Our Blog
Beyond the Beans: Jessica Hurtado
By: Brittany Leslie – Wholesale Account Manager and Educator, Kéan Coffee This week I sat down with Kean Coffee barista, Jessica Hurtado. Jessica shares with us her coffee journey which started with café con leche in her family’s kitchen and has taken her all the way to a coffee farm in Costa Rica. For Jessica, working in coffee and interacting with the coffee community has created an atmosphere of learning and joy found in pulling the perfect shot of espresso while working with the best people behind the bar. What is your role at Kéan Coffee and how long have …
Guatemala February 2015: Shawn’s First Coffee Origin Trip
We have been a bit remiss in chronicling our Kean Coffee origin trips over the past several years…just too darn busy roasting coffee! At some point we will backtrack and share more of our adventures. But here, at least, Shawn Anderson, our wholesale division roaster, has shared some of his experiences on a recent trip he and Martin made. When we (Martin Diedrich and I) arrived in Guatemala City the first evening, I had no idea what to expect. After all, this was my first origin trip and, as I would soon find out, Guatemala City is in no way …
2012 Trips to Origin: Mike’s adventures in Costa Rica – a first person account
Mike Richardson has been with Kean Coffee since our doors first opened in late 2005, first as a barista, then becoming a manager and barista trainer. Mike is passionate about coffee and about what he does, and has participated in several barista competitions- three times competing in the Western Regional Barista Competition and the Ultimate Barista Competition, and once judging the WRBC. Below is his fascinating account of the trip to Costa Rica he went on this past April along with our roaster Ted Vautrinot, who was invited to judge for Costa Rica Cup of Excellence. Enjoy! Everyone has been …
Judging Guatemala Cup of Excellence 2011 – by Ted Vautrinot, Kean Coffee roaster
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. 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 …
Musings of a Nicaragua Cup of Excellence Judge – by Ted Vautrinot, Head Roaster for Kean Coffee
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 …
A Roaster’s Eye View of Honduras by Ted Vautrinot, Kean Coffee
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 …