The farmer behind the bar

Ben and Joe Molina at Trabant coffee in Seattle.

Several ingredients go into a great city, one of which is a strong local coffee scene. Yesterday was a great day for Oklahoma City because its coffee scene just got a lot stronger. Elemental Coffee is conducting a soft opening of its new café this weekend with an official open date planned for next week. There are a few good cafes in the city already, but with this local roaster opening its first retail location, the bar just got raised and OKC is on its way to becoming a coffee destination along the route between Kansas City and Dallas.

I have a love affair with coffee and, in a way, Friday was like Christmas for me. So, in honor of Elemental’s opening I offer a few posts this week with a coffee theme.

One of the best jobs I ever had was as a manager of a coffee shop, located in Seattle’s University District. At the time I was attending seminary and wasn’t exactly sure what that would lead to or if I was even in the right place, but my time at the coffee shop was simple and joyful. Eventually I left seminary and for the remainder of our time in Seattle I worked as the morning manager.

I love coffee and by love I mean I actually have a deep respect and value for the drink. From its production around the world to culture it has created in some of America’s urban cores, I am a fan of its many characteristics. I do really love the drink and that is why it frustrates me to see a nation consumed with its mediocre production. In the same way a chef cringes at the site of McDonalds, I too lament over bad coffee, particularly when just a few simple changes could make it so much better. (Not that I am the equivalent of a chef when it comes to coffee, however at one point I could work my way around a coffee bar pretty well)

While I was working at the shop in Seattle we had the unique opportunity to host one of the farmers who produced some of our coffee. He was going to be at a national coffee festival in Los Angeles and my shop’s owners thought it would be a great opportunity to fly him up to Seattle during his American visit.

His name was Joe Molina and was a coffee famer from El Salvador. His farm won the industry’s Cup of Excellence award in 2004 and his visit was an opportunity for our customers to hear more about social and environmental responsibility as a coffee producer, and the care he takes towards the environment and his workers.

Like many specialty coffee shops, ours took great pride in the beans we ordered and Molina’s crop was some of the best at the time. During his visit our staff had a chance to sit down to dinner with Joe and hear stories about his farm the people he employed. Here was a simple farmer that took pride in his work and was just amazed that that care and passion was being recognized by a bunch of 20-somethings in America. The next day Joe came to the shop and got a chance to actually serve his coffee.

At the time there was a new machine that was buzzing the specialty coffee world. It’s called the Clover and it is a very expensive machine that use a French press-like process to produce a cup of coffee in a matter of seconds that has a very tea-like quality. It’s really good and the machine is fun to operate. You essentially grind the beans, dump them into the machine, press a button and then a Wizard of Oz process takes place that produces a single cup of coffee in under one minute. Some in the coffee industry have not looked favorably on the device, especially since it went commercial a few years ago with the purchase by Starbucks, but it does produce a good cup of coffee and anyone can use it with just a few instructions.

Back at the shop, Joe manned the Clover machine and as customers came in he would say, “Hi, my name is Joe, would you like to try some of my coffee?” It was an amazing experience to see people say yes, to watch Joe make the coffee and then serve it to them. It was actually a very emotional experience at times and to each customer that purchased his coffee from the Clover Joe would give them a little information about his farm and family.

We did a pretty good job of trying to educate our customers on the journey coffee takes from seed to cup, but having Joe there was the best tool we ever had in expanding people’s mind about the products they purchase each day. Everything we touch, consume and use comes from some place. Someone’s livelihood is based on the production of that product and each time we participate in an act of consumerism we are not only making a choice about the type of product we want, but also where we want our products to come from.

I’m a big fan of local and feel that purchasing products and eating at restaurants that are locally owned is a great way to support your neighbors and community. I can also appreciate the argument of some that we should buy American. It’s a good idea at times, but this is too global of a world to only spend our money on products made in the states.

I’m not always the best at choosing which products to buy. While I feel passionate about coffee, there are others that feel the same way about other products that I take for granted. If nothing else, Joe’s visit was a reminder that we Americans are at the top of the consumerism food chain, and the simple decisions we make each day have immense ripple effects all the way down the families in countries located halfway around the world.

Elemental is an example of a coffee shop that shares that value and it’s exciting to have them open a shop that can help further that global perspective…as well as offer some great tasting coffee.