TransFair Coffee

While exploring TransFair coffee, which certifies coffee and other products to see that growers receive above-market prices, I was pleased to discover that there was a TransFair certified roaster in Millington called McCarter's Coffee! And I was even more pleased to see that the Commercial Appeal did a story on McCarter's just a couple of weeks ago. (The coffee is available online, in the store on weekends, at Miss Cordelia's, and at Restaurant Iris.)

At Millington's McCarter Coffee Co., they 'listen to the beans'
By Wayne Risher


Jim McCarter is all ears when he's at the controls of small-batch coffee roasters that turn grass-green beans into aromatic nuggets of deep-brown java.

The co-owner with his wife, Debra, of McCarter Coffee Co. in Millington, McCarter, 49, said it takes more than meticulous attention to roasting time and temperature to produce great coffee.

Green coffee beans emit tiny pops or cracking sounds as 400- to 460-degree heat drives out moisture and caramelizes locked-in sugars over a 10-15-minute roast cycle.

"Each time you get a new bean in, you've got to learn what the bean can handle," Jim McCarter explained. "You kind of have to learn to listen to the beans, and they'll tell you what they want to do."

The McCarters, seeking to re-create the experience of small coffee roasters they'd encountered in Italy, opened the micro-roasting company about a year ago in the back of Old Millington Winery.

They sold from booths at the Agricenter and Downtown's Memphis Farmers Market during the growing season while relocating their gas-fired roasters to a former candy store and restaurant at 5995 U.S. 51 North.

Last month, they launched Internet sales at mccartercoffee.com and opened the store to the public on Saturdays and Sundays. There, customers can taste samples of about 30 coffees, ranging from Fair Trade-certified, single-source roasts to blends including African Espresso and Louisiana Style French Roast with Chicory.

Credit Kelly English, chef and owner of Restaurant Iris on Monroe in Midtown, for nudging McCarter to create the New Orleans-style blend.

Iris serves a French press version of the blend and uses it as an ingredient in coffee and chicory creme brulee, served with beignets.

"We try to use local products and whatnot in the restaurant as much as we can," said English, a Louisiana native. "The quality that McCarter Coffee produces is pretty incredible. It's the first coffee and chicory outside of New Orleans that I've really liked. We like coffee you can stand a spoon up in."

McCarter is affiliated with TransFair USA, which certifies coffee and other products to see that growers receive above-market prices. TransFair spokeswoman Katie Barrow said there are about 400 licensed roasters nationally. Fair Trade coffee sales are an estimated $837 million a year in the U.S., she said.

It might not seem the best time for a startup specialty coffee business when megachain Starbucks is closing stores and a recession is deepening.

But the McCarters have day jobs -- Jim as a General Sessions Court employee, Debra as a credit union employee -- and they're more interested in being good than being big.

"This is a new adventure for us, and you learn something new every day," Jim McCarter said. "If all I had to do was roast coffee, I would be a happy person."

-- Wayne Risher: 529-2874

McCarter Coffee Co.

What: Micro-roaster specializing in small batches (25 pounds or less) of specialty coffee beans

Where: 5995 U.S. 51 North in Millington

When: Open for retail sales 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Other ways to buy: Beans are available for $10 a pound online at mccartercoffee.com and at Miss Cordelia's grocery in Harbor Town; Restaurant Iris sells brewed Louisiana Style French Roast with Chicory