Roasted to perfection: Equator Estate Coffees and Teas wins top honor

November 8, 7:41 PMSF Sustainable Food ExaminerJeri Lynn Chandler

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Imagine the perfect cup of coffee - made from good beans, fairly traded, sustainably grown and roasted to perfection, then brewed up and served just as you like it. Perfect. To find those great beans you need look no farther than San Rafael and Equator Estate Coffees & Teas, Roast Magazine's 2010 Macro Roaster of the Year. Judged against forty of the country's best coffee roasters, Equator won out for their high standards of quality, sustainability, and business innovation.

Akin to America's Top Chef and the James Beard Award, the Roaster of the Year designation is considered a top award in the $13.65 billion U.S. specialty coffee market.

The deciding round of competition pitted three finalists in a blind cupping of their coffees judged by industry professionals. Equator submitted three coffees: Panama Esmeralda Geisha, Ethiopia Amaro Gayo Organic and Moka Java, which proved a winning combination. Props go to Equator's head roaster David Pohl, who credits the company's interest in sourcing beans that are fresh and in season - and attention to preserving that freshness - for Equator's superior roast.

The blind tasting decided it, but the range of achievements for which Equator was honored in this year's Macro Roaster of the Year competition included:

• Equator has a proven track-record of coffee quality, regularly winning awards and attracting some of the industry's most celebrated chefs.
• Equator was a pioneer in adopting the ultra-efficient Loring Smart Roaster, which reduces carbon emissions by 80%.
• Equator's biofuel and hybrid vehicles make all deliveries; and the company composts 100 percent of its coffee chaff and burlap bags.
• Equator has provided micro-loans to coffee partners around the world for quality related investments.
• Equator has spearheaded social and environmental sustainability projects that benefit food challenged communities in coffee growing regions around the world.
• Equator recently purchased its own farm in Panama, where they are in the process of growing ultra-boutique, sustainable coffee alongside a team of Panamanians with generations of experience in coffee cultivation.

Brooke McDonnell and Helen Russell,
co-owners of Equator Coffees

Equator Coffees is co-owned by Brooke McDonnell and Helen Russell. Dedicated to quality product and sustainable processes since they started their company in 1995, the purchase of their farm in Panama now allows them to take responsibility for their beans from bush to roaster.

In an interview with Roast Magazine, McDonnell spoke about transparency being one of their early guiding principles in starting Equator, “We both owned espresso bars originally, and it was really difficult to get information from local roasters and have the total partnership,” says McDonnell. “It felt like there was a rich, really nutrient-dense scene happening behind the actual roasting of the coffee. … So when we opened, we really put forth the idea that we will share all the information we learned at origin and through working in retail ourselves.” (Macro Roaster of the Year: Equator Estate Coffees & Teas , by Rivers Janssen)

It's this kind of attention to detail that made Equator Roaster of the Year. "Equator Estate Coffees & Teas encompasses the core of a true artisan coffee-roaster," says Connie Blumhardt, Publisher of Roast Magazine. "Roast chose Equator Estate Coffees as our 2010 Macro Roaster of the Year because of their commitment to sustainability, desire to educate their employees and customers as well their continual drive to push the boundaries of what it means to be a coffee roaster. Equator Coffees has a true passion for creating and selling amazing coffee."

Equator Estate Coffees & Teas

Equator Estate Coffees and Teas is a women-owned green business co-founded by Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell in 1995. Based in San Rafael, Calif., Equator Coffees & Teas is a specialty coffee roaster, tea purveyor and coffee farm owner. Equator sources and grows boutique-grade estate, organic, fair trade, and Rainforest Alliance Certified coffees worldwide, focusing on quality and sustainablity. Its experimental geisha varietal coffee farm in Volcan, Panama is under development and is expected to produce its first harvest in 2012.

Equator's tea line includes rare Chinese and Japanese offerings, as well as boxed tea under the label Rare Cargo.

Bay Area customers include the French Laundry, Bouchon Restaurants and Bakeries, Citizen Cake, La Boulange and Whole Foods Markets. Equator has won numerous awards including the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Business (2008 & 2009), National Association of Women Business Owners - Trail Blazer Award (2009), San Francisco's Business Times Top 100 Fastest Growing Woman Owned Businesses (7 years in a row), the Specialty Coffee Association's annual Roasters Choice Award (2009) and the Women's Initiative: "Woman Owned Business of the Year" (2009).