Joltless Java

Back in the early 80s, when I was living in Los Angeles, a little coffee and tea shop near my office in Westwood had a going-out-of-business sale. It was filled with porcelain tea sets, electric coffee makers, packages of coffees and teas, and all sorts of refined accessories. But what caught my eye was a large stainless steel stovetop espresso maker. It was sleek and shiny, and reduced from some exorbitant price to $25.

I took that pot home with me and used it almost daily until last year when the handle broke off and I finally had to part with it. It may not have retained its original gloss but we’re talking about 25 years with one pot, and, believe me, I mourned the loss of this morning companion. Since then I’ve been using a Bialetti Moka Express. I don’t love the pot but I’m really a fan of the robust coffee these Italian stovetop coffee makers produce, especially since I have to drink decaf.

A good coffee maker is certainly one of the key components to delicious coffee, but, of course, it all starts with the beans and roast.

Bird Rock Coffee Roasters

Earlier this summer, I spent some time at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters. Owner Chuck Patton gave me a run through of some coffee basics, as well as how he buys and roasts his beans. I also spoke with John Weaver, master roaster and president of Weaver’s Tea & Coffee.

John Weaver

Weaver had been a longtime roaster at Peet’s Coffee until 2007, when he formed his own company. He’s just celebrated 30 years in the coffee industry, and says that his new roasting style for his own business is “juicier, more flavorful with a smooth profile in the flavor.”

But how do you get these flavors? Like any agricultural product, the quality and flavors of coffee beans can vary from season to season, depending on weather, the soil, proper fertilization, pest and disease control, proper pruning, and watering.

Just as important, it turns out, is altitude. The higher the elevation, the slower the beans are to mature, resulting in more flavor. Arabicas, of which there are at least some 20 varietals, are grown at a higher elevation. You’ll find many of these varietals in Mexico or Peru. The trees are fussy about their growing environment, and that, combined with the belief that the beans have more flavorful qualities, make them more expensive than Robusta beans.

“I buy only high-altitude coffee beans,” says Weaver. “They have more flavor and acidity.”

Robusta beans usually are grown at lower elevations. The trees are hardier and produce earlier than Arabica trees, but the beans are not of the same quality. These are your supermarket beans, and, they’re often mixed with Arabica beans to bring down prices. However, they do have twice the caffeine as Arabicas.

Patton points out that every country puts out beans with distinctive characteristics. “Sumatran beans have a thick body, are spicy, herby, and earthy,” he says. “Costa Rican beans are more vibrant and lighter, while Mexican beans are more balanced. Beans from Peru have a nutty flavor while Ethiopian beans have a fruity element to them, like blueberries. Kenyan beans are more like wine; they’re more acidic.”

But, even regions in the same country will produce beans with varied characteristics. Patton considers the Huehuetanango from northwestern Guatemala to be the highest quality varietal within Guatemala, especially compared with coffees from Antigua, which is the classic coffee growing region near Guatemala City.

While there’s been a marketing blitz to promote the Fair Trade program—and Weaver’s Coffee & Tea uses certified organic and Fair Trade-certified beans—Patton is involved in what he calls a “direct trade model.” “We’re a Fair Trade licensee but the money goes to the co-op, and how well run are the co-ops?” he asks. “I’m pulling out of the licensing agreement. I want to work directly with farmers or farming groups and make direct rewards based on the effort and investment they make in their farm.”

Patton is involved in the Las Mingas Project in Columbia, which is establishing long-term relationships between independent coffee farmers and specialty roasters around the world. There are 10 to 15 roasters in the U.S. who participate, says Patton, and two to three main farming groups totaling about 50 farmers. “They’re getting paid more than by Fair Trade,” he says. “I sent $200 to a farmer as a reward for a great crop. He put that into a new burner, tile, and cement in his house. It was something that dramatically improved the quality of life for his family and allowed him to focus more on farming.

“I’d rather take that $1,000 a year for the Fair Trade license and give it to independent farmers,” he says.

The roasting room at Birdrock is filled with burlap bags brimming over with beans, some still green, awaiting their roasting, and others a deep burnished brown and ready for packaging. Patton uses a cast iron drum roaster that can roast up to 25 pounds of beans at a time. It takes about 15 to 18 minutes to roast the beans, with the precise timing dependent on the type of bean, the weather and humidity, and what brings out the best in the varietal.

“The roaster has guidelines, but adjustments can be made,” he explains. “We’re aiming for consistent flavors and the sweet spot. It can happen in less than a minute, and making mistakes can lead to a sour flavor, burning, or underdeveloped flavors.”

Weaver explains that he doesn’t create the flavors during the roasting. “I bring out what potential the coffee has. It’s load, size, time, temperature, and air flow.”

He notes that while there’s been a movement to light roasted coffees, it’s not his style. “The consumer palate has developed a deeper flavor profile in coffee. Not darker—that’s just burnt.”

Patton, though, says he does roast lighter. “The more you roast, the more you lose the varietal flavor,” he explains. “We want a bean’s fully developed flavor to peak in the process.” And, he points out that qualities inherent in the bean will determine roasting times. “Green Sumatra beans are dense and need more roasting than beans from Mexico, for instance.”

Tony Gomez

I met Tony Gomez, Patton’s roaster of five years. He was working with decaf Papua New Guinea beans, giving them 16 to 17 minutes in the drum at 420 degrees. As the roasting time was drawing to an end, he repeatedly checked on the beans to take in their color and make adjustments. Once the roasting ended, the beans spilled into a bin to be cooled for about five minutes. Then Gomez deposited the batch in a big can to continue cooling and then poured 22 pounds of organic Brazilian beans into the roaster.

Gomez showed me the roasted decaf beans, pointing out that these beans have a matted finish to them, compared to the glossiness of regular beans.

Both roasters use water processed decaffeinated beans. “It allows the inherent flavors to remain in the coffee,” Weaver says. “But it’s an expensive process so the coffee is more expensive.”

I found the decaf beans from Weaver’s and Bird Rock to be wonderfully rich and flavorful. The difference between what people like me—who just can’t tolerate caffeine—can enjoy now compared with, say 10 years ago, is dramatic. The options are greater and the quality is so much higher. I’m admittedly not someone who can give you nuanced descriptions of each bean. I haven’t developed that ability—at least not yet. And, it is an art. But, I can give you some suggestions for decaf beans to try that I think you’ll enjoy.

• Weaver’s Decaf House Blend
• Joes on the Nose Decaf Peru and Decaf Mexico (David Wasserman, the outgoing young guy in the orange truck at the Little Italy Mercato and Hillcrest Farmers Market, gets his beans from Bird Rock Roasters.)
• Bird Rock Coffee Roasters Papua New Guinea
• Caffe Calabria Costa Rica

Bird Rock Roasters is at 5627 La Jolla Blvd.

Weaver’s Coffee can be found at some Whole Foods stores or ordered at www.weaverscoffee.com.

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Caffe Calabria Expanding Offerings

All sorts of interesting and potentially wonderous things are happening at this North Park coffee roaster/coffee bar/cafe. In fact, the next "/" will be retailer as Arne is getting the back of the building ready to open a retail shop. Already, he's been selling bags of beans and tea, as well as coffee-making equipment, but he's also got some marvelous chocolates for sale, including Eclipse Chocolat bars and some more exotic varieties from Amedei in Tuscany and Claudio Corallo in Africa.

Arne is particularly excited about the Claudio Corallo chocolates because they come from a sustainable plantation called Terreiro Velho, in São Tome e Príncipe, a small African island nation on the West coast of the continent. Corallo has a very interesting story, which you can read about here.

I tried the "Soft" chocolate, tablets of 73.5 percent cocoa. It's slightly sweet, nutty and crunchy (thanks to the cocoa nibs), made only with cocoa, sugar and cocoa butter.



Amedei is based in Pisa and owned by brother and sister Alessio and Cecilia Tessieri. The beans come from growing regions that include Grenada, Jamaica, Madagascar, Trinidad, Ecuador and Venezuela. The beans are processed by the Tessieris in Italy and the recipes are created by Cecilia, a Maitre Chocolatier. Arne had me try the Toscano Brown, a luscious milk chocolate bar that is nevertheless restrained in sweetness. According to Arne, Caffe Calabria is the only shop south of Beverly Hills selling Amedei chocolates and only one of seven in all of California.


I also got a chance to taste a delicious cup of coffee from Caffe Calabria's new Clover machine, a large piece of technology that drop kicks the French press concept into the 21st century by allowing the barista to control the temperature and pressure of a single cup even as the machine compresses the ground coffee into a tight puck to extract the flavor.

Arne tells me that they're still refining their Clover coffee, working on getting that combination of temperature and pressure just right before they start serving to customers. So, stay tuned.

And, for those of you, who, like me, love the fresh roasts they sell but don't live close enough to stop by weekly (or whenever) for a pound bag, Caffe Calabria is going to start a subscription service in the near future. Sign up and you can get your coffee delivered at an interval that works for you so you don't have to put extra bags in the freezer. I've been assured that those of us who have come into the store and signed up will soon be getting an email blast with all the details.

Caffe Calabria is located at 3933 30th St. just north of University Ave. in North Park.


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Chi Chocolat: A Spot of Decadence in Little Italy

Jesse Brown is a character. He loves to talk about chocolate, about the way it can be crafted, about its health benefits and how Americans can learn something from Europeans both in how chocolate is made and consumed. In short, Jesse Brown loves to talk.

Fortunately for his customers, Jesse Brown is just as passionate when it comes to actually making his truffles and bonbons. In his small shop, Chi Chocolat, which includes a charming café set with mosaic tables, a place to play chess and a picture window onto the passing world of India St., Brown works his growing skills as an artisan chocolate maker. The open kitchen allows customers to watch the chocolate temper, watch him fill the plastic molds that form his bonbons and roll and dip his truffles. “People are paying a lot for hand-crafted chocolates and I think it helps for them to see the effort that goes into making them,” he says.

Brown and his wife, Tess, have been in chocolates for three years in conjunction with running their thriving catering business. It’s clear the self-taught chocolatier loves what he does and feels he has a higher calling to serve the community through his chocolates.

The bonbons and truffles, made with Callebaut chocolate, hold up to scrutiny. Like many other chocolatiers, Brown is taking his creations to a higher level with the use of a variety of spices and herbs, teas and liquors, salts and curries and fruits and nuts. Brown sees a similarity between wine and fine chocolate—both in their richness, delicacy and complexity and the necessary balance of texture, aroma and taste. He cleverly has organized his chocolates into themed “flights” that highlight various characteristics. These flights include:

Truffle: an assortment of hand rolled rustic truffles

Exotic Spice: Ganaches combined with spices like chile and pink peppercorns

Cosmopolitan: Ganaches such as crème brulee, burnt caramel, white chocolate, dark chocolate and lavender and caramel

Liquer: bonbons infused with an assortment of fine liquors

Tea: Ganaches infused with green tea, earl grey leaves, exotic chai spices, jasmine tea and ginger

Nuts & Flowers: Milk chocolate with roasted almond butter, dark chocolate with marzipan, almonds and almond paste, hazelnuts, pistachios and lavender

I tried a wonderful duo—a long, glossy Jaeden, a white chocolate ganache infused with green tea powder from Uji, Japan, and the Blue French, a lavender and caramel ganache encased in dark chocolate. The Jaeden had just the slightest hint of the green tea. It’s simple and satisfying. The Blue French was like a long drink of lavender bookended at bite and finish with a distinctive crunch of the dark chocolate shell. It was surprising and happily so.

I also enjoyed Brown’s traditional classic dark truffle. Made with 72 percent chocolate and finished with a roll in dark chocolate powder, it was truffle 101—earthy and rich with deeply dark, woody undertones.

In fact, it’s this darkness that Brown emphasizes is so good for us. Forget the sweet, sweet, sweetness of a Hershey’s Kiss. Dark chocolate with its more sophisticated and restrained flavors is, he says, actually good for you.

“We’re regressing from mass produced, highly sugared chocolate to what chocolate is today by understanding that higher percentage chocolates taste better and are better for you,” he says. “Dark chocolate contains high-density lipoproteins, which protect against heart disease.”

And, of course, chocolate is said to contain antioxidant properties and act as an appetite suppressant. These claims all are subject to continued studies, but isn’t it cool to think that eating good-quality chocolates could actually be healthy?

Medical claims aside, Brown’s confections are quite simply deliciously decadent. But, even if you’re not in the mood for them, Chi Chocolat is a wonderful place to stop by for a mocha and bagel or croissant. Brown makes a number of espresso drinks using Caffe Calabria’s roasted coffees and offers paninis and several pastries like cheesecake, chocolate-dipped biscotti and tiramisu.

“This is a place to meet, greet and talk,” says Brown. “We want to welcome people in to sit and enjoy themselves, have some chocolate and be a part of the community.”

Chi Chocolat is located at 2021 India St. at Grape St.

Have some thoughts about Chi Chocolat or other artisan chocolatiers in San Diego? Do you have a favorite neighborhood market or shop that carries unique or unusual foodstuff? Let me know or add to the conversation by clicking on comments below:

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Caffé Calabria: Full of Beans in North Park

One Wednesday last October, the LA Times food section devoted most of its space to coffee. Where to find great roasters. The best brewing methods. Recipes that incorporate coffee. I’m not a coffee fanatic, but I do enjoy the stuff and, because my rebellious body can now only tolerate decaf, I’ve felt challenged to find a truly flavorful roast.

So, I scoured the stories for any hints on where to buy good decaf beans in San Diego. They were filled with great information, but the Times doesn’t cover San Diego anymore so I was left to my own devices. Research led me to Caffé Calabria on 30^th St. in North Park, a coffee roaster and coffeehouse that also serves panini and desserts. And, the lovely and very knowledgeable folks who work there, in turn, led me to two different coffees: their full-bodied decaf Costa Rica, a hard-bean Arabica that is indescribably flavorful (not just strong for strong's sake) and their decaf Calabria blend, a rich house-blend espresso that is so much better than the canned Illy I've been using on the weekends with my Gaggia classic.

At the time, I told the saga of my frustrating quest to one of the baristas, who called over owner Arne Holt. He stopped what he was doing and showed me around the premises, which are far more than a mere coffeehouse storefront. It’s a full on coffee mecca with 22- and 45-kilo roasters, the latter a restored 1958 German machine with gleaming stainless steel.

In a back room, he was preparing to set up a retail space for selling home brewing equipment and accessories. Upstairs are the business offices. In the basement, bags and burlap bags of coffee beans. He told me about his plans to add an authentic Italian pizza oven. All this, and I was just a person who had walked in off the street looking for a good cup of coffee.

I stopped back a couple of days ago to buy some more coffee and the first thing I noticed was the blue-and-white tiled beehive-shaped pizza oven, still a work in progress, but a formidable presence in the coffeehouse.

Holt was in, having just returned at 5:30 that morning from a trip to Italy where he had bought a coffee bar that will be the centerpiece of a remodeling aimed, as he says, “to bring the culture of Italy to our front door.

“We’ll serve coffee and panini during the day, and five nights a week we’ll shut down at 3 p.m. and re-open at 5 p.m. as an enoteca, or wine bar, and serve pizza,” he says. “And, it will be verra pizza Napoletana,” he emphasizes, “authentic, true Neapolitan pizza."

In fact, the oven is being constructed out of materials from Naples by Neapolitan builders. Holt has also brought over master pizza maker Ernesto Caciolli from Naples to train the staff. Stay tuned for the opening date; there’s a lot of remodeling to take place, including the addition of mezzanine seating, before pizza will be served.

In the meantime, however, there’s always the coffee. Caffé Calabria roasts between 1,000 and 1,200 pounds a day, both for the store and customers throughout Southern California and beyond. Holt counts 15 varietals and numerous blends among the offerings. A full listing can be found on their website, www.caffecalabria.com.

And, for tea lovers, the back room, still in transition mode for the retail space, has endless canisters of teas, blended by the staff and sold under the name Sochi Teas.

In the coffeehouse, I noticed a stack of burlap bags below a cup with the lettering, “Get Smart,” and asked Holt what this was all about. Before I knew it, we were heavy into a discussion on Fair Trade issues. He explained that for years, they regularly piled the bags there for people to take, but that they have started a donation project, Get Smart, to raise money to help pay for children in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, to attend school. Take a bag, put a little money for it into the cup and help provide an education, with Caffé Calabria matching donations.

More than that, though, it represents a larger effort spurred by a profound skepticism Holt has with the Fair Trade certification program. “I don’t think the money’s going to the right people,” he says. Concerned about abuses in the program, he has decided to visit the farms he buys beans from to determine for himself if they meet his criteria, which includes using organic fertilizers and compost, maintaining the land and trees and treating the people who work on the farm with respect. “I want to see that they’re growing coffee with the earth, making sure everything is sustainable, whether they are ‘certified’ or not,” he says. “It’s a matter of treating the land with love and the people who work on the farm with love.

“The goal is to have all our coffee purchased under this criteria,” he notes. “The larger goal is buying consciously.” His first farm visit was to Matagalpa, where he’ll be returning soon. Hence, the burlap bag donations.

While buying sustainably is commendable, ultimately, the coffee has to taste good or there are no customers. Monday through Friday, Caffé Calabria holds coffee cupping sessions, a technique to evaluate the flavor profile of a coffee. (Coffeegeek.com has a good step-by-step guide to this.)

“Coffee is so volatile,” says Holt. “It’s always changing. It can start out with a fruity flavor, then develop more citrus tones. We need to cup it out everyday to make sure we’ve got a good product.”

As if the pizza and sustainable buying projects aren’t enough, Holt has one more novel twist to add to the business, a Clover bar.

If you haven’t heard of this, it may be because San Diego doesn’t yet have one and they’re only just springing up in other parts of the country. Three years ago, two entrepreneurs, Zander Nosler and Randy Hulett, started The Coffee Equipment Co. (in Seattle, of course) to developed a sophisticated machine they call The Clover. At its most basic, The Clover produces upgraded drip coffee by the cup, combining vacuum brewing with the French press. So, we’re talking brewed coffee, not espresso, but this isn't any old drip coffee. The technique of matching the brewing to the specific flavor profile of the bean creates a coffee experience that is apparently far superior to and more complex than any brewed coffee you’d get out of traditional equipment. If this appeals, head on over there May 10, when Holt says that The Clover will be installed and ready for action.

Caffé Calabria, which has been in business for six years, has become a gathering place for more than buying a pound or two of coffee or tea. They hold tea tastings on the third Saturday of each month from 10 to 11 a.m. and the San Diego Home Roasters meet there on the first Saturday of the month at 10 a.m. I was also happy to find that Caffé Calabria is dog friendly.

Oh, and if you go in to buy coffee beans at lunchtime, pick up the grilled vegetable panini (a wonderful melding of eggplant, zuccini, red onions and tomatoes on crunchy foccacia) and have the barista make you a Café Viennese. This (decaf, for me) espresso concoction made with steamed milk, honey and cinnamon is layered with so many delicious, complementary flavors, it made me weak in the knees with pleasure.

Caffé Calabria is located at 3933 30^th St., just north of University.

Have some thoughts about Caffé Calabria or other coffee roasters in San Diego? Do you have a favorite neighborhood market or shop that carries unique or unusual foodstuff? Let me know or add to the conversation by clicking on comments below: