New and Noteworthy: Chef's Coffee Company

By Kimberly Baldwin

If you live in New Jersey and enjoy fine dining, then there's no doubt you are familiar with Chef Craig Shelton and his former venture, The Ryland Inn, the world famous top Zagat- and New York Times-rated restaurant featuring superb cuisine and an impressive 1,000-bottle wine list.

Ryland Inn customer's were quite passionate about food, and even more so about coffee -- so much, in fact, that there were so many requests to buy the coffee, Chef Shelton decided to launch the Chef's Coffee Company to market and sell this original blend. This effort has since expanded beyond his initial expectations and includes additional unique blends like the Yachtsman (a bold, robust blend that holds its flavors in outdoor marine environments) and the Mountain (a specially formulated blend suitable for higher elevations).

Using his culinary and biochemistry knowledge (he did, after all, graduate from Yale with degrees in molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry), Chef Shelton has created truly amazing taste combinations where the coffee blend reacts to different environments, tailoring the coffee taste to the lifestyles and surroundings of the coffee drinker. As the Chef says, "What makes us different is that we recognized long ago that the environment can dramatically change the taste of the coffee. The same cup of coffee will taste completely different on a beach, a mountain top, at a horse race, or at a restaurant. So we take that into account as we formulate proprietary blends and roasting techniques to create specific blends for various situations. Each blend we have created is designed to shine in a particular surrounding. This is an outgrowth of my 25 year passion for marrying food and wine".

The gourmet blends and perfectly paired chocolates and biscotti are available through chefscoffee.com or at fine retailers like Chef Central (Paramus) and Wine Library Springfield.