Brant reflects on career in coffee

When Scott Brant joined Montana Coffee Traders more than three decades ago, pouring a quality cup of coffee brewed with beans roasted in the Flathead Valley was just an idea.

Brant was there at the beginning with owner R.C. Beall as the company began roasting coffee in an old farmhouse outside of Whitefish. Today, bags of green coffee still sit waiting to be roasted in that same location.

“There was no awareness of roasting green coffee,” Brant recalled. “We were building up the business one customer at a time.”

Brant sat down with the Pilot last week to recall his career with Coffee Traders serving as roaster and green coffee buyer. He is retiring to focus on his nonprofit foundation that plans to support coffee growing communities around the world.

In those early days, Coffee Traders marketed its brand by offering coffee to be served at community plays and meetings. They asked people to taste their fresh roasted coffee beside canned coffee.

“More and more people were starting to roast coffee at that time and our customer base began asking for finer quality roasted coffee,” Brant said. “It’s no different than how much better fresh produce is, or the way a meal tastes better if it’s hot.”

It would have been hard to predict that Coffee Traders would expand to include four cafes in the valley and eventually employing 125 people today. But Brant knew early on that selling good coffee was a wise investment.

“Coffee is such an integral part of our lives,” he said. “We all love coffee and people come to love Coffee Traders coffee.”

Coffee Traders has also reached outside the Flathead Valley for expansion. Beall took his business to the Lone Star State by opening Texas Coffee Traders.

Even farther from Montana, in the early 1990s Coffee Traders reached Moscow, Russia. They partnered with Russian residents to start one of the first coffee roasters in the country. Brant said fresh roasted coffee wasn’t something that was readily available in Russia.

“They were overjoyed to have coffee,” he said. “The only coffee they got was German or French and it was canned coffee.”

Operating in Russia proved interesting. Brant said the Russian Mafia offered to be the “protector of the business and provide liability insurance.”

“They were our delivery service,” Brant added. “That was our venture into wild West activity.”

After about a year and a half, it became apparent that no one from Coffee Traders wanted to move to Moscow to oversee operations. While the Moscow business is still in operation and its products still bear an older Coffee Traders logo, the connection between Montana and Russia has ended.

Brant has spent a career traveling for Coffee Traders to visit coffee farmers and meet with coffee brokers. He has served as judge on an international panel for the Cup of Excellence, a competition held by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence that seeks to identify the highest quality coffees and then auctions the coffee.

Just last week, Brant participated in a coffee cupping, or tasting, at Coffee Traders. Staff was testing samples from Ethiopia and Brazil for final approval before purchasing the beans.

“It’s necessary to do constant tasting,” Brant explained. “In those early years, we didn’t have the skills to do tasting and we relied on our brokers to purchase coffee.”

While Brant is retiring from Coffee Traders, he isn’t leaving the world of coffee behind. He has started the nonprofit Coffeelands Foundation.

“As I’ve traveled to the coffee countries and met the farmers,” Brant said, “that made me aware of the necessary work that’s needed in those communities like healthcare, education and food security.”

Brant said nonprofits assisting farmers is necessary because pricing doesn’t always keep up with the farmers costs.

“We want to make sure the farmers are successful at growing coffees,” he said. “If a farming community suffers, then they can’t produce coffee — it’s mutually beneficial for roasters to help.”

Coffeelands will provide grants and support to other nonprofits already on the ground with projects and programs. An opt-in program allows for coffee buyers/roasters to pay 1 cent per pound, with that penny going to Coffeelands.

Coffee Traders has signed on to be the first roaster participating.

“I’m very excited about this,” he said. “It’s time to let someone else take over here. I’m coming around to a new beginning with this.”

There will be a retirement party for Brant on Friday at the Bohemian Hall behind Coffee Traders on Highway 93 from 3 to 7 p.m.