We Love What We Do

Valler Coffee Roastery

What started as a quest to find delicious coffee to serve at our bakery and ice cream parlor took our family onto an adventure we never anticipated. After ordering and trying coffees from all over the state, Jason decided that he was going to have to create what he was looking for himself. So he purchased a bottom of the line, homemade coffee roaster from a backyard maker on the internet (basically a rotisserie oven with a shop vac!) and began his first attempts at coffee roasting in the back of his wife’s bakery. The shop regulars were intrigued but not too impressed as the store filled with smoke week after week forcing everyone out for fresh air and a glimpse of blue sky. The coffee was not overly impressive but not too bad. So Jason was heartened and pressed on in his newfound venture.

Not too long into the project, his loving, wonderful wife (that’s me) told him that his venting system was less than ideal and his roastery needed to find a new home other than in her shop. So he moved it their home on the mountain and continued to learn about roasting with his kids in tow. After some months he knew that this was what he really wanted to do. With much discussion and soul searching, the family decided to plunge in with everything they had. They closed the bakery, sold their truck and everything else they could get their hands on (kids excluded) and purchased an honest to goodness real roaster. When it arrived, friends and family all gathered around to see its unveiling. It was beautiful!

The home for the new roastery was in an old knife making shop on wheels that we were given in exchange for helping a sweet friend put a new roof on her garage. We refinished the inside of the shop, passed health department regulations and then the real work began. The boys worked night and day and day and night trying to learn the ins and outs of coffee roasting. Batch after batch was tasted. While marked improvements were made, they just couldn’t nail that perfect cup of coffee. The wife (that’s me) was the taster and the bearer of bad news. Late into the night the boys would come in to wake me up and have me try what they thought was perfection. Time after time, the answer was “Sorry, boys, not it”. Heads sank and they would head back to the drawing board.

Their hard work and perseverance paid off after they tried coffee beans from all over the world. They discovered that beans from Central and South America developed the richest, most delicious flavor with the long, steady roasts of the high altitude roasting that takes place here in the Rocky Mountains.

Finally, after much trial and error, they truly found perfection! It seems that not knowing the proper way to roast coffee - the way all roasting schools and online videos teach you to roast - can be a great advantage if you want to create something new and wonderful. And, thus, a true coffee roastery was born. A family business in the mountains of Montana with fresh, clean air, sparkling water and coffee roasted by coffee lovers. We roast in small batches and cup every batch. If it doesn’t meet our exceptionally high standards, we throw out the whole batch. We bring you only the best coffee. We want to share our joy and our passion and our love with you.

Thanks for coming. We look forward to having you become an extended part of our family!