Fresh Cup Magazine | December 2017 by Fresh Cup Magazine

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December 2017 freshcup.com

PUPPETS OF THE LEMMINGS

Lemmelkaffe’s Melinda & Markus Lemke See Page 22

T H E M AGA Z I N E FO R S P E C I A LT Y C O F F E E & T E A P R O F E S S I O N A L S S I N C E 1 9 9 2

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

FEATURES DECEMBER 2017 Fresh Cup Magazine » Vol. 26 » No. 12

THE NEW SPOT Spot coffee, like the coffee industry, isn’t what it used to be.

BY MICHELLE MAISTO

MAKING AUTOMATION WORK FOR YOU AND YOUR CUSTOMERS From sorting beans to placing online orders, machines can improve convenience and quality for all.

BY KAITLIN THROGMORTON

THE HEART OF PANAMA Panama City’s cafés and roasteries take advantage of their close proximity to the farms where prized Geisha and many prime microlots are grown.

BY MICHAEL BUTTERWORTH

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

DEPARTMENTS DECEMBER 2017 Fresh Cup Magazine » Vol. 26 » No. 12

#TRENDING Instant Coffee | BY FRESH CUP STAFF Advent Calendars | BY JODI HELMER Coffee Cocktails | BY LEVI ANDERSEN

DO YOU KNOW STEVE CUEVAS? BY PETER SZYMCZAK

IN THE ROASTERY Lemmelkaffe, Sweden

BY ELIZABETH HOTSON

CAFÉ SPOTLIGHTS

30 A Cup of Common Wealth and Chocolate Holler

BY ROBIN ROENKER

36 Bearded Heart Coffee

BY KRISTINE HANSEN

38 Solar Roast Coffee

BY ELIZABETH AVILA 12) EDITOR’S LETTER | 16) CONTRIBUTORS | 62) CALENDAR | 64) ADVERTISER INDEX | 66) 2017 FRESH CUP ROUNDUP

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ON THE COVER: LEMMELKAFFE Melinda and Markus Lemke in northern Sweden

Photo by Elizabeth Hotson

PETER SZYMCZAK, EDITOR editor@freshcup.com

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

Illustration by Jordan Johnson

EDITOR P HOTO BY C HA RLES G ULLUNG P HOTO GR APHY; TOP RIGHT P HOTO BY M ICHAE L BUTTERWORTH

cast of eccentric characters from all walks of café life, an amalgamation of longtime contributors and fresh faces. It’s been my honor, since taking over the Fresh Cup copy desk this past fall, to collaborate with the story subjects and writers contained on these pages. My entrée to specialty coffee came, appropriately enough, at the Golden Bean North America Coffee Roasting Competition—a baptism by fire, if you will. It’s where I first met Steve Cuevas, who’s the interview subject of “Do You Know?” (see page 24). One of today’s top talents, Cuevas stood out everywhere he went last year—and not just because of his multicolored dreadlocks, modern-primitive body art, and good looks, all wrapped up in a humble demeanor. The head bean toaster at Black Oak Coffee Roasters in Ukiah, California, took home titles in various competitions and categories, from roasting at the Golden Bean, to pulling shots at America’s Best Espresso, and putting his palate to the test in the World Cup Tasters. Cuevas is definitely one to keep an eye on in 2018 and beyond. Coffee Fest, which returned to Portland this past October, was another immersive, formative experience. Seminars on the dos and don’ts of sourcing green coffee, and the stories told by exhibitors and fellow tradespeople of their work at origin, provided a solid foundation for understanding the topics brought to light in “The New Spot” (see page 40) and “The Heart of Panama” (see page 54). Fresh Cup also attended Coffee Fests in Chicago and Nashville, trade events in Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia, and one of the world’s largest hospitality industry gatherings, Host Milano, in Milan, Italy. Everywhere we went, people shared with us their visions for the future, a time not so far away when coffee is made instantly (see “Specialty Joe on the Go” on page 18) and with the assistance of ever-increasing advancements in automated technology (see “Making Automation Work…” on page 46). There’s still no substitute for the human touch, however, as shown in the series of café spotlights starting on page 30. I hope these profiles are not only entertaining and educational, but also inspirational, helping illustrate ways to positively impact how you do business, whether you own a café or work as a barista, roaster, or importer/exporter. Hopefully, they underscore the significant role coffee plays in so many people’s livelihoods. All of us here at Fresh Cup are already looking forward to an exciting 2018, and hope you’ll join us every day, week, and month for all the latest news, events, and personalities who are making the specialty coffee and tea world the tastiest, most equitable place it can be. I invite you to email your comments and suggestions to editor@freshcup.com.

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FRESH CUP MAGAZINE ~~~FRESH CUP FOUNDER~~~ WARD BARBEE 1938-2006 ~~~FRESH CUP PUBLISHING~~~ Publisher and President JAN WEIGEL jan@freshcup.com ~~~EDITORIAL~~~ Editor PETER SZYMCZAK editor@freshcup.com ~~~ART~~~ Art Director CYNTHIA MEADORS cynthia@freshcup.com ~~~ADVERTISING~~~ Sales Manager MICHAEL HARRIS michael@freshcup.com Ad Coordinator DIANE HOWARD adtraffic@freshcup.com Marketing Coordinator ANNA SHELTON anna@freshcup.com ~~~CIRCULATION~~~ Circulation Director ANNA SHELTON anna@freshcup.com ~~~ACCOUNTING~~~ Accounting Manager DIANE HOWARD diane@freshcup.com

~~~EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD~~~ DAVID GRISWOLD

ANUPA MUELLER

Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers

Eco-Prima

CHUCK JONES

BRAD PRICE

Jones Coffee Roasters

Monin Gourmet Flavorings

JULIA LEACH

BRUCE RICHARDSON

Toddy

Elmwood Inn Fine Teas

COSIMO LIBARDO

MANISH SHAH

Toby’s Estate Coffee

Maya Tea Co.

BRUCE MILLETTO

LARRY WINKLER

Bellissimo Coffee Advisors

Torani

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Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

FC LEVI ANDERSEN A barista since 2003, Levi Andersen is currently crafting drinks around the globe as the beverage applications manager for Kerry (parent company of DaVinci Gourmet, Big Train, Oregon Chai, and Island Oasis). You may have seen him at one of the 15 trade show events he served drinks at last year, or heard his voice as the host of The Audio Cafe podcast. Check out his recipe for espresso tonic on page 21.

ELIZABETH AVILA Elizabeth Avila is a Colorado-based coffee journalist and photographer covering the local and regional coffee scene. When she is not writing or taking pictures, she is making espresso drinks in the mountains, catching live music, helping out at the local radio station, or traveling. After living in South Korea and Turkey as an English teacher and student, Elizabeth developed a passion for learning languages and seeking out new challenges. Read her profile of Solar Roast Coffee on page 38.

MICHAEL BUTTERWORTH Michael Butterworth is director of education at Quills Coffee and founding editor of the Coffee Compass. While teaching English as a second language in Istanbul for a couple of years, he used most of his vacation time to café crawl around the European continent, where he consumed some of the tastiest coffees in the world. Michael is an avid cyclist, licensed Q Grader, and a frequent contributor to Fresh Cup Magazine. Read his profile of Panama’s burgeoning café scene on page 54.

KRISTINE HANSEN Based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in a neighborhood blessed with three coffee roasters, Kristine Hansen covers coffee, wine, and culinary travel for publications and websites including Vogue.com, Fodors.com, ArchitecturalDigest.com, and USA Today’s Go Escape Magazine. She also co-authored The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Coffee & Tea. High on her list when exploring a new destination—whether on assignment or on vacation— is hunting down the best coffee shop. Read her profile of Bearded Heart Coffee on page 36.

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

JODI HELMER Jodi Helmer is a North Carolina-based freelance writer covering the intersection between food and business. In this issue’s #Trending section, she compiled a grouping of entrepreneurial specialty coffee and tea companies that are making the most of the gift-giving season by selling advent calendars—see page 20.

ELIZABETH HOTSON Elizabeth Hotson is a radio and online reporter for the BBC in London, and she can also sometimes be heard on NPR. She specializes in business and economics, but tries wherever possible to incorporate food and drink into her reporting. She enjoys travelling, especially where coffee is involved, and is always on the lookout for if not the next new thing, certainly the quirkiest—which she found in droves at Lemmelkaffe, a Swedish coffee roaster run by lemmings. “It was probably the most bizarre story I’ve done!” Hotson said. Read about her firsthand encounter on page 22.

MICHELLE MIASTO Michelle Maisto is the content and social media manager at Genuine Origin. She has written for The New York Times, Gourmet, and Saveur, and is the author of The Gastronomy of Marriage (Random House, 2009). Read her article, “The New Spot,” a reappraisal of the role of spot coffee, starting on page 42.

ROBIN ROENKER You might remember seeing the byline of Robin Roenker, Lexington, Kentuckybased freelance writer, from last month’s cover story on chocolate and coffee pairings. In this issue she’s at it again with her profile of A Cup of Common Wealth and Chocolate Holler, sister businesses that focus on coffee and chocolate, respectively—see page 30.

KAITLIN THROGMORTON Kaitlin Throgmorton lives in Seattle, Washington, and writes about coffee, travel, and books. In this issue, she looked into the brave new world of automated coffee equipment, from robotic pour-overs to tampers and coffee bean graders. Read “Making Automation Work for You and Your Customers” starting on page 46.

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SPECIALTY JOE ON THE GO | BY FRESH CUP STAFF

hen off the beaten path or away from home, instant coffee can stand in for your normal brew routine and help you avoid bad coffee situations. Having a reliable source of coffee means no longer settling for that over-extracted pot of gas station swill that’s been sitting on the hot plate for longer than you’d care to know, the super-automatic machine dispensing who knows what coffee from who knows where, the complimen-

tary hotel cup, and mystery brew on the early morning flight for your business trip. A new wave of instant specialty coffee solutions is changing the game for joe on the go, so you can now safely leave your gooseneck kettle, hand grinder, and pour-over brewer at home. These quick and convenient brewing solutions are making highquality coffee possible wherever you may roam. Instant coffee reduces the time and equipment needed to prepare a tasty

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

cup, and, in some instances, actually compete taste-wise with traditional brew methods. In fact, instant specialty coffee offerings have made sizable strides toward drinkability. Overall, they stack up well in side-byside taste comparisons. Instant coffee certainly has pros and cons. While it may never achieve the same ritual experience and flavor as a traditionally brewed cup of coffee, then again, neither will a café be able to offer the simplicity, flexibility, and convenience that instant coffee does.

COFFEE BAGS look and act like tea bags but contain coffee granules instead of tea leaves. Simply steep the bag in hot water for three or so minutes, adding time as desired to achieve a stronger brew. Bean Bags by Raw Bean Ltd rawbean.co.uk Made in the United Kingdom, where tea consumption has waned over the past several years. Sachets come in Colombia/Guatemala blend, single-origin decaf, and single-origin El Salvador. £4.50–5 for a box of 10 sachets. Steeped by Santa Cruz Coffee Company steepedcoffee.com Each bag is nitro-sealed and made from fully compostable packaging. Available in an assortment of roasts —light, medium, dark, and extra dark —and decaf. $0.89 per packet.

SINGLE-USE POUR-OVER filters require a tall cup for brewing to avoid an immersive brewing experience. The rim must also be narrow enough to keep the filter steady, lest you lose them into the depths of your brewing coffee. The narrow spout of portable pour-over filters also requires finesse with a hot water spout, or the toting of your gooseneck kettle. Being able to produce a bloom like a traditional pour-over is great—the experience is very much like a manual brew made at home. After brewing, however, you’re left with a filter full of spent grounds that must be disposed of. Colombian Coffee Drip Bags by Nubia Coffee nubiacoffee.com Single-use filter with pre-ground, prefilled coffee. Blooms like a traditional pour-over, releases a fresh-roasted coffee aroma. $16/12 drip bags. One by Intent Roasting intentroasting.com Portland, Oregon-based roastery uses

their own roasted coffee. The narrow filter takes some patience, as it can hold only about an ounce of water at a time. $2 ea. Pourtables by Libra Coffee libracoffee.com Featuring small-batch roasted organic coffee from Tolima, Colombia, and Yirgacheffee, Ethiopia. $20 for 10 packets.

COFFEE CRYSTALS are easily brewed when mixed with 8–10 ounces of hot or cold water. Since the crystals dissolve, there’s very little waste left after brewing—a major plus for those looking for coffee to take on hiking adventures. They are also versatile for business travelers, providing a quick and delicious cup of coffee on an airplane, in a hotel room, in the car, or even at your desk. Anywhere you can procure a cup of hot water can be an instant coffee break. Alpine Start alpinestartfoods.com Co-founder Matt Segal is a professional climber who often finds himself suspended from a rock face. Frustrated with the quality of options available for instant, Segal was inspired to develop a simple coffee solution for outdoor adventurers. $9 for a box of eight packets.

Voilà voila.coffee Founder Kent Sheridan sources coffee from various roasters—Coava, Sterling, Upper Left, Ruby, Dapper & Wise, Huckleberry, and 1000 Faces— highlighting single-origins from around the world. $20 for a box of five packets (shipping included). Stoked Stix by Stoked Roasters stokedroasters.com The Hood River, Oregon-based roaster offers medium- and dark-roasted versions, both certified organic. $9 for a box of eight packets. Sudden suddencoffee.com Sudden packages their crystals in plastic tubes and offers a subscription service that delivers new blends and single-origin offerings every month. $19 for a box of eight tubes. Swift Cup swiftcupcoffee.com Swift Cup prepares an extremely high-extraction concentrate of coffee and then freeze-dries it, leaving only the water-soluble material, which is ready to be rehydrated. The company recently partnered with Passenger Coffee Roasters on a series of jars, each containing six servings. $16–$23 per six servings.

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COFFEE AND TEA SAMPLES COUNT DOWN THE DAYS OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON BY JODI HELMER

orget the tired, tasteless little chocolates hiding behind flimsy cardboard doors. Behind each of the 24 doors is a craft coffee or tea in festive flavors, such as orange peel organic black tea and solstice spice black tea. These advent calendars offer caffeinated surprises, and they are a unique way to show off the range of your products while celebrating the season.

Westholme Tea Farm The 24 teas were sourced from regions around the world and include black, green, white, mate, oolong, pu-ehr, matcha, and herbal varieties. Also included is a sample of one of the seasonal estate teas grown on Westholme’s British Columbia farm. Each of the envelopes is filled with enough loose leaf tea to brew up to 12 steaming mugs. $150, westholmetea.com

Victoria Mae Designs Etsy seller Victoria Mae Designs created an advent calendar featuring teas sourced from British tea companies. Flavors range from classics like English breakfast and Darjeeling to Honeybush. Each dated teabag is stored in a whimsical hand-sewn packet with a seasonal message, such as “Eat, Drink and Be Merry” and “May Your Days Be Merry and Bright.” $25, victoriamaedesigns.com

KaffeBox The Scandinavian founders of a coffee subscription box service created an advent calendar containing 24 packages of specialty coffee from 12 of the top micro-roasters in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Each package contains 50 grams of single-origin coffee. To guarantee freshness, coffee is shipped close to its roasting date and delivered in three separate packages over the 24 days. $173, kaffebox.no

David’s Tea Canadian retailer David’s Tea created 24 Days of Tea, an advent calendar filled with some of its most popular seasonal blends. Each of the miniature drawers in the “Countdown to Jolly” opens to reveal a single serving (nine grams) of tea. The flavors include Candy Cane Crush, Caramel Shortbread, Glitter & Gold, Sleigh Ride, and Santa’s Favorite, which comes packaged with miniature candy canes. $40 CAD, davidstea.com

Artful Tea Mulled wine fruit blend, winter forest, vanilla velvet, and chocolate mint rooibos are just a few of the festive flavors included in the Artful Tea advent calendar. The Santa Fe, New Mexico, tea shop packaged 24 loose leaf teas in numbered tea bags, each printed with preparation instructions. The package also includes 24 mini clothespins and jute to hang the teabags like decorative garland. $49, artfultea.com

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

Pact Coffee Pact Coffee curated a selection of direct-trade coffees from around the world, including eight limited-edition lots, and roasted and ground them in the United Kingdom. The advent calendar is packaged with a desktop calendar featuring information about the beans and farm where each of the 25 coffees were sourced. Each of the 20-gram servings of coffee can be brewed using cafetière, AeroPress, and drip brew methods (filters included). £20, pactcoffee.com

half a lime, juiced 4 ounces tonic water splash of espresso ice

HOLIDAYS ON ICE MAKES EVERYTHING NICE | BY LEVI ANDERSEN

P HOTO C OURTESY OF NEAT C OFFEE

aristas have always appropriated tools from bartenders. It started with bar spoons for stirring in cups, then measuring jiggers for pouring syrups accurately … not to mention the shot glasses that catch espresso. These bar tools have become essential in every café. Now baristas are getting crafty with more than just tools — they’re “borrowing” ingredients, too. Take tonic water, for instance. A step above regular soda water, tonic contains carbonic acid, which acts to balance the acidity in coffee. It’s a fun fluid to play around with and present, too. Tonic water fizzes like mad, especially as it reacts with fruit syrups. Tonic also serves as a great base for Italian sodas. Besides tonic water, bitters is another bar ingredient showing up in creative drinks. Garnishes, such as citrus peels, herbs, and fancifully shaped ice cubes, are also factoring into the mix. Coffee cocktails are a great way to spice up brunch and midday menus, and extend into evening hours and for dine-in customers. Another beautiful thing about coffee cocktails is how they bring morning customers back for more at non-peak times. Now that’s something to cheers about. “Espresso Tonics” can be made as mocktails without alcohol or as cocktails with the addition of a splash of gin. To achieve the best flavor synergy with the lime, use an acidic coffee to make the espresso, avoiding chocolate/smoky coffees. FC

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LEMMELKAFFE Sweden BY ELIZABETH HOTSON

KOKKAFFE: Melinda and Markus prepare coffee over the open fire in northern Sweden.

“We are the puppets of the lemmings,” Markus Lemke says with a straight face. I nod and sip my cup of coffee. “This is what we call kokkaffe,” Markus explains, lighting a fire in a woodland clearing. “It’s very popular up here in the north, but elsewhere in Sweden not so much. The beans are very darkly roasted and coarsely ground. I think it’s a myth that dark roast is really bitter. In some ways it’s actually tastier. It’s got a richer, rounder flavor. And because we grind the beans coarsely, the natural fat stays in it.” As the water gently simmers in a kettle over the fire, Markus takes out a leather pouch and pours in a good handful of dark, almost black, ground coffee.

“When the coffee’s ready we add a bit of salt like you would when cooking food, and that brings out the flavor even more.” “How long do you leave the coffee on the fire?” I ask. “It’s ready after maybe 5 to 10 minutes of brewing, but sometimes when campers and hunters make it in the mountains, they leave it an hour or more.” When the brew’s ready, we walk up to a basic but cozy log cabin where Melinda, Markus’s sister, passes me a plate of cheese. Along with business partner Rolf Nylinder, they are the people behind a rather eccentric coffee company called Lemmelkaffe. The cheese is for my coffee, Melinda says, like it’s the most regular thing in the world. “You leave it in for a few

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

minutes and it soaks up some of the liquid. It gives a really good savory flavor to the drink.” I have accepted that normal rules do not apply in the company of Markus and Melinda. After a short wait, I unquestioningly eat a lump of the cheese. It’s kind of squeaky in a peculiarly delicious way. “We like cheese, but it’s also traditional to add different kinds of meat to coffee—moose, for example—or you can just add fat, if you want.” Kokkaffe itself has been around for a long time, as the hot drink of choice for hardy Laplanders. But around five years ago, Markus, Melinda, and Rolf decided to make the rest of the world aware of its existence. Today, Lemmelkaffe has sales of around 1.8 million krona ($220,000 US) per year, around half of which is accounted for by their achingly trendy and beautifully designed merchandise. Ever dreamed of owning a moose-skin coffee pouch?

SAY CHEESE: Adding cheese to your coffee adds a savory note to the drink.

IN THE SHOP AND IN SPACE: Markus in the café (above), coffee in space (below).

Lemmelkaffe sells it. Fancy a handcrafted wooden drinking vessel? You’re in luck. Hankering after a $120, 100-gram bag of coffee that’s been in space? In 2015, Lemmelkaffe sent two kilos of kokkaffe into space. You can buy some of those beans, if you and your wallet are so inclined. Now would be a good time to discuss lemmings, which, if you’re not familiar with them, are small, short-tailed, thickset rodents, found in the Arctic tundra. Several species, in particular the Norway lemming, are noted for their fluctuating populations and periodic mass migrations. Colloquially speaking, people who unthinkingly join a mass movement— especially those who make a headlong rush to destruction—are referred to as lemmings. “The lemmings told us their ambition was to go into space and they’ve done so much for us, we wanted to help them,” Markus explains. At this

point it’s also worth noting that no illegal substances were involved in this conversation. I chew another square of cheese as Markus tells me the full story. “Back in 2012, me, Melinda, and Rolf were out in the Arctic, up in the mountains. Sometimes when you’re up there you meet the lemmings. They’re naturally aggressive and make a lot of noise. The noises they made sounded like ‘coffee, coffee!’ We followed them to the riverbank, where they told us their story. It turns out they migrate to Africa, pick one arabica bean each, then head east to the Moroccan coast and float along the gulf stream to northern Norway. They lie under the snow with the beans, and their body heat slowly roasts the beans. We agree with the lemmings that they have the best beans in the world, so now we’re working for them. Ultimately we’d like to support them on their space mission.”

No amount of gentle pressing or ingenious prying will induce Markus to diverge from this tale. Markus is equally reluctant to show me the roastery, which he insists is run by the lemmings. But what I do wrangle from him is that the beans are organic and, depending on the season, come from Ethiopia, Peru, and Honduras. There isn’t a physical shop, but Lemmelkaffe sells beans to dozens of local outlets and across the rest of Sweden. They also export to Norway, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands, and the United States. Customers can also buy online. “We’re quite niche in that our product is about making coffee outdoors, so it tends to appeal to hikers, hunters, people who fish,” Melinda says. Lemmelkaffe has hit upon a winning product and marketing combination. As I fish another lump of delicious caffeinated cheese from my dark brown cup of kokkaffe, I realize I’m hooked. FC

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PHOTO BY BO BBY C OC HRA N/ INSTAGRAM @BO BBYC O CHR ANPHOTO

BLACK OAK COFFEE ROASTERS: Steve Cuevas roasting on the 1950s vintage Probat roaster.

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

33 years old HEAD ROASTER Black Oak Coffee Roasters Ukiah, California

STEVE CUEVAS

bout 100 miles north of San Francisco is the unlikely coffee Mecca of Ukiah, California (population 15,882). The county seat and largest city of Mendocino County, Ukiah is surrounded by scenic Redwood forests, coastal byways, and world-class wineries. But in coffee circles, Ukiah is on the map for being home to one of 2017’s breakout cafés, Black Oak Coffee Roasters. Since opening in 2012, Black Oak has earned local accolades for its small-town take on the hip, big-city coffee shop. In 2017 its renown spread internationally, thanks to the winning performances of head roaster Steve Cuevas in big-league contests including America’s Best Espresso, Golden Bean Coffee Roasters Competition and World Tasters Cup Championships. “I was proud to win these awards. [They were] the start of people knowing where Ukiah was,” Cuevas says. “It’s the whole reason why I joined them, because they were roasting really great coffee when I first tasted them. I thought it was a shame nobody knew about them.” Cuevas has worked in specialty coffee for 13 years. He started as a barista in the Bay Area, then made the transition to roaster after joining Black Oak in 2014. While a big-city guy at heart, Cuevas has a humble, laid-back attitude that fits right in with Ukiah’s country clientele. “One of my favorite sayings when people ask how I’m doing is, ‘I’m alive. I woke up, that’s good enough for me!’ I feel really blessed for everything I have,” Cuevas says. “I have a great family, my parents are still together, my sister is doing good. I’m content living and moving forward.”

us push who we are, helping us get collateral and grow bigger and bigger. We’re getting more wholesales based on those coffees. This helps our company grow. That money can help our side projects, our single origins. FC: What is a typical day for you? SC: We start by doing our cupping. Today we had about 18 samples to see if we wanted to buy. We spend about an hour or two on our cuppings, so we don’t get distracted or too carried away. After that I spend the rest of the day roasting until about 2 or 3 p.m., depending on how many

One of my favorite sayings when people ask how I’m doing is, ‘I’m alive. I woke up, that’s good enough for me!’ I feel really blessed for everything I have.

FRESH CUP: Where are you at on the scale of light to dark roast? STEVE CUEVAS: Our biggest sales are our medium-dark roasts and our French roast. Those two coffees are helping

roasts we have. After that we wind down, wipe up the machines, clean up the floor space, restock our coffee. Next, I start moving coffee bags, loading them up on carts and wheeling them into our roasting room. FC: What makes a good day? SC: A good day is when you come in and things are in order. Some of our coffees are already loaded from the previous day, so you already have something to work with. You have about an hour before the roaster is warmed up, so during that hour I start sorting through the coffees, making sure they’re all in the roasting room and ready to go. Hopefully the environment is actually working with you. A lot of our lines that we did really good with were roasted on warmer days, so we didn’t need as much power to achieve some of the roasting. It was a nice atmosphere outside, anywhere from 80–90 degrees outside. It helps

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? STEVE CUEVAS GOLDEN BEAN: Black Oak co-owner Keith Feigin (left) with Cuevas at the GBNA 2017 Awards Ceremony.

FC: How many different coffees are you roasting right now? SC: We have a couple different varieties of coffee. Some of them are medium-dark roast, medium to French roast. We roast a lot of those so they are almost automated. Toward the end of the day is when I lean toward my exciting coffees, those I really have to pay attention to—single origins. Right now, I think we’re up to six or seven different varieties of single origin. FC: Why do you schedule your roasts that way? SC: In the mornings, if I’m doing a French roast and the machine isn’t fully warmed up and it’s off by 30 seconds, that’s okay. But 30 seconds could make a big difference when I’m roasting a single origin. By the end of the day, after we’ve been roasting back to back, the machine is warmed up, you have better control, you don’t have to worry about whether you should go way hotter to break even. You have to understand that sometimes you have to push it a little harder in the morning than at the end of the day once it’s warmed up. Then you can pull back.

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

FC: What machine are you roasting on? SC: We’re using a 1957 UG Probat for our production, and we’re using a 1950s Gothot three-barrel sample roaster. Those two are fun, German technology, cast iron. I love them. FC: Do you prefer working on vintage equipment over new? SC: I haven’t roasted on too many new machines. When I went to the Roasters Guild Retreat, I got to play around with a Loring, cast steel front versus different bodies. For me, it’s understanding the percentage of conduction versus convection. Really any machine, whether electrical or gas, it’s a variation of radiation, conduction, convection, and different rates. It’s more about understanding what in particular you roast with. I don’t think one is better than the other. It’s more a matter of getting used to one or the other. The analogy I use is I used to drive an old 1950s Volkswagen Super Beetle. The gears on that, you really feel them. You have to throw it into gear. I’ve also driven a BMW with a gearbox that is so smooth you don’t even feel the changes. One is stronger, whereas the other almost feels automated. The old school is just kind of a

PH OTO C OURTESY O F G OLDEN BEAN NO RTH AM ERICA

out with the roasting because it’s sucking the outside air that’s already warmed up.

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? STEVE CUEVAS little bit of style, and also it was there, so that’s what I learned on. I have grown particularly fond of it. FC: What have you learned about roasting on these machines? SC: When I started roasting we had one static size for all roasts. But now we roast three pounds, 18 pounds, up to 33 pounds, which is more than suggested or recommended. So, I’ve gotten really comfortable with the thresholds of what the machine can do. I’ve been able to push it in a variety of directions, and using other machines also expands my point of reference. FC: So, is it the machine or the man that makes the roast? SC: People think some machines produce cleaner cups, that this one gives more body, but roasting machines are just heat sources. You can end up doing the same thing with multiple machines, you just get there through a different path. If you don’t understand that all we’re really doing is controlling those three variations of conduction, radiation, and convection, you’re going to attribute it to the machine. In reality, it’s the heat source. I don’t think that the machine is as important as your knowledge of understanding the path. In reality, all the flavors can get changed by the cupping table. As much I as I love roasting, I give more credit to the cupping. FC: How often do you cup? SC: We cup two to three times per week. Most of the time we’re cupping about 20 samples, up to 40 samples in a day. In a week, I might be cupping 60 to more than a hundred samples. FC: How do you deal with palate fatigue? SC: What I’ve found out is if you do 20 single origins, all light roasts, acidic coffee, by the time you get to five or six, it’s all just blending together, you can hardly differentiate little subtle nuances. So, I like to vary our cupping table by seeing some light, medium, and occasionally dark roast coffees. Variation of roast degree levels can make all the difference in picking out nuances. FC: When you’re tasting sample roasts, how do you decide which ones to bring on? SC: When we’re selecting coffees, I used to say let’s cup them all, taste them, and we’ll agree or disagree. Now I’m more open. Minamihara, especially, has opened up my eyes that it’s not just the country of origin. I visited the Minamihara farm and it was amazing, it changed my view of the country. I don’t go thinking this is a blender country, or this is an 82-plus country. I know now there are pockets of coffee at a lot of different places, but you have to find it. It’s a scavenger hunt. Tasting the Minamihara farm showed me that it’s not the country, it’s the processing, the method they put into it that blew my mind. Their coffee was right up there with any Ethiopia

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I’ve tasted. Now when I think of producing countries, I don’t write a country off. I look at it open-minded. Minamihara didn’t know they had great coffee. They threw it on the table with all these other farms and everybody lit up when they tasted their coffee. When people asked them how they did it, they said they just discovered that they accidentally made great coffee. FC: What’s the key to Black Oak’s success? SC: We have a whole team. Besides myself, we have two other roasters. When you have one roaster, you have one point of reference, so now we have three points of reference. Some of our greatest achievements with roasting have been accidents. So, when you have three roasters, you have the ability of hitting the line completely on point, or they do something they shouldn’t have done but it works out for us. We’ve learned from it. That’s where we have the mentality of it’s the taste, and make adjustments from there, as opposed to trying to figure things out by data.

Sometimes one person goes a certain direction with their love of coffee and then the others talk him off the ledge. Or it’s the other way around, when the other people love a certain coffee and the other doesn’t see it. Then we’re able to help him understand. In addition to our crew of roasters, our owners (Jon Frech and Keith Feigin) have amazing palates. It’s basically five palates on all our roasting. We’re doing things that are very subjective. We’re proud of our people and the time and effort we put into it. FC: How is the coffee scene out here in the country different from the big city? SC: Coming from San Francisco, sometimes I feel the roasters there are roasting for their friends. For us in particular, we’re roasting for our consumers. Our single origins are for ourselves. Sometimes we have four or five on hand. It’s a little side project for the company, but it keeps us entertained. Our consumers and understanding their palate, that’s the bigger goal for us. FC

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UNBRIDLED SPIRIT: Friendly faces at A Cup of Common Wealth (below) and Chocolate Holler (opposite) both in Lexington, Kentucky.

KENTUCKY CAFÉS create community around coffee and chocolate

Kentucky cafés create community around coffee and chocolate A Cup of Commonwealth 105 Eastern Avenue Lexington, Kentucky (859) 255-0270 acupofcommonwealth.com Hours: Monday–Friday, 6am–7pm; Saturday–Sunday, 7am–7pm Chocolate Holler 400 Old Vine Street, Suite 104 Lexington, Kentucky (859) 523-3619 acupofcommonwealth.com/chocolate-holler/ Hours: Monday–Saturday, 10am–10pm; Sunday, noon–6pm By Robin Roenker

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

A CUP OF COMMON WEALTH 105 Eastern Avenue Lexington, Kentucky (859) 255-0270 acupofcommonwealth.com Monday–Friday, 6 a.m.–7 p.m.; Saturday–Sunday, 7 a.m.–7 p.m.

CHOCOLATE HOLLER 400 Old Vine Street, Suite 104 Lexington, Kentucky (859) 523-3619 acupofcommonwealth.com/chocolate-holler/ Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m.; Sunday, noon–6 p.m.

KENTUCKY CAFÉS create community around coffee and chocolate BY ROBIN ROENKER

P HOTOS BY NINA & WES P HOTOGR APHY (NINAANDWES. CO M )

alvador Sanchez, a native of Michigan, opened his coffee shop in another state for entirely rational reasons. When it came time to pick a location, he took pen to paper, listing the business potential pros and cons for all the cities he had visited. In the end analysis, Lexington rose to the top. But when Sanchez speaks of his adopted hometown—four years since opening his downtown coffee shop, A Cup of Common Wealth—his rational self turns emotional. In fact, Sanchez warns he may get tearyeyed recounting the aftermath of “Break-In Day.” On the morning of December 9, 2013, mere months after Cup’s grand opening, burglars broke the front window and made off with all the cash in the register. “We were prepared to just give the coffee away that morning, since we had no way to make change,” Sanchez says, pausing, his voice catching with emotion. “But people were

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coming in, handing us twenties, telling us to keep it. One neighborhood boy brought in his piggy bank to help us replace the window. Customers we hadn’t seen in awhile were coming in to bring food and tell us how much the shop meant to them. That morning, the city embraced us and showed us what it means to build community.” Sanchez opened Chocolate Holler, his second downtown Lexington storefront, earlier this year with a menu of sipping chocolates—an entirely new product for the city—as well as artisan chocolates from across the country. Sanchez also owns a coffee roastery in Lexington called Magic Beans. It’s where most of Cup’s cof-

fee blends come from, along with Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Water Street Coffee Joint, where Sanchez worked during college. Why did Sanchez open a chocolate shop rather than a second coffeehouse when it came time to expand? “We never want to be cookie cutter. We always like a challenge,” says Sanchez, who was named Lexington’s 2016 small business owner of the year by the local Chamber of Commerce. A Cup of Common Wealth and Chocolate Holler are located just across the street from each other, within 150 yards or so, but the clientele and the vibe of the two shops couldn’t be more different. Where Holler is polished, modern and clean, with natural walnut tables handcrafted by co-owner and

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

marketing and wholesale director for both shops Allen Warford, Cup is casual and unpretentious. Hot chocolate appeals to the young at heart, so it makes sense that customers at Holler skew younger. Parents with young children often can be found sharing the space with college students from the University of Kentucky. At Cup, however, customers span all ages and demographics. “The reason we picked this location was that it sits in a place where all these different universes collide. You are near the East End, which is one of the city’s lower-income neighborhoods, but you also have Kenwick and Bell Court nearby, which have higherpriced homes. Plus, you have all the

P HOTO S BY NINA & WES P HOTOGR APHY (NINAANDWES. CO M )

A CUP OF COMMON WEALTH: Embraces community in many ways: pay it forward drinks (below, left) and displaying notes from customers (below, right).

professionals coming from offices downtown. It creates this cool community where people who may not normally interact with each other are hanging out together.” Sanchez sees beauty in disarray. He uses words like “gnarly” and “unique” to describe Cup’s aesthetics. Tables and chairs are all donated, a hodgepodge of vintage dining room sets and fraternity house cast-offs. The condiment bar, made of old wooden crates and planks, was created by a customer. “We’ve had people come in and suggest design changes at Cup, but I get so personally protective of it, because I know who painted the walls. I know who brought in those chairs. It’s got such a sense of community, and I’d never want to change that,” Sanchez says. “It feels like someone’s living room, and most people get that. It’s got this intimacy, a sense of coming to a friend’s house, and people want to be a part of it.” The energy at Cup on a recent morning proved that to be true. Everyone through the door, newbie and regular alike, was greeted not just with the standard “How’s your day?” but real conversation starters like, “What’s next for you after this?” Regulars got compliments on new haircuts or commiseration about looming college deadlines, while first-timers were asked their names and encouraged to come back. Adding to the sense of community, both Cup and Holler have popular “Pay It Forward” walls, where customers can pre-purchase drinks for future patrons by paying for a coffee sleeve and pining it to the corkboard. These run the gamut from silly (“free cup to a man with a big beard”) to sincere (“for anyone going through a divorce”). The walls have “created this fun, energetic vibe, and have really helped our customers get to know one another,” Warford says. While A Cup of Common Wealth commemorates Break-In Day with free coffee giveaways each December, community recognition is evident at both shops year-round. Sanchez’s mission statement—

“Embrace Community. Serve Others. Create Culture.”—is displayed on walls at both shops. “Our mission statement is how we make every decision,” Sanchez says. “We want to work with people who have those same goals.” Every month, Cup and Holler host Nonprofit Fridays, where 10 percent of proceeds go to local charities. Sanchez works with Seedleaf, a local nonprofit that grows food for families in need, helping to turn all their grounds into compost. They’ve partnered with other local Lexington coffeehouses to create a culture of cooperation, rather than

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P HOTOS BY NINA & WES P HOTOGR APHY (NINA ANDWES.C O M)

CHOCOLATE HOLLER: The more modern of these two cafés offers artisan and sipping chocolates.

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

competition, leading to the popular Coffee Disloyalty Card, which rewards patrons with free cups after they visit all the participating sites. In addition to Magic Beans and Water Street, A Cup of Common Wealth offers a rotating menu of specialty coffees from roasters, including Four Barrel, Stumptown, Intelligentsia, and others. But for Sanchez and his team, the customer experience is priority number one—even above brewing the perfect cup of coffee. Baristas at Cup and Holler go through a rigorous, multi-staged interview process along with 75–90 hours of training, including apprenticeships and written and hands-on tests, before being hired full-time. “We have three levels of barista, and we’re going to expand that to six. We want to show that we really are investing in people,” Sanchez says. “That’s what makes our staff turnover so low.”

To be honest, you can get really good coffee in a lot of places now. That’s not as hard to find as it used to be,” he says. “And so, what’s more important for us, is just being real in our interactions with people. In looking for new staff, Sanchez and his team value interpersonal skills over arcane coffee knowledge. “We’ve had baristas from other places not make it through our interview process. And on the other hand, we’ve hired non-coffee drinkers. We like to say that we’re in the people business serving coffee, as opposed to being in the coffee business serving people,” Warford says, referencing a quote first made popular by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. Sanchez agrees. “To be honest, you can get really good coffee in a lot of places now. That’s not as hard to find as it used to be,” he says. “And so, what’s more important for us, is just being real in our interactions with people. We literally get to talk with people all day and get to know them and become friends with them. And in between, we just have to hand off a cup of coffee from time to time. I feel like we have the best jobs in the world.” FC

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BEARDED HEART COFFEE 8101 Highway 57 Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin beardedheartcoffee.com Open every day, 7 a.m.–5 p.m.

KENTUCKY CAFÉS create community around coffee and chocolate

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

P HOTOS BY ARTEM IS PHOTOGR RAPH Y

aileys Harbor, Wisconsin, is home to around 1,000 year-round residents. Until recently, the sleepy town in Northern Door County had little to offer for dining and drink, but over the last few years it has morphed into a foodie destination. Door County Brewery Co. opened a new taproom, and Chives, a farm-to-table restaurant, is located just down the street. In 2014, Bearded Heart Coffee opened its doors, giving Baileys Harbor its first taste of specialty coffee and tea. The café pairs espresso drinks and pour-overs with creative toasts on a tiny but thoughtful menu. Tiny is the operative word here. Bearded Heart is located in a 300-square-foot structure, about the size of a fishing shack, across the street from Lake Michigan. The location called out to owner Mary Horton like a siren. “We wanted to start with a tiny space to keep our overhead and costs low,” Horton says. Sage Conrad, Horton’s daughter, manages the café. Storage has been the biggest challenge, but what works in their favor is a larger footprint available outside, where café-style seating is added on warm days. Bearded Heart supports regional suppliers of organic, sustainable methods for everything from the coffee beans to the milk steamed for lattes and cappuccinos. Four Midwestern coffee roasters are often featured: Dogwood (Minneapolis), Kin-Kin Coffee (Madison, Wisconsin), Ruby Coffee Roasters (Central Wisconsin), and Ephraim Coffee Lab (Ephraim, Wisconsin). Other roasters rotate into the offerings from time to time. Being in Wisconsin has proven to be a golden opportunity. “We are in the milk capital,” Conrad says. Red Barn Family Farms in the state’s northeast corner won them over. The family-owned farm is part of a co-op of 15 small farms. “We also use goat

milk—that’s been a popular alternative to cow milk,” Horton says. Drinks depart from traditional offerings, folding in local ingredients. One example is the lavender latte, featuring lavender buds sourced from an herb farm located on nearby Washington Island. Lavender is also used for the Raspberry Toast, with fresh raspberries topping lavender butter with local honey. The Beautiful Burnt Goat drink features espresso, steamed milk, and salty burnt caramel syrup. For the Le Coeur a Barbe, espresso and star anise syrup are shaken over ice. Two of the toasts—Chevre and Pesto Toast, and Chevre and Beet Toast—incorporate chevre from Door County Creamery. Kombucha is local, too. Door County is primarily a summer and fall destination for tourists. A two-month closure last winter provided time to redo the interior. Horton and Conrad built new countertops and adjusted the floor plan, adding a back door, to get rid of what Horton called “a bottleneck situation” just inside the front door. Special built-ins for cups, lids, and coffee beans were added, as were two new fridges, one devoted solely to milk and another for chilling syrups. Adhering to a strict farm-to-table mantra has helped market the café, too. This is especially key as many locals and visitors are drawn to the natural landscape and its silentsports activities, such as kayaking, hiking, and sailing. Customers expect a genteel approach to the food and drinks to match with their surroundings. Another recent change is to further highlight the tea menu to customers, including its careful sourcing. Coffee pour-over service was recently added, too, as well as gravity pots to brew tea to order. “Door County has always been a vacation spot for older people, but it’s changing in the past few years. I like to think we are a part of that,” Conrad says. FC

BEARDED HEART COFFEE BY KRISTINE HANSEN

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CHASING THE SUN: Owner and co-founder Mike Hartkop roasting on the Helios (top right) and on the roof with the solar panels (below, center).

SOLAR ROAST COFFEE 226 North Main Street Pueblo, Colorado solarroast.com Monday–Friday, 6:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

en years ago, the Hartkop brothers, Mike and Dave, launched the fourth edition of their solar coffee roaster. Mike, 36, is a trained coffee roaster with a business degree. Dave, 47, is a special effects artist with a penchant for inventing. The brothers applied for a patent for the technology they invented and set some aggressive wholesale goals. Today, Mike and Dave have met and exceeded the goals they set for themselves. “We started with the theory that if you could do it with gas, you could do it better without. We have always tried to do things differently and do it our own way,” Mike says.

The idea to combine coffee roasting with alternative energy came about in the summer of 2004, when the brothers assembled their first solarpowered coffee roaster using a stock pot, a broccoli strainer, and a 10-foot satellite dish. More research and invention followed, bringing about significant improvements to each subsequent roaster design. A lineage of solar roasters was born, each carrying the name Helios, after the Greek god of the sun, and a Roman numeral indicating their order in the sequence. Each Helios has been bigger in size and in roasting capacity than its predecessor. Helios I roasted one

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pound per 20-minute batch. Helios II roasted two pounds per 20-minute batch, and it could be disassembled and rebuilt. Helios III roasted five pounds per 20-minute batch and was built on a trailer, offering mobility to chase sunny skies. Despite the improvements to roasting capacity, the brothers could not overcome the leading obstacle to their production growth—the lack of pervasive sunshine in their home state of Oregon. To fulfill their dreams of building a successful coffee roasting business around solar power, the brothers knew they needed to leave the overcast, rainy weather of Oregon for someplace sunnier and brighter.

OWNER PH OTO S C OURTESY O F SOLA R ROAST CO FFFEE; ALL OTHER P HOTO S BY E LIZA BE TH AVILA

Their dreams took them to Pueblo, Colorado, in January 2007. They found an empty storefront for rent on a main street in downtown Pueblo, certain it was the perfect place to launch their project. A decade later, the business has expanded from that corner spot to the entire block, which houses Solar Roast’s offices, production space, roasting facility, kitchen, and coffee shop. They inaugurated the space by building a new and improved roasting machine, Helios IV, or H4, which could roast 30 pounds per 20-minute batch. The fourth version of their original solar roaster, H4 was 18 feet tall by 35 feet across and weighed about 16,000 pounds of steel. With the capacity and sunlight issues addressed, and a café space to welcome customers, Mike was able to focus on sourcing quality coffee and building the business. Over the next 10 years, Solar Roast has become part of the Pueblo community. The company advocates for the arts, sustainable energy use, and revitalization of the city’s downtown. In 2010, their work and community involvement stimulated another wave of growth for Solar Roast. Thanks to a business development grant from the city of Pueblo, through the Pueblo Economic Development Corporation, the latest roaster, Helio V, was funded and built. The brothers submitted a patent for the technology used to create this roaster, but it was ultimately denied. “We no longer attempt to patent our equipment; instead, we keep the specifics as a trade secret. The patent office broke our patent up into four parts that then negated the entirety of the contraption. In any case, it hasn’t hurt business, nor the awesomeness and uniqueness of what we have created,” Mike says. The Helios V is a solar-electric coffee roasting system using the heat sourced from the electricity generated onsite through a roof-top solar

array. Mike invites people to check it out on Google Maps, pointing out the impressive solar array visible in the aerial view of the café. “The benefit of our machines is that we can generate more electricity than we use in our roasting process,” Mike says. The solar array generates enough electricity to roast the coffee as well as sell additional electricity back to the grid. There are multiple benefits of being connected to the grid. Roasting is no longer limited to sunny days, and guaranteed production capacity is independent of fossil fuels like natural gas and propane. Roasting times are longer than gas-burning coffee roasters, resulting in a unique flavor profile. “Using solar power allows us to roast with a gentle heat resulting in a lower temperature roast. We roast our coffee slow and low, like a good barbecue. This gives our coffee beans a smooth taste,” Mike says. Currently, Solar Roast roasts singleorigin coffees and a variety of organic blends. They offer eight single-origin coffees, with seasonal and rare varieties added as supply becomes available, with 100 percent of the coffees being USDA Organic and a few Fair Trade varieties. The brothers’ latest coffee project is a barrel-aging series consisting of a variety of coffees aged more than 13 weeks in spirit and wine barrels, which they source locally and nationally. “We have rum barrels in the beginning stages of aging. What makes this process so unique is that each batch uses a different coffee varietal and each barrel can only be used once,” Mike says. Other barrels include bourbon, rye, cabernet and chardonnay. The production stability provided by H5 has helped the business maintain focus on quality and growth— not just in coffee, but in their tea program, too. Two years ago, Mike founded Honey Tea Company, based on loose leaf tea that uses amber honey from Colorado and teas from three continents. “The honey serves as a natural sweetener as well as a

preservative to keep the tea fresh. Raw and natural honey has been found to contain many flavonoids that enhance health,” Mike says. Honey Tea Company fits with the Solar Roast’s sustainability sensibility by offering customers a tea bag-free coffee alternative. Mike’s tea development follows the same approach as the coffee program: to produce a strong, full-flavored quality drink for his customers. In the past 10 years since Fresh Cup Magazine first covered the fledgeling coffee shop in Pueblo, Colorado, Solar Roast has exceeded all the goals the brothers originally set for themselves. They built a solar roaster with a reliable, sustainable energy source. They centralized their café,

SOLAR ROAST COFFEE BY ELIZABETH AVILA

business and production spaces under the same roof, employing around 18 people year-round. In addition to expanding its footprint in the Pueblo community, Solar Roast is now sold in 48 states, excluding only Hawaii and Alaska, for logistical reasons. Solar Roast has won two prestigious awards. It was named a 2017 Colorado Companies to Watch for being an innovative and impactful business. The city of Pueblo honored the company by officially naming August 5 as Solar Roast Day. In the year ahead, Solar Roast hopes to open a second location with expanded hours where they can showcase the barrel-aged coffees, reserve blends, and collaboration beers made by Solar Roast and local breweries. The additional space and longer hours will also allow them to prepare coffee with different methods while educating guests about their beverages prepared with the help of the sun. FCFC

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P HOTO C O URTESY OF GENUINE O RIGIN

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SPOT ON: Greivin Mesén cups at Volcafe’s San Diego Mill in Costa Rica. The coffee is cupped at every stage and meticulously processed, which contributes to its overall quality and helps ensure its long-term integrity.

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s the number of quality-focused, independent specialty roasters grows, there’s a line of thinking we increasingly hear. It goes something like, “Now that we’re up and running, we plan to transition from buying spot coffee to booking forward.” The implication is that spot— green coffee purchased from a warehouse—is inferior, or that it’s small time, or maybe both. But is that really the case? Or, is it still or always will be the case? Where does

at the Good Food Awards. “Any good trade house will tell you how long a coffee’s been sitting in their warehouse and when it was harvested. Several exceptional coffees are listed as spot.” There is, of course, enormous value in being able to purchase coffee as you need it, Apodaca continues. “One of the most common mistakes new roasters make is overbuying coffee. All your cash goes into your green and you have no liquidity,” she explains. “Plus, there’s less of a quality risk

TEAMWORK: Mitch Richmond (right), president director of Volcafe Indonesia, and producer Marlon Sinturi, a contributor to Genuine Origin’s Narata Nauli community lot. Teams work together year-round. These relationships, stories, and the resulting coffees are shared with customers.

when you’re watching a coffee die on your offering list—demand is very difficult to predict,” Meister says. “But for roasters, spot buying can be really exciting and open up a range of products that might be new, or new to them.” Jennifer Roberts, director of Trading at Atlas Coffee, says that contracting coffee makes sense for specific coffees in specific markets. “If you know you need a Sumatra, or anything that has a hard-to-sub flavor profile in your blend, you might want to book it out, even if it’s only five bags over the year,” Roberts says. “But I recommend spot for people with new roasting businesses or less predictable usages—or for people who don’t love paperwork! Keeping track of contracts and releases, so as not to incur fees, can be a real headache.” According to Roberts, Atlas tries to bring in spot coffees it believes people will love and want to book throughout the year. “This is a service to our customers. It’s an opportunity for them to try something new, without having to commit before it ships,” Roberts says. “We say, ‘It’s here, we tried it, it’s really good.’ It’s like a safe adventure.”

this idea come from, and why do so many people share it? Recently, we posed these questions to some of our green coffee-selling peers. Their answers pointed to an industry being re-shaped by its newest players—and at a speed outpacing the old definitions.

IS SPOT LOW QUALITY? “Spot is sometimes associated with low quality or past crop coffee—but that’s just not the case,” says Jen Apodaca, director of roasting at Royal Coffee, a Roaster’s Guild vice chair member and the Coffee Head Judge

when you buy spot—it’s already here and you can be certain of the flavor profile, unlike a pre-shipment sample not matching your arrival sample. You’ll also save money and space by buying only what you need and shipping it as you need it.” Over the last decade, green coffee importers have been changing their approaches to spot, especially as they look to attract smaller and more riskaverse clients, says Meister, content specialist at Café Imports. “Having a robust spot position is good for our customer base, but it’s also very risky. It’s a real nail-biter,

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

“Maybe it’s wrapped up in the mystique of being a green buyer,” Roberts says. “Some people have the misconception that buying spot isn’t as legitimate as participating in the purchase process at origin.” Certainly, marketing, whether intentionally or not, has put a finger on the scale, in terms of what professional green buying looks like. Instagram doesn’t quite thrive on photos of educated green buyers scoring an excellent spot coffee. Though of course, the sale of that coffee is critically important to the producers who created it—whether or not the roaster visits to shake their hands and pose for photos. Meister also comments at how “close to the vest” the coffee industry is,

P HOTO C OURTESY OF GENUINE O RIGIN

WHY SPOT’S BAD RAP?

especially when it comes to sharing information about green coffee. “The whole industry could do a better job of making more resources available to buyers, so that they understand that buying spot coffee doesn’t have to be like shopping at the grocery store,” Meister says. “As a whole, we can all do a better job of defining terms and processes to empower buyers to buy however is best for their businesses.”

In a common scenario, a roaster may sample a “landed” coffee and decide to contract 60 bags of it over six months, receiving deliveries of ten bags per month. For the service of the warehouse holding the remaining bags, the roaster pays fees. Should she need to change the number of bags delivered each month, more fees are applied. That coffee she’s contracted is sitting in the warehouse,

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

P HOTO C OURTESY OF GENUINE O RIGIN

SPOT IT: Genuine Origin coffees ship from a food-grade warehouse in Pennsylvania, sealed in GrainPro and 65-pound boxes. The boxes are sealed at origin and only opened by customers, maintaining the coffee’s freshness.

just like the spot coffee. The difference is that the roaster is paying more for it in fees. Teresa von Fuchs, former head of sales and marketing at Genuine Origin, agrees the market hasn’t gone out of its way to be tremendously transparent. “One of the things we set out to do for roasters, in addition to introducing full transparency to origin, was to redefine the standards of spot coffee,” von Fuchs says. “Rather than treating spot as the leftover dregs, we want to take the risk out of the relationship by offering quality coffees on demand, at prices that don’t fluctuate with the C-price.”

IS SPOT SMALL-TIME? “This new market has made us constantly reevaluate our supply chain,” says Brian Speckman, a trader and vice president at InterAmerican Coffee. “It can’t just be story. It’s in the cup. If you’re going to have a lot of spot, this stuff has to speak to compete.” That’s across the board, agrees Gerra Harrigan, a senior trader at InterAmerican. “There’s so much more quality in almost everyone’s spot lineup now. That’s from better processing and handling techniques, to the use of GrainPro,” Harrigan says, referring to the heavy-duty plastic bags that are used to ship green coffee and maintain its integrity. “GrainPro has really changed the game.” Spot and its supporters have also forced importers to get a lot more specific. “It used to be that coffees with a consistent origin, grade, or quality were interchangeable. Whereas now, people are very specific, even if it’s a pretty generic Excelso. When people commit, they want that lot of Excelso, not a replacement one,” Harrigan explains. “That’s really forced us to know more about our coffees, and what that’s revealed in our own house is really valuable.” In other words, big-time changes. “The job of the import/export house should be to mitigate risk, for roasters and producers,” von Fuchs says. “Buying landed coffee, whether you buy only what you need for the week or month or you order into the future and secure coffee forward, it’s all about mitigating your risks. Which is a completely valid way to participate in the supply chain.” InterAmerican’s Speckman points to perhaps the ultimate signifier of a changing industry. “We’re seeing more producers coming here to host cuppings, rather than relying on buyers to travel to origin,” Speckman says. “Spot has changed with the industry’s demand.” FC

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P HOTO BY HONO R FO RTE

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

AT OLYMPIA COFFEE ROASTERS baristas use a Poursteady for multiple pour-over orders.

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obots are poised to take over the making of coffee and tea at cafés everywhere. It’s going to be awesome, right? Well, yes and no. For some, automation signals efficiency, consistency, and a progressive approach to the flow of work. For others, it means replacing people with machines. As Sam Schroeder, co-owner at Olympia Coffee Roasting Company, puts it, “Automation has this potential backlash, because it’s taken jobs in a lot of industries. When you’re introducing a tool that does one of the things you do, it’s taking a small piece of your job.” As we’ll see, that’s not always a bad thing. When the outcome of putting automation in place is better coffee and tea, that’s something that benefits everyone. Let’s take a look at some of the ways automation is improving the café experience from bean to bar.

ANCHORHEAD COFFEE likes that the Poursteady allows staff to focus more on customer service.

“It’s never been our plan to reinvent how coffee is made,” says Stephan von Muehler, CEO of Poursteady, an automated pour-over machine. Instead, von Muehler and his small team set out to bring the same level of precision to pour-overs that already existed for espresso. “Make pour-over work as well as espresso” was their mantra. The idea for Poursteady came a few years ago when Stuart Heys and Mark Sibenac watched a barista struggle to make multiple pour-overs. With extensive experience in robotics and mechanical engineering, Heys and Sibenac knew this was a problem they could solve. When the engineers presented their prototype pour-over machine at Maker Faire 2013, von Muehlen told them, “Guys, this isn’t just a science fair project, it could be more than that.” He was right; in 2015, the Poursteady won Best New Commercial Product for Brewing Coffee

and Tea Award from the Specialty Coffee Association. With von Muehlen at the helm, Poursteady started to focus on stakeholders. He wanted both café customers and baristas to be happy, but when they first demoed the machine in a café, the barista was “so turned off by the idea of someone coding a robot making a cup of coffee.” Poursteady had to shift its approach. “Next time we went to show off this machine, we were like, pay no attention to this machine,” von Muehlen says. Instead, he emphasized Poursteady’s repeatability and demonstrated how the barista could control the whole process from an app. “Suddenly, they were the most powerful barista in the world. They don’t have to be watching the scale and the timer, they could celebrate the coffee, explaining where it came from and focusing on the cus-

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

tomer service aspect,” von Muehlen explains. For Anchorhead Coffee, which opened last year with a Poursteady, that power has a lot of benefits. “It kind of takes the human out of it, so that you can focus on the rest of your workflow, and the rest of your customers,” says Ross Beamish, Anchorhead’s training manager. Additional perks include the freedom to carry more pour-over coffees—Anchorhead has offered seven single-origin coffees as pour-overs at one time—as well as enthusiasm among baristas to serve them. Customers love the theater of the Poursteady, watching with anticipation as their coffee is prepared by a sleek silver machine. “For our really big pour-over fans, they like that they can come back every day and get something new.

P HOTO C OURTESY OF ANC HOR HEAD C O FFEE

AUTOMATING HAND POURS

P HOTO BY HONO R FO RTE

PUQPRESS makes each tamp consistent.

Usually by the time they’ve tasted them all, we’re cycling in something new that’s seasonal,” Beamish says. Perhaps Poursteady’s biggest selling point, though, is that it solves the problem that inspired its creation: long lines for pour-overs. “People feel like they can get a quick cup of coffee, they can try all the different varietals, and no one ever feels like they have to wait too long. There’s no queue for a pour-over here, they’re all going to get started as soon as they’re ordered,” says Beamish. The Poursteady has steadily increased pour-over sales for Anchorhead. In fact, the machine has nearly paid for itself, only six months after acquisition. Besides Poursteady, Anchorhead uses several other automated processes in the café including a batch-brewer, an espresso machine

equipped with various automated features, and Slack, a team communication tool. “It’s a great way to communicate really small bits of information that are actually important,” Beamish says. For instance, when the shop rolled out a new drink, details on the various types of drinkware it should be served in, for in-house and to-go, were shared via Slack. For Beamish, these tools and devices are a no-brainer. “Technological improvements, they make our life easier,” he says. “They make our coffee better, and they make everything more consistent.”

AUTOMATING TAMPING At Olympia Coffee Roasting Company in Olympia, Washington, Sam Schroeder believes automation can improve baristas’ lives and

elevate the profession. In addition to a Poursteady, Olympia Coffee recently acquired a PuqPress, an automatic tamper. Schroeder admits he thought an automatic tamper was “kind of ridiculous” at first. Then he tried it, and he was sold. Baristas were initially skeptical, Schroeder says, but feedback has been completely positive. The PuqPress is easy to use and more consistent than the most meticulous barista could be. It also has a physical benefit for baristas. “Tamping is probably the worst thing we do as baristas, in terms of strain for the body,” Schroeder says. “There are some days where my body hurts from being a barista. And if you think about the future of coffee, as it becomes more professional and less of a job that people do while they’re waiting to do the next thing,

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we have to look for more ways to make it sustainable.” Instead of demonizing automation, Schroeder focuses on what humans can do that machines can’t. “There’s a couple things that baristas do that can’t be replaced with automation. One thing they can do is taste and dial in coffee. Machines can’t taste; humans can taste. Machines also can’t provide a warmth of service.” That focus on excellent customer service and depth of coffee knowledge transcends the power of automation and transforms serving coffee into a career.

AUTOMATING QUALITY CONTROL

AN OPTICAL SORTER (above) is used by Counter Culture Coffee to remove quakers (below) from roasted coffee beans using photo technology.

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

SO RTER P HOTO C O URTESY O F BÜHLER GRO UP; C O UNTE R C ULTURE C O FFEE PHOTO S BY CYNTHIA M EAD ORS

Quakers, or unripened coffee beans, are a pretty normal issue in coffee. Even expertly picked coffee has quakers in it. “If you have a quaker in your bag of coffee, it’s not going to ruin it,” says Thomas Costello, communications and public relations manager at Counter Culture Coffee in Durham, North Carolina. But if you could eliminate quakers, wouldn’t you? Now you can. The Bühler optical sorter removes quakers by using photo technology, powered by an algorithm, to detect defects. Once detected on camera, the machine shoots a burst of air at the quaker to eliminate it. This complex process happens in milliseconds. Counter Culture employs a fulltime sorter, Rob DiPatri, who operates the roastery’s newly installed Bühler. While the machine removes buckets of bad beans, DiPatri refines the computer program to improve its sorting. “His job is to continually refine how to get the most quakers out, while not losing anything that we want. It’s a fine line,” Costello says. Though not perfect, the machine leads to a better cup of coffee. And, to the excitement of Counter Culture, it also means coffee from more regions. “It allows us to buy coffees that are less consistent from origin, and buy coffees that we couldn’t in the past,

YOUR ORDER IS READY: Jabala Coffee uses online ordering to help reduce the amount of customers waiting in line.

PH OTO C OURTESY O F J UBA LA C O FFEE

because now we can correct those inconsistencies, which is great for farms that we work with.” Because quakers can be up to two percent of coffee, “you’re essentially taking out weight that we used to sell,” Costello explains. But the upside is improved quality. “You don’t want to sell just any coffee, just any quality, but the right ones,” Costello says.

AUTOMATING ORDERING Online ordering is another way to introduce automation into the café. At Jubala Coffee in Raleigh, North Carolina, online ordering arrived several years ago when the shop piloted

Square Wallet, a now-defunct program that allowed customers to view, order, and pay for items from Jubala’s menu via the Square app. According to owner Andrew Cash, customers loved the convenience, and they were frustrated when the program dissolved. As a workaround, Jubala now displays their menu on their website as a Square online store. “Customers still love it,” Cash says. “For it to be perfect, I wish it was a little more geared toward food and beverage than retail.” Shortcomings aside, Square allows Jubala to fulfill online orders at their two locations. “When someone orders online, they pay for it online

before they pick it up. Then they come in and grab their food and drinks,” Cash explains. To improve the experience, Cash ordered a stack of business cards with Jubala’s logo and a blank line. Baristas write the name of the online orderer on the cards and place them next to the order. “When a customer puts their order through, say it’s ‘Katie’ ordering a vanilla latte, we hit a button that notifies her through text message, and her vanilla latte is sitting on a little table with a card that says ‘Katie.’” Jubala asks customers to give the shop 15 minutes to prepare the order.

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AUTOMATED ORDERING: Jabala Coffee uses Square for online orders.

when placing orders, and some weren’t even aware Jubala had two locations, causing people to show up asking for an order that had been prepared halfway across town. To solve this glitch, two menus were created, which show up as separate

Automation is exciting, but only insofar as it serves the customers. Try not to drag them into a future they didn’t ask for. someone orders a cappuccino, and they don’t come for 20 minutes, it’s not going to be as good.” Resolving glitches is part of using any automated system. For instance, Cash realized early on that customers weren’t selecting a location

tabs on the Jubala website menu, offering separate order pages for each store. In the end, Cash believes the benefits outweigh the challenges. Online ordering reduces the number of people standing in line. It takes

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

the urgency out of some orders, since baristas know online customers won’t be arriving for a few minutes. “[Online ordering] makes the café run smoother,” Cash says.

EVALUATING AUTOMATION Improving the human experience, whether that of customers or café staff, should ultimately be what drives automation. At its best, automation can usher in a new age of convenience and quality, previously impossible to attain. As Poursteady’s von Muehlen says, “Automation is exciting, but only insofar as it serves the customers. Try not to drag them into a future they didn’t ask for. If you’re freeing up the server to better serve their customers, you’re improving that customer experience.” As long as delicious beverages and excellent customer service are at the core of what you do, no machine can ever replace that. In fact, no machine can ever replace that. FC

PH OTO S C OURTESY O F JUBA LA CO FFEE

In some cases, for instance with cappuccinos, the order may not be prepared until the customer walks in the door. “We want to serve great quality food and beverage, and serve great customer service,” Cash says. “If

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Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

P HOTO BY M ICH AEL BUTTERWORTH

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GEISHA OR GESHA? What’s the proper way to spell Panama’s most famous coffee variety? The specialty coffee industry is split into two orthographic camps. One spells it “Geisha,” the other “Gesha.” When the variety first came onto the international scene in 2004, the Panamanian growers used the spelling “Geisha,” which they received from CATIE, an agricultural research center in Costa Rica where they acquired their first samples. Problem is, “geisha” is also the spelling of a traditional Japanese female entertainer. The shared spelling was coincidental, but the memorable name and the exceptional cup quality launched Geisha to a level of fame not previously achieved by a coffee variety. The variety is named for the district in Ethiopia where the original seeds were selected— Gesha, in the Keffa Zone. The spelling “Geisha” appears to be a corruption, or perhaps a phonetic spelling in lieu of established transliteration rules, that dates back to the original expedition that gathered the samples in the 1930s. In light of this, many coffee roasters and importers have elected to use the spelling “Gesha.” Panamanian coffee producers, and the specialty roasters in Panama with them, have continued to use the spelling “Geisha.” “I understand there are people trying to honor the original region, but when it was introduced to the world it was called ‘Geisha,’” says Wilford Lamastus Jr., a Panamanian coffee farmer who grows and roasts the variety. Although the debate surrounding Geisha/Gesha is unlikely to be resolved soon, this article follows the Panamanian spelling.

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

LETO co-owner Cesar Eduardo Bermejo (left) visits with producers regularly.

PH OTO S BY M ICH AEL BUTTERWOR TH

hen a coffee shop owner needs a new coffee, he usually will ask a roaster for samples. Roasters might do the same with an importer. By contrast, Cesar Eduardo Bermejo, co-owner of Leto Coffee Brew Bar, has a different system. He gets in his car and drives a few hours. It’s an approach afforded by the fact Leto Coffee is located in the heart of Panama City, Panama, and all its coffee comes from a short radius around the city. Bermejo is the reigning Panamanian barista champion and visited his producers monthly to prepare for the 2017 World Barista Championship held recently in Seoul, South Korea. This intimate, often vertically integrated relationship between Panama City cafés and the producers who provide their coffee sets Panama apart. Panama has long been recognized for producing high-quality coffee, and it’s also home to a thriving specialty coffee community that’s globally networked and on the leading edge of industry trends. In many ways, it shouldn’t be surprising. Largely due to an international banking boom, Panama is home to a burgeoning middle class that is young and well traveled, and, perhaps most importantly, has ready access to some of the world’s best coffee. In terms of coffee production, Panama is a small country. Its annual production of less than 100,000 bags is dwarfed by neighboring countries such as Costa Rica (1.6 million bags) and Colombia (11.5 million bags). But what it lacks in quantity, Panama makes up for in quality. It was here the now-famous coffee variety Geisha was rediscovered by the Peterson family at Hacienda la Esmeralda. Although the heirloom African variety has since spread around the world, the Panamanian expression of this floral and fruity variety continues to be one of the highest valued coffees. The annual auction for Best of Panama competition winners sets records each year, with 2017’s

natural Geisha winner from Hacienda la Esmeralda fetching a staggering $601 a pound.

PH OTO S BY BRIAN BEYKE

BAJAREQUE COFFEE HOUSE Although Panama has been producing specialty-grade coffee since the 1990s, Panamanians historically have only consumed commodity-grade coffee roasted by one of three large national companies. That started to change with a small café named Bajareque Coffee House. “Five years ago when we started this, there was no place to get a nice cup of coffee in Panama,” says Wilford Lamastus Jr., fourth-generation coffee farmer and the proprietor of Bajareque. “Our motto was, ‘Let’s roast the same quality we export to sell in the local market.’” For Lamastus Jr., this was no small ambition. The Lamastus family owns the coffee farms Elida Estate, El Burro Estate, and Luito Geisha Estate. Their coffees have won Best of Panama, been used by barista champions, and are highly sought-after by roasters around the globe. They pioneered using natural and honey processing in Panama, techniques which create a fruit-forward flavor profile atypical of traditional Panamanian coffee. The house espresso blend at Bajareque is sourced from neighboring farms, and their coffee is so popular that most of their coffee is allotted for roasters in America, Japan, and Taiwan before harvest is over. The Lamastus family named Bajareque Coffee House after the northern winds that bring rain down from the Caribbean to their farms in Boquete, near the Costa Rica border. During the rainy season, these afternoon rains roll in each afternoon with clocklike precision, causing the coffee trees to flower. Originally, Bajareque was going to be a wholesale-only coffee business. But when an opportunity came up to open a café in historic Casco Viejo, Lamastus Jr. pivoted. After the

BAJAREQUE COFFEE HOUSE in the historic Casco Viejo neighborhood.

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CAFE UNIDO offerings include pastries and lunch options.

would join the family business. “For a while I was working in real estate, and I was making money,” says Lamastus Jr. “I was happy in real estate.” But Lamastus Jr.’s interest in specialty coffee grew as he met coffee buyers from other countries. These days, Lamastus Jr. travels back to Boquete every harvest season to help his family bring in the new crop. One day, when his father Wilford Lamastus Sr. retires, Wilford Jr. will take over the family farms. But for now, he’s focused on growing their wholesale business in Panama City. “The beautiful part is offering people the really good coffees of Panama,” says Lamastus Jr.

Panama Canal, this colonial city is the most-visited place in Panama. The ruins of the original Spanish settlement, which date to 1519, are here, surrounded by early 20th century architecture, a period when American intervention led to Panama separating from Colombia and forming its own republic. In recent years, Casco Viejo has been heavily redeveloped, with boutique hotels, gelato shops, and, of course, cafés popping up in previously dilapidated buildings. Thankfully, large parts of the neighborhood are still ungentrified, as the working-class residents of the neighborhood live side-by-side with the tourists. Among the blended frappes one expects from a tourist-centric café, visitors to Bajareque will find a selection of Geisha microlots that many coffee enthusiasts only dream of

tasting. Although most of the coffee at Bajareque is roasted on the farm in Boquete, the Geisha varieties are roasted onsite by Lamastus Jr. on a 1.5-kilo Probatino roaster. The roasting room also doubles as a training lab for Bajareque’s baristas and wholesale customers. Although tourists represent a large portion of the customers at Bajareque, their coffee is also available in some local markets, where Lamastus Jr. says sales are steadily increasing. “[Panamanians] pay for good wines and good rum, why not coffee?” asks Lamastus Jr. “But it’s not just highend, the middle class is buying, too.” For the Lamastus family, vertically integrating their business points to the reality that coffee farming is hard to make profitable, even for reputable farms like Elida Estate. In fact, at one time Lamastus Jr. wasn’t sure if he

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine

A short walk away from Bajareque in Casco Viejo is perhaps Panama’s most elegant café: Cafe Unido in the lobby of the American Trade Hotel. This upscale hotel was designed by the Ace Hotel’s design team, Ace Atelier. From the marble table tops, to the elegant bar, it’s a refined and sophisticated space that feels lifted from some Parisian high street. The American Trade Hotel café is one of Unido’s five locations around the city, the largest presence of any specialty roaster in the city. The scale is afforded by Unido belonging to a larger restaurant group whose portfolio includes Maito, Panama’s topranked restaurant on Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants list. I meet Unido’s co-owner Alberto “Benito” Bermúdez at the opening reception for the Best of Panama coffee auction. With his thick-rimmed glasses, copious tattoos, and Misfits t-shirt, Bermúdez stands out in a room of coffee farmers. While it’s not an uncommon uniform for a coffee roaster, it’s also a testament to Bermúdez’s other job: drummer in the punk rock band Lemmiwinks. He admits when he first began traveling to Boquete from Panama City, few coffee farmers took him seriously as a coffee buyer. But his persistence paid off.

PHOTO S BY M ICHA EL BUTTERWORTH

CAFE UNIDO

The shelf at Unido reads like a who’s who of Panamanian coffee farmers: Carmen Estate, Finca Lerida, Elida Estate, and Bambito Estate are just a few of the farms that supply Unido’s green coffee. Although many of the roasters in Panama bemoan the fact they can’t import coffee from other countries, the forced focus on domestically grown coffee creates a unique environment in which the significance of coffee variety and process eclipses region. If you walk into a Panama City café, you know you’re going to drink a coffee from Panama. What differentiates the options are the cultivar of the coffee plant and the way in which the coffee seed was dried after harvest. For even veteran coffee drinkers, the possibilities are exciting. Perhaps

you’ve had a washed and a natural process coffee from the same farm, but what about a white honey or a black honey? How does Caturra taste different from a Pacamara? What about the difference between lot seven and lot ten on the same farm? Essentially, the coffee tourist in Panama City discovers a world previously only known by coffee farmers and green buyers. Unido’s interest in exploring the intricacies of coffee farming has led it on the reverse path taken by other specialty coffee shops in Panama City. While many cafés were started by specialty coffee farmers hoping to add more value to their product, Unido is a coffee roaster that has bought a coffee farm in Boquete. It will still be several years before Unido has a commercial crop, but the process has helped Bermúdez and company feel more connected to the process.

WILFORD LAMASTUS JR. (below left) visits with staff at Cafe Unido, which is located in the lobby of the American Trade Hotel in Casco Vieja.

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Although most of Panama City’s specialty coffee shops are centered in historic Casco Viejo or urban San Francisco, its newest roaster/retailer, Paddle Coffee Roasters, is tucked away in the more industrial Los Angeles neighborhood. For co-owner Manuel Alexander Barsallo, the decision to set up shop in a refurbished garage was partly inspired by a café crawl around the Pacific Northwest, where he saw cafés in a variety of repurposed buildings. It’s an unlikely location, but it matches the unlikely journey that took Barsallo into specialty coffee. Barsallo first discovered specialty coffee during a vacation in Boquete, which he booked on a whim. As a self-proclaimed “city kid,” Barsallo hadn’t grown up around farms, and like most Panamanians, the only coffee he drank came from the large commodity brands found in the grocery stores. “It was just a holiday trip. I went by myself,” Barsallo says. “I had nothing to do.” Barsallo asked a local for a recommendation and she suggested a coffee

C UPS P HOTO BY BRIAN BEYK E; OTHER P HOTO S THIS PAGE BY M IC HA EL BUTTERWO R TH

PADDLE COFFEE ROASTERS

P HOTO S BY BRIAN BEYKE

farm tour. After the farm tour there was a cupping, and Barsallo was surprised that many of the flavors he tasted in the coffee matched the descriptions of the professional tasters. “I was like, ‘Wow, I have no clue about coffee. How could I know this?’” Barsallo says. Barsallo returned to Panama City and began researching his new obsession. “It was such an amazing experience. I wanted to know more,” he says. “I started researching about specialty coffee. I found out Panamanian coffee is pretty amazing.” Barsallo went on to earn a certificate in coffee tasting from the Specialty Coffee Association and serve as a preliminary judge for the Best of Panama competition. As a graphic designer and photographer by background, Barsallo created a blog called Coffeetologist, where he documented his growing interest in coffee. The project was successful enough to attract investors who helped him open Paddle Coffee. His slogan: “Paddle into the third wave.” Although one of Barsallo’s business partners is the co-owner of Bambito Estate, a specialty coffee farm in the Volcan growing region, Barsallo is committed to buying coffee from any farm that produces high-quality specialty coffee. Barsallo’s Giesen coffee roaster is featured prominently by the front window, and the cupping room is enclosed in glass, all to inspire customers to take a greater interest in the product. “I wanted to be a coffee lab where people can experience the whole process,” Barsallo says. “It starts to raise questions and suddenly you’ll have people wanting to get in, wanting to cup, and wanting to learn.” Barsallo, like Lamastus Jr., is optimistic about the future of specialty coffee in Panama City. “Right now, we’re only six or seven coffee shops,” Barsallo says. “But I’m pretty sure if you come next year this will be like Portland or something.” FC

PADDLE INTO THE THIRD WAVE: Manuel Alexander Barsallo (above) partners with Bambito Estate along with other high-quality producers.

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FC DECEMBER DECEMBER 2–3 COFFEE & TEA FESTIVAL VALLEY FORGE Valley Forge, Pennsylvania coffeeandteafestival.com

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JANUARY 2018 JANUARY 25–27 CAFE MALAYSIA Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia www.cafe-malaysia.com

FEBRUARY 2018 FEBRUARY 14–16 AFRICAN FINE COFFEE CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION Kampala, Uganda https://afca.coffee/conference/

MARCH 2018 MARCH 9–11 AMSTERDAM COFFEE FESTIVAL Amsterdam, Netherlands amsterdamcoffeefestival.com

MARCH 10–11 COFFEE & TEA FESTIVAL NYC New York City, New York coffeeandteafestival.com

MARCH 15–17 NCA ANNUAL CONVENTION New Orleans, Louisiana ncausa.org

MARCH 15–17 COFFEE & TEA RUSSIAN EXPO Moscow, Russia https://coffeetearusexpo.ru/en

MARCH 16–18 COFFEE FEST Baltimore, Maryland coffeefest.com

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2017 IN REVIEW

ach month, Fresh Cup Magazine provides in-depth information on today’s most important topics, specifically written for specialty coffee and tea professionals. Looking back on last year, you’ll see a passionate group of industry veterans and visionary newcomers who provided valuable insights on the state of café culture and industry. We hope you’ll join us as we continue exploring these and other subjects in 2018. MISSING AN ISSUE? YOU CAN PURCHASE COPIES OF BACK ISSUES AND SUBSCRIBE ONLINE AT FRESHCUP.COM.

JANUARY 2017

JULY 2017

“Leadership in Coffee Operations” outlines the leadership techniques

The “Food Issue” looks at how to boost profits with carefully curated

that foster employee retention, work satisfaction, and positive cus-

menus that complement coffee and tea offerings. Plus:

tomer experiences. Plus:

• Vegan, Paleo, and Plant-Based Menus

• Dietary Restrictions 101

• Designing Retail Displays

• Roasting at Origin

• Sustainable Supply Chain Tech

• 2017 Business Directory

AUGUST 2017

FEBRUARY 2017

The “Café Encyclopedia” edition defines the

This issue’s expanded special section on “Contemporary Café Build-

contemporary terms, organizations, and pro-

Outs” takes an in-depth look at the businesses leading the way in café

cesses that underpin all aspects of specialty

design. Plus:

coffee and tea. Plus:

• Repurposed Construction Materials

• Supply Chain 101

• Managing Origin Partnerships

• Coffee Extraction Basics

• Chinese Tea Basics

• Foundations of Roasting

MARCH 2017

SEPTEMBER 2017

“From Farm to Teacup” spotlights the entrepreneurs who are creating

“Health Benefits for Employees” maps out strategies to overcome

brews steeped in the locavore food movement. Plus:

barriers along the path to health insurance. Plus:

• Kid-Friendly Cafés

• Coffee Tourism at Origin

• New Café Service Models

• Drinking Chocolates

• Hosting Classes for Consumers

• Specialty Coffee in Rural America

APRIL 2017

OCTOBER 2017

“Coffee Genetics” tells how the industry is looking to gene banks to

“Coffee + Chocolate” explores the shared affinity that exists when

help preserve its future. Plus:

pairing these sibling beans. Plus:

• Music’s Effect on Customer Experience

• New Cider-Inspired Drinks

• Coffee Bag Design and Manufacturing

• Coffee Grinder Maintenance

• Milk on Tap

• Subscription Tea and Coffee Boxes

MAY 2017

NOVEMBER 2017

Our special section on “Cups: An In-Depth Look Inside” takes a deep

“Lever Machine Love” highlights a new generation of lever

dive into the world of drinking vessels, from ceramic mugs to recy-

espresso machines that bring a new level of craftsmanship behind

clable to-go cups. Plus:

the bar. Plus:

• Curbside Advertising Tips

• Fourth Wave Direct Trade

• Climate Change Adaption in Origin

• Creative Employee Benefits

• Brewing Equipment Technicians

• Strategies for Pop-Up Success

JUNE 2017

DECEMBER 2017

In our “25th Anniversary Edition,” we look back at the origins of spe-

In our annual “Coffee Almanac” issue, we look at the exciting things

cialty coffee and tea and present a timeline of the industry. Plus:

moving the specialty coffee industry forward. Plus:

• New Green Tea Products

• Automation in Coffee

• Supply Chain Innovation

• Instant Coffees

• Dubai’s Espresso Lab

• Panama Café Culture

Coffee Almanac » December 2017 » Fresh Cup Magazine