Husband and wife team Les and Jamie Stoneham made a stop at Relax, It’s Just Coffee on Saturday afternoon to give a presentation about the detailed process of making quality coffee.
Les and Jamie Stoneham own Deeper Roots Coffee in Cincinnati, Ohio and travel to Guatemala frequently to discover unique blends of coffee. Les Stoneham shared with the audience on just how coffee transforms from being a plant to a specially crafted cup of coffee. The two year old coffee roaster provides coffee to the coffee shop on South Main Street.
“We want to give Mansfield an opportunity to try different roasters from around the country,” said Relax It’s Just Coffee owner Paul Kemerling.
Les Stoneham said while he is very much at home in local coffee shops where he got his start, his work now takes him to many parts of the globe. One trip took him to Guatemala, where a personal friend introduced him to a local community.
“When I visited her, I got connected with farmers in the community and started looking at what we could do with coffee beyond what we are already doing. It was very much based in the fair trade movement,” said Stoneham. The fair trade practices seek to raise income levels of international coffee farmers by assuring minimum purchase prices and increased standards of working conditions.
Les Stoneham walked audience members through the process of coffee making, from growing stages to the final product.
One important detail that many consumers may not be aware of is that coffee begins as a fruit. “Basically it grows as a fruit and once, maybe twice a year you will get a harvest and then from there it is all about the different stages of processing before you get to your roasted coffee,” said Stoneham.
The biology of coffee boast diversity and variety, but Robusta and Arabica are among the most popular species on the market. Robusta lacks sweetness, but it is a good blender and is disease resistant. “Because it is disease resistant, it was sought after for many years,” noted Stoneham.
In coffee shops like Relax, It’s Just Coffee, Arabica is most common. Varieties of Arabica coffees include Bourbon and Yellow Cattura.
Stoneham further explained that Robusta and Arabica coffees have migrated throughout the world and names of coffee blends reflect that history. The term Java, for example, comes from an island in Indonesia with the same name. Similarly, the term Mocha Java and that comes from a port in Yemen called Mocha.
“Some of the original coffee blends were coming in from Java to the port Mocha. You had coffees from Yeoman and Indonesia that were being blended together and that is where you get your first coffee blend, Mocha Java,” said Stoneham.
Coffee plants themselves are commonly based in Guatemala and Indonesia and their origination is key to the overall process. “Guatemala, in its own right, has nine different distinct growing regions that, if identified, should have certain cup characteristics, just based on these micro regions. It comes down to farming, it can either make or break the coffee,” said Stoneham.
Before coffee ever hits the market, growers put a significant time investment into the fruit. Stoneham reported that the coffee shrub takes about three years from seed to any kind of production off the tree and estimated that new farms can wait up to five years for a real production off that tree. Once production starts, the cycle requires constant attention to keep the fragile, Jasmine-smelling blossoms at ideal production.
As soon as the fruit is picked off the tree the processing begins of making it into a coffee. Stoneham made note that roasters are focused on getting as close to the farmers as possible to find the quality of the coffee. Roasters will work with brokers to build those relationships.
“A lot of work is being done to help small farmers know what qualities are needed in order to get to that next level,” said Stoneham. “It all goes back to that original seed of the coffee. If a really great cup of coffee cools down, but it still tastes clean and good then that is a sign of a great cup of coffee. If it tastes dirty and you just don’t want to drink it anymore then that falls to the quality of the coffee,” he explained.
“We can really mess up all the years it takes to make a good cup of coffee by simply brewing it wrong,” said Stoneham.
Paying attention to brewing is the key in making a quality cup of coffee. “It is a ton of work to make sure we don’t mess it up and it is a lot of responsibility on our part to craft the coffee just the way it should be,” said Stoneham.
Audience member Bill Wells of Mansfield remarked, “I learned a lot about the different beans and the different roasting processes. There is a lot of attention that goes into making a cup of coffee,” said Wells.
Joe Daniels of Mansfield was also pleased with the presentation and added, “I had no idea it took that long to make a good cup of coffee,” said Daniels.
Those kinds of responses were behind the reason why Kemerling hosted the event. “We really appreciate fine coffee. We are trying to educate people that come to Relax,” He said. “We don’t want to force or make people afraid into drinking a specific kind of coffee. In the end, we want them to enjoy their cup of coffee.”
