Issue Number 11 of Maine Food & Lifestyle pays homage to one of Maine’s finest coffee roasters, Rockland’s own Rock City Coffee. In preparing an article for this issue, we had the pleasure of working with Rock City’s owner and Master Coffee Roaster Patrick Reilley. Patrick brought his extensive knowledge and expertise in coffee roasting to Rockland, establishing Rockland’s now famous coffee roasting operation.

Patrick helped us organize and describe our coffees in a special coffee cupping we did at Rock City Coffee Roasters for this issue. This will always be a special memory to us, as it was not long after that Patrick lost his long struggle with cancer. Our sincerest condolences go out to his wife and business partner Suzanne Ward, their family, and many friends.

In our new issue, the article entitled “The Science of Coffee Cupping, ” we took a lesson from   Rock City Roaster’s Yvonne Smith as she shared her knowledge, talents, and techniques with us. Yvonne had been hired by Patrick at Rock City back in 1998, and in 2005 she became his assistant roaster. Now Yvonne is an award-winning roaster in her own right.

L to R: Patrick Reilley, Yvonne Smith, Melanie Hyatt, Eric Hopkins

How do you prepare for a cupping and go about analyzing different samples? What are the variables to consider when evaluating different coffees? Just what is “slurping?” And is there such a thing as “bad coffee?” All this and more we answer for you in the new issue.

And as an added note, our From the Pantry column in this issue gives you a sampling of some of our favorite Maine roasted beans.

Get perky! Wake up and smell the coffee…and subscribe today!

MF&L Staff at Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.