APPROACHING PERFECTION
Coffee lover meets dream roaster in Caffé Pacori
BY SARAH DECKER
PHOTO BY TODD COOPER
C
offee. For those of you who embrace it,
it is many things: It wakes you up, keeps
you going, accompanies chocolate so
nicely. Living in the great Northwest, we
are surrounded by amazing options when
it comes to selecting a cup of brew.
For me, that choice is favored to be something bold in
flavor, smooth to the finish and without bitterness. Never
in my travels have I found a cup that so completely fulfills
my requirements as my first cup of Caffé Pacori coffee.
I just had to meet the roaster, the man responsible for
showing me what a great cup of coffee can taste like. At
first when I walked into Caffé Pacori, I was confused.
Surely the guy standing before me was just an employee, I
thought. The man responsible for the wood-roasted perfec-
tion of Pacori must be at least 8 feet tall, arms like tree
trunks and a beard of moss.
But no, Eric Pierce looks like a guy I might know, a guy
I might grab a drink with, a guy I can relate to.
Pierce showed me the entire operation, from stem to
stern. It took about four minutes. Coffee roasting is, all at
once, painfully simple and dramatically complex. The
beans, brought in from various regions and blended expert-
ly to provide each roast with the maximum flavor, are
placed in one of two roasters — gas or wood — and then
roasted, bagged and shipped.
And while all of that seems simple enough, Pierce has
been honing his skills since he was a teenager in upstate
Idaho, roasting beans for kicks. Those kicks turned into a
passion, and he has been the master roaster at Caffé Pacori
for the past eight years. The roasting process — a science
of its own — is mastered and polished so that to the unini-
tiated, it seems quite simple.
But one taste and you know you are dealing with a
black belt in the art. For if there is but one defining differ-
ence among these many Northwest-produced coffee
beans, it is the finished product, that first sip. And Pacori
has the credentials: A two-year-running prize collector at
the Oregon State Fair, once for Best Breakfast Coffee and
once for Best Taste Overall, for their wood-roasted decaf,
no less.
As a staple of the Eugene-based food community, Caffé
Pacori can be found at many of the restaurants around
town, as well as being served at Perk Cafe and available for
purchase at Kiva, Market of Choice and from the café’s
website. However and wherever you grab a cup, be
prepared to sit and savor it, because it’s likely that first taste
will be logged in your memory for years to come. ■
For info on Caffé Pacori, see caffepacori.com or call 868-1256.
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CHOW! Summer 2012 3