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Roast! Coffee Smarter: Coffee Nightmares · Coffee People Podcast

0:14
Good morning and welcome back to the roast West Coast coffee
0:17
podcast. I'm your host Ryan Walt on this
0:20
show. I interview the coffee
0:22
Professionals of the West Coast and I try to help us all get a
0:25
little bit coffee smarter in the process.
0:28
I do that by asking coffee expert.
0:30
It's coffee questions, experts like series simran, Khalsa, the
0:33
executive director of coffee at lofty, coffee company.
0:36
Based in Encinitas, California with additional locations in
0:40
Carlsbad La, Costa Solana Beach, and the Little Italy communities
0:44
of San Diego County. Today on the show Siri and I
0:48
talked a little bit about Robusta and arabica beans and
0:51
then we Meander a bit about the past year and what we've learned
0:54
or adapted as is typical of our conversations.
0:57
We go off topic enough, to keep you on your toes near the
1:01
beginning. She reminds me that coffee is a
1:03
plant, which seems super obvious.
1:06
And we actually talked about coffee cherries, plenty on the
1:08
show, but somehow it always seems surprising to me that this
1:11
thing that we drink comes out of the ground.
1:14
After our chat, I'll go a little bit more in-depth on some of the
1:17
details between Robusta and arabica beans which is our topic
1:20
today and if you had to roast westcoast.com, you'll find even
1:23
more details about beans and about coffee in general.
1:27
Before we get into all that, take a moment to follow at
1:30
lofty, Coffee Co and at roast West, Coast on Instagram.
1:34
And then, if you've got time and you're willing to share this
1:36
show on your stories or your reels, please do, I can't say
1:40
that. I'm great at the social media
1:41
game, but you probably are and it'll really help.
1:44
Others discover the show. And by extension, still clear,
1:47
enthusiasm for coffee at this point, I'm assuming you've
1:51
filled your coffee mug, or your Tumblr, or your five gallon
1:54
bucket from Lowe's with coffee, because it is time to get
1:57
coffee. Smarter with serious simran
1:59
Khalsa on the roast west coast of the podcast.
2:17
We are back for one more chat with serious emmerich.
2:21
Also from lofty, coffee on the roast West Coast coffee podcast.
2:24
This is our last Talk of the Season.
2:27
We are squarely into the beginning of the holiday season,
2:31
which feels like it just gets longer and longer every year,
2:34
but I'm excited. Chat with her.
2:36
I'm excited to chat with you. You're not her.
2:39
You are you. I'm here.
2:41
Hello, thank you for coming back to the show, despite my
2:45
inability to talk. Well, no worries, thanks so much
2:50
for having me today. I want to ask you we've got into
2:53
some objective areas today. I want to ask you about
2:57
something that I think is a little less subjective and it's
2:59
just, what is the difference between Arabica and Robusta?
3:02
Those are two terms. I see a lot on Coffee bags or in
3:06
shops and I think I know what they mean, but I'm asking you to
3:09
make sure that I know it, okay? So coffee is a plant.
3:17
So there's a cafe or that is the species or the genus of coffee.
3:25
And underneath that, there's a lot of different species of
3:30
coffee and Arabica and Robusta happened to be two of this.
3:35
Species under that Janice and they're definitely the most the
3:41
highest commercially produced species of coffee.
3:46
So sue me in like a family tree, they'd be like that kind of near
3:51
the top. They'd be the beginning of that
3:52
tree and everything is kind of coming down from there.
3:55
So sorry. I did I didn't, I think, I
3:58
misspoke in the beginning. So there's Cafe.
4:00
I, which has the the top and then, okay.
4:05
There's things that come from that and Arabica and Robusta
4:11
happened to be two of those. There are other species but
4:16
these again are the two top commercially produced species.
4:21
And so when we speak to Specialty coffee and when we're
4:27
speaking to a known a previous episodes, we talked about the
4:31
sca coughing score each scoring sheet We are speaking
4:36
specifically to arabica coffee specialty.
4:39
Coffee is considered or rabbit. Arabica coffee is like to my
4:44
understanding the only specialty coffee, where reboost, a is
4:49
going to lie in its own category, under that.
4:52
And I don't have a lot of experience with her booster
4:55
coffee because we do not source as my experience of a copy buyer
5:00
and roaster. We have never gotten a Rubens to
5:04
coffee. And you'll find that reboosted
5:08
coffees tend to resist. A coffees tend to have are more
5:12
resilient in the sense of the growing aspect.
5:17
So when it comes to growing and it's yield, I believe they are
5:22
very high yielding as a species. So you see a lot of these
5:27
coffees and we're like commodity commercial coffees, typically
5:33
you'll have look instant coffee is going to be like ripping
5:37
stuff and so and also overall like lower quality again,
5:44
someone might correct me if I'm wrong on this but to my
5:47
understanding reboost it You know, I'm not going to speak to
5:53
that because I think I'm incorrect, so never mind.
5:57
That's alright. It's okay to not know things on
5:59
this show. That's the whole point.
6:02
I feel like I'm incorrect in this, but I feel like recently,
6:05
I was reading that reduce two coffees actually have a very
6:09
high organic acid content and naturally end up being more
6:14
acidic. But saying that out loud for
6:17
some reason, it sounds wrong because what we prayed, we pride
6:20
so much in. Arabica, coffee Is acidity and
6:24
sweetness. But maybe what?
6:27
Again, I'm just now. Speculating potentially Again,
6:34
why that sounds wrong is because to me, my understanding, I
6:37
believe like rubies to coffee is known to like have more like
6:41
bitter qualities, which again comes from organic acids.
6:46
But again I feel like I'm speaking to a subject.
6:48
I'm not super knowledgeable about but my knowledge mainly
6:52
revolving around the different species and my expertise
6:58
definitely being in the Arabica side of things.
7:01
So, So just generally speaking, when you think of, when you
7:06
think of a rabbuka, you're thinking of specialty coffee and
7:09
real boost. Generally speaking we're
7:13
thinking of like, Folgers, Maxwell House, kind of a
7:16
different tip, just a different strain of coffee.
7:18
Different kind of coffee that you're drinking.
7:20
Yeah, so that's this is I think perfect segue into what is going
7:25
to be the last question I have for you this year, well, this
7:30
season and this year, because The show comes to an end at the
7:33
end of 2021, which has been just a fucked up here in general.
7:40
Yeah, excuse anyone who doesn't like cursing.
7:43
I don't curse a lot on the show, but I do a lot in my real life
7:47
and this year feels like it deserves a curse word and last
7:50
year, at least most of it. So my question for you is what
7:55
have you learned over the past eighteen, nineteen months about,
8:00
about yourself, about the world and about Of your journey and
8:03
coffee because you and I have talked a lot about Coffee hours
8:07
about coffee over two seasons of the show.
8:11
This is our third season, but you've been on the show for two
8:14
and a guest on the first season. And I just, I'm just wondering
8:18
where what what it is you've learned and how do you think,
8:22
you know, your journey has evolved because of the situation
8:26
we all were putting collectively.
8:28
Yeah, I think that's a really beautiful question.
8:32
Yeah, this has been an incredibly challenging but also
8:39
an incredibly rewarding, your and a half.
8:42
I think something that I've learned and been reminded about
8:46
is that change is going to come and you're not going to always
8:51
know how and when but that You can either.
9:01
Accept change and accept challenges and you know, deal
9:06
with them as they come or you can stay resistant and
9:12
potentially have a harder time ultimately because of it.
9:16
So for me I've found that especially at the beginning of
9:21
the pandemic, there were so many rapid changes happening from a
9:26
business point of view that I immediately felt.
9:30
I went into us this kind of fluid mode of like going with,
9:35
what we have to do on the day-to-day and what that's
9:39
further taught me is like It's shown me a sort of resilience
9:44
that I can have and an ability to be on my feet and
9:49
problem-solve quickly. It also I think in this last
9:54
year and a half has taught me a lot about my own strengths as a
10:00
leader, in a business. So because of a lot of the
10:06
shifts that came, I was already very much in a leadership role
10:10
but I think and it allowed me to further step into that role and
10:16
really Take on the challenges that come with with that.
10:21
And as a leader in a business, have never felt as confident and
10:28
as assured as I have in the past and so that to me, is one of the
10:33
biggest takeaways of this wear. I would say, I definitely
10:38
there's certain amount of natural leadership that I feel
10:41
like comes, but there were, there was a lot to learn and I
10:44
think I was able to learn that this year and furthermore, from
10:48
a personal standpoint, again, despite the challenges, I've
10:51
actually I'm like in one of the better places I've ever been in
10:55
my life. And I know that again, that's
11:00
not the case for everyone, but I think a big part of that is a
11:06
Making new relationships over this last year, that have felt
11:09
really healthy and have brought me a lot of happiness.
11:13
And I think we've all seen that we're throughout this time.
11:18
Whether people have come or gone in our lives, the ones that are
11:22
here, currently have just played a really important role into
11:28
that into that going with the flow and sticking to the
11:34
changes. Sure, that Dynamic is important.
11:39
I know that I have certainly made choices in who I want to
11:43
surround myself with when I am surrounded by people, which is
11:47
an often I've been very, very sequestered to some extent.
11:51
Even even now, even after being vaccinated, just being cautious
11:55
and wanting to be a spreader and all that stuff, but sure.
11:59
But there are just different levels to this thing for
12:02
everybody and, and for all Of our all that we've all gone
12:09
through and people have gone through and much worse cases
12:12
certainly than me and certainly worse than most Americans and a
12:16
lot of places around the world, is it really forces you to kind
12:19
of take? There was a moment where
12:22
everyone had to slow down just enough to say what is it that I
12:26
really want out of life and unless you were really trying to
12:28
avoid it, you probably had a minute or two where you were
12:31
questioning some of the choices you've made and either
12:33
reinforcing them or maybe Taking a chance to step away and move
12:38
in a different direction. And so, yeah, it sounds a little
12:42
corny to say like the silver lining of a terrible thing.
12:45
But it does feel a little bit like like that.
12:48
And if in this and if where we can we all come out of it a
12:52
little bit more grateful and a little more accepting than then.
12:55
That's a good thing. Totally, you mentioned earlier,
13:00
not earlier today but earlier, two different show that you took
13:03
up climbing over the last Here and I'm wondering if you was
13:10
that a reaction to the pandemic, inspiring you to get out and
13:15
kind of I don't stay away from people but out into the world
13:17
more or was that something you've been kind of looking at
13:19
and all of a sudden you had it just it just sort of happened.
13:23
So it was something that I actually it's weird.
13:27
Like throughout a lot of people that I know are rock climbers
13:32
and it was something I always wanted to get into but it felt a
13:36
little bit like, I don't know if intimidating is the right word.
13:41
It just felt like people be like yeah, come climb.
13:44
But like you know how people do that?
13:46
Where they're just like, yeah, come to this thing and you're
13:48
like, okay it's like sort of an invite but it's not like a
13:52
specific invite or like, I don't know.
13:56
And so this is also going to sound silly.
14:00
But actually my, my current partner, he was the person to
14:05
finally be like, hey, come with me to rock climb And honestly,
14:11
it from there, the rest is history where it's just like it
14:14
was super fun and now that we're together he-he's very that's
14:20
like he's very into that and he's very passionate about it.
14:24
I would almost say like maybe the passion I have for coffee is
14:27
the passion. He has for rock climbing and
14:32
with the pandemic I think it was just all so just so great
14:37
because it was a way to be Outside and to be active and to
14:45
enjoy the day and enjoy the people around you company, while
14:49
being outside and being safe. And so, I think, yeah, it was
14:57
just a good timing with the right person to kind of
15:01
introduce me to it. And again, like I said, the rest
15:04
is history, it's like I go there as much as I can.
15:07
I go I climb as much as I can. Now, actually, I think I might
15:11
be climbing later today even though I climbed yesterday, my
15:14
body's feeling. Okay, so I was just having a
15:19
conversation with somebody yesterday at the gym of how
15:23
there's something, one of the, one of the things I love about
15:27
rock climbing is that it's this this moment where, What like, to
15:36
be frank. I actually had a very stressful,
15:38
long week work week. And it was like this thing that
15:45
can take you out of your own head and you can focus
15:47
specifically on your body and the exact Next Movement that you
15:52
have to make to to progress along the climb that you're
15:55
doing. So for me, it's a really nice
15:58
balance with everything else that I do to be able to maybe
16:04
get out of my because for those of you who are obsessed with
16:07
coffee and I don't know if you can agree with me on this, but I
16:11
mean I will literally have Coffee nightmares.
16:16
And like, I'm thinking about things, this is a big lie about
16:21
coffee or Cafe flow or cleanliness or certain things.
16:28
So again, it's nice to have a balance there in a way, so that
16:33
I don't lose my mind down the coffee whole.
16:39
That's, that's so funny because I wake up in the middle of the
16:43
night and I learn Immediately be like, okay, so if I change this
16:47
thing on the design or on the podcast or on the thing I'm
16:49
working on and it's like my brain never actually stopped
16:52
thinking about it even though I was asleep and I was just
16:56
reading something this morning. I think about how if you are
17:01
concerned that you might be lazy.
17:03
It probably means that you work too much because you don't
17:07
accept down time as being, okay, you know.
17:11
So, like when I When I take a night off to just watch TV or
17:17
something or Hulu or Netflix or whatever it is that we're
17:21
watching because nobody watches TV, I feel uncomfortable like
17:26
I'm not being productive during this time.
17:29
When in reality I'm actually still being productive.
17:34
I'm just letting my brain not focus so hard on that one thing
17:38
anymore. And so I think that idea that
17:41
like That it's okay and probably necessary for your brain to take
17:47
itself out of work mode or don't even know what Alice like just
17:53
that thing. You're so passionate about, I I
17:55
mean you love thinking about coffee and talking about coffee
17:58
obviously and I love a lot of things that I do, but if my
18:01
brain doesn't get away from them, sometimes it becomes home,
18:05
not not a curse but it just becomes overwhelming.
18:09
It can definitely feel a little unhealthy.
18:13
Like I had a dream the other night that I know people talking
18:20
about their dreams. It's kind of silly, but I guess
18:23
one of the cafes like, the Baristas were using too much
18:27
coffee. So to clean the espresso machine
18:29
and then the portafilter is like crystallize in kapisa and I'm
18:33
like I woke up. I was like this is not good.
18:39
No. You definitely need to find a
18:41
balance. And I'm not surprised you're
18:44
having dreams like that because and this, anyone listen to show
18:48
knows. I was, I live personally in
18:50
North County San Diego and I passed by your newest shop in
18:53
Carlsbad a lot. Hmm.
18:55
And it is just constantly packed.
18:58
I don't know how anyone, I don't know how a new coffee shop can
19:02
be so busy all the time and it doesn't matter if it's 7 a.m. or
19:05
11:30 or 130. It just seems like the patio is
19:09
full and there's people waiting all the time.
19:11
So I'm sure it's been very busy. Easy and wonderfully stressful,
19:15
at least to have that much success right away.
19:18
Yeah. It's awesome to see, you know,
19:21
it's interesting to see how just in the neighborhood north of
19:26
Encinitas. A lot of people are very,
19:29
they've never heard of lofty. And so it's cool to see that.
19:33
There's so much so many people are welcoming us and, and coming
19:38
into our shop, to enjoy what we have to offer.
19:40
And, and that goes out to even the like car.
19:43
The surrounding coffee Community being very welcoming and just an
19:50
awesome. Awesome place to be in in the
19:53
Carlsbad Village. Yeah, the village is great.
19:57
I do, this is just my own little pitch for the village but I can
20:01
walk from 21. Caught while coffee shop.
20:04
One coffee roaster, one. Good coffee roaster and get an
20:07
espresso walk to the next one and grab, you know, a black cup
20:11
of coffee or something and Watson.
20:13
Next one in my wife can get a chai latte before we go and sit
20:16
by the beach. I mean there's something I did
20:18
look to point. Yeah that doesn't seem really
20:21
fair that many coffee luxury is an 11 neighborhood.
20:27
But Siri thank you, thank you for being on this show so many
20:33
times over and over again. Thank you for doing it without
20:37
having me. Pay you, which is super helpful
20:39
for me and just, and thank you for all your knowledge and being
20:42
willing to share. It means a lot to me and I think
20:45
people can hear how passionate you are about coffee and I think
20:48
it gets them excited about it too.
20:50
Thank you so much Ryan. Honestly, I've been on a handful
20:53
of podcast at this point and this is one of the most fun I've
20:58
been on just because it is so coffee Focus, where sometimes
21:03
the conversations great, but like let's just keep talking
21:06
about coffee. I feel these, these
21:10
conversations need a focus because nobody wants just hear
21:13
me talk except for myself for an hour randomly.
21:18
Yeah. So I'm I'm honored to be a
21:22
coffee expert on the rose West Coast podcast so I can't wait to
21:28
see what you have in store for future Seasons.
21:32
This is really fun and again thank you for having me.
21:35
This is great. I'm glad you're here and it is
21:37
kind of shocking this show. I believe will be the 59th
21:41
episode already. Hey, that's amazing program when
21:46
this comes out. So we're rocking and rolling.
21:49
Like if I can get To 100. That's you know, that'll be
21:53
awesome as two more seasons will see if anyone's sick of
21:55
listening. So let's backtrack a little bit
22:09
and talk about Robusta and arabica beans Arabica and
22:12
Robusta are two of the species of coffee near the top of the
22:15
coffee, family tree, a rabbit has Origins traced back to
22:19
Ethiopia and Widely associated with, what we consider specialty
22:23
or craft coffee. The flavors found in arabica
22:26
beans are wide-ranging and are often known for being fruity and
22:29
sweet but that barely scratches the surface.
22:33
When you hear us joke about coffee tasting or smelling like
22:36
blueberries on this show, those are arabica beans as a plant or
22:40
Epoch has grown at higher elevations.
22:43
Generally at least 600 feet above sea level.
22:46
It's a fragile plant and susceptible to pests and weather
22:49
and it needs a lot of Sure rich soil, shade and son, it's a very
22:53
labor-intensive process. And all things considered is
22:56
much more expensive to grow than robust a coffees.
23:00
Robusta coffees. And I'm just going to stop right
23:02
here. And say I've been saying,
23:03
Robusta I've been saying Robusta, sometimes I flip and
23:07
flop that's just my pronunciation and I apologize
23:09
for that but robust a coffees are generally considered to be
23:13
more bitter or Woody wrote melee and the coffee plants themselves
23:17
are Hardy. ER they're grown at lower
23:18
elevations and can withstand more weather variables like
23:22
temperature, they're also less labor-intensive, which makes
23:25
them very popular as a general Farm mono.
23:27
Crop. It's a little too simplified to
23:30
That these are the only reasons that they are cheaper, but it is
23:33
certainly a big reason because of the way robust as are farmed
23:36
as a crop, they're also considered to be worse for the
23:38
environment. Generally, that doesn't mean
23:41
that Arabica is always grown environmentally friendly to
23:44
follow up on series commentary. Arabica coffee is do have more
23:48
acidity which does lead to more unique flavors in the coffee
23:51
itself. For me, it breaks down into
23:53
coffee for crafts, versus coffee, for mass production and
23:56
I'd further that for you listeners by saying it leads
23:58
into the choices we make. Make when purchasing coffee both
24:01
in the cafe and for at home. Siri.
24:05
And I also talk about what we've learned over the past year and a
24:08
half, which has been a huge time of cultural and individual
24:11
priority shifts for Siri accepting change and challenges.
24:15
As they come has been key to making wife a little bit
24:18
smoother, as opposed to resisting, it making daily life,
24:21
a little more stressful. It is also meant finding Outlets
24:24
that create a more well-rounded life.
24:26
She is used rock climbing as the thing that takes her out of her
24:29
own head, especially when she needs a break from coffee or the
24:32
coffee nightmares. We all have our own coffee
24:35
nightmares, although they may not be about coffee for all of
24:38
us. But rather that daily variable
24:40
that we can't stop thinking about even when we sleep be at
24:43
our job, our passion, our hobby, our family, or health society,
24:47
and on, and on, sometimes our brains need a break or to follow
24:51
a different path for me. That was this show.
24:54
When I was doing my best to lock down to avoid Humanity.
24:57
This show kept me, connected and engaged.
25:00
My Silver Lining during the pandemic is that I've virtually
25:02
met dozens of new friends. I never Never would have met if
25:05
I hadn't started this show and if I'm being honest, I'm almost
25:09
a little bit afraid to start doing this podcast out in the
25:11
world because I'm not sure. I know how interviewing people
25:14
in person setting up Mike's. Get out of here on that note.
25:18
That's Today's Show head to roast westcoast.com to find
25:22
links to this shows industry Partners like Cafe litter.
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Most your coffee coffee cycle, Maria coffee leap, coffee zoom,
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bar coffee, and tea, first light, whiskey Camp coffee.
25:34
Me and Cape Horn coffee. Those roast industry Partners,
25:37
help support this show and allow us to keep creating coffee
25:41
content for you. Thanks again, to Siri for being
25:44
an expert on this show time and time again, and I'm sure she's
25:47
going to be the future star of our Netflix.
25:49
Traveling coffee show, which is what I've been dreaming about it
25:52
night. If you want these shows sent
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right to your email along with articles, about coffee photos,
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and videos and vocabulary, make sure to sign up for the
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You can also sign up for a paid subscription or give the gift of
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paid subscriptions to the newsletter.
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On sub stack, allow us to keep moving the show forward by
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adding better equipment, reaching more people and
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frankly, those subscriptions are a huge creative and emotional
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and financial support. I'm always overwhelmed with
26:28
gratitude. When I see a new one come in.
26:31
This episode of the roast West Coast coffee podcast is was has
26:36
been written produced and recorded by me Ryan Walt.
26:39
I hope this show is found you happy healthy and with at least
26:42
enough Sandy to make it through one more day.
26:45
And please always tip your Baristas and be sure to drink
26:49
good coffee. I think that's it, man.
27:23
You're awesome. I mean I always feel like I go
27:25
longer than I take more of your time than I deserve.
27:27
And so on thanks for spending such a pleasure, seriously.