Big Mountain Coffee Company • Lincoln Beach
Karma by the Cup
Story and photos by Niki Price • Oregon Coast TODAY
Mocha karma. Brent and Carla Duering, the owners of Big Mountain Coffee House Roastery, are big believers. They make their mochas with hand-shaved imported chocolate, expertly-roasted and organic espresso, and freshly steamed milk, and they send them out into the world. The goodness, they believe, will come back to them at their coffee-roasting warehouse in Lincoln Beach.
Deep thoughts aside, Big Mountain makes seriously good mochas and hot chocolates.
The shop carries a variety of high-quality chocolate, which can be mixed to create a full menu of delights: Milk Chocolate, Belgian Dark Chocolate, White Chocolate and Chocoholic’s Choice (a combination of all three choices).
“This is real chocolate, and it makes a big difference. Our Belgian chocolate actually comes from Europe. Our Mexican chocolate comes from Mexico,” Brent said. “We make people smile, one mocha at a time.”
It’s business with a personal touch, and it’s just what Brent and his wife, Carla Duering, set out to do when they founded Big Mountain Coffee House-Roastery 10 years ago. They buy only organic, fair-trade, grade 1 coffee beans and roast them in small batches, in state-of-the art roasters, no more than one pound at a time. After roasting, the beans go right into air-tight bags for shipping, to Big Mountain customers all over the country.
Specialties include espresso roasts, like The Grizz and Sasquatch, and drip coffee blends like the Newport Jazz and the Surfin’ Safari, but they also roast single-origin coffees like Sumatra Gayo Mountain and Brazil Cerrado Vintage, and two natural and Swiss water-processed decaf coffees. The Duerings roast commercially for several businesses, from offices to upper-end bed and breakfasts, and maintain a website sales portal, bigmountaincoffees.com.
Story and photos by Niki Price • Oregon Coast TODAY
Mocha karma. Brent and Carla Duering, the owners of Big Mountain Coffee House Roastery, are big believers. They make their mochas with hand-shaved imported chocolate, expertly-roasted and organic espresso, and freshly steamed milk, and they send them out into the world. The goodness, they believe, will come back to them at their coffee-roasting warehouse in Lincoln Beach.
Deep thoughts aside, Big Mountain makes seriously good mochas and hot chocolates.
The shop carries a variety of high-quality chocolate, which can be mixed to create a full menu of delights: Milk Chocolate, Belgian Dark Chocolate, White Chocolate and Chocoholic’s Choice (a combination of all three choices).
“This is real chocolate, and it makes a big difference. Our Belgian chocolate actually comes from Europe. Our Mexican chocolate comes from Mexico,” Brent said. “We make people smile, one mocha at a time.”
It’s business with a personal touch, and it’s just what Brent and his wife, Carla Duering, set out to do when they founded Big Mountain Coffee House-Roastery 10 years ago. They buy only organic, fair-trade, grade 1 coffee beans and roast them in small batches, in state-of-the art roasters, no more than one pound at a time. After roasting, the beans go right into air-tight bags for shipping, to Big Mountain customers all over the country.
Specialties include espresso roasts, like The Grizz and Sasquatch, and drip coffee blends like the Newport Jazz and the Surfin’ Safari, but they also roast single-origin coffees like Sumatra Gayo Mountain and Brazil Cerrado Vintage, and two natural and Swiss water-processed decaf coffees. The Duerings roast commercially for several businesses, from offices to upper-end bed and breakfasts, and maintain a website sales portal, bigmountaincoffees.com.
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All the roasting takes place at the coffee house, located next to the Lincoln Beach Thiftway market, between Depoe Bay and Lincoln City on Hwy. 101. The Duerings have completely transformed the interior of this warehouse, creating a clean, modern and urban industrial-style space. Designed by Carla, the shop is open and spacious, with beach-friendly concrete floors and diamond-plate accents. A custom-built countertop, molded concrete on top of corrugated metal, undulates through the center, and industrial elements like chain-link fencing and plywood surround modern chrome and black leather couches. On the north side is an elevated stage, which hosts special events, concerts and poetry readings (to find out what’s playing, check out their venue on Facebook or the SoundWaves section of the Oregon Coast TODAY).
“We usually get comments about our space as something customers would expect to see in a big city, and not on the coast. People say they like to come here because we make them feel at home,” Brent said. The distressed concrete counter is decorated with plates of daily-baked goods made from scratch, including Brent’s cookies, biscotti, cupcakes and other scrumptious treats made on site. Other artisan baked goods are provided by the Waldport magician Katie McNeil, of Pacific Sourdough. |
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The drink menu has a few chocolate selections, as mentioned above, as well as blended coffee and tea frappe drinks. You’ll find the Duerings’ original recipe Chai Tea, in several flavors, all-natural fruit smoothies, Café Cubano, Café Con Leche, Espresso Con Panna and Doppio Macchiatos.
At Big Mountain, everything has a story. The Café Cubano is on the menu, for example, because a gentleman of Cuban descent offered to teach Brent how to prepare Cuban-style coffee drinks, so that he would be able to enjoy his coffee, made his way, each morning.
“He asked if I could make Cuban coffee. I said no, but I’m always open to learning new things,” Brent said. “He spent two hours teaching me, and now I feel like my Café Cubano is really authentic. We have customers who are hooked on them. They think these are the best things in the world.”
This year, the Duerings will celebrate an important milestone. It’s been 10 years since Brent survived a stroke. That event, which left him temporarily disabled, inspired the creation of Big Mountain Coffee House-Roastery, and their move to the Oregon Coast.
Brent and Carla learned about the coffee business, created their blends and started the company, all while he was re-learning to use the left side of his body. Their logo, a coffee pot and a cup, was the first thing this left-hander (and lifelong artist) was able to draw after his rehabilitation. Like everything they do at Big Mountain, it’s personal.
“We’re celebrating 10 more years in life, and still strive to make smiles one mocha at a time. Our mission statement, if we had one, would be something like this: it’s not about the size of the company, or how many locations you might have, it’s about that one customer who leaves our shop happy and smiling,” Brent said. “That’s the karma we believe in.”
Big Mountain Coffee House-Roastery can be found next to the Thriftway Market in Lincoln Beach, 2 miles north of Depoe Bay and 8 miles south of Lincoln City. Hours are 7ish a.m. to 4ish p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 7ish to 11ish a.m. on Sunday. To learn more or order your own custom-roasted batch of coffee, call 541-764-2195 or log on to bigmountaincoffees.com.
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