Coffee roaster becomes destination for Greenwood Lake visitors

Greenwood Lake Roasters’ David Kozuha, a licensed Q arabica grader, is on a mission. Determined to make the best cup of coffee, one of the world’s most consumed beverages next to water, Dave and his wife and partner, Yolanda, have quietly opened their new production and tasting facility at the traffic light intersection at 58 Windermere Ave. and Church Street in Greenwood Lake – a village that is coincidentally celebrating its 100th birthday this year with a series of family-oriented events taking place throughout the community.

“Now people can come inside our new facility and enjoy coffee, have a pastry, and meet up with friends. So this space allows them to do that,” revealed Yolanda, “although our original location with the walk-up window (at the Route 17A-Windermere Ave. intersection) is still open as well.” While they continue to work with baked goods vendors like Noble Pies, the Original Laker Baker, and Suitcase Bakery, they are still figuring out what other things they might want to add to complement everything they’re doing now.

Dave Kozuha is a specialist in evaluating and grading arabica coffee beans, one of the finest beans grown in the major coffee regions of the world, which includes Central and South America, Africa, and southern and Southeast Asia. He is a certified organoleptic coffee judge and he regularly consults with dozens of farmers growing coffee beans in the equatorial region that lies between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. He is familiar with hundreds of varietal beans from farms in Ethiopia (original home to the coffee bean) alone and knows a thing or two about coffee. Greenwood Lake Roasters is 100% organic certified and every coffee they import must meet minimum standards of grading and certification.

Kozuha evaluates coffee beans from all around the world, based upon the type of coffee he wants to make. “I make sure that I have coffee beans available to me that will reveal the flavors, body, and aromas that will define that particular blend. Coffee beans prefer volcanic soil and higher elevations with warm, stable climates, and predictable rainfall,” he said, “and we constantly monitor the effects of a warming global climate which is affecting the limits of where coffee plants can be successfully grown.”

Right now Greenwood Lake Roasters supplies several farmers markets: two biweekly and four weekly, and about 10 retail outlets, including some other folks they work with on the Jersey side. Some of them are coffee trucks, and some of them have brick and mortar stores. “Other businesses brew our coffee and serve it at farmers markets,” said Yolanda.

In the global coffee market three firms dominate the industry. Germany’s Luxembourg-based JAB Holding Company (which owns several well-known coffee brands, including Keurig) sells more coffee than Starbucks. So Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and JAB control more than 80% of the coffee shop-sold coffee in the United States. This consolidation has created a false choice for consumers. But a new trend is occurring. “As long as we’ve been in the industry we’ve seen lots of new roasters crop up so small batch roasting is becoming very popular, similar to micro-breweries in the beer industry,” admitted Yolanda; “it’s nice that folks have come to enjoy the lake while they’re staying at local Airbnbs or they’re staying in Warwick; or they grew up in Greenwood Lake and left but they’re coming back to visit family. We get a lot of folks who have stopped in and they’re amazed at the transformation.”

What began five years ago as a serious hobby for Dave and his wife, Yolanda, and made them quit their corporate jobs, has turned into a brisk business that orders thousands of pounds of coffee beans per week and serves customers a wide variety of coffee styles, prepackaged varietal coffee beans for grinding at home, and advice for the coffee aficionado. But there’s much more on their horizon. To learn more about Greenwood Lake Roasters, visit gwlrcc.com.