Choosing the right coffee can be akin to buying a bottle of wine: Some people pay attention to tasting notes, country of origin and ethical production methods. Others, however, just want their drink to taste good.
Darryl Miller, president and CEO of Fidalgo Coffee in Skagit County, cares about details and taste. If you ask him what makes the industry so interesting, he’ll tell you plainly: Coffee has everything.
“It is so romantic. It is so nuanced. It has the history, and it’s such an incredible crop that’s grown and steam-shipped across the world so that it can be imported in countries like ours,” Miller said.
And then there’s the roasting process, which allows companies like Fidalgo to impart their desired flavor profile: “You think it might be simple, or it’s just coffee — but it’s not,” Miller continued. “It has such a world behind it of depth.”
This world is shaped by humans: farm workers who harvest beans, the countless hands who transport them, importers, roastery staffers, delivery drivers, baristas and, ultimately, the consumer. But despite this complex chain, Fidalgo aims to operate with a “triple bottom line” philosophy: profit, people and planet.
Like many roasters, the company advertises a commitment to fair trade practices and sustainability. But Miller is also concerned about doing tangible good in Skagit Valley, and community-minded practices — such as partnering with local businesses, or hiring formerly incarcerated employees — help Fidalgo pay it forward close to home.
Fidalgo’s origins
Today Fidalgo maintains a staff of 23 people and operates as a wholesale roastery in Burlington, though the company was founded in Anacortes in 1992. Miller’s partners, Derek and David Evans, joined in the late ’90s after a move to another roastery/cafe space in Mount Vernon. Miller came on board in 2007 and was named CEO in 2020.
These days, Fidalgo pops up at cafes and across the Pacific Northwest, as well as major grocery stores. But the coffee’s journey begins well before beans reach the roastery — and Miller can tell you where and how the story starts.
Fidalgo is known for its specialty coffee, a term denoting the highest quality of beans available. Specialty coffee is designated by the Specialty Coffee Association as “free of any primary defects and with a notable taste,” Miller noted. Fidalgo is also a dual-hemisphere roaster, meaning they buy from Northern and Southern hemisphere growers and rotate what they roast depending on what’s in season.
The roastery purchases beans from John Cossette with Royal Coffee, a family-owned, Oakland-based importer who works with small co-ops and owner/operator producers in countries including Ethiopia, Colombia and Honduras.
“The amount of coffee that’s farmed in the world is about 17 billion pounds per year. And coffee is so manual,” Miller noted. “All of our coffee is Arabica specialty grade, and virtually all of it is hand-picked.”
Cossette handles relations at the producer level, visiting farms, providing origin and supply chain education and even taste-testing beans for quality once they arrive in Oakland. Royal Coffee also pays a fair-trade premium above market price to ensure coffee farmers and workers are paid a living wage.
On top of importer premiums, Fidalgo pays additional royalties to the nonprofit Fair Trade USA. They also have a direct-trade partnership with Tierra Nueva Farm in Honduras, buying out the entirety of their 8,000–11,000-pound crop each year.
Coffee roasting process
Getting coffee from the “bean belt,” or coffee-growing region, requires steam shipping up the Suez or Panama canals. This process takes months — but once those beans clear Oakland and arrive at their final destination in Burlington, they can go from roaster to bag in under 30 minutes.
Strolling through Fidalgo’s warehouse, visitors will spot massive, 130-pound sacks of unroasted beans, each one labeled with its country of origin. Miller pointed out tasting notes and color differences: Freshly-grown, bright-green beans from Latin America, for example, are used for decaf blends. Before being shipped, they’re soaked in water — not chemicals — to gently remove caffeine.
Miller also pointed out how Arabica beans from Sidama, Ethiopia, are washed to remove skin and pulp before the drying process. This results in a cleaner, more vibrant taste ideal for light and medium roasts. These beans are then sold as single-origin coffee or combined with wash-processed Guatemala beans for Fidalgo’s 9 Bar blend.
At the start of the roasting process, beans are loaded into a drum roaster, then roasted for around 20 minutes. Employees use a colorimeter to measure the precise level of roast on the batch.
As beans roast, a chemical reaction called the Maillard Reaction occurs between the beans’ amino acids and reducing sugars. This results in coffee’s characteristic brown color as well as a wide range of flavor notes. The beans also release moisture via steam, causing them to crack.
But for casual observers, the real excitement happens when a custom-built steam whistle effect sounds off, and waterfalls of beans pour from the roasting drum into the cooling tray. Despite the industrial setting, the ensuing aroma is reminiscent of a neighborhood cafe.
Cooled coffee is then transported to a packaging area and sorted via chutes. Finally, coffee bags are sealed using food-grade nitrogen, which removes extra oxygen and ensures freshness.
Paying it forward
Every step of this roasting process is powered by people — many of whom arrived at the company via nontraditional paths. Fidalgo is a second-chance employer, meaning they partner with the Burlington-based nonprofit Underground Ministries to hire formerly incarcerated people.
“We really enjoy that relationship, because we are able to get some of the best employees we’ve ever had, and we’re able to support a really great cause with this issue of interrupting mass incarceration,” Miller said.
Studies show that, while 95% of inmates are eventually released from prison, more than 40% are re-arrested within a year. Sam Middleton, a Fidalgo delivery driver and former Underground Ministries program member, said this is largely due to the roadblocks faced upon reentry.
“I did 27 years in prison, and when I got out, I was going to college and trying to find work and it really wasn’t working out,” he said. “I couldn’t get a job at the college for a work/study program. I couldn’t work at Goodwill. Everyone was like, ‘Mmm, no thanks, we’re good.’”
But through Underground Ministries, Middleton was hired as a part-time employee at Fidalgo. Eight years later, he’s a full-time delivery driver and Underground Ministries board member.
“We’ve had numerous people [at Fidalgo] that have been with Underground Ministries … We’ve had some people fail, and some people succeed. Some people have moved on, and I’ve actually just gotten really comfortable there,” Middleton said. “I like the company I work for, and I like what they stand for and I appreciate the fact that they’ve helped me.”
The with Underground is just one way Fidalgo shows up in Skagit Valley. The brand has been a daily part of many coffee drinkers’ lives for decades — whether or not they realize it. Iconic coffee stands like I Wanna Moka and Zoom Zoom Espresso serve their beans, as do cafes like Maple Bar, Lynden Dutch Bakery and Calico Cupboard. Fidalgo is even the official coffee of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.
On the whole, Miller is intrigued by coffee’s ability to be simultaneously complex and deeply personal. He knows not every consumer cares about the world behind each cup — but for those who want to know the big picture, he’s happy to paint it.
“I think there’s a case for not only, does it taste good [but] does it make you feel good about the company that you’re supporting?” he said. “That’s something else that I think we bring to the table, and that we really do care about.”
Info: fidalgocoffee.com.
Cocoa Laney is CDN’s lifestyle editor; reach her at cocoalaney@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 128.
