Unpacking Coffee with Kandace and Ray: Barkeater Coffee Roasters

Needmore Designs photo.

In this week’s episode of Unpacking Coffee, Kandace and Ray check in with Stephen Pivonka, the man behind the one-man operation Barkeater Coffee Roasters in East Greenbush, N.Y., the most micro of the micro roasters profiled on the show to date.

Pivonka has been roasting commercially and building the business for two years. After finding his footing as a mentee, Pivonka has since paid it forward as a mentor to help other small roasting operations get off the ground in New York and Massachusetts, prizing the propagation of roasting knowledge as opposed to proprietary concerns.

As Pivonka told Kandace and Ray, “Learning to roast is easy, but learning to get a good, consistent product all the time, and trying to strike that balance of sweetness while keeping those notes in the coffee that you do like — those floral notes, those berry notes — it’s pretty tough walking that line.”

Unpacking Coffee is a show discovering new coffee roasters one episode at a time led by Kandace and Ray of the Portland-based studio Needmore Designs, which specializes in coffee, wine and lifestyle brands.