The reasons Door County, Wisconsin is remarkable are vast and varied, from its sprawling shoreline to its charming towns and thriving cultural scene. Thus it’s no surprise that Vicki Wilson fell so deeply in love with the region and founded Door County Coffee right at the heart of its peninsula. The coffee roaster has since become yet another reason Door County is so special.
Door County Coffee first opened its doors in 1993, long before specialty coffee lined the shelves of every grocery store in the country. “I read an article about a coffee roaster in Madison and the lightbulb went off,” says Wilson. “We believed that the quality of Door County businesses deserved a better tasting cup of coffee. So we learned all we could about quality beans, freshness of roasting, and trademarked the name.”
Door County Coffee proprietor Vicky Wilson.
To know Vicki Wilson is to love her. Warm with a bright smile and arms outstretched for a welcoming hug, she is the secret ingredient in the recipe for Door County Coffee’s success. The coffee roaster not only provides beans to nearly every restaurant in the area, but also has a coffee shop and eatery all its own.
Wilson loves coffee as much as she loves her community, which is why she sources only the highest quality beans. “We buy the top 2% of coffee beans grown in the world, Specialty Class 1 Arabicas,” she says. Wilson buys the beans green, then roasts them with a fluidized air bed method, which results in a smooth, precise and repeatable roast. But the trade-off is that they’re expensive. “We gladly pay significantly more for this quality of green coffee beans because it truly makes a difference in the cup of coffee.”
Coffee beans can be pricey even during the best economic times, but the inflation of recent years has made it even harder to keep costs down. However, it’s climate change that has made coffee even more expensive. “The biggest predictor of coffee prices changing is weather conditions in the growing regions,” says Wilson. “When supply is diminished, prices spike and we currently are experiencing the highest prices ever for green coffee beans.”
Despite her devotion to delivering the best tasting coffee being at odds with her desire to keep prices affordable for her community, Wilson refuses to compromise on either front. “Because of our commitment and mission to roast only the top-quality beans, we will never stray from offering Specialty Class 1,” she says. “Many roasters may trade down in quality to maintain their margins, but we challenge ourselves to find ways to compensate for these high prices.”
Ask a local and they’ll tell you that Door County Coffee is hands down the most successful coffee business in the area. But if you ask Vicki Wilson, she’s not in the coffee business at all. “We are in the people business. We happen to roast coffee.”
AUTHOR
Nina Derwin is a Brooklyn-based writer with a passion for the art of storytelling. In addition to writing for various clients and publications, Nina has written several episodes of scripted television for networks including Starz and Fox.
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