April 2017

I need to start with the usual boring stuff like who you are etc!

1. Names (you and your kids) Jessica Crandall(32), Kristoffer Lynch(38), Mikaela Lynch (6), Cole Lynch(9) – Ungrounded Coffee Roasters, ungroundedcoffee.com

2. Town you live in now Bondville, VT. Our shop is located at 8814 VT-30, Rawsonville, VT

3. How long here in USA? I was raised in Hillsdale, NY. Kristoffer moved to USA in 2002. Cole was born in Massachusetts in 2007. We had a coffee cart in 2009 in NY/MA/CT for events (but only part time). Mikaela was born in 2010 in Dunedin. We returned from NZ in 2012. We bought a roaster and installed it in our housetruck in August 2013. We purchased our house in Bondville in October 2013. We leased the space in Rawsonville in 2014.

ok now the interesting stuff:

1. Why coffee?

Ultimately, it's because we needed to find a way to support our family. We wanted something that allowed us to spend time with our kids-- and share the responsibilities of working and parenting. That gave us the flexibility to live a life we believe in.

I think when we travel, we look for coffee shops. First because we’re addicted to coffee. But second because it gives a look into the lives of the people that live there. We tend to look for the slightly out of the way one. The one that gives the right feeling when you enter… The chatter. The menu. The machinery. The people.

We wanted that. We wanted the interaction with people, to be part of a community. Before moving to VT we had both worked as baristas. We started a coffee cart together. We had a coffee roaster in the truck—we had kind of planned on coffee becoming our thing, we just didn’t know how we wanted to approach it—or if it’d provide the life we were trying to create.

2. Why USA? and why this wee town (what is the population by the way?)

Jessica is from upstate NY. She was homesick and wanted to be back in the Northeast. She had hopes of saving her family farm, but things didn’t work out.

We had spent years talking about the life that we hoped to create. Crayon drawings of land with our housetruck, a river, gardens, a barn… children, snowboarding... chickens, a dog. We had other drawings of ways to afford our life…. Big question marks—kristoffer at a computer, a coffee cart, a housetruck café, farming, painting, etc.

We came to Vermont to look at a rental that was advertised as “Single family home, minutes from Stratton—heat, electric included.” It was a basement apartment in the middle of the woods ages from Stratton. On our way home we turned on Zillow and saw properties—“WOAH! Hey look 35,000 for a…. oh wait... A month.” …. And then a little A-frame for $85,000. We went to check it out. As we walked around the house a policeman pulled in behind us. He was lovely, gave our children stickers—and told us about another house in the area--- with a barn, a river, a house, an acre of land…

On our way home we made a deal with each other—if we could get either of the houses for $50,000, we’d move. A few weeks later, the little house with the barn sent us a notification that it’d dropped to $55,000. We got in the car and drove here to buy it that morning.

The population is small. Most of the houses here are 2^nd homes.

3. Tell me about NZ - how long did you live there for/where did you live?

Kristoffer was raised in the Nelson area. He went to school at the boys college in Nelson, then to Dunedin for art school. He worked at NHNZ and ARL in Dunedin. Then for Weta in Wellington. He moved to the US in 2000—first Michigan, then Colorado.

We first visited, as a family of 3, for 6 months in 2008-09. Jess fell in love with NZ and we applied for residency for her. In 2009 we moved back to NZ—first in Kristoffer’s mother’s house in Cable Bay. Then to Dunedin, so Kristoffer could work at ARL. Mikaela was born in Dunedin in 2010. We moved back to the states in 2012.

4. How did you two meet?

We met in Vail, CO in 2004. We had both moved there to snowboard and try out life in the Rocky Mountains—to not focus on careers. We met because of a pit-bull named Sage. She introduced us. We spent the fall walking and dreaming, the winter snowboarding and planning, the spring saving money, the summer building the housetruck… and then we were off on an adventure from NY to California… to San Francisco for a year, to Tahoe, to Massachusetts to have Cole,to New Zealand, to NY, to New Zealand—to Dunedin. Mikaela was born. A couple years in Dunedin—then to NY, then to MA, then to VT.

5. What is your philosophy around coffee? (if you find this difficult to answer think about the not-negotiables for you in running your business - organic/fair trade/recycling etc etc). Your style of coffee is a real departure from stock standard American coffee.

All of our coffee is Organic. Some of it is fair trade, shade grown, bird friendly… Freshness is key. We roast in 4lb batches. When people order online, we roast it and ship it that day. The coffee on our shelves in store is less than a week old.

Coffee is as complicated as you want to make it. Simple drip coffee, cream and sugar—perfectly fine, but then there is Espresso. Espresso with hot water, espresso with perfectly textured milk. The espresso machine, the bean, the history, the growing region, the variety, the weather, how it was dried, how it was roasted-- it all can come out and be experienced through espresso.

The goal for me is to find the balance. Not to get too wrapped up in any of it, because ultimately it is just coffee. BUT- not to disregard it, because it is deserving of attention…. I am part of a chain of people who have dedicated parts of their lives to coffee—the planters, the growers, the hand pickers, the shippers, the brokers—and then us the roasters and preparers… just before the consumers.

When roasting I try to give my attention to the bean. To knowing how it responds to the heat, when to adjust the gas or the air—trying to find it’s perfect roast and pull out the flavors that best represent it.

Making espresso drinks takes a little bit of focus. Knowing the beans, adjusting the grind, steaming the milk—getting the right texture and temperature; none of it is rocket-science, but it I think it makes a difference.

6. Where do you source your beans? At the moment we buy from a broker in New Jersey called Royal New York. They have the best selection of Organic beans on the East Coast.

6. Tell me about roasting beans - where did you learn this?

We pretty much taught ourselves. We’d both worked as baristas. We had a coffee cart in 2009. In 2013 We bought our roaster, installed it in the housetruck we were living in, drove to NJ and bought one 150 lb bag of Colombian and another of Brazilian and started roasting. We had a two group espresso machine installed in our truck—so we’d make ourselves and friends coffee and then adjust our roasts. Once we found how we liked it, we tried our best to duplicate it. We started selling our beans at farmer’s markets. When we could afford another bag of beans we’d buy them- and that is how we learned about Sumatra, Bali, Costa Rican & Ethiopian coffees. We got an Ethiopian peaberry and it blew our minds—totally different to anything we’d tried before. Lemon and black tea—sweet, smooth, interesting.

People at the market gave amazing feedback. When the market ended, people started showing up at our house—looking for our beans.

7. How has NZ influenced what you do here in Vermont?

I think New Zealand's coffee culture definitely affected us. New Zealand long blacks, flat whites, and short strong lattes…

Olivier Lequeux's Mou Very on George St in Dunedin was part of the inspiration. Tiny, friendly, quirky, and most importantly really good coffee-- roasted in house. We spent hours in that stinky little brick alley. It was the kind of place that you found yourself talking to a bull-rider, an American, a professor, a Frenchman, a Russian tourist, an art student, a mother, or a musician.

We’ve created a funny little space where a huge variety of people come. The working crews, the old man locals, the mothers, the visitors, the 2^nd home owners, the campers, the elite athletes, skiers, snowboarders, bikers, New Yorkers, New Zealanders, we get a lot of foreigners— They’re all people who are looking for better coffee—coffee is the thing that brings them here-- to our tiny little shop in the middle of nowhere. Well, perhaps first because they want to get away from their daily life, but then coffee. They come back because we make it like they do in NZ.

8. Tell me what it is about VT that really grabs you.

To be honest, we’re still trying to figure that out. Vermont is so painfully charming. The snowboarding is good, the summers are beautiful, the seasons, the winding roads, rivers, the foliage—but mostly it was just available when we needed it to be. It was the right price—and it fit in with the life that we were working towards. I’m not sure that we’ll be here forever, but we’re going to try our best to enjoy it while we are.

Vermont is kind of like the American version of New Zealand. It’s strikingly beautiful, but it’s hard to know where you fit in. What it is that makes you want to push harder, how to relax, how to just be. Perhaps that is just us, still at the point where we are working to find our balance and our place—as a unit of 4.

10. What do you do when you are not roasting beans and making coffee?

We spend all of our time together. We snowboard at Stratton Mountain and work like crazy through winter. In summer we walk and swim in the snowmaking pond, hang out in the river, go swimming, garden... Kristoffer works on the website, we have a booth at the West River Farmer’s Market. We spend a lot time talking about what we’re doing—what we like, what we want to change, where we want to end up.

11. What is it about coffee that grabs you enough to be doing this business?

There is some instant gratification in each coffee you make. It’s great to be able to share something that is tangible, to meet people, to have people who make you a part of their lives. It’s not just the coffee.

The coffee is beautiful, but again, it’s because it allowed us to live a life we believe in.

12. Do you go back to NZ at all?

Kristoffer went home at the start of 2014 when his brother Oliver hit his head at an Auckland Beach and died in hospital.

Right now it doesn’t make sense for us to go back—it’s too expensive. We’re on a limited budget still. We prioritize snowboarding as most important. NZ comes a bit further down the list—after a new kitchen and a house renovation, after visiting the US and getting to know Vermont. Although, as the time passes it seems to be inching its way up the list—we miss our friends.

I hope that New Zealand is a part of our lives again in the future. Our closest friends live in NZ, Kristoffer’s Mother lives in Nelson… his sister and family are planning on moving back to NZ… We just have to figure out how to afford it. We aren’t in a hurry, but ultimately, it’d be amazing to be able to go back (and forth) when we want to. It just feels a bit wasteful to travel just for the sake of it, when there are so many amazing places in our back yard that we aren’t familiar with yet.

13. Describe American "standard" coffee to me(!!).

It’s simple. It’s a hot watery cup of coffee—usually with a lot of cream and or sugar. Often it was ground months ago and it was brewed a while ago… it’s about the drug caffeine, not about the experience. It’s cheap, it comes in a big paper cup…

Espresso is getting more popular, trendy even. In the last few years there has been huge changes in the coffee you can find in America—usually places with a higher population.

14. Have the locals been responsive in a positive way? (you sure seem busy every time I come into the shop!).

Yeah, we couldn’t do it without them. We have a really great group of everyday-ers. A lot of them drink drip coffee, some of them love flat whites, most of them love lattes and maple lattes (Espresso, steamed milk and local maple syrup (made by our friends just down the street).

We’ve just finished our 3^rd winter at this location. We still have people that live here and didn’t know we exist—or were waiting to see if we survived—or just hadn’t stopped in.

Overall, I feel really welcomed and appreciated. Vermonters are good people. They want to help, they want you to have a great life.

15. You close at noon usually. Why is that?

We moved to VT for the lifestyle. We homeschool our kids, closing at noon allows us to go snowboarding in Winter and swimming in the rivers and lakes in Summer. On weekends and holiday periods, we’re open until 4ish… Mostly because our ski passes are blocked out, but also because it’s when we can make money from the increased population.

We really value our children. We want to make a life that they want to be a part of—not necessarily that they’ll end up in coffee, but that they’ll have learned how to work hard and know that they were the most important people in our lives. Hopefully, that they’ll want to be a part of our lives when they’re adults.

Also, we often roast in the evenings—after we’ve played outside. Our website takes bean orders 24 hours a day. We’re currently working on a coffee bean subscription. We have a few select wholesale customers—so it’s more that the coffee bar portion closes at noon.