Bigfork roaster shares passion for coffee

The owner of Fieldheads Coffee Company and his staff are on a mission to introduce Bigfork to a new wave of coffee with a unique selection and community events each month as they approach their first anniversary on Osborn Avenue.

When owner Ben Storest moved his family and shop to the village, he hoped to bring with him more than an average cup of joe and invite the community to share in a deeper coffee experience. Nearly a year later, Bigfork is abuzz with his caffeinated creations.

Storest left his career as a carpenter to pursue his passion for coffee around six years ago, apprenticing for the original owner of Fieldheads, Peggy Ennenga, for five years before taking over the company.

The first time he tried his mentor’s coffee, he said, it blew him away and excited him. He said it was some of the best coffee he’d ever had.

He got hooked and began exploring not only the different kinds and flavors of coffee, but also their origins, their histories and the cultures that grew and shaped them.

“I like them all. I don’t like just one,” Storest said. “I love to always switch it up and change it and try something new because it’s always different. It’s like exploring that world. There’s a lot to taste and do.”

With the start of spring, Storest introduced a new monthly community event focused on doing just that.

A monthly “cupping” will allow guests to learn the coffee tasting and judging techniques used by professional importers and roasters and decide for themselves what flavors and scents each cup holds.

Participants learn the ins and outs of good and better coffee — sweet and acidic, dark and bold, smooth and rich — and the flavors that make up each one.

The first cupping event on May 1 focused on the shop’s newest arrival, a highly prized Rwandan specialty coffee.

Fieldheads Manager Erica Carrara gave a brief history of the coffee and the region that produces it.

Despite the industry’s tumultuous history in Rwanda, including forced labor, the coffee trade was able to rebound through a new government program that created a niche market for Rwandan coffee. The industry’s revival now drives much of the region’s economy, directly impacting the livelihoods of around 400,000 people and producing around 135,000 pounds of coffee each year.

Next, visitors attending the cupping explored the coffee through a dry ground scent test, a steeped scent test and a slurp taste test, the best way, Storest said, to unlock the coffee’s complexity of flavors.

“I like originality in the coffee. I like to taste things in the coffee that are outside of just what we think of as coffee in a cup,” Storest said.

The coffee, roasted in-house like the rest of Fieldheads’ beans, gave off a strong aroma that smelled and tasted different to each tester — one picked up on hints of earth and wood, while another detected traces of citrus and honey.

“It’s cool to have [the community] feel like they’re part of it. We’re all exploring this together. It’s fun,” Storest said.

He keeps between 27 to 34 different coffees, including blends, specialties and espressos, in-house, switching up his single origin selections each month.

Fieldheads operates a single facility in Bigfork, but its products continue to grow in popularity in shops across the Flathead Valley and Montana.

Storest hopes as business picks up, both in wholesale and retail markets, he and his family will be able to expand and open more shops across the Flathead.

For now, though, he said he is focused on providing unique, quality coffee to the Bigfork community and educating others on the benefits of the bean.

Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.