The husband and wife team import raw, organic coffee beans from Sumatra, Nicaragua and Cuba to their roasting plant tucked in the Rocky Mountains. Then they ship the finished product to customers in Europe and North America.

"Once people buy it, we seem to get the return business," said Johnson, master roaster. "There seems to be almost a subculture cult following."

A longtime desire to live in a small town in the mountains drove the pair from Jasper, where they met, to Invermere about 10 years ago. They worked in restaurants, opened a fruit stand, bought and ran a café, took a year off to travel and in 1996 started Kicking Horse Coffee Co.

Johnson came up with the idea after getting increasingly frustrated with the couple's struggle to source organic coffee for their café. They designed the company to fit their moral and ethical values, building on the niche market for organic and fair-trade coffee, and the move is paying off.

From its birth in a small shack the couple had built on their property, the company today has 13 employees in its 14,000-square-foot facility, and boasted 2004 revenues of $5 million.

"We love everything about it," said Rosenfeld.

The company imports green coffee beans from around the world and then roasts, blends, packages and distributes these beans to buyers across Canada, the U.S. and Holland. The next new market on the horizon is Germany.

Johnson has taken a few coffee roasting courses but said he's mostly learned the science by trial and error.

"We've developed our own product and system of roasting and we're sticking to our formulas," said Johnson.

In a fire-heated 180-kilogram drum roaster, Johnson and Rosenfeld monitor the raw, green beans as they slowly become the black fragrant beans that get poured into the grinder.

"Slowly they get darker; you start to smell it and listen for sounds," said Rosenfeld. "It's a science and an art."

Every bean is different and must be roasted in its own way, she added. "You want to bring out the best in the bean."

The coffee business is extremely competitive, so the duo went for a niche and decided on organic. The fair-trade aspect refers to assurance that the workers harvesting the beans are paid a fair salary. Both accreditations mean Kicking Horse and the growers it works with are audited every quarter.

The company's distribution outlets include Thrifty Foods, Canada Safeway Ltd., IGA, Save-On Foods, Urban Fare and Capers. Johnson said he hopes to expand further into Europe and the west coast of the U.S.

"They're definitely more savvy on the West Coast when it comes to coffee," he noted.

Running the business from tiny Invermere can be tricky, but the pair see it as an asset, naming their coffees after local landmarks such as Kicking Horse pass and Kootenay Crossing.

When they're not making coffee, the couple are busy raising their two daughters. Johnson is also a second-degree black belt and has been teaching karate in the area for 12 years. Rosenfeld has dabbled in local politics.

Elana Rosenfeld