This story is part of a series spotlighting local farmers, growers, coffee roasters and other food and drink producers. Read this story at www.dailytidings.com/locallygrown and discover other eat-local stories, videos and resources.

Coffee glossary

Noble customer favorites:

Gibraltar: Served in a 5-ounce, clear glass at a lower temperature for quick consumption, this drink has two shots of espresso and 3 ounces of steamed milk. It’s larger than a macchiato and smaller than a cappuccino, and has a thick texture and flavor.

Siphon service: The top vessel is filled with coffee grounds and the heat is removed from the bottom vessel when the coffee has finished brewing. Each vessel must sustain “vapor pressure,” which refers to boiling water converting high-density water (a liquid) into low-density steam (a gas), which expands to take up more volume. Noble upgraded the typical cloth filter to a metal assembly, and uses bamboo stirrers instead of plastic ones.

A few days later, the roaster will “cup” — taste — the coffee in a new cupping/teaching facility in the back of the coffeehouse at 281 Fourth St.

A large notebook contains the profile — the aroma, flavor, body and finish — of each of the around 14,000 coffees Noble staffers have roasted since they opened, says owner Jared Rennie.

To source the beans, Rennie travels to Central and South America. He was just invited to Honduras to sit on an international panel of judges for the Cup of Excellence, a prestigious coffee competition and auction.

Rennie meets with the certified organic coffee producers at their farms and buys directly from them.

“Noble only buys coffee produced without any chemicals,” Rennie said, adding that, in general, nonorganic coffee “is the number one most chemically laden crop that we consume. The use of these synthetics didn’t exist 60 years ago.”

For its sustainable methods and quality, Noble recently received the Local Hero award by Edible Portland magazine.

Visitors to Noble’s walk-up Window at 46 E. Main St. and its booth at the Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market can also try a fresh cup of coffee.

“The growers market is a phenomenal way to interact with our customers,” said Marjorie Gosling, Noble’s director of sales and education. “To be outside, affected by the elements, hot or cold, and (we) still make a wonderful cup of coffee.”

Like other vendors that produce from turnips to donuts, Noble shares the philosophy of directly supporting the quality of life of farmers.

Elisabeth Swarttouw is an Ashland-based writer who works at Mix Sweet Shop and researches coffee.

Growers & Crafters Market
The Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market is open from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays at the Ashland National Guard Armory, 1420 E. Main St. Starting May 4, the Ashland Saturday Market will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on downtown Oak Street. The markets accept Oregon Trail, debit and credit cards, as well as cash. Find information about these and other markets across the valley at www.dailytidings.com/locallygrown.