The Perks of Selling Coffee

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ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS – Coffee isn’t just a drink with breakfast or during a respite from work for Greg Lewis and Barbara DiBeneditto.
No, like those who grow it and live with it in Central and South America and elsewhere around the globe, coffee is very much about who they are.
Lewis and DiBeneditto, a married couple from Fair Haven, have been operating Fair Mountain Coffee Roasters at 171 First Ave. for about two and a half years. They describe it as a fair trade, organic micro-roaster of specialty coffees.
“It is our work. It is our fun. It is our life,” Lewis said.
Part of the joy of coffee is the transformation it experiences from green bean to roasted and ground and ready to be brewed, he said.
“It smells nothing like coffee as a bean” in its green stage, Lewis said. The pre-roasted green beans give off a scent resembling more along the lines of hay or grain than what many think of as coffee. After about 10 to 15 minutes in the gas-fired roaster – “It’s not a long process,” – it undergoes an alchemy. “It goes to this chocolaty, caramel smell” that many – Lewis included – so love and require each day.
“It really is a wonderful process,” he said.
It’s a process he and DiBeneditto perform every day for the approximately 25 different types of fresh coffee – African, Indonesian and Central and South American varieties – they have available.
“All of our coffee is dated” to ensure the customer of its freshness, he said.
“That’s what separates good coffee from bad; the freshness,” he said. It should be handled like bread. “I can’t say it enough.”
DiBeneditto likes “the social aspect” of coffee. “It brings people together.”
It certainly did for this couple. Their first date was over a cup of Kenyan top-grade coffee, a brew that remains the favorite of both. “It’s a beautiful coffee,” Lewis said. “It’s so deep in our roots that it’s in our blend,” aptly called Greg’s Blend, which has become their best selling.
Their connection to coffee goes back about 30 years, when the DiBeneditto and Lewis were working for a coffee importing firm, located in New York City’s Wall Street area.
“I fell into in when I was 20 years old and I loved it,” he remembered.
DiBeneditto worked in the firm’s business and traffic office back then; Lewis learned the business and operated the company’s sample rooms for commercial buyers. He eventually earned his license as a coffee grader, who is often called in to settle disputes between companies over the quality of coffee and cocoa.
“I just worked my way through into the trading department,” which eventually had him traveling to Central and South America for purchasing excursions, he said.
That experience brought with it another important aspect of their business, their insistence on fair trade prices for the growers.
Fair Mountain Coffee Roasters always engage in fair trade prices, which, should the price of coffee drop below a certain level, would protect the grower. “So, he can feed his family,” Lewis said.
“The whole backbone of our business is supporting local and coffee producing communities,” he said.
That and pursuing business practices that advances environmental sustainability continues to be strong focus for the two. DiBeneditto noted that all packaging, cups and other items are all made from recyclable material or are compostable and all of their coffees are 100 percent organic.
“It really is part of our personality,” DiBeneditto said.
Along with selling their specialty blends at their First Avenue location, customers can find their products at Whole Foods locations in Middletown, Marlboro, Milburn and soon in Paramus; at Sickles Market in  Little Silver; and Dearborn Farms in Holmdel.
They regularly participate in the farmer’s markets in Red Bank, Atlantic Highlands and now in Sea Bright, which just started.
A most recent development is selling their cold-brewed ice coffee on tap, which uses a nitrogen gas for the tap, like Guinness stout, this summer at area beach clubs and golf and country clubs. That, they said, is selling very well.
“We never wanted to do the retail thing,” Lewis said, figuring the business would be mostly supplying it to retailers and others.
But, the spot has become increasingly popular with customers searching for them in conjunction with their efforts to keep the public aware. DeBeneditto recently conducted a class at the Highlands Public Library called “From Plant to Cup,” to help heighten people’s awareness of the process.
Those efforts have meant more than just help in the sale of their coffee and other products. “We’re branching out to be more of a social place, a gathering place,” DiBeneditto said.

Greg Lewis and barbara DiBeneditto of Fair Mountain Coffee Roasters in Atlantic Highlands deal in fair trade products. Photo by John Burton
Greg Lewis and barbara DiBeneditto of Fair Mountain Coffee Roasters in Atlantic Highlands deal in fair trade products.
Photo by John Burton