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Trish Rothgeb of Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters
As part of this week’s Young & Hungry column on seasonal coffee, I conducted a lengthy interview with Trish Rothgeb, owner and roastmaster of the new Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters, which is based in D.C. Well, sort of based in D.C.
If you want an education in green and roasted coffee, talk to Trish Rothgeb.
If you want her coffee beans, however, the only reliable source at present is Bakeshop in Clarendon. But Nick Cho, the brewing and “retailing specialist” for Wrecking Ball, is working on other outlets for the company’s specialty beans.
You might wonder where this budding roaster actually, you know, roasts its beans given it doesn’t have a home of its own. Rothgeb supplied the answer during our conversation:
She roasts Wrecking Ball’s beans at Coffee Lab International in Vermont, a company that offers a host of services, including testing and grading of green and roasted beans. Not only does Rothgeb roast Wrecking Ball’s current line of beans at Coffee Lab, but she is developing the company’s forthcoming products there, too, including espresso and breakfast blends.
Rothgeb, a certified Q grader (among her other skills and credentials), evaluates green coffees for CLI. She plans to continue her work at the Vermont lab until she gets her financing together for Wrecking Ball’s permanent home. So where will that home be?
“I would like to be in D.C. somewhere,” Rothgeb says. “So we can say we’re a D.C. company.”