Martin picking coffee at Rusty’s Ka’u Farm, Big Island, Hawaii

Due to our reputation as exacting, skilled artisan coffee roasters, Kean Coffee was chosen by the Hawaiian Coffee Association to roast this year’s finalists for the statewide competition of Hawaii’s Best Coffees. Hawaii grows the only coffee produced in the USA. Coffee grows on all the five major islands in the state. Each year they hold a statewide competition to judge the best coffees of the year. This year over 150 coffees were submitted for the competition. They were all judged by an internal Hawaiian judging panel to determine the top 45 finalists. The last round of judging that determines the best of the best is held here in California at the headquarters of the Specialty Coffee Association of American in Long Beach (SCAA).

Kean Coffee was honored to be asked to roast the coffee for this very important competition. This is a huge honor, and a huge responsibility. Imagine the scope of the responsibility that was placed in our hands with this: these coffees are the fruit of years of toil by the farmers who produced them. It is their livelihoods and reputation that are at stake here. We humbly respect that and are confident that have done them justice.

The ultimate responsibility of roasting these coffees was taken on by our head roaster, Ted Vautrinot. Ted apprenticed under our Master Roaster, Martin Diedrich, who originally learned the craft in his teens back in the 1970’s under the tutelage of his father, Carl Diedrich, and has become known as a respected top coffee roasting expert worldwide. Martin’s brother Steve builds the world renowned Diedrich Coffee roasting machines with which Kean Coffee roasts. So a long heritage of coffee roasting expertise went into the roasting of these precious coffees.

Jerry and Ted earlier this year cupping for Rainforest Alliance competition at SCAA headquarters

And as if roasting the coffees wasn’t enough of an honor, two of Kean Coffee’s roasters, Ted Vautrinot and Jerry Folwell, are also serving on the committee of judges for this competition. Many of you have recently read about our head roaster Ted and his trips to Panama and Costa Rica to judge those countries best coffee of the year competitions. Jerry Folwell may be less known to you, but Jerry has worked with Martin as a roaster for nearly 19 years now, since the early years of Diedrich Coffee. He brings many years of passion and experience to the table as both a veteran roaster and coffee cupper.

The Hawaiian Coffee Competition was held May 22 and 23, 2012. The judging protocol is the same rigorous standard as in the “Cup of Excellence” and other international coffee competitions. It is always double blind and with very demanding precision.

The last two years, Lorie Obra’s farm, Rusty’s in Ka’u on the Big Island of Hawaii has won first place in this competition. This is the popular Hawaiian coffee we have been carrying at Kean Coffee for the last several years, and the farm Martin recently visited on his trip to Hawaii. We will see who comes out on top this year.

Kean Coffee is proud of our capable team and honored to participate in these prestigious coffee events.

There is a special magic wafting through a room filled with passionate coffee professionals intent on finding the absolute best coffee from Guatemala’s crop this year. Every sniff, every slurp is carefully evaluated and scored- descriptions of honey, cherry, chocolate, caramel fill the margins as each coffee gets a meticulous assessment before moving on to the next possibility.

Carefully pouring the water

I was fortunate to return to Central America to be a judge for Cup of Excellence Guatemala. Our 22 member international panel hailed from Japan, Germany, England, Australia, Russia, Korea, Canada, Morocco, Norway, and the U.S.   Our purpose was to identify the best examples of Guatemala coffee that year so we could buy it and bring it home to our customers, and also to recognize and reward the efforts of the producers who developed a truly stellar coffee. The top 20 coffees chosen from the over 300 entries are sold at auction. The winners get the best price for their crop, as well as respect and admiration from their peers. The biggest winner, however, is the coffee consumer, because the methods and care the producers employ to produce a competition quality coffee raise the quality of all the different lots coffee on their finca (farm) and translate to a better cup in our coffeehouse at home.

intense concentration in the lab

COE judge Sherri Johns, scoring

Top Ten Winners

The judging is exhaustive. By the time we get to the final top ten round at the end of five days we’ve cupped each of the coffees four separate times and huddled up in the conference room after each round to compare (and defend) our scores. Judging Guatemala coffee is particularly challenging because each of the eight producing regions- Antigua, Huehuetenengo, Coban, New Oriente, Atitlan, Fraijanes, San Marcos, and Acatenengo has a unique and delicious flavor profile. Because of Martin’s history and relationships in Guatemala coffee we’ve had many examples of different regional coffees from Guatemala in the coffee house, as many as five at one time.

Central Plaza, Antigua

We also took time to visit the producers and fincas, and see some of the sights. In the old city of Antigua beautifully restored churches seem to be on every corner. The cobblestone streets of this former capitol of all of Central America weave through a town with absolutely no billboards, neon, or any of the trappings of our everyday life. I felt transported back in time strolling through the charming central plaza.

Iglesia de San Francisco, Antigua

Visiting the Zalaya Family Fincas in Antigua was especially moving for me. The Zalayas have been producing coffee for generations, and we’ve had many of their coffees at Kean since we opened. We toured through finca Santa Clara and viewed the Bourboncillo (dwarf Bourbon) plants as well as the wet and dry mill facilities. I am always struck by the amount of passion, care, and hard work that go into each individual 132lb bag of green coffee.

We also travelled east to visit the Keller’s finca Santa Isabel. Like Martin’s family, the Kellers began producing Guatemala coffee four gene

Central Plaza at Night, Antigua

rations ago after emigrating from Germany. They operate an organic farm, creating their own compost and natural fertilizers and keep their rows of coffee within the natural rainforest that grows around it. They’ve also set aside a large nature preserve adjacent to their finca to retain the habitat for the indigenous flora and fauna of the area .Although we are familiar with the concept of parkland, the Guatemalan government is not. The Keller family paid for and set aside this land because they feel it’s the right thing to do, just as they’re committed to organic practices. We’re currently using two of their coffees in our line-up, as a decaf, and in our espresso.

Bella Vista in the shadow of the volcano Fuego

Before heading home I took a side trip to Martin’s childhood home of Panajachel on the shore of Lake Atitlan. The charming village and breathtaking view of the lake with the two volcanos on the distant shore were worth the twisting, jolting, careening 5 hour bus ride from Guatemala City. My hosts the Jones (Jones Coffee Co, Pasadena) family showed me around the town and gave me a tour of Pana Kids, a multi-lingual school they support in the village. The school teaches Spanish, German, English, and the Mayan language to the children, most of them of Mayan descent. The Mayan language is becoming lost as Spanish and English become the lingua franca in the area, and the school’s aim is to preserve the Mayan culture and heritage while giving the students the tools to be integrated in the modern Guatemalan world. As I showed my photos to Martin and Stephen they recognized a few of the sights from their childhood- the churchyard where they played soccer, the marketplace, and the shambled docks on the lakefront.

Ricardo Zelaya pointing out the fincas in Antigua

fog-shrouded fincas, Antigua

Ricardo at the 150 year old family estate

On my journey home, my bags brimming with samples of green coffee to cup with Martin, I was again struck by the connection we have to the people a half a world away that nurture a seed from the earth that eventually becomes the cup of coffee that creates the community we enjoy at Kean. All the toil, the planning, the relationships we develop serve the village we’ve created in the heart of Orange County, and most importantly- in our hearts.

Happy cupping!

Ted Vautrinot

Head Roaster, Kean Coffee

Martin's hometown of Panajachel

The steep, rugged Haraaz Mountains of Northwestern Yemen are a world apart from the rest of the country. The terrain is dramatic, wild, rocky, and often inaccessible.The area has resisted the modern world and in the hinterlands one can still feel the pulse of medieval times. Ancient fortified hilltop villages of stone houses cling to the steep slopes, creating a near bibilical panorama.

Rocky mountain slopes are carved with ingenious centuries-old stone terraces to preserve the scarce soil and precious rain in this dry region, in order to grow coffee.

Approximately 500 families, living throughout the region, continue an unchanged tradition of coffee farming that goes back well over a thousand years.

Yemen is the origin of Coffea Arabica, which derives its name from Qahwa Arabiyah. For centuries, Yemen was the world’s only source of coffee which was exported from the Port of Al Makha and when permanently lent the name “Mocha” to the coffee of Yemen origin.

A FAIRLY TRADED AND ORGANIC COFFEE

The small holder farmers that grow the Yemen Haraazi Supreme that we are offering for 2011 are being rewarded for their coffee quality and efforts with a fair price. They are also getting agronomic and technical assistance to support the production of quality. These efforts and the fair prices are also supporting new wells, water treatment facilities, access to health care, and education in these communities.

Though not certified, this coffee is 100% organic. Coffee farming in Haraz is organic by default because there is no convenient availability of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. The coffee is farmed in traditional ways that have been practiced for hundreds of years – all by hand. This is in part why the coffee is so unique.

Photos courtesy of Mr. Shabbir A. Ezzi

Freshness means something. Most of us do not realize that some things need a little time to rest even after much of their dynamic process has finished in order to fully appreciate all that is inherently there. In coffee, it’s called the “gassing out” period where coffee, once it’s roasted, is allowed at least 24 hours before it is cupped (aka evaluated). The theory goes that if you taste it too soon, you are tasting CO2 gasses and other volatiles that are the byproducts of roasting and not necessarily what’s in the bean. Things need a little time. So it was with me after this year’s Roaster’s Guild Retreat up in Stevenson, Washington. I needed some time to let all the crazy and dynamic energy that fed into me for three days have a chance to coalesce into something tangible (and hopefully understandable).

Every year, the Specialty Coffee Association of America puts on a retreat for people connected to the profession of roasting coffee as a place to network with other professionals, learn from industry leaders, and have a good time while doing it. It’s called the Roaster’s Guild Retreat. This year it was at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson Washington. As a participant, you are assigned a team of other professionals and with this team you compete in competitions, attend classes, and have many of your meals together. It’s a nice touch to have teams on this kind of retreat, especially if you are attending without your usual social buoy system. An added benefit is that they mix up the teams with some sense of deliberateness and you find coffee folks from all sides of the spectrum. On my team was a coffee grower from Guatemala, a coffee importer, an espresso machine designer, a Q-grader, and roasters from all levels.

It was my first year going and I had packed a healthy dose of apprehension along with my carry-on as I traveled alone to this place representing Kean Coffee. This was a chance for me to touch base with my peers in the business, get a sense for where my skills were at, and where the collective “thought” of roasting is headed. Good thing I had my Kia rental car.     

Nothing says "it's business time" like a Kia.

After a brief embarrassing bout of being star struck in front of Josh Holloway, I was on my way out of the airport. On my way in I stopped at a few coffee and tea shops in the Portland area. Stop one was Albina Press- a killer coffee shop in the very hip North Portland neighborhood (but really, are there many places that are not hip in Portland??) where I met Rita, a very knowledgeable staffer/barista who seemed to know everyone in the business.

some of the artwork along the outside wall of Albina Press

After a near-perfect traditional cappuccino, Rita helped revise my list of places to visit down to the few that I had time for- including a lunch with the best biscuits in town.

Stop #2 was a delightfully small roaster/retailer called Sterling where I was treated to a single-origin Yergecheffe espresso. Great people that seemed very down-to-earth. They roast some of their coffees on a sample roaster made by San Franciscan.

Stop #3 was Tao of Tea. “What, tea? Tea, you say?” Yes, tea I say! This is a must see for anyone traveling through the area. Beautiful shop, and the tea expertise here  astounding. Tao of Tea also happens to be our tea supplier for Kean Coffee. I was treated to some chai with the owner who gave me the most extensive lesson on tea that I have ever had. Have you ever smelled Holy Basil?

Bing Cha cakes were some of the earliest forms of storing teas...

 Stop#4 was Stumptown off of Belmont. I did not have time to go their annex next door for a coffee cupping, but you cannot go through Portland without stopping by this Pacific Northwest icon. Stripped down, artsy atmosphere with a nod to the “artisan way” of coffee, Stumptown continues to make their mark on the coffee scene across the States.

Hairbender Espresso from Stumptown. It's like a Visigoth in your mouth...

Onward and upward, let’s talk about the retreat. I arrived at the beautiful lodge fully caffeinated and ready to go, I grabbed my SWAG bag (Something We All Get), checked in to my room, and got ready for whatever was coming my way. As said before, we were broken into teams. I met my team the next morning, we talked, and began to taste the coffees that were available for this year’s competition. Every retreat there is some sort of roasting challenge and this year it was to take up to six different coffees from different growing regions in Guatemala, roast them according to your team’s collective wisdom, and then blend them together to create the best tasting single-origin blend.

One of the best ways to get to know someone is to slurp coffee with them...

After mapping out a plan with your team, the next two days of the retreat consist of roasting up your perfect blend, cupping it, re-evaluating, roasting again, and more cupping. In between all of these things are seminars, classes, and discussions of various topics. Getting back to the freshness issue, the sooner you get your blend nailed down, the better because coffee needs that resting period before it can be fully judged. Some of my teammates tasted our coffee less than six hours after roasting it and wrote some of the coffees off only to taste them again the next morning and have a completely different experience.

My team and I getting to know different roasters as we roast up our competition blends.

In the end, our team came up with a blend we could get behind and we let our attention gravitate towards the different classes, lectures, and discussions we were being immersed in.

 One of the more fascinating sessions I was able to be apart of was Ric Rhinehart’s roundtable discussion about the future of specialty coffee. Specialty coffee represents a distinct portion of the world-wide coffee trade. Only a small portion of all the coffee in the world is considered “specialty” grade. Not only does it have to be free from most defects considered common in other, lower grades of coffee, but also it has to have positive, pleasing qualities based on it’s growing origin. The trouble with coffee right now is that supply and demand are completely in-step with each other. The troubling part is that demand is on the rise, and supply is on the decline. It is a lot more viable for landowners to grow condominiums than to grow coffee plants. The specialty market is beginning to polarize towards higher quality and higher cost on one side, and lower quality and lower cost on the other. Typically specialty coffee has enjoyed a pliable middle ground between the two where consumers could get very high quality coffee for a very low price. This is increasingly rare and it is becoming more difficult to source high quality beans. Martin himself has stated that he has probably spent twice as much time sourcing coffee this year as he has in previous years. There are a lot of factors involved in all of this but whether you are free-trade, fair-trade, direct-trade, or just a plain traitor, it is a subject that speaks to lasting changes coming down the specialty coffee market.

 Back to the blending. Our team placed in the top five in the blending competition. For those that think this is not a big deal, all I’m going to say is that the judges are the people who have collectively cupped thousands of coffees throughout the world- many of whom do this for a living! Booya. While it would have been great to take the top spot and donate a Probatino to a coffee charity of our choice, I was more than happy to place where we did and we had a great time while doing it.

April 26, 2010; Ocotal, Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua. Twenty four judges, all coffee professionals, focus beyond the 90 degree heat and humidity in the classroom/cupping lab to give their undivided attention to flight after flight of the very best coffees Nicaragua has to offer. Every detail is scored to a strict protocol on the journey to find the ten absolute best coffees in Nicaragua this year. The event is Cup of Excellence Nicaragua, and I am one of the international judges discovering these often stunning coffees. The panel hails from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Central America, and the United States. Our purpose is to identify the best examples of Nicaragua coffee for the international market to bid on at auction, which gives the local producers a clear idea what extremely high quality specialty coffee is, and their impetus to produce this is the higher prices the top coffees are awarded at auction.

At the end of each day of cupping we travel out to the country to view the coffee production firsthand. The first evening we toured a Benificiado (coffee mill) where the entire cooperative’s coffee is dried on basketball court-sized patios and African-style raised beds. It’s then milled (removing the parchment covering from the bean) in towering three story machines; graded by size, color, and quality; bagged in jute and stored. The facility was pristine and well-organized by certification; organic, fair trade, and organic fair trade. This cooperative is committed to raising their standards of quality to meet the demands of the specialty market so their members can earn a good wage to care for their families. We shared a Nicaraguan meal of beans, rice, pork, and blood sausage with the farmers and operators that had come out to meet us and share ideas about our common passion- coffee. Back at the Hotel Frontera (4-star by Nicaraguan standards, think Motel-6) we sat by the pool and shared our own personal experiences and coffee stories until late in the night.

Ted cupping in Nicaragua

Next morning we are back in the hot, humid lab for round after round of cupping. No discussion is permitted while we are scoring, we save that for the breakout after each flight of 9 or 10 coffees. Then we share, and sometimes defend, our scores for each coffee. These are skilled coffee experts, all with strong (sometimes varied) opinions on what separates very good coffee from excellent coffee. The Nicaragua national judges spent the previous week weeding through the 300+ entries that weren’t good enough to make the final cut. Our job is to sort through the top 60 fine coffees to determine the 10 best. We’ll choose the top 30, cup again to find the top 10, and cup yet again to rank the 10 winners. By the time a coffee has reached the finals it will have been scrutinized on six separate occasions by exacting, discriminating judges.

One evening we travel close to the Honduran border to visit Finca Santa Lucia and walk through the rows as the Patron explains which varietals of Caturra, Catuai, Bourbon, and Pacamara are doing well and why. We trudge down river a bit to view the nursery where 20,000 tiny coffee plants are beginning their life, to be transplanted into the finca in two more years. The Patron also describes the trapping methods they’re using to suppress the pests that attack and devour the ripe coffee cherries. The trapping is less expensive and less harmful to the environment than pesticides, and seems to be very effective.

Cupping begins with evaluating the dry aroma of the precisely roasted ground coffee. Each table has 4 examples of each of the 9 or 10 coffees in the flight- inconsistencies within the samples of a particular coffee are penalized. The hot water is then poured, four minutes later we’re ready to “break” the crust of coffee that’s formed at the top. A rush of aromatics bursts up and we discern and score that. The coffee is still too hot to taste so we wait another few minutes, then the real tasting ensues. Aroma, flavor, acidity, body, balance, sweetness, and finish are all evaluated and recorded. Sometimes only half a point will separate two superb coffees (out of a possible 100 point score). Is the body in harmony with the acidity? Does the aroma match the sweetness in the cup? Having one or two great qualities isn’t enough; the coffee must be excellent in every area to advance to the top ten. We continue cupping for 45 minutes, noting and scoring the changes as the coffee cools, then turn in our scores and retire to another room to discuss.

Another evening we journey to Dipilto to see how the cooperative and USAID are assisting the coffee producing community. A school has been built to support the children of the region, some travel up to 12 miles each way for the opportunity to attend. In many families the elementary school children bring home health and sanitation education that would never otherwise reach the family. The goal is to create a healthy, sustainable life for these families so generations can continue to thrive while producing the fine quality of coffee the market demands. The children were sweet and shy, the teachers were proud to present the programs they were teaching and the rising test scores the children were achieving. More children than ever before are matriculating their grade and they are staying in school longer. Later at dinner we chatted with exporters about the political climate in Nicaragua and some of the slight-of-hand movement of lower-grade coffees from Honduras and Nicaragua to Colombia to fetch higher prices and fulfill contracts. I am grateful for the transparency we insist on at Kean Coffee, we know exactly where our coffee comes from.

Next morning we’re back to the selection rounds, scrutinizing each coffee again to determine the top ten. Between rounds our head judge Paul Songer shows us the statistics on our scoring. Not surprisingly, our scores tend to group together by geographic region. The cuppers have tastes that are specific to their own part of the world. Generally, the Japanese/Koreans seem to favor a very bright acidity, the Scandinavians favor a medium body, and the Americans favor a deep sweetness. Because the scoring is compiled on a curve only a truly exceptional coffee will achieve a high score, because individual preferences will average each other out. The level of concentration is intense, these are all wonderful coffees and only the slightest nuances separate them. When we submit our final scores after four rounds all the cuppers are spent, and our tongues are a bit raw.

That afternoon six of us have been invited to join a local producer, Sergio Ortiz, to visit his finca and view his methods. Sergio is a super-passionate young man committed to producing the best quality coffee. He’s one of the few producers with a Q-cupper certification, and he’s constantly tweaking his methods and tasting the results to produce better coffee. He’s hot-rodded a Brazilian pulping machine to separate the ripe from not-ripe cherries better, and has an air-conditioned storage room for his pulped coffee to slow the fermentation process. Sergio was like a mad scientist as he clambered up and down the three-story machine pointing out the modifications and adjustments he’d made. We traveled back down the hill to Ocotal to a local beneficio to cup the 6 different production variations, as well as 14 coffees from other producers in the region. The different variations all had distinct flavors, the time Sergio spends refining his methods are making a noticeable difference. By the end of the day we had cupped 53 different coffees, our brains and tongues were ready for a rest.

On our final day of cupping we had the 10 finalist coffees; our job was to determine the order of placement. The entire group of judges was fired-up and focused, this was the reason we came to Nicaragua. Every single coffee was wonderful, and we bent to the task with relish. We spent the next hour becoming intimate friends with each coffee, listening to what it had to tell us about where it had been and how it had been cared for. I left the table confident that I had given my complete attention to every offering and been open to what each had to present to us. As always, we compared and discussed our scores afterwards, but we wouldn’t know the final results until that evening.

The Awards were held in the local sports arena downtown, all the Finalists were present to see who would place well. After all the opening remarks and adulations, and a sweet, moving folkloric dance presented by a children’s group, the winners were announced one by one. The capacity crowd cheered and supported each contestant; this was a big honor for each producer to place in the Cup of Excellence. As the top eight scores were read the crowd applauded louder for there were an unprecedented 8 Presidential Awards (scores above 90 points). This was a truly outstanding showing of dedication and hard work for the year. Picture after picture were taken afterwards, families beaming proudly, friendly rivals shaking hands, winners displaying their awards. Eventually the celebration moved down the street to a local hall where food, drink and music flowed freely. The students from the region’s coffee college who had spent the week assisting us professionally and stoically were there, dressed to the nines and ready to cut loose. The entire community was bound together by their passion for excellence in coffee and celebrated their achievements that night.

The next morning we said our good-byes, some judges leaving for home while I stayed on with a small group to visit some fincas in Matagalpa, about 4 hours drive away. Our band was hosted by Dr. Miersch and his family, one of the top 3 winners in the competition. Over the next three days we toured half a dozen fincas owned by the family and I got an in-depth education on varietals, grafting, land management, and the care and respect the family show the workers that live on the fincas and husband the land. A few fortunate villages have small hydroelectric generators installed on the streams that flow down the mountains, providing lights, and amenities unavailable even a few years ago. As we drove the few hours it took to get to each finca I got to listen to Paul Songer discuss with Erwin Miersch the changes in the countryside and the techniques being employed to produce the coffee at each location. The family’s operation is well-considered and thoughtful, trying various methods and keeping all the best. We toured a few miles of hillside on horseback; hardy, strong cowponies used to negotiating the muddy terrain. Our attempt to rescue a young cow that had fallen doubled over into a ravine failed, we eventually got her pulled out but she couldn’t stand on her dislocated hip. Dr Miersch told us the hands would come back later to put her down and distribute the meat to the village. There is little waste in this part of the world.

The country is beautiful and green, yet still hard and unforgiving. Plantations left untended were choked and overgrown in only a few years time. The work of pruning, caring, and tending is never ending; it is a way of living for the people who do it. A few pounds of coffee on our retail shelf is the result of years of careful labor by the people that live in this rugged paradise, I try not to forget to be grateful for the effort they put forth generation after generation. My journeys to origin have forever changed the way I see a 132 lb bag of green coffee on the roasting floor. 

Kean Coffee Tustin

March 23rd marked the one year anniversary since opening the doors of our second Kean Coffee at 13681 Newport Ave, Suite 14, Tustin, CA. The opening of our Tustin store was not so much a new venture as it was a return to our roots, as this was the exact location where Martin opened his first full-scale Diedrich Coffee coffeehouse many years ago, which had become a popular hangout in the community. With coffee roasted fresh onsite in a roaster built by Diedrich Manufacturing, the company created by Martin’s brother Stephan who went into the roaster building side of the coffee business, Diedrich Coffee became a local institution.

New Tustin Kean Coffee

After control of Diedrich Coffee was taken over by an ambitious investor, the entire Diedrich Coffee chain was sold to Starbucks, and Starbucks opened in the Tustin location sometime after we had gotten our new start with Kean Coffee in our original Newport Beach location. In September of 2008, Starbucks announced the closure of the old Diedrich location after @ one year in business, and we immediately received numerous calls, letters and emails from old customers and community members asking if we would please return to the Tustin location. With Kean Coffee  thriving in Newport Beach  since December of 2005 and no immediate plans to open a second location at that point, Martin could not pass up the opportunity to be back on his old stomping grounds and return to the welcome of the Tustin community. This particular location held many fond memories for Martin, the Diedrich family, and the many wonderful folks who had worked and played there. So the planning and designing began.

We completely stripped out the Starbucks buildout and started anew

As we had done with our first “baby” in Newport Beach, Martin and I combed antique shops, fabric swatches, studied color palettes, pondered lighting, flooring, etc. in an effort to create an environment that would be beautiful and rich, yet warm, inviting and personal, reflecting our personal tastes and aesthetics at this time in history. After considering various options, we again could not resist including a gorgeous Fortuny  lamp imported from Venice, Italy, having fallen in love with these lamps on a trip to Venice in 1995,  like those we utilized in in our Newport Beach coffeehouse. It became the centerpiece of our lighting in Tustin.

Silk Fortuny lamp at Tustin Kean Coffee

 Martin envisioned a floor of stone and wood, and sourced a French limestone to combine with a rustic American hickory to create an interesting pattern and texture. Our antique American art deco condiment stand was borrowed from our Newport Coffeehouse,  while Newport received our new aquisition, an antique Chinese sideboard we had discovered in our latest antiquing forays. The iron building stars that adorn our counter fronts, historic architectural elements, were very hard to find, but with persistence Martin located a company back East from which we aquired some.

Kean and his little cousin Julian hanging out during pre-opening days

We fell in love with a rustic antique Himalayan bench,  I found some well-loved wood-carved wingback chairs that were begging to be re-upholstered and loved anew, and we found a delicious green marble at the marble yards for our Tustin countertops, among other ecclectic elements that ended up in our final coffeehouse environment. Martin combed through many old photos he had taken on his trips to coffee origin and selected some of his favorites to hang on the walls behind the coffee bar.

Metal sculpture artist Molly Varese with her work

We wanted some sculptural elements in the coffeehouse, so decided to commission my sister-in-law, artist Molly Varese to create a unique metal sculpture as a backdrop to our fantastic  bench. We loved the look and feel of the finished effect, but after “road-testing” the space between the bench and espresso bar, decided that for safety reasons the sculpture should be relocated to the spot it occupies outside on our  back seating patio today.

The first days and weeks of opening Kean Coffee Tustin were not so much a “grand opening” as they were a reunion and a homecoming, with many old friends coming to welcome us, and even a number of past Diedrich Coffee staff who re-joined to launch the new evolution of Martin’s coffeehouse vision. Jerry Folwell, who had been our roaster in the Tustin Diedrich Coffee location for years, even came back to roast on weekends on the latest model of Stephan’s incredible coffee roaster, which this time was located in the front window of the coffeehouse.

Latte art by Paul in Tustin

 The newly trained staff headed by manager Paul Valdez was eager and excited, and the air crackled with enthusiasm. In accordance with Kean Coffee’s “next evolution” in coffee excellence, Tustin baristas worked hard in the first few weeks to hone their espresso shot pulling and latte art skills, assisted by some of our by then expert baristi from our Newport Beach coffeehouse. After a bit of a learning curve, a healthy “competition” began to develop as Tustin baristi worked hard to achieve the Newport standards that had been established.

Kean Tustin: 13681 Newport Ave, Ste 14, Tustin, CA

At this writing, it seems hard to believe that one year has already passed since opening the doors of Kean Coffee Tustin, and just a few months longer than that since we launched into the flurry of unexpected, yet exciting activity that led to that day. In honor of our anniverary, we wish to deeply thank from the bottom of our hearts all of those who “wished” us into returning home, offered support and loyalty, and have filled our Tustin coffeehouse with life, love and warmth for the past 12-months and counting. We also wish to thank our incredible Tustin staff who have infused the coffeehouse with their energy and provided a welcoming space for our guests. We look forward to many more wonderful years ahead at Kean Coffee Tustin!

If coffee were a tribe, Yemen Mocca would definitely be the shaman.

Cappucino, Cafe Latte, or Cafe au Lait are unmistakably coffee beverages, while Cafe Mocha is thought of as a hot chocolate with coffee or espresso, or generally a chocolate based drink spiked with coffee. To get to the point of setting the record straight on this matter we must travel back intime to a distant corner of the globe. At the very Southern tip of the Arabian Penninsula, flanked by the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, is the remote country of Yemen. Coffee Arabica was named for this place. It has resisted the modern world until just recently, and then only in the most readily accessible places, while in the mountainous hinterlands one can still feel the pulse of medieval times.

The steep, rugged mountains of Western Yemen trap enough rain, generated by the monsoons off the Indian Ocean, to sustain vibrant coffee growth. In the often inaccessible highland valleys, the terrain is dramatic, wild and rocky. It seems as if every ince of arable land is terraced with ingenious irrigation systems to trap the precious rain. The camels, donkeys, goats, and ancient fortified villages of stone houses clinging to the steep slopes create a biblical panorama.

In Yemen, coffee has been in use since at least the sixth century, and very probably much earlier. For nearly three centuries, Yemen held the world monopoly on coffee. The port of Al-Makha (from which we get “mocha”) on the Red Sea became the most important coffee port in the world. Meanwhile in Europe and North America, the growing popularity of coffee made it nearly a necessary staple of life. In time, the name “mocha” from the port of origin Al-Makha, became interchangeable with coffee in the same way we use “java” today.

Chocolate, originating in the new world, came to the attention of Europeans at about the same time coffee did. It was customary in the early days to drink it as a beverage in the coffeehouses right alongside coffee. In the late 19th century, when solid “eating chocolate” was developed, it was often flavored with “mocha” as coffee was called in that day, and thus was called “mocha chocolate”.

Yemen eventually lost its predominance in the coffee trade as coffee was now growing in colonies throughout the tropical world. The port of Al-Makha fell into dis-use. Sand bars filled the once busy harbor, and today only ruins are left of the famous port. The name mocha didn’t disappear as did it’s namesake port. Although its name was more often associated with coffee flavored chocolate rather than coffee itself. Soon, outside of those in the know about coffee, mocha and chocolate were used interchangeably.

Today mocha has become a dog chasing its tail, where coffee is often described as being chocolaty in flavor. Let history reveal that in truth, a Cafe Mocha is really coffee flavored with chocolate.

Though almost forgotten by the rest of the world, Yemen has never given up growing coffee. A genuine Yemen Mocha/Mocca is rare and expensive, and yields one of the worlds’ most distinctive cups of coffee. Most of the usual adjectives for describing coffee do not apply. It has been said that “to compare it’s flavor with other coffees is rather like comparing wild rice with Uncle Ben’s.” It is a taste that is every bit as exotic as the environment that produced it. Piquant, fruity acidity, winey, dried cherry, a sharply pointed aromatic character and oriental spiciness.

     Lush mountainous rainforest, beautiful warm people, countless hectares of coffee, miles of rutted dirt roads, stunning Mayan antiquities; I experienced all these just days ago on my trip to Capucas, Honduras. I made the journey to view the coffee production firsthand and evaluate this year’s production at the cooperative. I found people that live a life I’d never imagined- difficult yet joyful and built on a commitment and love for producing coffee that continues to improve in quality.

     Little Feet, a non-profit whose mission is to provide soccer equipment and instruction all over the third world, made the trip possible. The private label coffee we roast for Little Feet is from this particular cooperative in Capucas. Trevor, Brittany, Errol, and Akrom brought the soccer, while I brought my cupping spoon.

Luis teaching Trevor to Cut Coffee

 

 

     De-planing at San Pedro Sula, we piled into a minivan for the six-hour ride to the village. Capucas rests at 1,100 meters (about 3,500 feet) elevation in a mountain valley 15 miles from the nearest paved road. I could feel the heat and humidity fade with every meter we rose. The last hour we pitched and bumped along the dirt track to Capucas, a true Honduran massage.

     A walk through the village the first morning revealed a collection of low-slung homes, many with dirt floors, each with a concrete drying patio set aside for coffee. Inside the women cooked on wood-fired stoves, grinding the corn for masa and making tortillas for each meal all by hand. Domed wood-fired ovens for baking (delicious pan dulce) stood behind most homes. The children crowded the fence of the school courtyard to catch a look at the gringos and ask about the soccer equipment. Although these people are also butchers, builders, and teachers they are first coffee farmers, the entire focus and economy of Capucas is centered on coffee.

     The harvest was mostly finished at the lower altitude of the village, so we set off for Pablo’s, up in the mountains, to cut (pick) some coffee ourselves. Carlos took us to the end of the track in his pickup, the ubiquitous Toyota 4-wheel drive. From there we’d have to hike in, four miles of steep, muddy, slippery trails over two rickety suspension bridges. I marveled at the realization that to deliver his coffee to the cooperative, Pablo hikes this same dangerous trail while leading a mule loaded with four bags of parchment beans. Every brick, board, tile, and piece of equipment that makes his home and living on the mountain was walked up the same way. The solar panel on the roof provided just enough juice for a portable radio and Pablo’s cell phone, his only link to the village below. After a much-needed rest and some soccer for Pablo’s two adorable daughters, 5 and 3, we left the hospitality of his wife and family to cut coffee, about “five minutes away”.

     An hour later found us finally at the harvest, Catura coffee growing wild on the steep mountainside under the dense canopy and choked with brambles and fallen timber. It was a challenge to remain upright, much less to maneuver close enough to select the red, ripe cherries from between the green cherries not ripe yet. An hour of concentrated cutting yielded us ¼ of a small basket of cherry each, while the eleven-year old girl cutting along with us nimbly bagged three times as much in the same time.

     Returning to Pablo’s home, we loaded the cherry into the pulper and cranked it by hand, he uses a small gas engine for larger amounts. The fruit and skin fell into the compost pile while coffee beans, still in mucilage and parchment, dropped into the wooden tank for fermentation. The next day he’d wash the beans and begin the drying process. Our afternoon’s work would yield about 6 pounds of green coffee for the five of us combined.

     We slogged our way back to the trailhead where Carlos’ twelve-year old son Carlitos waited with the truck. With his 4’6” frame, his feet barely touched the pedals, yet he had no difficulty negotiating the twisting rutted track while talking on his cell phone and calling out to the local girls simultaneously. Western culture is making inroads.

     Back at the cooperative the pulping process was humming along, huge mechanical pulpers spitting beans into concrete-lined fermentation tanks for a day, then releasing them into washing channels before being spread onto the ½ acre of drying patio to be hand raked and dried. For extremely wet weather there were two mechanical dryers, but they weren’t needed today.

drying coffee

     In the lab the cupper and roaster, (another) Carlos, had prepared a cupping of six micro lots and one mélange for us. The coffee was still quite new and not rested, yet cupped out quite nicely with chocolate and caramel sweetness and mango and apricot acidity, with one exception- Carlos snuck in one example of a two-year old coffee just to make sure we were paying attention and scoring honestly. We discussed with Omar (the leader of the cooperative) and Becky (the peace corps volunteer) the challenges facing the farmers, the biggest being the need to impress upon them the importance of picking only the completely ripe cherries to unlock the depth and sweetness inherent in their coffee. Each year Capucas coffee has improved, and this year’s harvest shows fine potential.

     The next two mornings found us on the local soccer field, organizing 150 excited kids into groups for basic drills, fast-thinking exercises, and pick-up games. The kids were delighted and eager to please, following Omar’s translations of Akrom’s instruction energetically, and sometimes comically. The kids, and adults, seemed completely grateful for the attention and the scores of balls and equipment distributed. Our last night Britt and Trevor organized a bonfire, teaching the kids to roast marshmallows just the right amount to make S’mores (the amazing norte-americano delicacy), while Errol and I jammed on guitars we’d brought with Luis and Luis. At the end of the night we said our good-byes and Errol presented the guitars to our musician friends to keep. Luis, the pastor of one of the two churches in the village, was particularly touched by the gift.

Capucas Campfire (Ted playing guitar in red shirt)

 

 

     The next morning we headed out early, the rest of the group for the airport at San Pedro Sula while I jumped out half way there to catch a ride to the Mayan ruins at Copan. I spent the entire day soaking in the energy of the beautiful, massive architecture and intricate hieroglyphics of a culture that rose, flourished, and faded over 1600 years ago. The early temples became the foundation for the next, larger temples as the structures grew in size and complexity over 400 years’ time. The Hieroglyphic Stairway stretched upward imposingly, the largest single collection of written history in all of Meso-America. Just a hundred years ago the entire complex was still swallowed by the jungle around it, years of patient study and restoration have brought it back to a shadow of it’s former splendor. Meditating quietly, I could easily picture the throngs of Mayan people inhabiting the courtyards, playing at the ball courts, worshipping at the temples, breathing life into the huge stone edifices.

     As the plane left Honduras late the next day I reflected on the people whose labor make this country and their coffee. Their warm joy and enthusiasm permeate all they do, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share a taste of their experience.

The Western Regional Barista Competition for 2009 took place on January 23, 24 and 25 in Downtown Los Angeles, hosted by Intelligentsia Coffee in Silverlake. This is an intensive competition where talented, diehard baristas from all over California come to practice their craft and show their personal best in front of a panel of judges from the specialty coffee industry for the chance to obtain valuable professional feedback, see how they measure up, and possibly win a spot to go on to the national competition. Winners on the national level ultimately compete in the World Barista Championship, a title currently held by Ireland’s Stephen Morissey.  

Mike Richardson at WRBC 2009

Kean Coffee’s own Michael Richardson competed in the Western Regional Barista Competition this year and made us very proud. Mike has participated in a number of barista events including the Ultimate Barista Challenge which takes place in L.A. every August, so with the WRBC Mike took it up a notch. This competition is not for the faint of heart. It requires nerves of steel, steady hands under pressure,and the ability to speak eloquently and in an engaging manner while your every move is being analyzed by seven expert judges – a head judge, two technical and four sensory judges. As a competitor, you must prepare four espressos, four cappucinos, and four of your own personal creations, signature drinks, to the closest level of perfection you are capable of in such circumstances. And all of this in exactly 15 minutes, as competitors who go overtime even a few seconds are disqualified, which happens every year to at least a few in the lineup.  Competitors are scored on every aspect of their routine from their technique in preparation, to the aesthetics of their table presentation, to their verbal presentation to their cleanliness and efficiency as they work. All of the scoring categories being said and done, ultimately the winning elements in the scoring come down to the taste of the espresso drinks - the definitive element in any barista’s talent.

Barista competitions are events that are crackling with energy. With a room full of fanatical coffee geeks who have all gathered together to indulge their passion for excellence in coffee and the coffee trade, how could one expect anything less? The coffee companies which sponsor competitors in these competitions are almost exclusively the small independents, with chain coffee companies altogether invisible in this world of serious coffee culture. It is a youthful culture characterized by creative intellectuals - philosophers, poets and artists, even “mad scientists” if you will, who use coffee as their medium and life as their canvas. Younger and older enthusiasts alike, the WRBC has a definite rock n’ roll vibe, with the championship baristas being the “rock stars” of the scene.

Mike speaking to the sensory judges

On Friday, the first day of the WRBC event, Mike along with another of our top Kean baristas, Shane Richardson, (no they are not brothers…. just two great baristas with the same last name!) spent close to two hours serving Kean espresso on the “Fourth Machine”. The Fourth Machine is an opportunity for spectators at the event to sample expertly pulled espressos from a variety of the different independent coffee roasters who have sent representatives to the competition. Mike and Shane had a great time featuring their espresso skills and sharing our own Kean Coffee espresso blend, and enjoyed the opportunity to hang out with other highly skilled baristas from up and down the state.

For his competition performance, Mike was scheduled close to the end of the day on the second day of the event, Saturday, which necessitated staying pumped up but conserving energy and remaining cool and collected through hours of watching other competitors performances. With Martin [Diedrich] and fellow Kean barista Michael Coultier in the audience to cheer him on, (along with Kean Coffee barista alumni Nick Brewer as well as alumni Janelle Bel Isle, who entered the WRBC 2008),  and before a live streaming video internet feed, Mike went through his routine for the judges smoothly and calmly, and made his time in just under 15 minutes.

The competitors pick their own music to accompany their routines, all part of setting a mood and creating theatrics, in addition to helping to put themselves in “the zone”. In the background of Mike’s video you can see Stephen Morissey, current world barista champ, watching… talk about pressure! In the end, Mike’s scores placed him just about smack in the middle of the field of 23 competitors including baristas from Intelligentsia (which swept the finals and took the win, but this blog is about Mike..heheh), La Mill and Caffe Luxxe in L.A.,  Vivace, Verve, Ritual, the Abbey and Barefoot Coffee from the Bay Area, among others. Two baristas from Zoka in Seattle, Washington competed out-of-region just for the practice, as many serious competitive baristas do to hone their skills and develop their routines. For a first-time competitor, smack in the middle is pretty darn good! Verve’s Jared Truby, who placed in the finals, almost seemed proud to brag on camera that the first time he ever competed, he came in dead last. This just underscored how far he had come and how much he had learned by competing in his craft!

Mike and Ike at WRBC 2009

Mike came away from his weekend adventure at the Western Regional Barista Competition 2009 newly inspired to continue his pursuit of ultimate barista perfection, and excited to pass along this inspiration through training  fellow Kean Coffee baristas both in the coffeehouse, and working one-on-one and in small groups in our newly built barista training lab in Costa Mesa. All in all the weekend was both exhausting and exhilarating. Congratulations, and way to go Mike! We look forward to seeing him in the next WRBC, should he choose to dive under the hot lights once again…stay tuned!

Okay – in the interest of giving a thorough account of the event, we are posting here the official Press Release from the producers of the Ultimate Barista Challenge. Kean Coffee was very proud of our own Janelle Bel Isle for her performance in the UBC in August. She worked hard and reaped the rewards!

Janelle at UBC 2008

The 2008 Ultimate Barista Challenge® USA in Los Angeles where local baristi attempt to oust USA Ultimate Barista Heather Perry!

 

Portland, Oregon, USA – The 2008 Ultimate Barista Challenge USA features “dueling challenges” in Latte Art, Espresso Frappe, Espresso Cocktail and Best of Brew Challenges. The Los Angeles UBC is hosted at the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo where barista battle it out in qualifying Challenges earning cash prizes, medallions, sponsor gifts and the right to challenge the nation’s top “Ultimate Barista”, Heather Perry, thereby, becoming the next Ultimate Barista Los Angeles!  This no holds barred espresso & brewed coffee competition where taste, talent and speed earn high marks with the UBC Tasting and Technical judges.

World Renowned Ultimate Barista USA, Heather Perry successfully fended off three of four determined challengers.  Jeff Thomas of Coffee Klatch in San Dimas California won the Qualifying Challenge in Espresso Frappe. Jeff challenged Ultimate Barista Heather Perry who prevailed in the Ultimate Challenge unscathed and flawless in her performance. Janelle Bel Isle of Kean Coffee in Newport Beach won three of the four Qualifying Challenges and in one final match defeated Heather in the Espresso Cocktail Challenge!  Janelle’s winning cocktail was a delightful combination of espresso, roasted at Kean Coffee, spice infused port wine, and velvety chocolate to create a delicious aperitif suitable for any upscale café or restaurant. Heather’s cocktail, featured her own blend coffee roasted by Coffee Klatch of San Dimas.

UBC founder and Emcee Danny Johns of WholeCup Coffee Consulting, LLC presided over the Ultimate Barista Challenge USA with lively commentary and introductions as more than 15,000 attendees enjoyed the show and local cafes cheered for their favorite barista. Exclusive UBC Sponsor’s products and equipment were featured for audience members to enjoy and to witness the Ultimate Barista prepare their creative tasty coffee concoctions.

 

“This is a challenge where all the egos are gone and its pure talent and love for the craft of making great espresso based drinks”, states Cliff B. Young, Minister of Culinary Awareness for Let’s Dine Out Radio Show. Judge Robbie Lewis, Manager of Purchasing for Catalina Restaurant Group states “Participating in the Ultimate Barista Challenge is a wonderful opportunity for young people to get involved in our industry and to grow professionally in a fun, exciting and competitive atmosphere.” Ron Mathews, Event Director for Reed Exhibitions says, “The UBC brings excitement to the show floor side by side with the chef competitions.”  

 

 

 

Esteemed UBC Judges included renowned International Judge & UBC creator Sherri Johns, Gary Horne, General Manager of Astoria / CMA GEEC, Mrs. Robbie Lewis and Cliff Young of the “Lets Dine Out Radio Show” (food critic) KTIE 590 AM Radio.  UBC Judges found themselves drinking great espresso based drinks with a wide variety of alcohol, frappe, exotic ingredients & latte art!  This year’s UBC event brought 17 baristi from San Dimas, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Venice and Temecula, CA! Congratulations to our new UBC Espresso Cocktail Champion Los Angeles Janelle bel Isle of Kean Coffee in Newport Beach, California and all of the participating Baristi!

 

OUR SPONSORS: The Ultimate Barista Challenge USA Exclusive UBC Espresso Machine Sponsor is GEEC / General Espresso Equipment Corp., Exclusive UBC Coffee Brewers and Grinders by BUNN-O-Matic Corporation, Exclusive UBC Syrup and Flavoring Sponsor Torani Syrups, Official UBC Blender Sponsor Vita-Mix® Corporation, Official UBC Media Sponsor; CoffeeTalk Magazine, Official UBC Specialty Coffee Sponsor for LA UBC Boyd Coffee Company, Diedrich Manufacturing, Inc. as Official Coffee Roaster Machines Sponsor and the Official UBC Exclusive Dairy Sponsor Organic Valley Family of Farms. Other sponsors include Reg Barber Enterprises and Joe Glow/Pallo.

 

The UBC is endorsed by the National Coffee Association of America and Presented by WholeCup Coffee Consulting LLC.  

 

About the Ultimate Barista Challenge®. Began in 2006, in the Pacific Northwest, long known as the country’s ‘coffee hot spot’. The Ultimate Barista Challenge (UBC) is an open competition. Barista enter one to four tasty bouts of coffee and espresso challenges: Espresso Frappe, Latte Art, Espresso Cocktails and Best of Brew Challenges. Baristi enter and compete in a qualifying round and those who win go on to challenge an Ultimate Barista of their choice to compete in a one-on-one dueling final contest of fast-paced espresso excellence.

 

The Ultimate Barista Challenge® is owned and produced by WholeCup Coffee Consulting, LLC, and endorsed by the NCA, National Coffee Association of America. Founders of the USBC and Barista Jams in the USA, now produce UBC at Culinary Shows worldwide. For more info, to register, or inquire about available sponsorships, please visit www.ultimatebaristachallenge.com or call 1-503-232-1016.

 

The Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo in Los Angeles, CA is produced by Reed Exhibition and sponsored by the California Restaurant Association. Reed Exhibitions is the world’s leading exhibition and conference organizer with 2,300 employees in 33 offices serving 52 industries worldwide. For more information visit www.thefoodshows.com or call 888-334-8705.

 

For more information:

 

Ultimate Barista Challenge; www.ultimatebaristachallenge.com

 

The National Coffee Association of USA; www.ncausa.org

 

WholeCup Coffee Consulting; Danny or Sherri Johns, sjohnswholecup@aol.com

 

The International Women’s Coffee Alliance; www.womenincoffee.org

                                                                                                                                                        

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