JULY NIBJ: Every coffee tells a story

BONNERS FERRY — Lore Coffee Roasters formed with the purpose of bringing unique and specialty coffee to the Idaho Panhandle, telling the story of the unique flavors and aromas found in every coffee.

Owners Nicholas Carter and Graysen Spiller focus on the science behind coffee and experiment with roasting techniques and blending coffee beans in order to find the best way to bring the natural and unique flavors out of the bean.

Carter has worked in specialty coffee for nearly eight years and brings his knowledge of the coffee process to Lore. Spiller brings business experience and brand knowledge to the company. He oversees the company's logistics, creating a dynamic duo that is both vision and business focused.

Unlike other coffee roasting companies, Lore is focused on the story of the coffee and highlighting the farmers that cultivated the product, rather than being consumer-oriented.

By focusing on the story or lore of the coffee, Lore Coffee Roasters uniquely roasts coffee in order to bring out the distinct flavors and showcase the drink as black unfiltered coffee, focusing on light and medium roasts.

Lore takes great care to source the highest quality coffee and, through their own scientific studies and trial and error, discover the best way to roast the different coffees in order to accomplish their mission.

“We roast every coffee differently to showcase how it is grown,” Carter said. “There’s a lot of different variables that affect what coffee tastes like.”

The flavor is influenced by the origin, elevation decides how dense the bean is, and the variety.

“You can take three different varieties from the same farmer in Columbia, have them treated and processed the same, but when we get them we have to roast them differently, and they taste different,” Carter said.

Carter and Spiller first started roasting in December 2022. They experimented with different coffee varieties to find the perfect roast for each type of coffee. By February 2023, Lore Coffee Roasters began selling online, then at local farmers markets. Since late May their roasting operation and a pop up stall has been housed inside the co-working facility, The Coalition BF.

When asked if they are concerned about a packed market of North Idaho coffee roasting companies, Carter and Spiller were not fazed. Their goal is not to be another roasting company, but to be an award-winning, nationally recognized specialty coffee roaster. Still in the works, they are negotiating with other local coffee houses to provide their fresh roasted coffee.

Customers are used to heavily flavored coffee using added syrups, but that is typically used with lower grade coffee that was roasted really dark.

“In order for it to taste pleasant you have to add cream and sweetener,” Carter said. “Because it really is just bitter, but that’s not what coffee has to be.”

He recollected that when drinking coffee at a specialty coffee shop, the coffee inheritably had sweet floral or berry flavors naturally that were all just derived from the environment that the bean was originally from. That’s the experience Lore wants to bring to the Idaho Panhandle and beyond.

They provide as much detail on their coffee on the bag, including the place of origin, wash location, elevation, and even day the coffee was roasted.

For more information, visit www.loreroasters.com.