Waskiewicz bought Rao's in Amherst more than a dozen years ago.
Jeffrey Waskiewicz owner of Rao's Coffee Roasting Co., based in Hadley stands at the drying machine at the roasting company.HADLEY – Jeffery Waskiewicz got his first taste of farming when he was 5 years old and his first taste of coffee just a few years later.
Those passions have led him south of the equator to coffee farms in places like Brazil and to the ownership of Rao’s Coffee Roasting Co., headquartered on Route 9 – work that melds his passions. “I’ve been a huge fan of coffee ever since I was a child,” he said.
Waskiewicz, who lives in Amherst, talked about his business and his love for the soil and want goes it to making a great cup of Joe.
“It was a playground,” said Waskiewicz, 43, of his time in the fields of his grandfather’s J & J Farms in North Amherst.
On a farm, “you learn about everything.” He learned about crops, and equipment and how to make repairs and about animals since the farm was also a dairy.
When he was about 8 or 9, he got his first taste of coffee. His neighbors were a Cuban family and he and his friend “played with the stovetop espresso maker….They have a special way of treating coffee,” he said of the Cuban tradition. He loved it, he said, but pointed out though that Cuban coffee tends to be sweet.
After graduating from Amherst Regional High School, Waskiewicz attended the University of Massachusetts and studied engineering but didn’t finish. He worked in restaurants such as the former Beardsley’s in Northampton and Carmelina’s in town and he also ran his own landscaping company.
But about 12 years ago, he bought Rao’s from Scott Rao, who opened the business in Amherst in 1994. Waskiewicz ran the café in Amherst and the coffee was roasted on site, but Waskiewicz said that he realized they needed to move the roaster to open up space – so they moved to Hadley. He eventually sold the café in Amherst and now focuses only on roasting. The café in Amherst and Northampton, however, both sell the Rao’s coffee that’s roasted right here.
On average week, they roast about 11,000 pounds.
Waskiewicz said his prime market is in Boston where he said chefs “enjoy having great coffee on the menu.”
Great coffee starts with a proper bean – which means harvesting the cherry, which houses the bean at its proper maturity, and milling it perfectly - the roasting process and how it’s brewed. He said French press provides the best tasting coffee.
Coffee needs altitude, proper climate and proper soil in which to grow, something that regions such as Africa, Indonesia and Latin America offer.
The specialty coffee business began growing from the days when everyone seemed to start their day with Maxwell House or Folgers about three decades ago, he said. And continues to grow.
What people like he said, “is very subjective.”
Waskiewicz is interested in buying a farm in Brazil but he’s not having any luck yet convincing the owner to sell. So he continues to buy coffee there and to work with the farmer.
He found the farm a few years ago when he took a drive to Guaramirganga, a region that once produced some of Brazil’s finest coffee, he said. He not only found the farm, but on that trip, he met Anna who became his wife.
“I love farming, I love plants. I love growing thins and I love coffee,” he said to explain why he’d like to buy the farm.