EBC brews up great coffee, Good Food Award

▶️ Audio story available.

This isn't your average cup of Joe.

It's smooth, rich and with a balance that's just right. The Evans Brother's Coffee — the Costa Rica Finca Calle Lajas Natural blend also is a 2023 Good Food Award winner.

It’s the third time that Evans Brothers Coffee, founded by brothers Randy and Rick Evans, has earned a Good Food Award. EBC previously won Good Food Awards in 2013 and 2020.

Similar to the James Beard Foundation Award, which celebrates excellence in all aspects of the food and beverage industry, the Good Food Award does the same for craft food and beverage producers.

The Costa Rica Finca Calle Lajas Natural blend is a result of a partnership with Las Lajas Micromill, a micro-mill owned by Oscar and Francisca Chacon, third-generation coffee producers.

EBC was one of three winners in the north region, which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Alaska.

“To be selected as a finalist was thrilling, and then to find out we are a winner once again is just beyond intoxicating," Randy Evans said. "The vetting process is intense for this award, and to be selected by our industry’s best coffee tasters and judges is validation for the hard work that our team of roasters puts into our craft.”

The awards, first held in 2011, attract more than 2,000 entries in each of its 18 categories. In 2023, 237 of those were named GFA winners, according to the San Francisco-based Good Food Foundation.

In the specialty coffee category, roasters from across North America submit their best coffees, which are cupped in a blind tasting. Those who make it past that round, undergo a stringent vetting process to ensure they follow sustainability and social responsibility criteria. The top five who meet the guidelines are selected as finalists; from there, the top three receive a Good Food Award.

"Quality is really important to us. It has been from the beginning," Randy Evans said. "We want to be the best roasters in the Inland Northwest … we're just always trying to improve and get better."

It starts, Evans said, with knowing their product intimately, working with farmers and producers from everywhere from Brazil, El Salvador and Costa Rica to Colombia and Ethiopia.

"We've been to all these places and met with the farmers and talk to them and, and understanding their challenges," Randy Evans said. "It's just motivating to us as well because we want to represent the producer."

Meeting the farmers and producers allows them to not only deliver great coffee, the brothers said it allows them to tell their stories as well.

Compared to many coffee roasters, the brothers say they are more tied in and connected to where they get their beans.

"We want to showcase the people that produce [the coffee], the farmers and all the work that goes into it," Rick Evans said. "That’s been our culture [and] how we wanted to operate from the very beginning — let's not make it always all just the Evans brothers, but let's talk about the actual coffees themselves and try to bring [our customers] the story of the coffee."

He remembers the roastery's early days. They had been in business only two years and were barely making any money when his brother came to him and said they need to go to El Salvador to meet the farmers in person.

"I was like, 'How can we do that; we're too small for that,'" Rick Evans said. "But we made a commitment to do it and then once we did it … for me the first time going to origin just blew my mind open on how amazing of a product it really is and how much care goes in and the difference between commodity coffee [and the premium beans]."

The specialty coffee industry has blossomed over the years, with a growing focus on quality and attention to sustainable practices, the brothers said.

"Everybody's trying to kind of raise the bar and get better and buying really interesting coffees [and] experimental processing techniques and things like that," Randy Evans said. "And we love that. You know, it's super fun."

Since his early days at high-end coffee roasteries in Hawaii and Seattle, the brothers have experimented, paid attention to trends and "some really cool stuff" by fellow roasters, Randy Evans said.

"We took a lot of inspiration from that," he added. "And we felt like there was a niche, maybe, in this market to try to elevate the coffee experience."

They credit staff, among them "the third Evans brother, Daniel Gunter, saying those are the folks who help make EBC better every day, Evans said.

Their passion for great coffee, community and customers matches the brothers' own, agreed Rick Evans.

"We feed off of each other. We're still geeking out all the time at the roastery and, you know, tasting and getting excited about coffee," Randy Evans said. "So I really feel fortunate to do what I love and to do it in the town that I want to be in."

They want EBC to be more than like a home away from home than a coffee shop; a place where you can relax, kick back and hang with friends — while drinking a great cup of coffee, the pair said.

"One of the things we talk about a lot is providing an experience and, while we do get really excited about these coffees and talking about them, or when our customers do, we also stress that we don't want to be that pretentious, third-wave coffee shop," Randy Evans said. "We try really hard not to do that and to greet everybody warmly and just create a good, positive experience."

"So many shops have a reputation like they're a big deal, where you go in and it's like, there's this vibe that you're lucky to be in here," Rick Evans continued, as soon as his brother stopped talking. "That's what we don't want to do."

Instead, they work to meet customers where they are at with coffee — if they like simple, black coffee, that's what they get. If they want an elevated experience, they can do that, too, the brothers said.

Some are surprised they pay attention to what some may consider minor details, where the coffee is from, what part of the country or even where on the farm it was grown.

"We know not everybody can get those really fine details," Rick Evans said. "But I think all those add up and that makes for, like, a much better cup of coffee."

"Some people just want a good cup of coffee," adds Randy Evans. "And we're here to provide that. Some people don't just want a good cup of coffee, they want a good experience."

The Sandpoint-based coffee roaster and retailer was founded by the two brothers in September 2009. High-quality coffee beans are sourced from farms using sustainable and organic practices, then roasted to highlight nuances. In addition to the Sandpoint roasting facility and flagship cafe, EBC operates a second cafe on Sherman Avenue in downtown Coeur d’Alene.