Forget the Milkman, It’s the Coffeeman! High Fidelity Coffee makes Home Deliveries.

The dregs. That’s how I first tasted High Fidelity Coffee. There was a cooking demo at Sonoma Cutlery, and by the time I thought to have a cup of coffee, only the cold dregs were left. “Great”, I thought to myself. A very tall man served me what I imagined as a metaphor for “just my luck”.  With what I imagined was the very face of dejection, I received the quarter cup of grainy sediment, cold and dark and measly.

 It was delicious--unbelievably so. I savored it, smug in my good luck. Think of the others in the audience who might have stepped up before me and were now missing out on the depth of flavor. Nibbling lingeringly on the last few grounds, I decided I had to buy what they were offering: a t-shirt, because the graphics appealed to me as much as the coffee had.

 Who were these people who made better dregs than some brews I’d tasted, and had managed to design the perfect t-shirt for a brand called “High Fidelity”? The Reids: Jim and Jacque (pronounced “Jackie”).  I tracked them down. I asked for samples. I began to stalk them. I even asked where they lived, these magical people with their wondrous coffee. Finally, in Spring 2013, they received their Cottage Industry Permit (they were the first coffee roaster in line and the 15th applicant over all!), allowing them to sell coffee to the public out of their carefully refurbished multistory 1930s house with its mystical gardens and rock ‘n’ roll art all about, a home they share with their two daughters and Jacque’s parents.

The couple’s unique work history, hobbies and social consciousness led them to this juncture, where they roast only small batches of fairer-than-fair-trade coffee and deliver it themselves. Consistent customers, those using about a grind a day, or 1.5 lbs a week, receive their coffee in ½ gallon mason jars and leave the empties outside. Forget the milkman, it’s the coffeeman.  Selling for an average of $14 a pound, High Fidelity’s artisan-roasted coffee is superb and sustainably farmed, and actually far fairer than Fair Trade (FT), which is a co-op certification that does not certify small independent farms.

Jim, a musician who’s been in wine production for 25 years, says he’d always talked about roasting coffee, as there are similarities, with flavors issuing from the locale, the terroir, and when Jacque bought him a book about home roasting, he started experimenting. Giving it away to friends and family, they were encouraged by positive feedback. Jacque, for her part, had worked for twelve years as an advocate for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and had realized that, as she told me, “It was a single woman’s job.” Now she’s in charge of High Fidelity’s marketing, utilizing her networks and extensive people skills. Together with Jim, she helped identify and express the company’s mission: to produce small batches of artisan-roasted coffee while supporting farmers’ livelihoods and shunning environmental degradation.

Working with a supplier who buys coffee through direct trade, an arrangement called “Farm Gate”, which guarantees that the prices it pays are 50% to more than 100% over Fair Trade minimums, Jim and Jacque are putting their money where their moral compass is, prizing transparency and fairness as much as they prize the flavor of artisan-roasted coffees.

Today, you can buy High Fidelity Coffee from Jim and Jacque via their Facebook page and at the new shop in town supporting local foodstuffs providers, Free Range—Provisions & Eats, right next to B Street Mercantile on B & Kentucky Streets in Petaluma. Enjoy it to the last drop, and beyond.