Howard Bryman | September 10, 2024

Inside the Color Field Coffee roastery and coffee shop in Boothbay, Maine. All images courtesy of Color Field Coffee.

A father-son pair of professional abstract painters in coastal Maine recently launched a roasting operation and attached coffee bar called Color Field Coffee.

Located on family-owned land on the lush Boothbay Peninsula, with just a few hundred feet of forest between the shop and Linekin Bay, Color Field Coffee blends its founders’ aesthetic sensibilities with their shared passion for high-quality coffee.

“The style of color field painting, where large swaths of solid color are placed with bold brush strokes, minimizes the message on a canvas so a viewer can interpret the art and emotions,” the younger Color Field co-founder, Sam Betts, told Daily Coffee News. “Coffee, with its body, depth, and varied flavor notes, also lends itself to interpretation in much the same way.”

Beans roasted in-house by Sam’s father, co-founder Brad Betts, are loaded into bags designed by Sam. Both pitch in when it comes to customer service and managing the cozy 320-square-foot shop adjacent to the roastery.

The shop was formerly Brad’s art studio and gallery before he opened the Down East Gallery in Edgecomb, Maine, prior to launching Color Field.

Guests are welcome to help themselves to espresso and Americanos at a super-automatic machine inside the shop, where bright furniture, loose canvas paintings and and warm tunes from a vinyl record player set the vibe.

“The small space feels large with cathedral beamed ceilings and light flowing from the atrium-style skylights,” Sam Betts told Daily Coffee News. “The gallery-style coffee house is filled with color.”

Roasted and bagged coffees are on display not far from the 2-kilo-capacity Ambex YM-2 roaster Brad bought from his sister-in-law, Michelle Dubord, who runs an established roasting company in western Maine called Greenwood Bean.

Coffee options include Color Field’s signature roast, Wakened Birds, which consists of Mexican, Guatemalan and Sumatran coffees, all Fair Trade certified and each roasted to a different level.

“We prioritize sourcing Fair Trade and organic beans and have found a few specific farms that produce incredibly consistent and flavorful beans,” Sam Betts said. “Wakened Birds has been fine-tuned over many years to culminate in what we consider the ‘perfect cup.’ We also offer rotating selections of single-origins, based on availability and personal interest.”

Brad Betts moved to the Boothbay area with a group of fellow artists decades ago, and took up roasting as a hobby about 10 years ago after he and his wife raised a family.

While cognizant of his father’s love of coffee, Sam Betts was first bitten by the coffee bug while living in Santa Barbara, California. He then moved to the known coffee hotbed of Brooklyn, New York, where the father and son eventually hatched the business concept while planning a collaborative art show called The Color Field Series.

“While brainstorming over a particularly great cup of coffee, we were drawn to the question: ‘how can we design a coffee brand that can communicate the flavor notes without having to express it directly?'” Sam Betts told DCN.

When Sam returned to Maine, he helped Brad launch the company that is now approaching its first anniversary. An art exhibition called Toast to the Roast starts Sept. 20 at the shop to celebrate the milestone, with a majority of the works on display being in the Color Field style of abstract expressionism. In addition to art for sale, the event will include creative coffee cocktails and live music.

“Art is as foundational to the business, as is coffee,” the Bettses jointly said. “Our goals for the future are simple: keep the light-filled space an inspiring experience to share our passions for art and coffee.”

Color Field Coffee Co. is located at 30 Van Horn Road, East Boothbay.

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