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CAFFEINATION Directed by and starring Brandon Davenport; filmed by Jesse Meeker www.thepancakeepidemic.com/caffeination WHEN BRANDON DAVENPORT WAS HIRED as the coffee specialist at the Los Angeles hot spot Pancake Epidemic, his bosses didn't only want him working with coffee. "They wanted a creative thinker that not only had barista capabilities, but also the ability to generate relevant content that could assist in making Pancake Epidemic much more than an average café," he says. "Upon being hired I immediately began to explore all possibilities, and interviewing unique coffee roasters was among the first." Los Angeles has plenty of those roasters to choose from, of course, but Brandon's scope was a little bigger: Having worked with Espresso Vivace at a local café prior to joining the Pancake Epidemic team, Brandon knew there was a lot more of coffee out there in the United States to see. The idea of a coffee road trip started to take shape. Since Brandon is all about education and sharing coffee knowledge, it seemed natural to film the journey, so he invited videographer and buddy Jesse Meeker along for the ride. The two would visit microroasters and cafés in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. Along the way, Brandon thought it would be fun to drink 100 cups of coffee. After a lot of planning and securing creative and financial support from Pancake Epidemic owners Darren Romanelli and Nathan Hahn, Brandon's plot was in place. He and Jesse hit the road from April 24 to May 7 of this year, and Caffeination was born. The online series consists of eight episodes varying in length from five to eight minutes. As of this writing, only the first three, which explores coffee culture in San Francisco, Portland, Ore., and Seattle have aired. We caught up with Brandon to talk about the idea behind the series, what he learned, and if he really did drink all 100 cups of coffee. Sarah Allen: So how did you come up with this idea? ItÕs super creative. Brandon Davenport: The base of the idea, being to simply interview a roaster here and there, began to expand into possibly leaving the state. I particularly wanted to go to Wyoming to visit with Mystic Monk Coffee Roasters (which we unfortunately weren't able to accomplish due to their lack of communication with the outside world). Once I had realized how far that actually was from L.A., I started to look into roasters along the way that we could stop at, and it just evolved from there. A straight shot to the northeast of Wyoming and back quickly turned into a giant circle, allowing us to stop in the Northwest coffee mecca, as well as the Southwest, where roasters were more sparse, giving us a more eclectic view of the current coffee culture in the West. I began planning the trip around the beginning of March. The planning was much more work than I had anticipated, entailing budgeting, choosing, and scheduling interviews with 20-plus coffee roasters while allowing time for five- to 12-hour drives in between, finding friends, and friends of friends, to stay with along the way, and much more. After all is said and done, I feel like my most favorite footage from the trip was unplanned. A lot just kind of fell into place. A still from the Web series Caffeination: director and host Brandon Davenport introduces the episode dedicated to the coffee culture of Sea le. The eight-episode travelogue takes viewers on a journey to meet some of the best roasters in the west. SA: How did you decide where to go and what roasters to visit? BD: Well, San Francisco, Portland [Ore.], and Seattle were givens. San Francisco is packed with coffee, and we couldn't miss the Stumptown headquarters in Portland, and Seattle is the mecca. From there I knew we had to hit Boulder, Colo., so I just researched every roaster between Seattle and Boulder, and planned a route that allowed us to visit as many as possible. Of course, I had to plan around the willingness of each roaster to share with us, and try not to go too far out of the way. I managed to sort out a pretty direct route that had a significant amount of coffee and roasters near by. From Boulder we began heading back west, and chose roasters on the way. SA: Was drinking 100 cups of coffee in two weeks tough? What were some of the most memorable ones? BD: Well! One hundred cups of coffee is no good. I drink a lot of coffee in general—some days I easily have six or seven cups, which is what I had to average on the trip to hit my goal of 100. But the problem was that some days my tummy hurt, or we were driving the entire day, or something else would come up that would get in the way of me hitting my daily goal. So I would have to make up for that the next day, or the next. There was a day that I had only three cups, so the next day I ended up drinking 13 cups to make up for it, and I nearly had a full-on meltdown. As much as I love coffee and appreciate the energy it gives me, being overcaffeinated is one of my least favorite feelings. My most memorable cup of coffee on the trip was at La Marzocco's U.S. headquarters in Seattle. I was thrilled to be there, as I am such a big fan of the Linea that I use, and I felt pretty privileged to be able to make myself a cappuccino on a Marzocco, at Marzocco. The experience was great, but the espresso was even better. SA: Would you do it again? Do you have plans to? BD: I would love to do it again. There is plenty more of the United States to see, Europe, farms in South America, and coffee culture is blooming fast in my old stomping grounds of Australia and New Zealand. I would even be happy bringing coffee to places with none, so others can have the experience of tasting truly artisan-grown, roasted, and brewed coffee. Coffee is huge. Coffee is everywhere. —Sarah Allen www.baristamagazine.com 19