JAVA PURA News
Houston-based Texas Java Company really got percolating in 2007 after master coffee roaster Ken Palmer joined the crew. Founded in 1992 by Richard Colt, the business morphed from a coffee catering outfit to a high-qualiyy specialty coffee roasting company with a new identity: Java Pura. He gained an in-house master roaster a new partner, and placed his beans in Central Market and restaurants Indika and Pondicheri. Colt's first Java Pura store-front is next.
"I was working at a coffee roasting plant in Hawaii when I met Alfred Peet of famed Peets Coffee during a coffee cupping festival," says Palmer. Peet, who was considered the best in the business, inspired Palmer to become a master roaster.
"It took three years for Alfred to teach me roasting techniques and finessing. Soon after, I opened my own coffee shop in Oregon, which I sold, and worked in commercial fishing in Alaska for a while. Then I moved to Houston and met Richard. The rest is coffee history," says Palmer, a Portland native.
A master roaster is similar to a vintner. "It takes years to learn how to buy the best quality coffee beans. Also roasting is complex-a few seconds give or take makes a difference in the flavor. And then there's the art of cupping, conducted daily with myriad samples to determine which beans to order" says Palmer, who is training the staff at Java Purak Gulfton facility for his eventual retirement. (For rhe uninitiated, cupping is roasting and meticulously sampling the final coffee.)
"Just like fine cheese or wine, not all coffees are created equally. Our goal is to elevate the bar on quality and offer the best you can buy'," explains Palmer, who travels extensively to Panama, Costa Rica and Columbia to source top green beans directly from farmers. Purist Palmer convinced Colt to invest in a drum roaster instead of the more common air roaster. "You have more control coaxing flavor from each bean with a drum roaster," he says.
Speaking of flavor Java Pura does not sell hazelnut, vanilla or pecan. "No flavored coffee. Real coffee should not taste like Snickerdoodles," Palmer quips.
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We were in Seattle a while back doing a 'recon' of some of our favorite coffee shops when we noticed many were using a machine they felt was superior to all others. The machine as it turns out was a Synesso and to our taste made fantastic espresso. The baristas we talked to all loved the machine; its ease of use, its industrial art look, but most important to them was the perfect shots it consistently produced.