You’ll find Frontside Coffee Roasters in the heart of North Conway Village, as a place that owners Laura Denis and Austin Orth see as a gathering place—a place to get a good cup of coffee and see a friendly face. Their history with coffee spans more than 20 years: Austin and Laura have grown Frontside Coffee Roasters to its Main Street hot spot, with Laura handling the administrative side of the shop and Austin working as the head roaster.

Whether Austin is roasting a light, medium, or dark roast, it all begins with the coffee beans’ time in the roaster. From there, Austin controls the temperature, time, and air flow. With a light roast, Austin will bring the heat up quickly, and as soon as the temperature rises to where he needs it to be, he immediately siphons the heat to maintain the acidity of the roast. This supports the brightness usually found in lighter roasts.

For 20+ years, owners Austin Orth and Laura Denis have grown Frontside Coffee Roasters to its Main Street hot spot, with Laura handling the administrative side of the shop and Austin working as the head roaster. Wiseguy Creative photo

For his darker roasts, the roasting is slower with a longer developmental stage. During any normal roasting time, there are stages of “cracks” where the coffee beans split. During the first and second crack, the coffee moves from an endothermic state (absorbing heat) to an exothermic state (casting off heat). Because Austin doesn’t want to lose the strong body dark roasts are known for, but wants to ensure that the beans aren’t over-roasted, he ceases the roast process at the first audible signs of the second crack.

When asked about his vision for a coffee and his intention behind creating a certain blend, Austin states that he relies on single-origin blends for his drip coffees, but adds a bit more complexity to his espressos. For espresso, he uses double-origin—mixing two beans from two different places—because blending is key. “You need to bring something to the espresso that gives it ‘crema,’ body, and balance,” Austin says as he lays down the method to his madness.

It’s not just the roasting that Austin is meticulous about, he also takes an interest in forming a relationship with the farms his coffee beans comes from. Typically, he is found taking quarterly trips to South and Central America and Indonesia to reconnect with harvesters and work directly on the farms picking the coffee cherries and tasting the coffee on-site in a custom called “cupping.”

Part of Frontside Coffee Roasters’ passion goes well beyond the cup. It also has to do with the farmers who curate the coffee beans Frontside uses. “It’s mind-blowing how much work goes into making coffee. Every cherry is hand-picked,” says Austin. “The precision of the quality of each cherry that goes into the final process is unmatched. There are actual humans sifting through hundreds of thousands of coffee cherries to find only the most perfect ones.”

When asked what Frontside’s role is in the sustainability of such an in-demand commodity, Laura and Austin are adamant about always buying specialty grade coffee beans from small farms that support their employees. Buying such high-quality coffee beans means a more nuanced bean, with unique flavors such as Frontside’s newest fall addition, the “Holiday” coffee, which is born from a type of coffee called the “Super Natural.” Due to the way it is processed, the Holiday coffee produces a honey consistency with a sweeter profile. This kind of flavor profile cannot be recreated in larger batches of coffee, and is what excites Austin about the coffee industry.

What’s interesting is that a single coffee cherry has the potential to take on completely different flavors depending on how it’s roasted. Which is where Good Vibes Coffee Roasters comes in. Roasting a fleet of seven USDA certified organic coffee blends with 10 more additional blends to choose from, Good Vibes Coffee Roasters also works in small batches, but their flavor profiles are in a completely different direction than Frontside’s.

In fact, one new coffee bean that owner and head roaster Christian Ganem is excited to introduce this season is a bean from Ethiopia that features flavors of watermelon and blueberry. It will have a citrus edge—this has everything do with the way the farmers have harvested this varietal of bean.

Christian has owned Good Vibes Coffee Roasters, located in East Conway, NH, for seven years. He started out as a barista and manager at a local coffee shop and fit in so well within the coffee culture of the shop he managed, the owners asked him to take part in their new venture of coffee roasting. Within a few years of Good Vibe’s inception, Christian became the full owner and has grown the company steadily within that time.

Owner, Christian Ganem, seen here focused on roasting, is also a musician and an artist, performing locally throughout the Mt. Washington Valley and creating art on the used jute bags of the coffee beans he imports. Wiseguy Creative photo

Christian’s most popular roast is the “Fire Keeper’s Blend,” a dark roast where he is able to strike a balance of smokiness without the coffee ending up burnt. He roasts with a Diedrich roaster, a manual roasting machine that handles up to 15 pounds of coffee at a time. His focus on creating a unique roast lays in the starting temperature and ending temperature. Depending on how he heats the coffee, give or take five degrees, he has a completely new roast of coffee.

While his most popular roast is the dark Fire Keeper’s Blend, his favorite roast is the medium “Community Blend,” which comes from Central and South America.

Christian also remains steadfast in his commitment to sourcing specialty grade coffee. He is firm in his support of local farmers and requires that his coffee beans are sourced from coffee co-ops that treat workers fairly and pay them appropriately.

When asked about what kind of a future he sees for Good Vibes Coffee Roasters, he sees continued growth within the company and distributing to even more customers. But he also sees something bigger for Good Vibes. Something that is more than just a coffee distribution center and roastery.

Christian is also a musician and an artist, performing locally throughout the Mt. Washington Valley and creating art on the used jute bags of the coffee beans he imports. It’s his vision to merge his three passions into a collective space where people can come and share their creative work. Good Vibes Coffee Roasters is on its way to becoming a hybrid of a roastery, art gallery, and recording and performing space.

Part of his happiness and what makes Good Vibes so special comes from the opportunity it provides to give back to the community. Being a part of the community, providing jobs, and working with local non-profits are all a major part of his business model. The Good Vibes way is all about coming together, in coffee, in art, and in life.

And that sense of togetherness is something you’ll also find in Maine Morning Micro Roasters coffee. Run by three women, Nancy Tripp, Jen Deraspe, and Marie Deraspe, their focus is on “Awakening with Conscious Coffee.” They want their cup of coffee to stretch beyond just the household that drinks it.

These women roast with specialty-grade coffee that pays a fair wage to the farmers that harvest the coffee. They also ensure an organic certification, Rainforest Alliance Certification, and Fair Trade Certification on the beans they import, whenever possible.

If their beans are not certified, Maine Morning Micro Roasters goes the extra mile to confirm that the growing practices are organic and the beans are grown with social responsibly to the farmers and their families based on working and living conditions, health care, and education.

Maine Morning Micro Roasters owners Nancy Tripp, Jen Deraspe, and Marie Deraspe ensure an organic certification, Rainforest Alliance Certification, and Fair Trade Certification on the beans they import, whenever possible. Wiseguy Creative photo

They use mostly single-origin beans, coming mainly from Bolivia. They have an affinity for Bolivian beans because they have such a different taste profile. They are typically a smooth bean—with notes of chocolate on the front of your tongue and an explosion of acidity of orange peel or tangerine on the back of your tongue. The majority of Maine Morning Micro Roasters coffee is in the medium roast family, because they believe roasting at that level maintains the distinct flavor of each bean.

This isn’t to say they don’t have dark roast options—because they do, and are currently roasting 11 roasts. You can experience each roast by becoming a “Coffee of the Month” member.

You’re given options for receiving two, three, or four bags monthly. Each month, you’ll receive a new roast to try and can denote your favorite roasts throughout the year. You also have the option to order coffee online or through their retail accounts in the Lakes Region of Maine and the Mt. Washington Valley.

Each batch of coffee is custom roasted in 10 pound batches for customers and wholesale accounts in the Maine and New Hampshire region. During the summer months, they can be found roasting daily; and in the winter, three to four times per week. It’s their priority to roast the freshest cup of coffee and try as hard as they can to roast each customer’s coffee as it’s ordered.