http://handsomecoffee.tumblr.com/

@handsomeroaster espresso drinks and iced coffee on tap at...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 17:33:46 -0700

@handsomeroaster espresso drinks and iced coffee on tap at Cultivate Festival in Golden Gate Park tomorrow from 11-7. It’s free!

Handsome @maratshaya feature No. 059 • An apparatus for...

Thu, 30 May 2013 08:55:18 -0700

Handsome @maratshaya feature No. 059 • An apparatus for awakening (at Handsome Coffee Roasters)

"Well, I’m really making it for everyone. Well, then go ahead and stop because you’ve already..."

Thu, 30 May 2013 08:26:13 -0700

“

Well, I’m really making it for everyone.

Well, then go ahead and stop because you’ve already lost.

“Everyone” isn’t an audience. “Everyone” is a byproduct of an incredibly successful thing that was made for a far more specific bunch of people. Don’t ever make something for “Everyone” make it for someone. And make that person love it.

”

- Dan Sinker (via seanbonner)

Warby Parker: Across the US: Our Favorite Coffee Stops

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:16:58 -0700

Warby Parker: Across the US: Our Favorite Coffee Stops:

warbyparker:

Coffee: it’s our rocket fuel in the morning and our salvation in the afternoon (especially iced, now that the weather’s taken a turn).

As we motor across the US, we’ve downed watered-down gas station brews and multisyllabic options at Starbucks. As we settled down and got to know each of the…

nickandthemoon: Perfect on a lovely saturday. #handsomecoffee...

Tue, 28 May 2013 09:59:43 -0700

nickandthemoon:

Perfect on a lovely saturday. #handsomecoffee (at Float)

Handsome @maratshaya feature No. 054 • Packaging: the lost art...

Sun, 26 May 2013 09:39:44 -0700

Handsome @maratshaya feature No. 054 • Packaging: the lost art (at Handsome Coffee Roasters)

Handsome @maratshaya feature No. 055 • Espresso essentials (at...

Sun, 26 May 2013 09:38:50 -0700

Handsome @maratshaya feature No. 055 • Espresso essentials (at Handsome Coffee Roasters)

Handsome @maratshaya feature No. 056 • Handmade, hand-crafted,...

Sun, 26 May 2013 09:38:21 -0700

Handsome @maratshaya feature No. 056 • Handmade, hand-crafted, and hand-shipped

seanbonner: If you are in LA and undecided, this is pretty much...

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:35:58 -0700

seanbonner:

If you are in LA and undecided, this is pretty much every reason you need to vote for @ericgarcetti next week.

bennettcooks: Wooohoooo!!! Hedley and Bennett Made it into the...

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:34:23 -0700

bennettcooks:

Wooohoooo!!! Hedley and Bennett Made it into the Los Angeles Times today!!!! Loud and proud! :) #losangelestimes #madeinamerica #hustlin #newspaper #losangeles #DIY #lifeisonebigsharktank

Handsome @maratshaya feature No. 052 • Weekend Etiquette

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:02:26 -0700

Handsome @maratshaya feature No. 052 • Weekend Etiquette

One of our travel bags was recently taken out into the wild....

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:36:28 -0700

One of our travel bags was recently taken out into the wild. Every trip needs coffee. If you happen to be in possession of one of these bags, we want to see how you’ve been using it. Snap a photo of your bag and tag @handsomeroaster and #handsometraveler and we’ll send you some coffee. Make sure you tag it or we won’t be able to find your shot. (at Big Sur)

If you aren’t a father, you should get to work because...

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:38:45 -0700

If you aren’t a father, you should get to work because this is going to be awesome.

We got new shirts in. A lot of new shirts. Here’s one of...

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:01:14 -0700

We got new shirts in. A lot of new shirts. Here’s one of them. Check the website tomorrow or stop by the shop. 100% cotton, made in Los Angeles.

Lil' Help!?

Tue, 07 May 2013 18:22:00 -0700

Once again, we’re doing some growing over here at Handsome Coffee. So, we’re looking for a few good hands to help us do what we do. Specifically a couple of baristas to work our bar, as well as some off site event / festival type business.

The traits we’re looking for in these folks are a keen sense of hospitality, problem solving ability, understanding and managing of priorities, and a drive to be the best. If you know about coffee, that’s also pertinent, but not required. You must, however, like coffee.

If you are interested in being part of Team Handsome, please send an email to tyler@handsomecoffee.com with a brief explanation of who you are and why you’d like to join up. You can include a resume if you’d like, but it’s entirely possible it won’t be read, so don’t stress it!

Historically, we’ve received a lot of emails for something like this. I’ll try to respond to all of them.

Thanks,

Tyler

The fine folks from Life and Thyme spent a day with us a few...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:24:38 -0700

The fine folks from Life and Thyme spent a day with us a few weeks back and made this gorgeous video piece.

We’ll be hanging out with our friends and making coffee...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:13:46 -0700

We’ll be hanging out with our friends and making coffee all weekend.

J.Crew | Blog: A Moment with... Apolis

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:42:02 -0700

J.Crew | Blog: A Moment with... Apolis:

jcrew:

since 2004, Shea and Raan Parton have been designing globally conscious,
stylish goods under the moniker Apolis. in addition to collaborating with them on
a pair of chambray swim trunks, we recently tracked down the always-on-the-go
bros for coffee in Southern California.

You…

Travel Diaries - Q and A with Chris Owens

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:45:41 -0700

Here’s one from David Boyle. This one just missed twitter’s 140 character limit so we’re posting Chris’s response here.

David Boyle (@DaveedBoyle)

3/5/13, 11:12 PM

@HandsomeRoaster from ur travel exp, what is the biggest need for getn coffee farmers out of poverty? #handsomeQs

Thanks for the question David,

As a guest in these countries I want to be very careful to not pretend I know what’s best for them. I am neither a farmer or economist. Also, we should not assume all farmers are impoverished. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of room to improve the business we all love very much. These are complicated and multifaceted issues. In this explanation I will over simplify some things and there are some things I just plain do not know. Please think of this as a starting point for discussion. I know, you still want an answer.

Ok, this will sound simple: price.

Our retail customers need to be comfortable paying a higher price, so that I can pay a higher price to the producer. The prices paid need to be tied to quality on both sides. This also ties in with what I see as a need for a stronger separation between commodity and specialty.

Let’s dive in a bit and look at Costa Rica, since that’s where I happened to be when you asked the question. The general structure in Costa Rica has been that the coffee producer, produces cherry, they deliver that cherry to a receiving station, that receiving station represents a bigger mill. That mill can be a co-op, a private mill, a multinational or a commercial mill that has an estate and also buy cherry. Since the cherry producer is selling cherry to the mill, it depends on what happens in the C market. So if the market is high they get good prices, if the market is low, bad prices. In the last three years the prices have been pretty good. The cherry producer received from $200-240 per Fenega (a standard Costa Rican cherry measurement. 500 lbs cherry which equals 100 green).

Now the market is low. So, the producer is receiving less than half of what he received a year ago. That means they are receiving less than his cost of production. The cost of producing one Fenega in Costa Rica is $120-130. They are currently receiving about $100 per Fenega.

So, what’s the consequence? This year the producer will fertilize less or not at all, he will not prune, and he won’t care about harvesting. This will lead to less quality, less production and aging of the trees on the farms. This is part of the reason why Costa Rica has gone from producing 4 million fenegas to 1.8 million fenegas in the last 12 years. Of course, population, development and foreign investment of industry have also contributed to the loss of coffee production in the central and west valley. No matter what the causes, as time goes on Costa Rica is producing less coffee. To add to that Costa Rica is a big consumer of coffee. Costa Ricans consumer around 30% of production. 4.3 kilo per capita per year. That means less and less coffee for export as population grows.

And then there is Roya (rust). The rust in Costa Rica has affected 30% of the harvest. That means that this coming year the low and medium altitude farms will produce much less coffee or none at all. Rust is a fungus that propagates in humid and warm weather conditions. A good healthy plant has a much better chance of resisting disease. The more you are about to visit the plant with multi minerals and the more preventive care you give, the less likely it will get sick. These measures obviously cost money. If Costa Rica had had good prices in general, and the producer could have fertilized, and could have afforded to take preventative measures, why do we have rust and not a good healthy plant?

Well, 1) Costa Rica had very good cherry prices and 2) Costa Rica had very dry weather conditions. These two effects put the producer in a comfort zone. If the weather is dry you cannot fertilize. You need rain for soil fertilization. However, there are two ways to fertilize, soil and spray (topical). There is no need for rain with spray. But, due to the “comfort zone” that did not happen in a consistent way.

So, in November, when the harvest was starting Costa Rica had intense rains for two weeks. This was the perfect condition for rust. But once you start harvest it is too late to spray or fertilize because you can have chemical residue in the bean since it is already developed. This wiped out the low and mid altitude crops. All that coffee was harvested in very poor condition. The rust drops the leaves and also the cherry. Any cherry that remained was burned from sun exposure.

“Ojo de Gallo” is the other fungus that develops in high elevations with humid and cold conditions. The producers that were able to really care for their farms in the high altitude regions had no real problems. So for this year, the 2013-2014 crop, there will be almost zero harvest in the low, majorly effected harvest in the middle and good production in the higher altitudes.

However, Costa Rica has a strong micro-mill system. So, what happens with the micro-miller? The micro-miller who, compared to the “cherry producer”, has had good prices, can fertilize, can nurture, prune, care about good harvesting and can produce good microlots. They can continue to produce coffee. Because of the separation (somewhat) from the C market and the relatively stable (and potentially higher) price, this is a much more economically sustainable system.

So, it seems one way forward is less and less “cherry producers” and more and more micro-millers. When the micro mill revolution started in Costa Rica 12 years ago there was one micro-mill, now there are 150. They expect to add another 50 micro-mills over the next 4 years.

Costa Rica has a high cost of production due to it strong social structure. Coffee production will move more and more to boutique coffee and more micro-mills. From my limited point of view this looks to be a good thing. Higher prices paid to the producers means more stability. They can better pay their workers, they can better manage the farm (which in theory means a more productive farm and more tasty coffee) and possible make a little money. This is business after all.

Travel Diaries Part 2 - Q and A with Chris from the road

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:55:55 -0800

Have you ever wondered how long it takes for a coffee cherry to hit full maturation? Are you curious about which variety of coffee tree has the tastiest fruit? Maybe you just want to know where to get the best street food in Antigua. Well, Chris Owens is in Central America visiting farms and purchasing green coffee while you’re reading this. We’d like to offer you the opportunity to live vicariously through Chris by asking any and all questions you may have about the mysterious world of coffee production and buying.

Tweet or instagram your questions to @handsomeroaster with the #handsomeQs and we will have Christopher send back reports from the field as he works his way through the trip.

In case you have country specific questions, take a look at his travel schedule below. Christopher will select a few questions each week and answer them here on the tweeter, tumblr, instagram, etc.

Not only will you get your question answered but we will also send along a 1lb bag of our newly retooled Dandy Espresso to those with best questions as chosen by Team Handsome.

El Salvador - Chris will be staying in Santa Ana with the ever wonderful Aida Battle (producer of Finca Tanzania) and J. Hill. He will also be spending time with Luis Rodriguez from Virmax

Guatemala - Chris will be about making new friends in Antigua, cupping coffees with Virmax, traveling to Huehuetanango to visit Finca La Bolsa and more. There will also be an evening with Edwin Martinez of Onyx coffee.

Costa Rica - A trip to cup with our good friends at Coopedota and travel the region looking for new relationships.

Nicaragua - Cupping and farm visits with The Miersch family in Jinotega followed by a quick trip for more cupping at Benificio Las Segovias in the town of Ocotal.

Honduras - Chris will visit IHCAFE, the national body regulating coffee in Honduras. From there he will go to Benificio San Vicente followed by a cupping in Marcala.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

~HCR