The Good Life – November-December 2020

WRITTEN BY: KRISSY NESS
PHOTOS BY: URBAN TOAD MEDIA
When you think of coffee, what are
you picturing? Maybe it is a delicious
cup of espresso, or perhaps an icecold
caramel latte? Believe it or not,
coffee first originated in a protein-rich
snack bar accompanied by animal fat,
according to pbs.com.
Although we call them coffee beans, in its original
unprocessed form, coffee is a cherry-like fruit – which
becomes red when ripe while the bean is the pit.
There are a couple of ways they can harvest these
beans from the fruit – washed and natural process.
Washed (or wet) is the process of removing the fruit
from the bean and then laying them out to dry, rotating
them often; this is the most popular form.
The natural process involves keeping the fruit and
bean intact and undisturbed, where they get laid out
to dry as a whole unit until they are separated from
the dried fruit and sent off to a roaster before being
brewed, according to Coldbrewhub.com.
Now that we have the history of coffee down, we can
get into it with one of our local roasters, Dexter "Dex"
Dutton of Thunder Coffee in West Fargo, ND.
Thunder Coffee has been open for a year this October
in their West Fargo location. It is safe to say they are
doing well if they had the initiative to jump into the
roasting business.
"It is not super common to have a roaster for a café
our size. Usually, cafes that have been around a little
bit longer have a larger following," laughed Dex.
The Oklahoma native took a big chance opening up
a coffee shop with his brother Skyler Dutton, and it
has paid off. Not only for them but for coffee drinkers
everywhere.
When they first started a year and a half ago, Dex
took a crash course on their old 250 kg roaster, which
24 / THE GOOD LIFE / urbantoadmedia.com