When 7 Hermits Brewery moved to a larger location in downtown Eagle Ranch over the summer, Charlie Gundlach took over the lease of the commercial space the pub vacated on West Sylvan Road, replaced the fermentation tanks with a German-made Probat roaster, and opened Color Coffee Roasters, the only roastery/café in the valley. “I’ve been wanting to do this for about five years,” says Gundlach, who apprenticed under master roaster Jeff Duggan and Joe Harrison at Orange County’s renowned Portola Coffee Lab and worked at Boulder’s Boxcar Coffee Roasters before relocating to Eagle to pursue his passion. “I love roasting coffee. It’s a craft [like winemaking] where each change you make yields subtle differences in acidity, sweetness, and mouthfeel.” Like a bottle of fine wine, every $18, 12-ounce bag of Color Coffee (available by weekly/monthly/yearly subscription, delivered to any doorstep in the valley) bears the name of the farm where the beans were grown (small plantations in East Africa and South America), the varietal used, and even the elevation of the crop. The end result: the most superlative cup of joe in our corner of high country.