Three decades ago, Michael Johnson was over-roasting beans on a small Sivetz air roaster in a bakery basement in South Madison, Wisconsin. At the time, freshly roasted coffee was all the rage. Customers wanted it cheap and burnt, with the idea that a dark roast meant strong coffee. That was the unlikely start of JBC Coffee Roasters—a company that is now internationally renowned for the quality of its coffee.
Today, Johnson and his wife, Laura, run a very different coffee business. The company has won five Good Food Awards, and has been recognized multiple times as one of the top roasters in the United States.
Fresh Cup Magazine recently sat down—and sipped coffee—with JBC co-owner Laura Salinger-Johnson to discuss how the business has remained relevant for 30 years running. The key? Being open to the unexpected—and avoiding any gimmicks.
What was the roasting scene like when JBC first got started?
When we got started, it was 1994 and all the rage was freshly roasted [coffee]. There was not a focus on quality at all. You were dealing with diner coffee: people believing they should get free refills, extraordinarily low prices for coffee, and a disconnect between the farmer and the roaster and the consumer. People really didn’t even know where their coffee came from a lot of the time.
What is a story from the early days of the business that seems totally wild now?
[Back then], [Michael] was packaging up his coffee in Ziploc bags, writing the name of the coffee on the bag, roasting the day before it was delivered, and then telling people to put their coffee in the freezer. So a lot of missteps that you shouldn’t be doing, but that was the information we had at the time.
Things have changed with roasters too, where we [now] have a lot of the knowledge on the chemistry and science behind coffee. We have all become a lot more knowledgeable about it over the years. There wasn’t that expectation when we started 30 years ago.
It took us probably about five to seven years to really start focusing on specialty coffee. We weren’t even cupping our coffees. We weren’t even sampling our coffees. We were trusting our brokers, and they would just send us whatever.
What was the operation like when JBC first began roasting in the ’90s?
Michael had a little tiny room where he roasted the coffee and where he also stored the green beans. It was probably the size of a master bedroom or something like that. No humidity control, no climate-controlled green room like we have now.
Everybody thought of this homogenized taste of coffee. As if coffee should taste like coffee—just kind of this darker-roasted, homogenous-tasting product. And so there was really no nuance between different coffees. We were telling people Indonesian coffee tasted different than South or Central Americans and Ethiopians, but we were still darker-roasting at that point. And you do not get the nuanced differences that you certainly do now between all of our coffees.
What was that learning experience like—figuring out which roast works better for specific beans?
We hired [international coffee consultant] Willem Boot, and he helped with the roasting processes. We also worked with Tracy Allen [founder and CEO of Brewed Behavior] on some roasting processes a little later on. But it was a lot of experimentation. It was a lot of tasting coffees. It was a lot of coming to understand just how different each coffee tastes.
Then, when we started throwing those light roasts on the coffees, you start really understanding how vastly different each coffee is from the other—and how you can really create amazing, unique, different profiles for all these different coffees.
The roasting industry has changed so much over the last few decades. How has JBC worked to stay relevant?
One, telling the truth—and that is something we’ve always done. Two, being flexible to move with the coffee industry, but also not giving in to gimmicky trends or things that will not have longevity. I believe we have a great balance of being professional enough to know what works and not changing things unless we really believe it’s warranted. But there are always changes, so you do have to remain flexible.
How do you tell the difference between a change that’ll stick and a gimmick?
When it comes to coffee itself, it’s just tasting it. We have 30 years of experience tasting coffee. And for instance, when you’re coming up with co-ferments, anaerobic coffees, all of these crazy new trends that we’re seeing at the farm level—we are open to them, but we also are very finicky and picky. So if a coffee is over-processed and we really feel like we can taste that when we cup it, we will probably steer clear of it.
We’ve had two co=ferments. I know the industry is torn between them. Our theory on that is, if it’s a great cup of coffee, it’s a great cup of coffee, and we’re going to bring it in. But we’ve tasted many, many, many co-ferments that are just too over-the-top for us.
That doesn’t feel like a gimmicky trend so much. But you have to really pay attention to things like, is the coffee still clean? What are the fruit characteristics? Is it something that is not too over-the-top and crazy?
(At this point we pause to taste two different roasts of an orange bourbon grown by Wilton Benitez.)
[Wilton Benitez] is a producer in Colombia, a chemical engineer turned coffee producer. What is most noticeable for me is he has eliminated so many variables that change the crop from year to year. So he has environmentally friendly drying chambers that he constructed that eliminate having to dry on the patio and dealing with weather and all the things that can ruin your crop. He does anaerobic processing, thermal shock, all kinds of steps along the way—but each crop year in and out, his coffees literally taste the same. It’s amazing.
What are the most notable changes in the coffee industry over the last 30 years?
Back when we started, 30 years ago, there really was only washed, natural, or wet-hulled.
Even then, there were coffee purists that were against natural-processed coffees, which is pretty funny to look back on, because I feel like natural-processed coffees are obviously now embedded in the coffee industry and very normal.
What about changes in roasting methods?
I would say moving to lighter roast has obviously been a trend over the 30 years that has happened. We only really light-roast our coffees now. I think most of our competitors still like to offer light, medium, dark, because there’s definitely consumers that want each of these things. But we really are adamant about showcasing each coffee to its truest, best sense.
In our opinion, that means sourcing really exceptional coffees and then light-roasting them, because the darker you roast, you’re kind of burning off any of those intrinsic, natural flavors.
What has changed most about how industry players interact with each other?
I think there’s a lot more transparency between roasters and green buyers now than there was 30 years ago. When we would go visit farms at origin, there was kind of this competition between roasters to find the best green coffee in the region and then hijack it for yourself and not share it with anybody else.
I think we’re a lot more transparent about where the coffee comes from, and the farms and the farmers, and sharing with people. And if other people want to go source that coffee, they can go source that coffee—it’s not this big private game anymore.
What has the relationship been like between JBC and the consumer as far as gathering feedback and sharing information?
We have to provide a lot more information now, and we’re happy to do so. Consumers want to know a lot more now. Twenty years ago, we were after this loyal client base, so we won over customers by really just trying to have great coffee. And I think the consumer back then was more willing to stay loyal to one great coffee company they found.
Now, I see a big difference. And it depends on the generation—I think we have older people that are very loyal to JBC. But what I find the trend to be among young coffee drinkers, 20- or 30-year-old coffee drinkers, even 40-year-old coffee drinkers, is they’re just really after the next best thing. So, when we come out with a new coffee, they will buy a coffee from us. When a fellow competitor that’s really doing high-end, special coffees comes out with a new coffee, they’ll buy it from them.
In your 30 years in the industry, what is one of the best coffees you’ve ever roasted?
I would have to say it’s the Yaye Chericho Ethiopia, extended ferment.
That lemony, floral, lovely Ethiopian profile is something that we’ll always come back to as one of our favorites. It’s one of the best coffees from Ethiopia we’ve ever had—silky and sparkly with tasting notes of lemondrop, wildflower, honey, lavender, pineapple upside-down cake, elderflower tonic, and Granny Smith apple. It was lovely, elegant, so easy-drinking, but also stood out. I would drink that cup of coffee every day for the rest of my life.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
