By Caron Golden
I’m not a coffee fanatic, but I do love the stuff and, because my rebellious body can only tolerate decaf, I’m always on the hunt to find a truly flavorful bean and roast. In San Diego, I’ve got a few favorite places, including Caffé Calabria on 30th St. in North Park. And, the lovely folks who work there, in turn, led me to their full-bodied decaf Costa Rica, a hard bean Arabica.
When I first discovered them a couple of years ago, I told the saga of my pathetic quest to one of the baristas, who called over owner Arne Holt. He stopped what he was doing and showed me around the premises, which are far more than a mere coffeehouse storefront. It’s a full-on coffee mecca with 22- and 45-kilo roasters, the latter a restored 1958 German machine with gleaming stainless steel. In a back room, he’s set up a retail space for selling tea as well as home brewing equipment and accessories. Upstairs are the business offices. In the basement, bags and burlap bags of coffee beans. All this, and I was just a person who had walked in off the street looking for a good cup of coffee.
The first thing you’ll notice when you walk in the door is the blue-and-white tiled beehive-shaped pizza oven, a formidable presence in the coffeehouse. Holt plans “to bring the culture of Italy to our front door.”
“We’ll serve coffee and panini during the day, and five nights a week we’ll shut down at 3 p.m. and re-open at 5 p.m. as an enoteca, or wine bar, and serve pizza,” he said. “And it will be verra pizza Napoletana,” he emphasizes, authentic, true Neapolitan pizza.
In fact, the oven was constructed out of materials from Naples by Neapolitan builders. Holt also brought over master pizza maker Ernesto Caciolli from Naples to train the staff.
But we’re not talking pizza, we’re talking coffee. Caffé Calabria roasts between 1,000 and 1,200 pounds a day, both for the store and customers throughout Southern California and beyond. Holt counts 15 varietals and numerous blends among the offerings. A full listing can be found on their Web site, www.caffecalabria.com.
In the coffeehouse, I noticed a stack of burlap bags below a cup with the lettering, “Get Smart,” and asked Holt what this was all about. Before I knew it, we were heavy into a discussion on Fair Trade issues. He explained that for years, they regularly piled the bags there for people to take, but that they have started a donation project, Get Smart, to raise money to help pay for children in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, to attend school. Take a bag, put a little money for it into the cup and help provide an education, with Caffé Calabria matching donations.
More than that, though, it represents a larger effort spurred by a profound skepticism Holt has with the Fair Trade certification program. “I don’t think the money’s going to the right people,” he said. Concerned about abuses in the program, he has decided to visit the farms he buys beans from to determine for himself if they meet his criteria, which includes using organic fertilizers and compost, maintaining the land and trees and treating the people who work on the farm with respect. “I want to see that they’re growing coffee with the earth, making sure everything is sustainable, whether they are ‘certified’ or not,” he said. “It’s a matter of treating the land with love and the people who work on the farm with love.
“The goal is to have all our coffee purchased under this criteria,” he noted. “The larger goal is buying consciously.” His first farm visit was to Matagalpa. Hence, the burlap bag donations.
While buying sustainably is commendable, ultimately, the coffee has to taste good or there are no customers. Monday through Friday, Caffé Calabria holds coffee cupping sessions, a technique to evaluate the flavor profile of a coffee. (Coffeegeek.com has a good step-by-step guide to this.)
“Coffee is so volatile,” said Holt. “It’s always changing. It can start out with a fruity flavor, then develop more citrus tones. We need to cup it out every day to make sure we’ve got a good product.”
Caffé Calabria has become a gathering place for more than buying the pound or two of coffee or tea. They hold tea tastings on the third Saturday of each month from 10 to 11 a.m. and the San Diego Home Roasters meet there on the first Saturday of the month at 10 a.m. I was also happy to find that Caffé Calabria is dog friendly.
Oh, and if you go in to buy coffee beans, have the barista make you a Café Viennese. This espresso concoction made with steamed milk, honey and cinnamon left me weak in the knees.
Caffé Calabria is located at 3933 30th St., just north of University Avenue in North Park. Call (619) 291-1759 or visit the Web site: www.caffecalabria.com.
Caron Golden is a freelance food writer who loves markets of all kinds. She hosts the blog San Diego Foodstuff (www.sandiegofoodstuff.com).
