Even when its cold outside, things are roasting at the Schaus residence.
If youāre a coffee drinker and patron of the Downtown Salmon Arm Farmersā Market, chances are youāve picked up a fresh-brewed cup of joe from David and Jordan Schaus, the owners of 6 Beans Roasting. Furthermore, itās likely one of their ā6 Beansā ā children Alan, Ayden, Hannah, Andrew, Adam, Henny, helped serve you.
A staple at the farmersā market, 6 Beans Roasting specializes in coffee that is freshly roasted at their home-based business in Salmon Arm.
Asked about the businessā name, David explained it reflects a desire to create something of a legacy for his kids.
āI donāt want my kids to leave the Shuswap ā In a perfect world, if they want to stay around here, Iād love to have a business that is such that they can take it over at some point, or maybe take different parts in it,ā said David. āI donāt know exactly where itās going to go ā itās still growing. But my idea would be that the kids, if theyāre interested in learning about coffeeā¦ I could build something with lasting power. I donāt want it to be here today, gone tomorrow. I want it to be around for generations, for my kids and grandkids.ā
The initial building blocks to this goal began taking shape in 2018, when Davidās desire for fresh-roasted coffee led him to purchase a counter-top coffee roaster.
Explaining his love for fresh-roasted coffee, David likened it to oneās love for fresh baked bread.
āIf you went and bought six-months worth of bread at Costco and you threw it all into the freezer, itās not going to taste as good on month five and six after it comes out of the freezerā¦ itās going to taste better fresh,ā said David. āMy goal all along was to get fresh-roasted coffee.ā
David explained how he was able to hone his home-roasting skills through his senses.
āI wasnāt roasting with computerized graphs and graphics, I wasnāt learning from reading on forums on how to do it, I was actually just learning by, this is at this stage of the roast, it sounds like this and it smells like this and it looks like this,ā said David, who also established a list of preferred locations and importers through which to buy his green coffee beans.
In little time, David found himself providing roasted coffee for friends and family. It was in the spring of 2022 that he and Jordan made the decision to go all in on 6 Beans.
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āI started roasting with a commercial roaster in the spring of 2022, and I upgraded that roaster in spring 2023 to one that has three times the capacity,ā said David, who is grateful to City of Salmon Arm staff for the support they provided throughout the process of setting up 6 Beans Roasting as a home-based business.
āTheyāve been very accommodating and very positive about the businessā¦,ā said David. āThe city was working with me the whole timeā¦ā
The Schausā business is centred around their electric fluid bed roaster, which David said uses hot air to roast 10-lbs (5 kilograms) of beans at a time, and produces very little smell compared to more common commercial roasting methods.
āLess smell, cleaner tasting coffee in our opinion,ā said David, explaining the resulting product. āPeople ask me why my coffee tastes different from other coffee, and I think it has a lot to do with the type of roaster.ā
The Schausā coffee can be purchased online, from select retailers/vendors and, of course, at the farmersā market. David said they actually started with the Sorrento Village Farmersā Market, but were convinced to give the Salmon Arm one a go ā a move that proved successful. This summer, the Schausā plan to be at both.
6 Beans Roasting offers a variety of coffees to appeal to different tastes. Ultimately, David wants to show people āyou can have coffee that tastes like coffee but tastes way betterā¦ā
For more information, visit 6 Beans Roasting online at 6beansroasting.com and on Facebook.
