Barista Magazine

DEC 2014 - JAN 2015

Barista Magazine is your home for the worldwide community of coffee and the people who make it.

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KRO: Do you remember your first experiences with coffee? How it was prepared in your house, and when you started drinking it? JCA: At home, my mother used to prepare coffee in a percolator, however, our cook used to prepare instant coffee with milk and honey. That was sooo good! (I think my mother never knew that Margarita, our cook, was feeding us coffee behind her back.) I remember my father giving me my first sip of coffee. This involved him dunking a piece of pan dulce in his morning coffee, without my mother noticing it! I guess [I started drinking it when] I was around six years old. It was always a sip from my father's cup before leaving for school. I always liked the taste, and I couldn't wait to grow older so that I could be served my own cup! Of course, at that time, I thought coffee was best when it had huge amounts of sugar and lots of boiled milk. KRO: What were you doing before you got into coffee? What did you go to school for, and what sort of profession did you think you would pursue? JCA: My first years of schooling were done in Tijuana, and then I went off to college in Mexico City. I studied business at a private Jesuit university—Universidad Iberoamericana. Then I went to La Sorbonne in Paris to study French, and then I came back and studied for a specialized business diploma. I was an international banker working for a Mexican bank in Mexico City. I managed financing for exporting Mexican companies. I always thought that my work would imply traveling extensively, and that I would meet many interesting people. Other than that, I had no clue of what I wanted. KRO: Before we get to your specialty-coffee story, you're also involved in a lot of noncoffee community and nonprofit work. Can you tell us about what you've done in the past and what you've been doing lately? JCA: I have been involved in fund-raising for as long as I can remem - ber. I started at 15 with a group of friends that were helping fund a hospital in Tijuana. Later on, I became a board member of different organizations, such as the Centro Cultural Tijuana, our first museum; El Trompo, a children's interactive museum; Esperanza Foundation (we help fund house-building); and Promotora de las Bellas Artes, a foundation that sponsors free presentations in Tijuana of "The Mainly Mozart" orchestra, which is formed by the best musicians of U.S. classical orchestras during three weeks every year. What Promotora does is raise funds to pay for their expenses and present the orchestra for free at the Centro Cultural Tijuana. For the last eight or so years, I have also been a board member of Fundación Castro Limon, a group that helps children with cancer. As such, we have built a hospital and are working with different orga - nizations on both sides of the border to help children from both our countries [Mexico and the United States] that have economic difficul - ties paying for their needed treatments. I am also part of the CDT Comite de Desarrollo Economico de Tijuana (Tijuana's Economic Development Committee) that has developed projects to benefit our community. I am currently on the advisory board of the Universidad Iberoamericana in Tijuana. KRO: So with all of that going on, how did you get involved in spe - cialty coffee? Clockwise from top: José Cleofas Arreola is a longtime fixture in the specialty-coffee community around the world. When he's not traveling to barista competitions across Central and South America, Austral-Asia, North America, and Europe, he is in Tijuana, Mexico, where he owns and operates the roastery Tropical Moka. In 2009, José went horseback riding through the Icelandic countryside with friends, including his dear friend Sonja Grant. José has boundless energy: He's always one of the first people to arrive at coffee events and competitions in the morning, and he stays up late to aend social events, like this one at the World Barista Championship in Rimini, Italy (pictured at right.) 84 barista magazine

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