World-renowned coffee expert brews up new Fern Hill Coffee in Rainier

For Rob Hoos of Rainier, Ore., coffee is quite literally life. Hoos is a renowned coffee roasting consultant, educator, and author in the specialty coffee industry. Though his journey started in 2003 as a barista during college, Hoos says coffee has been a part of his life as long as he can remember. “After college, I spent about two years in my degree field until eventually returning to being a barista,” said Hoos. “Then, I was working at a space with a coffee roaster and very quickly decided that this was what I wanted to learn about and do. I’ve been doing coffee ever since.”

Hoos climbed through the ranks from barista to production roaster at a small coffee company and, in 2009, decided to purchase a small home roaster to begin experimenting outside of work, an act he credits for being the point he ”began to fall down the rabbit hole”.

“One of the things I really value about coffee is the taste,” Hoos said. “I’ve always loved the taste of coffee, and that passion for the small surprises and comforts of the flavor of a cup of coffee has only grown with time. I love that coffee can be heavy, chocolate, with notes of smoke… and with some tweaks to the roast, it can also show up as floral, passionfruit, and brown sugar.”

Hoos spent years roasting for companies on the West Coast and the Midwest and delved into the science and experimentation of roasting profiles and flavors. This led him to not only work with the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) in curriculum development but serve on the Roaster's Guild Executive Council. In 2013, he began teaching roasting workshops and holding consulting sessions for clients across the globe.

“We spend a lot of time coming to understand what their customer base is going after and how they want their coffee to taste, and then the rest of our time bridging the gap between where they are now and where they want to be,” said Hoos. “Coffee can be a very personal and cultural thing, so not everyone wants or needs the same outcomes. My role is to be open minded and have the expertise to help them achieve whatever flavors they are after with their coffees.”

Hoos published his first book, Modulating the Flavor Profile of Coffee: One Roaster's Manifesto, in 2015 and it’s been translated into four languages: Spanish, Chinese, Farsi and Korean. His follow-up book, Cultivar: A Practical Guide for Coffee Roasters, was published this year and explores the impact of coffee genetics on roasting and flavor development.

Hoos knows his coffee and, today, he’s bringing his roasting skills to Columbia County and beyond by way of Rainier. He moved to the area in 2020 with his wife and kids and, in addition to consulting, started Iteration.Coffee, a project that explores coffee processing, cultivar variation, and roast development through carefully curated boxed sets.

“I would make and send them worldwide so, in that sense, I’ve sold coffee from Oregon to Singapore and most places in between,” said Hoos. “The most expensive shipping thus far has been to Iraq, with close seconds being very rural areas of Canada and Australia. Since the pandemic, I realized that traveling so much wasn’t for me. Instead, I realized I could do a lot over Zoom and by inviting people to in-person roasting classes at my space in Rainier. I started Fern Hill Coffee to sell directly to the community. With it, I also shifted towards expanding what is possible and available in the dark-roasted coffee range. I wanted to bring the transparency, coffee quality, and seriousness often applied to light-roasted specialty coffee and have it guide a business that focuses on darker roasting styles.”

Fern Hill Coffee is currently available for purchase at The Columbia Bakehouse (126 W. B St.) and the Senior Center Gift Shop (48 W. 7th St.) in Rainier. For more info, visit http://www.fernhill.coffee.