Everett (WA) coffee roaster brews big plans

One-man operation charts a course for growth

By Amy Rolph
Herald Writer

The process starts with a bucket of unroasted coffee beans, looking pale and a bit like fat little peanuts to the untrained eye.

Velton Ross pours them into the silver funnel that tops his blue Dierdrich roaster, a mammoth machine with portly tanks and a direct connection to the sunny outdoors through a silver ventilation system.

The beans rattle and clatter and the roaster wakes up and growls. Ross keeps his eyes on a small screen charting blue and brown lines that zigzag as heat and airflow change inside the machine.

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