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G rowing up in New Jersey, Bossie, alongside co-founder Paul Merces, started selling coffee at New Jersey farmer's markets aer Bossie le his New York City-based career in finance. "I wanted a career change that would connect me to things that I love, which were my escapes to the mountains or remote islands where I grew up sailing. I loved being away from the typical American tourist path and have always preferred the road less traveled. Coffee has been a byproduct of that for me," Bossie explains. Even their roaster tells a lengthy and tradition-rich story. ere are only a small handful of the 1955 Gothot coffee roaster that the Afficionado team uses to roast their beans. "e Tank", as they call it, was made in Emmerich, Germany and was sourced from a decommissioned roasting plant in Warsaw, Poland. In 2014, the team had it shipped back to its German hometown to be renovated using modernized electrical routing while still holding true to its old-world German durability. Bossie compares e Tank to an iron skillet, something that, when using, requires a close orientation to detail and lots of practice. Many other coffee roasters use large- scale machinery and factory equipment when roasting their beans, typically by pressing a button on a large and expensive machine. is is simply not the case over at Afficionado's Morganville, NJ factory— where the caffeinated magic happens. Here, with a deep understanding of and sensitivity to detail, their Director of Coffee, Chef Peter Turso, places value in hand-controlling their near-ancient coffee roaster. He's the one behind the scenes fine tuning every batch of coffee, using his senses only as a guide rather than relying on machines that run on autopilot. Turso came to the team as one of New Jersey's most renowned chefs, and coincidentally one of Afficionado's most avid customers. V U E N J . C O M 121

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