THE STORY
Okay, so you have read the short version, but would like more? Read on:
I’ve always been obsessed with coffee. In college most of my friends would drink coffee to stay awake and power through long study sessions. What I noticed, however, is that coffee and caffeine, in general, did not affect me the same way as others. I could drink 5 cups of coffee and fall right asleep after. So I decided I wanted to make the best tasting coffee that I could enjoy with others that liked to drink coffee for many reasons (including staying awake). A friend of mine in college, Elie Edison, made some of the best coffee that I have ever tasted. He would overdose the ratio of coffee to water and make a powerful cup that tasted smooth with subtle flavor notes. When I asked how he did this, he merely said, “in Lebanon, everyone drinks coffee this way.” For those unfamiliar with Lebanese coffee (aka Ahweh, Kawha, Kahva) it’s very similar to Turkish coffee and it’s one of the most robust coffee you can have. It is as strong as espresso, if not more. And once you take a look at its preparation method, you’ll know why.
This coffee is usually served in small “shots” the size of espresso coffee cups, and it’s usually prepared 3-5 “shots” at a time. For each “shot” you want to make measure 1.5 times that in water and add one teaspoon of very finely ground coffee (Turkish grind). I was hooked. I started to make this coffee on a daily basis and was drinking 5-6 cups per day. I loved it.
Well, after college I got a desk job and it was not easy to make this type of coffee at your desk (the way Elie prepared it, and the way I have come to love) so I started to try other methods. I started with a French press and then moved on to a handheld espresso maker. Neither could produce the same level of sensation that I had felt before.
Was I chasing a high?
I researched and researched, and I found a new product (at the time) called the Aeropress. This was pretty damn close to what I was looking for. It was simple, repeatable and cheap. I used this for years and thought I was drinking the best coffee I could produce until I visited Australia.
While in Australia I found a vibrant coffee scene and began to immerse myself in talking with every and anyone I could see that would talk shop. While I was there, I fell in love with a drink Australian’s call “flat white.” It was delicious and reminded me a bit of my first Lebanese coffee experience. I was hooked.
For those unfamiliar with a flat white, it’s a small (normally 5-6oz) drink with a ratio of ~4oz of espresso to 1-2oz of very thin layer foam. I was told this thin layer of foam was created to prevent any distraction due to different textures. This thin foam is now so popular that it’s referred to as microfoam.
When I returned home, I immediately decided I wanted to recreate this drink. Again, I needed something that was simple, repeatable and cheap. I started to look at home espresso machines for a temperature stable saturated group head (the same type the shops in Australia were using) with a dual boiler (being able to steam milk and pull a shot simultaneously) there were only a few options, and they were all over USD 10,000. I knew that was not an option (at that time) so I decided to buy a Nespresso machine. These were new at the time and were said to produce the same type of espresso that could be found on a commercial espresso machine (9-bar pressure), and it came with a frothing attachment that could be used to make ‘microfoam”.
After months of trying to perfect that flat white experience, I gave up on the Nespresso and decided to buy a nice home espresso machine. Once I made a move to a machine that had a temperature stable saturated group head and dual boiler, I was in business! I could reproduce these shots as I had seen in Australia. It was terrific, except for the fact that it still did not taste like the flat whites that I remembered. I wondered if I was once again chasing a high?
I started talking with a local Australian, who informed me that the beans were what made the difference. So I bought a few bags and waited patiently (as they took what seemed like forever) to arrive. First shot pulled, and I realized that these beans were the missing ingredient. I pulled probably 5-shots dialing in the grind dose to the water ratio to the yield amount, and I finally found the sweet spot.
After some practice, I was able to reproduce the microfoam as well. I was again riding high.
After spending a small fortune on shipping beans from around the world, I decided that this was getting a bit ridiculous. I decided I needed to explore my local San Diego coffee scene a bit more and talk with some roasters on if I could reproduce the same type of beans that I have been purchasing online. After months of research, I decided to take the leap and buy a home roaster.
Buying the home roaster was the easy part. Learning about the process and becoming a roast master was a bit more challenging. Many will say to start with your five senses to guide you throughout the roasting process, and this is excellent advice that will get you to understand the machine and the process. Unfortunately, I was not a professional roaster getting paid to hone my skills. So once I felt comfortable with the roasting basics, I decided to put my skill-set to use and modify software and hack hardware to monitor the roast temperature (plus many other factors) to create a roast profile.
I was thirsting for more knowledge so I joined countless forums, roasting meetups and many Facebook groups to learn, develop, and eventually share profiles. Well soon people started asking for my profiles, and I was getting more and more confident in roasting. Friends and family were telling me that my beans tasted just as good if not better than the USD $25 beans they just bought at the specialty coffee shop down the street. I could not stop roasting. My obsession and passion allowed (caused) me to roast more coffee than even I could consume, so I started to give away bags of beans as gifts to friends and family.
What I’ll save for another section on this site is the story and process of finding the best beans from small farms that work very hard to produce the cherries that are then dried into beans. This is not an easy process. It’s very labor intensive and requires decades of farming skills (frequently passed generation to generation). For now back to the story of why this site exists and why you’re reading this right now.
With the encouragement from friends and family and my fantastic wife, I was convinced to share my passion for roasting with you all. If you were a friend or a neighbor I would simply walk you over a bag and chat for a bit about how you have been and let you know a little about the roast profile. But, since you are not, I created this site to help facilitate my e-neighbors in joining in on the fun. To do so, however, required some work. I needed to create a name, website and a way to sell these items to my new e-neighbors who care about the quality of beans and how they are sourced as much as I do.
Friends and family would say this was the best coffee that they have ever tasted. They would joke around that I was the Kaffee meister. This name stuck, so I decided to merge Kaffee and my last name Fay (my name is Ryan Fay, by the way) to create Kaf-Fay, since I owe this opportunity to friends and family for always encouraging and pushing me to do what I love. Now, Kaffay Roasters is proud to share our roast with the world.
We still like to think we are still just sharing our roast with friends and family.