Landgrove Coffee Roasters

Troy, Idaho

Written by Co-op volunteer writer Terri Schmidt

The Binningers brought Landgrove Coffee to the Palouse in 2003, but Jon entered the coffee business 28 years ago, as a Boise coffee shop co-owner. Hannah, a customer who worked for the Peregrine Fund in early morning hours, would stop in for tea at Jon’s coffee shop. Jon said he didn’t make very good tea, but she “kept coming back for lousy tea.” Obviously more taken with the server than the tea, she and Jon have been together ever since. When Jon sold the shop, he and Hannah started roasting coffee for wholesalers.

The couple moved to Jon’s hometown of Sandpoint in the late 90s and purchased a coffee roaster from a new roasting machine manufacturer in town. At that time there were almost no resources available, so they learned by trial and error. Jon said they would “put in beans, roast them, taste it and try again. It’s just cooking something. If you start with something good and don’t screw it up, you’ll end up with something good.”

At Landgrove Coffee they always start with something good, by sourcing high quality beans from all over the world – places like Brazil, Peru, Guatemala, Sumatra, and Ethiopia. Jon and Hannah have a direct trade relationship with farmers in Yepocapa, Guatemala, and have visited farms there. They are proud and happy to offer those farmers a premium price for their beans, regardless of current market prices, providing farmers with a reliable income. Jon said farmers get a small percentage of the profits on coffee beans, adding, “We all need to pay a little more for our coffee to sustain a stable life for farmers.”

Landgrove Coffee offers 12-15 types of coffee. Light roast coffee has a fruitier flavor, medium roast (Jon’s favorite) has more depth of flavor, and dark roast coffee is very strong. Jon said, “The biggest thing we do to affect the taste is how it’s roasted.” He encourages people to try different levels of roasts to learn what they like best. Jon told me the best thing you can do to make a good cup of coffee is use good fresh beans, good quality water, and brew it at the right time and temperature.

The Landgrove Coffee business is an impressive operation. Worldwide, pickers harvest perfectly ripe “cherries,” two coffee beans encased in a cherry-like fruit. The beans are removed and dried 15% for longer storage. They are then packed in 130-150 pound bags and shipped out. When the beans arrive, the Binningers and their efficient assistants, Camryn and John, start the roasting process. Their giant roasting machine can roast 130 pounds of beans per batch, four batches per hour. It’s then packaged and delivered to points of sale. Jon said, “It’s a chain of events that cannot be broken for your coffee to be a good cup of coffee.”

Landgrove Coffee sells to the Moscow Food Co-op and various coffee shops, including One World in Moscow, The Pie Safe in Deary, Red Fir in Potlatch, Gypsy Java in Pullman and Moscow, and The Blue Lantern in Lewiston. They also sell their coffees online.

When not running their coffee business, Jon and Hannah work as horse packers in the backcountry of Idaho. Their children, Flora and Clem, are also into horses. Jon said, “I brain washed them into loving horses. When you are around people who think it’s cool, then they think it’s cool.”

To learn more about the Binningers and Landgrove Coffee visit their website: landgrovecoffee.co.