Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/804825
Matt's prowess as a local business leader is so pronounced. While he wouldn't cut short a conversation with a long-distance café owner who wanted to carry Water Avenue Coffee, Matt has dug his heels in deep in his own community. The past eight years in specialty-coffee retailing have been punctuated with broad access to microroasters like Water Ave.—you can often fi nd Oslo, Nor- way's Tim Wendelboe Coffee in Seattle, and Michigan's Madcap Coffee in Los Angeles. Always a cheerleader for his friends in the industry, Matt applauds those trailblazing efforts. It's just not where his own priorities lie. It's mid-November in 2016, and Matt has gathered his wholesale and marketing teams at Water Avenue's fl agship café in southeast Portland to discuss the company's most recent collaborative roll out, a cascara project with local tea merchant Steven Smith Tea- maker. It's a typical weekday afternoon at the café, which means it's teeming with people: Water Avenue sits at the base of a multi- use building in the city's newly revitalized Industrial District, and with its extensive seating, a recently launched Melbourne, Austra- lia–inspired food menu, and a coffee menu peppered with unique signature drinks, the café draws students and business people alike throughout the work week. Matt grabs a seat at a big table behind the bar where all of Water Avenue's roasting used to take place. To keep up with demand, Matt and Bruce—who in this day and age of investors, still own Water Avenue Coffee 100 percent—opened a full-scale roastery about one-half mile away in late 2015. Today, Matt's a little out of breath—he just dashed over from Water Avenue's brand-new café in the heart of Portland's dynamic downtown. No matter, he's got a lot of boxes on his to-do list still to check off, and it's already 2:30 p.m. Time to get down to business. Matt pulls open one of the Smith Teamakers–embossed boxes of oversize teabags to show the team. He runs through one of his proudest partnership stories, that which he shares with brothers Miguel and Guillermo Menendez of Finca Las Delicias in El Sal- vador. Not only does Water Avenue buy coffee from the Menendez brothers each year, but in 2016, Matt contracted to buy their entire cascara output—2,500 pounds. "See, it's processed really well, with so much attention to detail," he says, showing staff members whole dried fruit, and then ripping open a teabag to show them the milled version. "Coffee people have loved cascara for a long time now, but no one's really known what to do with it. So we're playing with it." Again, he's being humble. Water Avenue has a house-made cascara syrup that can be used in everything from sodas to hot espresso drinks, and they brew the tea in large batches for café service. That was barely scratching the surface of what Matt want- ed to do with this beloved ingredient, though. Water Ave. worked with local brewery Base Camp to produce a Cascara Wit beer that was instantly popular. Right now, Matt is working with his friends at Portland's New Deal Distillery to create a cascara liqueur that he hopes will hit shelves in a few months. "Collaborations like this are no-brainers," he says. Water Ave. and At age 38, Ma has worked in the coff ee industry for more than half of his life. Today, he splits his time between Water Ave.'s two Portland cafés, the roaster and administrative offi ces, and the American Barista & Coff ee School, where he is the director of education. 82 barista magazine