Winter, summer, spring, or fall—Montana runs on coffee. At Fieldheads Coffee Roasting Co., your coffee fix is their passion. Located in the village of Bigfork, Fieldheads is a family run business that strives to serve up responsibly sourced coffees and delicious, locally sourced items from bakery treats to their most notable homemade flavoring syrups.
A trip to Fieldheads is more than a visit to a local coffee shop. It’s a jump-in-the-car type of road trip just for a change of scenery and a promise of something tasty. The storefront in the village also serves as the home for Fieldheads roasting production, meaning that the smell of fresh-roasted coffee permeates all throughout town. Visitors to the shop can often see owner Ben Storest roasting, packaging, or shipping the award-winning whole bean blends, and baristas serve up some of the freshest espresso and flavors found in Montana.
Since 2003, Fieldheads has been roasting coffee for wholesale, but in 2012, owners Ben and Melissa Storest took over the business and brought the award-winning coffee roasting company to its current home.
“When we first began, we were only wholesale roasting in Creston, but [my wife and I] live in Bigfork and were looking for a way to get the business down here,” said Ben. The retail store and coffee shop in Bigfork has become a vibrant part of this tight-knit community. While summer brings booming business from visitors near and far, Ben said that the community of Bigfork has been a huge support for the business all year round.
Fieldheads Coffee Roasting Co. makes it their mission to provide ethically sourced coffee to their patrons. From farm to mug, Fieldheads is very particular about which coffees are served, resulting in only products that are organic, Fair Trade, or Rainforest Alliance-approved brews, roasted on site in the Flathead Valley.
This passion and knowledge of coffee expands into the storefront where customers can sample the different flavor profiles of various regions and purchase fresh-roasted bags to enjoy at home.
“[Our baristas are] extensively trained in where all of our coffees come from and we are able to provide really valuable information to the customer of what they are supporting when they purchase a particular bag of coffee,” said general manager Erica Carrara. Their impressive lineup features staple blends as well as a rotating selection of single origins, making Fieldheads a dynamic experience for all levels of coffee connoisseurs. With coffees from all the major growing regions, including Central and South America, Africa, Ethiopia, Indonesia, India and Hawaii, customers can enjoy and experience the varying flavor profiles.
Fieldheads goes above and beyond to feature local Montana Made products in the store, including dairy products from Kalispell Creamery, honey from Bison and Bee in Missoula, Tipu’s Chai in Polson, and chocolate from Posh Chocolate from Missoula.
“We are always very careful about any of the ingredients that go into all of our drinks as well as our baked goods. We go the extra mile of making sure everything is natural and using organic when we can,” Erica explained. As farmers market season approaches, more local ingredients such as produce, fruits, meats, and cheeses will find their way into the menu items.
The talented crew at Fieldheads loves experimenting with new flavors, filling their menu with fun, seasonal flavors and beverages found nowhere else.
“We are really inspired by the seasons for the simple syrups we are creating in house, using local, organic or natural ingredients or essential oils, depending on what we can find,” Erica said.
Fieldheads Coffee Roasting Co. is all about blending: blending coffee beans to create delicious brews, blending flavors to create unique beverage experiences, blending tradition with experimentation, and blending local with global. Whether you are an espresso enthusiast, a latte lover, or a coffee purist, Fieldheads is a one-stop shop for all of your roasting needs.