Sam Nelly halds a handfull of unroasted coffee beans over freshly roasted coffee beans in his roaster at Nally's Coffee at 272 Saratoga Road in Glenville, Tuesday, June 4, 2024.
GLENVILLE — If you walked inside Nally Coffee right now, you’d probably scratch your head wondering just exactly where is the bean roaster.
Tucked inside a portion of Tune Skis ski shop located at 272 Saratoga Road in Glenville, behind a set of curtains, is a giant roaster where just about any day of the week you can find owner Sam Nally roasting beans.
Nally got introduced to specialty coffee by his cousin visiting from Colorado. Before that, he just drank brands like Folgers.
“So he brought this coffee back and I gave it a try and I was just, like, so blown away that it didn't have to taste like ash that I just kind of dove in,” Nally said.
That experience eventually led him to learn about roasting his own beans. It started with an air popcorn popper at home.
However, a snowy night at home in 2019 sort of changed everything. A man had gotten stuck in the ditch near Nally's house, so he and his brother helped pull the man out. Turns out, the man was Marty Michele, the owner of Wired Coffee in Malta at the time, and he invited Nally to his shop to roast in his roaster.
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Eventually, the man sold his roaster to Nally, who has been using it ever since. He moved into his current space in 2020.
“Roasting, it's pretty unique, because every coffee bean is different,” he said. “Each bean has a different density, moisture content, so it's going to roast differently in the machine.”
Nally said he uses beans from Honduras, which have caramel-like notes. He does both a medium and dark roast.
“The medium roast is a little bit more mellow and has a little bit of natural sweetness and then the dark roast is a little bit more nutty and has some smoky flavor to it as well,” he said.
Nally said the biggest determination of a coffee’s flavor is where the beans are from, but the flavor is also defined by the amount of heat and airflow the beans receive when roasting.
“Beans from Central America tend to have more caramelized sugar notes, whereas coffees from Africa tend to be more floral, like coffees from Kenya tend to be more fruity,” Nally said.
Sam Nelly halds a handfull of unroasted coffee beans over freshly roasted coffee beans in his roaster at Nally's Coffee at 272 Saratoga Road in Glenville, Tuesday, June 4, 2024.
People can find the coffee at places such as Hungry Chicken Country Store in Rotterdam Junction, The Plaid Farm Store in Amsterdam, Fo’Castle Farms and Knight’s Orchards in Burnt Hills, and Buhrmaster Farms in Scotia. He can also be found at the Schenectady Greenmarket every other Sunday, as well as the Clifton Park Farmers' Market on Mondays and Saratoga Farmers' Market on Wednesdays.
Nally said he’s looking forward to expanding. He’s preparing to take over the rest of the ski shop and open a coffee place for people to grab a cup of coffee. He said he’s hoping to have the coffee shop up and running in December. He’s also looking at selling local pastries there and creating new products.
Nally said he loves being able to share good coffee and is excited to keep doing it.
“I like talking to customers, like when I'm at the farmers markets,” he said. “I would have to say that's one of my favorite things and just sharing good coffee with other people. I like being able to give someone a sample of one coffee, and then go to the totally opposite end of the spectrum and give them another coffee, just to show them how different coffee can be.”
Know of a business The Daily Gazette should feature? Email reporter Shenandoah Briere at sbriere@dailygazette.net.
