Sugar Grove and cream

By MARY BETH JACKSON/Correspondent

John Cason fondly remembers his first young encounter with coffee.
“It was a very, very cold day in winter and I was at a football game,” he said. “I’m sure it was awful. It kept me warm.”
The Rural Retreat native didn’t begin to drink it regularly until college, when he used it for the caffeine kick.
“It was crucial in my ability to get my diploma,” he said.
The love affair began in 1986. An efficiency expert in the apparel industry, John Cason’s work often took him to Latin America. He and his wife, Liz (a jewelry designer) lived for two years in Costa Rica.
It was there, he said, that “We were exploring, and one day we were lost.”
Coming to a stop sign, John didn’t know whether to turn right or left.
“And we smelled a wonderful aroma in the air,” Cason said.
Cason says he and Liz were drawn to the aroma like cartoon characters to pies on windowsills. Their detour led them to a small village coffee roasting operation, where they were welcomed like long lost
friends and given a sample of the coffee.
“We were entranced by that,” Cason said. We were hooked. We tried it, and had never had coffee so fresh and so good.”
The couple visited every weekend they could, and John learned to roast from his new friends and masters of the trade.
“We have been blessed by meeting wonderful people who have invited us not only into their businesses, but their homes,” he said.
The experience led him to forsake an opportunity to travel to China with the apparel industry and instead start his own business, Dark Hollow Micro Roasters, in Sugar Grove, in September 2006. He roasts in small batches, creating custom roasts for local restaurants and stores.
The aroma of his work floats through his valley, recreating the transforming Costa Rica experience.
“When there’s no wind in the valley, there’s a little coffee haze,” Cason said.

“Coffee’s a very deep subject,” Cason said.
Like wine, he said, the flavor characteristics of coffee vary by origin. The flavor is further complicated by where, when, and how the beans are harvested and their ripeness. Roasting adds another
variable, and Cason must consider the humidity and temperature of the beans he is working with to develop the flavors he seeks.
“It’s a mixture of art and science,” he said. “You don’t just stick it in the roaster and come back in 20 minutes and dump it.”
Cason has to watch and listen carefully during the roasting process. The beans make a sound like popcorn popping, but quieter and twice as fast, called “cracking.” Beans will go through two cracks while
roasting: The first at 370 degrees, the second at a temperature of the
roaster’s choosing – the secret formula.
There’s something he doesn’t keep secret though – his commitment to selling only fair trade and organic coffees. He says it’s good for growers and good for the environment.
The squeeze has been put on small bean farmers throughout the world in a system dependent upon the futures market and middlemen (known as “coyotes”) so that growers receive an inadequate return for their crops. Fair trade ensures growers aren’t ripped off and that a portion of their profit is reinvested in their businesses and communities. Cason says he and Liz spent nearly 10 years living and working outside the United States and saw many people working very hard for very little. He’s also seen that better terms for growers results in better coffee.
“The crop improves with the living conditions of the people,” he said.
Fair trade and organic coffee is also certified as to how it is grown and that the practices used to produce it are sustainable.
“We feel good about what we do because our ecological footprint is very small,” he said.
The couple wants to dedicate a portion of their income to the villages they work with in places such as Kenya and Mexico, to provide things such as crayons, school materials and public telephones.
“We see some needs there we could help meet,” Cason said.
Cason drinks three cups daily and samples what he roasts. He loves the feel of the beans running through his fingers. The magic hasn’t faded with time.
“I can stand at the exhaust vent of my roaster and breathe it in,” he said.
And after traveling the globe, he’s glad to be back home in Southwest Virginia.
“There’s no other place in the world like here,” he said. “There’s no other place to live like Sugar Grove.”

BEAN BITES

Are you sweetening your coffee, or just compensating? Cason believes many people who dump cream and sugar into their brew are compensating for a stale roast.
“I have found bitterness to be a function of not being fresh,” Cason said. “We recommend that for peak freshness, you drink your coffee within four weeks of it being roasted.”

In Smyth County, Dark Hollow coffees are available at One Twenty, Handsome Molly’s and O’Dell’s Market.

In Washington County, Dark Hollow coffees are available at: Java J’s in Bristol and Abingdon; Wildflower Bakery in Abingdon; and the Harvest Table restaurant and Meadowview Farmers Guild in Meadowview. The Acoustic coffee house in Johnson City also carries the line.

In Floyd, Dark Hollow coffees are available at Sweet Providence Farms.