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Bob Anderson and Dainel Guinn
Bob Anderson and roasting apprentice, Daniel Guinn, perform a quality inspection on their most recent roast.
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Bob Anderson is a renaissance man. Long-time Gloucestonians (those in Gloucester, Va.-that is) might know him as a math teacher and assistant principal at Gloucester High or as the principal at Page Middle School.
If you’re a parent, you might know him as the dedicated math tutor that helps your son or daughter. And if you like to ride bicycles in the Williamsburg and Middle Peninsula area, then you might know him as the guy that organizes the Monday Night Ride during the warm months of the year. Anderson and his wife really like bicycling. They cycled across the United States together in 1976 – an event that Anderson puts up there with “marriage and having children.”
But if you’re a coffee lover in Williamsburg, the Peninsula, Northern Neck or Middle Peninsula, you know Bob Anderson as a roaster for Mobjack Bay Coffee Roasters.
Anderson’s journey as a coffee aficionado started a little over six years ago after he became a fan of the Hayes coffee store. After striking up a friendship with the owners, Celeste and Jo Gucanac, Anderson began hanging around while Jo was roasting coffee.
Then one day a thought occurred to him. “I asked Jo what would happen if he were sick or unable to roast, and he said ‘Yeah that would be a big problem,’” Anderson recalls. “Then he asked me if I’d like to learn more about it and I said ‘Yes.’”
Six years later Anderson is a main roaster for the company. He loves the science behind it and the mechanics of the roasting machine. But what he really finds fascinating and humbling is the responsibility of bringing out the best in the beans, which travel from places such as Honduras, Ethiopia or Brazil to be roasted by his hands.
“Think of all the various points in the world and various people that have put their hands on these beans,” he says. “It’s just incredible…when you just think of what’s been invested to get them to you.”
7060 A Woodsville Road, Hayes, Virginia 23072 • 804-647-3668 • mobjackbaycoffee.com
