Roasting with passion: Equiano Coffee Roasters and artisanal coffee in Eugene
A vibrant mural at the end of The Hybrid, a gallery at 941 W. 3rd Ave. in Eugene, beckons curious onlookers closer. The smell of freshly roasted coffee lingers on the sidewalk and the sound of vinyls records playing floats through the curb-adjacent walk-up window.
Equiano Coffee Roasters has been part of the Whiteaker community for years now as a reliable source of specialty beverages, curated experiences and of course, roasted coffee beans.
Recognized as Eugene’s ‘Best Coffee’ in 2022, owners Okon and Gloria Udosenata have been deeply steeped in roasting coffee for about 15 years in different capacities.
Gloria is a career barista while Okon has been home-roasting coffee for about 20 years. Okon’s roasting efforts started with a 1.5-quart saucepan on a stovetop, allowing him to roast about a half pound of beans at a time. A friend added a rotating copper drum to a grill so the temperature could be better regulated and Okon used that to start roasting about five pounds of beans at once.
That upward trajectory marked their entry into commercial roasting. Now, their industrial roaster can roast around 30 pounds of beans at a time, completing about four batches each hour. Okon usually spends three days a week roasting nearly 500 pounds of coffee beans for wholesale delivery and café use.
Crafting coffee: Sound and scent
Okon listens closely as beans roast, keeping an ear out for specific sounds indicating cracks forming in the beans as they dry and roast. At the sound of a particular ‘pop,’ he smells the beans and adjusts the knobs on the roasting machine accordingly. Much of his roasting focuses on the auditory cues and smells generated throughout the process — something Gloria said sets his process apart from the work of other roasters.
When the shop isn’t open, the Udosenatas are roasting coffee beans, delivering orders, completing clerical work and taking care of all the other elements that go into running and maintaining a family business.
Their journey from home-roasting to operating their roastery and walk-up in one space has taken years to come to fruition. They originally had a coffee shop on Blair Blvd. in Eugene before taking over One Cup Coffee from some friends. The shop was open 24 hours a day and between brewing beverages, making food, hosting events and caring for a new baby, the Udosenatas found they “just did too much,” and ended up closing the shop, according to Gloria.
The time away from running the coffee shop allowed them to develop a new business model focused on sustainability and community. Armed with the knowledge of what not to do when running a business, the family opened up Equiano Coffee around 2015 as a coffee shop with their roastery located off-site.
The new location at 941 W. 3rd Ave. provides enough space for the roastery to be housed alongside the tasting room. While indoor seating is not available —and neither is Wi-Fi — there is ample outdoor space for patrons to enjoy a cup of coffee.
For Gloria, this ability to disconnect from the digital world and be present is something the family has been working toward for years.
“The culture before Wi-Fi in coffee houses is something we’ve been trying to recreate ever since (the beginning.) It’s just a place where people end up in conversation and debate and build community,” Gloria said.
“We don’t offer much other than amazing coffee but in doing that, we’re able to emphasize the quality of what we do.”
Bean by Bean: A unique approach to coffee roasting
At Equiano Coffee Roasters, Gloria said customers have the unique opportunity to have their drink served up by the same person working with small farms to source single-varietal coffee beans and roast them to perfection.
“Okon develops relationships with the farmers, he sources the green coffee, he roasts it and you can come here on Saturday and he will make you a latte. I do know how rare that is,” Gloria said.
“Usually, those are quite different operations and we’re able to integrate all of those parts which keeps the quality really high.”
As far as the roasting process goes, Okon said qualities that make a good roaster include a willingness to experiment with new crops, techniques and flavors. He said their approach to specialty coffee is what defines their business. In an industry that always seems to be looking ahead to the next trend, the Udosenata family focuses on keeping their drinks simple and accessible. Some 'must try' menu items include their cashew milk and chocolate ganache for mochas, both made in-house.
Okon made his first trip to Colombia about 10 years ago to see how the producers of these crops saw the specialty coffee industry. He learned that the same kind of coffee plant can produce widely varying beans depending on the soil, when it’s planted and the conditions in which it grows.
“That definitely opened our eyes to specialty coffee. It took the focus away from the espresso to what the beans are,” Okon said.
“Our model from then on was always single varietals, small farms and if you look at our menu, we actually have a variety of things when it comes to the coffee itself.”
Equiano Coffee Roasters sources coffee beans from around the equatorial world in countries such as Rwanda, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Brazil, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Vietnam.
Gloria said Okon’s attention to detail is the key.
“What I think makes him a unique roaster is his use of senses. He’s much more analog in his approach to roasting. He’s very sensory and hands-on with each bean so that allows us to get smaller batches of more unique coffees, supporting smaller farms who have a hard time exporting smaller crops and then working with each bean and bringing out the best flavor in that bean,” Gloria said.
“I think that’s what really sets him apart as a roaster is his ability to bring out the best in each roast because he’s really paying attention. A lot of that would be lost in a more mass operation.”
While specialty coffee can seem intimidating at first, Equiano Coffee Roasters took inspiration from Theo’s Coffee House in Eugene, where Okon and Gloria were regulars, on how to make the often ritzy impression of specialty coffee more accessible for customers. Okon credits Theo’s as the place that got them into specialty coffee and said Equiano focuses on “flavor culture,” whether it be through coffee, seasonal produce or even music and stereo systems.
“They made it really approachable which is one of our most driving forces: to take the elitist edge out of specialty coffee,” Gloria said.
Community connections crafted through coffee
The Udosenata family has lived in Eugene’s Whiteaker neighborhood for over 15 years now and take great interest in helping provide space to develop community connections and culture.
The raw-edged wooden countertops that make up their brewing space were made by a community member who milled a tree and turned it into a counter for the coffee shop. The white tiles adorning the front of those counters were placed by a neighbor. During the pandemic, Equiano Coffee Roasters helped host the Whiteaker Community Market so folks could support local farmers who were still growing crops and needed to sell their goods during lockdowns and social distancing orders.
Between acting as a meeting spot for neighborhood group bike rides to sharing seasonal recommendations for everything from truffles to record albums, the power of being backed by the community is not lost on the family.
“Everything about this cafè and what we do with coffee is done with a lot of support from the community,” Okon said.
During the move to the new location, Gloria said family and friends helped immensely. Some of their supporters even helped run forklifts to move the two-ton roasting machinery into its new home.
Truly embodying the idea of a ‘family business,’ Okon and Gloria’s sons both take a lot of interest in the happenings at Equiano. Their oldest son, 15, works at the shop on weekends as a barista along with his cousin, Gloria’s niece. Gloria said he can make coffee and is learning how to assist in the roasting part of the business. Their youngest son, 10, is interested and excited about learning how to make coffee. Whether they realize it now or not, Gloria said their sons have had “a unique life growing up in the Whiteaker coffee scene.”
Seasons of change ahead
Now that Equiano Coffee Roasters is settled into its new space, the owners are looking forward to utilizing their shared building with The Hybrid art gallery to help bring events and opportunities that connect with the community.
Both Okon and Gloria are artists and have participated in many events over the years like First Friday Art Walks and pop-up gallery shows. Gloria’s paintings adorn some of the walls in the roastery.
“We’ve been a part of the Whiteaker community for a very long time and love it for all of its parts so we’re pretty invested in developing the culture, bringing positive cultural events,” Gloria said.
“It's a wonderful cross-section where we feel like a lot of our passions and community can take place. (The location is) definitely the catalyst for lots of other things.”
Along with the goal to host pop-ups and cultural gatherings, Equiano Coffee Roasters also hopes to work with The Hybrid to host events that would typically happen at bars, like trivia, and conduct them during coffee-drinking hours for a more family-friendly approach. Gloria said these events allow them to serve what is a “really tangible social network” for them.
“We have a really diverse demographic of a customer base, a lot of which come from other parts of town, but the common thread is passion about flavor and quality,” Gloria said.
“That’s something we’re really looking forward to bringing to Eugene: to foster a culture of more flavor, more culture, more color.”
For those looking for more flavor in this springy season and beyond, Equiano Coffee Roasters is open Friday-Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Equiano's coffee can be purchased from Dark Pine Coffee, Meraki Coffee Co., Noisette Pastry Kitchen, Theo’s Coffee House, Kiva Grocery Store, Red Barn Natural Grocery, Market of Choice, Sundance Natural Foods, Rooster Hand Crafted Coffee, Mad Batters Bakery and Equiano’s roastery at 941 W. 3rd Ave.
Hannarose McGuinness is The Register-Guard’s growth and development reporter. Contact her at 541-844-9859 or hmcguinness@registerguard.com
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: From beans to brew in Eugene: Equiano's artisanal coffee roasting
