Bright Spots_Issue 5

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BRIGHTWhats Working Now?

What Will Work Tomorrow?

SPOTS

publication o the specialty coee association o america 2011 issue


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4 pvV:bgscPeter GiulianoThe news might seem all badenvironmentalchanges, economic instability, a volatile cofeemarketbut its actually better than you mightimagine. Peter Giuliano uncovers the brightspots that oten get hidden in the muck.

6 cgcc: tok

Shanna GermainBuilding a cofee community or your businessis no easy eatand theres no one way to doit. These three companies have each created acofee community in a way thats solely their ownand have ound unusual and tangible rewards alongthe way.

bdb:tcv cDgGd

Tracy GingIts time to take doing good to the next level, to stretch our businesses andtake more risks. A scary proposition, but one that is becoming necessary in aclimate where boldness is becoming competitive capital.

tdbkag:acDdc-cNicholas ChoEvery once in a while, something comes along that is touted as the thingthat will save specialty. And then something appears and everyone worriesthat it will kill specialty. Nick Cho looks at three elements o specialty cofeewhere the positives and the negatives have been one and the same, and askswhat we can learn rom that comparison.

6 oedg:arlknGTracy GingStocks have allen and analysts are warning that we havent seen the bottomyet. And the cofee market continues to experience higher highs. Whathappens i cofee prices continue to rise? How will it afect your business,your cofee and your customers?

On the Cover:An illustration by Damon Brown, The InkL

2011 issue no. 5

Copyright 2011 Specialty Coffee Chronicle. All Rights Reserve

a publication

o the

specialty coee

association o

america

featu

res

in th nxt i

Contributors:

Nicholas Cho

Tracy Ging

Peter Giuliano

Lily Kubota

Thompson Owen

2010/2011

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President, Tim OConnor1st Vice President, Max Quirin

2nd Vice President, Paul ThorntonSecretary/Treasurer, Shawn Hamilton

Directors:Marty Curtis, Nathalie Gabbay, Al Liu,

Dr. Timothy Schilling, Andi Trindle,Willem Boot, Skip Finley,

Heather Perry

Immediate Past President:Peter Giuliano

SCAA330 Golden Shore, Suite 50

Long Beach, CA 90802TEL: (562) 624-4100FAX: (562) 624-4101

www.scaa.org

The Specialty Coffee Chronicle is publishedsix times a year by the Specialty Coee

Association o America as a orum or discussionand inormation on industry-related topics

and issues. The Chronicle welcomes and willconsider or publication articles, columns

or irsthand accounts o lie in the specialtycoee industry rom SCAA members. Opinions

expressed in articles and letters do notnecessarily represent the position o the SCAA,

its members or directors.

The Chronicle is printedon 100% recycled paper

containing 30% post-consumer waste.

Executive DirectorRic [email protected]

Executive EditorTracy Ging

[email protected]

Managing EditorShanna Germain

[email protected]

Art DirectorTiffany Howard

[email protected]

tev:scaa4aex

regulars

8 o-ed:Hom Cof Roasting: A Bumpon th Butt o Spcialty CofThompson Owen

td&tg:Th Valu o a Good Story(Or: How to Turn Poop into GoldLily Kubota

9+pf:Gtting to Know Tim OConnor

48

2 The Specialty Coffee Chronicle


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Aguy goes into a coffeeroasting shop and asksif he can buy some

green coffee to roast at home.The owner says, Sure, and I willgive you a 10 percent discount off ourroasted coffee price. The guy says, Gee, since Iwill have 20 percent weight loss, that means I am

basically paying 10 percent more to have you NOTroast my coffee for me. The guy then starts a website for home coffee roasting, naming it for his wife,who was certainly sweet to sell $12,000 of Grandpasstock to get the ball rolling.

The story is not entirely true. I didnt have the wherewithal to thinkof that 20 percent weight loss right there on the spot. And if I did, Iwouldnt have mentioned it. I would have just bought the coffee, andgone home pissed off and resentful. Thats just how I am.

But Sweet Marias Coffee did start out as my own personalalternative to locally roasted coffee when my wife and I foundourselves, rather regrettably, living in Columbus, Ohio. The owner ofthe aforementioned roasting shop was a bit hostile to my questions.

He made a point to serve me personally when I visited, which soundslike kind attention, but I actually think it was rather defensive; hedidnt want other salespeople to say something they shouldnt.

So my business was born out of this awkward relationship (ornon-relationship) between a coffee roaster and a home roaster. Thisuncomfortable situation persists in the coffee trade, an ambiguous tiebetween professional and amateur. It must exist in other crafts andactivities, between the professional and the DIYer: beer brewing, bassfishing, bowling you know, all the pinnacles of Western culture.

Little general wisdom can be intuited from any of this, since eachcontact between the two counterparts must be driven by individualpersonalities more than something essential to the craft. A hobbyistroaster can either be a true fan of the coffee, or just a royal PIA (painin the ass). I really cant say which of the two I was in my seminalencounter. Perhaps a bit of both.

HOMe COFFee ROASTING

A Bump on thButt o Spcialty Cof

Thompson Owen

I would not discount amateurismin any way; its regrettable that theword has a negative whiff to it. Perhap

the amateur enjoys the purest pleasurein the activity, not guided by profit

motive, unfettered by professional taboos (otattoos, as the case may be), and not constraine

by the need to serve any public. Guided only bygenuine interest and their own sense of taste, amateurs can explorecoffee roasting and preparation in any way that makes sense to themAnd some unusual innovations have come from home roasting.

An example? Hmm, give me a minute. Well, the first person Idheard of vacuum-packing green coffee was a home roaster. AAndnowhere have I learned more about roast profiling than throughthe unorthodox methods home roasters use with Hottop, Behmor,Gene Caf, Quest, and Fresh Roast coffee roasting machines, notto mention the legendary modifications of the West Bend PopperyMark I popcorn popper. (Yes, one of the best home roasters is still apopcorn popper). And the feedback from the home-roast communityis invaluable. Trust me, they catch every mistake I make.

Sure, home-roasting equipment in some cases can be dumbed-down roasters, machines that have lots of safety features and pre-programmed settings so folks dont set their houses on fire. And thoscan make it hard for home roasters to make fine distinctions in degreof roast or temperature profile. But honestly, based on the five usedProbats and Diedrichs I have bought in various states of disrepair anabuse, I think some of the professionals out there are rather cluelesabout air flow or cooling or cleaning their stacks. (Of course, none ofthese types would be reading this, nor would they be members of theSCAA!). Some home-roasting people are more in tune with cup qualand coffee crop cycles than some professionals who focus on differepricing tiers and inventory stability.

There are always the extremes in any crowd. I am sure some homeroasters take a little knowledge and use it for undue recognition onan Internet venue or in a coffee shop. I hear tales of know-it-all homroasters giving rather audacious advice to the professional in her owshop. I imagine most retail roasters can recount stories of famouslybad encounters of a customer telling them about the roast profilethey use on their PID-controlled popcorn popper to draw out first ansecond crack.

Editorial

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But in a broader way, I think a roaster is a roasteris a roaster. And in this age when so many smallroasting businesses cut their teeth with years of homeroastingsupplying friends or the office or theirchurch group before hanging out their shinglethedistinction between where one fires up their roasterseems less important than the outcomes.

Historically, home roasting is as old as coffeeitself. For as long as people have roasted coffee forothers, they have roasted coffee for themselves, their

friends and families. Sears & Roebuck sold green

coffee in the early 1900s, along with small charcoal-fired, hand-crank home roasters. Buying your coffee

already roasted was a bit luxurious, like buying cannedbeans instead of growing and canning them yourself. It was

also a way to have fresh coffee in rural areas, away from theconveniences of a city, where a local commercial roaster was one

of the amenities urban life offered. These were crude little roasters,pure conduction heat transfer, solid sheet metal drums turned over openflames. It was more like a coffee barbecue than a proper roast, really.

Yes, the home-roasting machine still suffers a lower quality ofbuild and less control of the roast process in most cases. Butyou should taste the results people get with homegrownmodifications, time and practice. Would anyone argue thatroasting in a Probat makes coffee good, necessarily?Does professionally roasted mean a good cup? Even

back in 97, I knew I could do better than thesmoked Yirgacheffe the local coffee shop inColumbus was selling. So in retrospect, it WASactually worth paying 10 percent more to havethem NOT roast the coffee. And so goes the 14years of my life since then.

Thompson Owen has been in the

cofee business or two decades. He

started Sweet Marias Cofee in 1997

and Cofee Shrub in 2009.

And nowhere have I learned moreabout roast profling than via some o

the unorthodox methods people use inthe HotTop, Behmor, Gene Cae, Quest,

Fresh Roast, or the most venerable and

nearly legendary West Bend PopperyMark I. (Yes, one o the best home

roasters is still a popcorn popper).

The Specialty Coffee Chronicle


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