Locally Roasted in Vermont

Our Coffee

Big Gear Coffee sources high-quality coffee beans from around the world. We search for coffee beans that are delicious and complex. We want you to know where your coffee comes from, so our coffee beans have a transparent history. Most importantly, we aim to roast coffee beans that will provide you with a consistently great cup of coffee. Check out the FIND/CONNECT tab to see where you can buy and drink Big Gear in Vermont and beyond.

Our Uphill Grind is a bold dark roast for those who like their coffee to grab them and go! Big Gear Coffee always uses a Colombian bean from in this roast. In Uphill, you will taste Caramel, Cherry, Citrus and Milk Chocolate.

Our Downhill Flow is a light to medium coffee roast that pushes you to achieve your goals all day long. In this roast we always use Ethiopian beans which are noted for their amazing complexity of floral and fruity flavor notes. By keeping this roast on the lighter side of medium, you will enjoy all of the flavor notes in your coffee! This Downhill Flow currently has beans from the Yirgecheffe and Sidamo regions of Ethiopia.

Single Track – is a single origin/micro lot Brazilian Salmo bean with heavy notes of milk chocolate, raisin and graham cracker. This natural processed coffee is a blend of 100% Cerrado region beans from just 12 producers. Cerrado is also one of the most biodiverse and complex regions on earth. The area is home to roughly 5% of all species on earth. This is a smooth medium roast that will not disappoint as your everyday cup.

Toolbox is a Papua New Guinea, Jimi River Tribal bean, roasted dark, but the flavor notes still shine through. You will find green tea, cane sugar, caramel, dark fruit coming through. 

For those who want organically sourced coffee, we offer a few that are certified organic by NOFA-VT.

Our Apex roast is an amazing Peruvian Bosques de Neblina bean, roasted on the lighter side of medium. Apex has a cocoa and nutty flavor profile…an excellent stand alone cup.

Our Group Ride is an organic blend, easy-drinking, medium roast coffee that you won’t want to put down. Currently, we source a blend of Honduran and Peruvian beans to create this delicious roast. This Coffee is one of Big Gear’s best sellers and was the house cup at the famous (now closed after 25 years) Penny Cluse Cafe in Burlington, VT!

Enduro Dark Roast is a rich, dark roast of organically sourced Honduran beans from the Volcan Pacavita Reserve region.  This roast makes a great “pick you up” kind of coffee and an outstanding espresso shot. This is the espresso of choice at the Hunger Mountain Coop Deli in Big Gear’s hometown.

Roost Espresso Roast - This dark roasted coffee is currently a DR Congo Kivu Virunga blend with flavor notes of chocolate, peach, dried plum, brown spice and citrus zest. The small coffee farms in the N. Kivu region, boarding the Virunga National Park, do a great deal to add stability this volatile area. Roost is BGCR’s 2nd darkest roast

Full Suspension is an organic extra dark (BGCR’s darkest!) roast, currently blending beans from Ethiopia and Mexico. We roast this to a smokey, oily finish. Flavor notes are chocolate, brown spice and chocolate. For those who like really dark, this is x-tra dark!

Sweet Ride is a maple infused roast using a Brazilian Cerrado, semi-washed processed bean. This roast is a med+ and uses a maple extract made from VT Maple Syrup. This coffee has just a tinge of maple…perfect for a sweet treat any time of the day!

Big Gear Gold Series (limited edition) Tanzania Peaberry is a medium roasted coffee, both bright and light. with a creamy mouth feel. Most coffee cherries have two coffee beans inside. The Peaberry has only one, leading to a deeper pocket of sweetness and a balanced structure. Flavor notes are Milk Chocolate, Red Current, Pecan, Citrus and Chamomile.

The second Gold Series (NOW A MAINSTAY GOLD!) is La Morena, a medium roast of Guatamalen beans from the Huehuetenango region. Milk Chocolate, Nougat, Red Fruit, Almond, Black Cherry are the flavor notes in this medium bodied, smooth and bright coffee. These beans are a product of 23 different woman owned and run farms.

If you need to do decaf, we roast a natural sugarcane decaffeinated bean from Colombia’s Valle de Cauca in our Downshift Decaf. This roast is a sweet medium cup….you will not believe that it’s decaf! We also have Free Ride Decaf, which is a creamy bodied, sustainably and responsibly sourced Mountain Water Processed decaf. It is roasted with a bean from Peru’s Cajamarca region and has flavor notes of chocolate, caramel, almonds and citrus. Free Ride is the decaf used in the Hunger Mountain Coop Deli in Montpelier.

Each batch of our coffee is carefully roasted and packaged in our small central Vermont location. We pride ourselves in getting our coffee to you when it is fresh. We roast on Mondays and Tuesdays and deliver our coffee on Wednesday through Friday. All shipping is 2-day (if available), priority, so you know that your coffee is fresh!

You are welcome to contact the roastery if you want to stop in and buy your beans directly. BGCR will give you a nice discount if you pick up your beans at the roastery.

My Big Gear Story

Big Gear Coffee started with a personal “what’s next” search. After many years of working with children, running before and after school programs, I knew it was time for a change. While it would have been easy to return to familiar hobbies and jobs – work with kids, tennis coaching, crafting furniture – I needed to try something new.

What could I do that includes much of what makes me tick and happy? The creative and hands on process of building always seemed natural and was always fun and rewarding. Teaching tennis or any number of things to children and adults has always been great for me. While I was on the way back from one of those “what’s next” soul searching trips, I drove past a small van with a cool coffee roasting logo on the side. I thought, “wouldn’t it be interesting to learn how to roast coffee?” I love coffee, enjoy creating and building (and I like to cook!); it might be interesting to roast real quality coffee. A coffee bean was planted! Through immersing myself in the process of coffee roasting and starting a small roastery of my own, I convinced myself that this was the direction I wanted to go. Big Gear Coffee Roasters was born on that trip home and it was time to get in GEAR!

I strongly believe that we all need a craft and a passion and be able to do something locally that will make us happy each and every day. Hopefully, through the consumption of my coffee, you will also taste and enjoy some of this craft, passion and happiness. –Paul

check out a 4/08 Made in Vermont segment on WCAX t.v. https://www.wcax.com/content/news/MiVT-Big-Gear-Coffee-508269921.html

Offerings

Roasts

At Big Gear Coffee Roasters we offer thirteen different core coffee roasts and a revolving Gold Series or two. We roast every week, small batch with attention to detail so that your coffee is consistently delicious!

Wholesale

Big Gear Coffee Roasters would love to partner with your cafe, restaurant, market, or workplace. Bulk roasting and developing a roast that suits you, suits us. Learn about how we can meet your business’ coffee needs. Interested in private labeling for your business? Let’s chat!

Subscriptions

If you would like high-quality coffee delivered to your door (or a door of your choice) on a recurring basis, you may want to try Big Gear’s coffee subscription service. Sign up to receive your favorite roast, the ever-changing Switching Gears (we will email you about preferences; you can let us know if you would always like us to choose). If you are a local customer, you have the option to pick-up your coffee with a biweekly subscription, avoiding shipping and handling fees.