Best Coffee

In Search Of
The Perfect Cup of Joe
By Susan Stone

Whichever place you choose, you can be sure the owners are passionate about coffee. They’re a close-knit group of independent business owners who feel more like family than competitors. All but one of the shops serve coffee beans from Rocky Mountain Roastery, whose original store in Fraser inspired a branch in Winter Park. Rocky Mountain Coffee Company in Grand Lake imports its beans from far-flung corners of the world’s coffee growing regions, as does the Roastery.

All the coffee shops offer alternatives to caffeine, such as herbal and fruit teas, smoothies, sodas, fruit drinks, chai, hot chocolate and ice cream. Some find the true test of a coffee shop is whether they brew a decent cup of decaf. You can order “a double decaffeinated half-caf, with a twist of lemon,” as did Steve Martin in his movie, “LA Story.”

Kremmling’s Big Shooter owners consulted with Rocky Mountain Roastery owners before mortgaging their house and renting a space in the historic Hotel Eastin. Owners Shawn and Stephanie Scholl wished for such a place when working swing shifts at the hospital. Shawn’s nickname, Big Shooter (because of his size and participation in a bicycle team called The Shooters) inspired the name of their business, plus it’s a double entendre for the hunting community. The surprise is the literary group Rough Writers Ink, which holds court in the coffee shop.
For those of you on-the-go, so busy you’re late-for-an-important-date types, Grand River Coffee Company is the one to choose on your way because of its drive-thru service window. Owner Jill Miles prepares our coffee lickety-split from her small but efficient business located on Highway 40 in Granby at the corner of 1st Street. You can grab breakfast burritos, breakfast biscuits, bagels or biscotti to satisfy your craving for the basic “b” food groups.

If you look for Laura’s Coffee Shop in Grand Lake, you’ll never find it — that’s what the locals call it — Rocky Mountain Coffee Company is its name. Laura Summers left one high altitude job for another when she gave up attending flights for Frontier Airlines. Summers bakes pastries and two-fisted size cookies from scratch daily. Smart customers call ahead to reserve cinnamon rolls and twists, and chocolate or raspberry filled croissants. She does a brisk business in fancy-named coffees and is amused by complicated coffee orders and at the same time thankful — at least the customer knows what he or she wants! Only sometimes they get confused and order a “skinny, medium, double-shot, half-caf, half chocolate with whole milk.” Another asked for 8 shots of espresso, but she requires a note from the doctor to fill that order.

The Rocky Mountain Roastery and Coffee Company existed a few years before Wade Wilderman and wife Beth decided it would make more sense to buy it outright rather than one cup at a time, which is the joke they always tell. When actually, the marketing and bookkeeping couple were looking for a business to buy at the same time the current owners were looking to sell. The coffee shop shares space with Wade’s other business, Totally Wired Cyclery, and has recently expanded, making more room for both their customers and the Friday night meetings of a conversational Spanish group. Forty different coffee beans, including three of the worlds four best beans are available (Yauco Selecto, Kona, and Jamaican Blue Mountain).

As for the question of which coffee shop has the best cup; you’ll have to be the judge of that. Taste in coffee is highly personal, some love a cup brewed so strongly a knife will stand up in it, and others prefer a mild brew. Some want dark roasted beans and while others need theirs unleaded. Some drink too much coffee! You might be one of them if you grind your coffee beans in your mouth, answer the door before people knock or you ski uphill.

As one un-named Grand County resident said, “Give me a grande, skinny hot chocolate; no whipping cream, no maraschino cherry, no chocolate sprinkles, no chopped nuts, no plastic monkeys, no Chinese umbrellas.

But I do want four hula girls in the bottom of the cup.” It must have been the end of the season!