Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/609699
though, as he taught English and became fl uent in Spanish. That well- worn copy of Coffee Basics was the impetus for Joseph to found Novo Coffee in 2000 with his dad and younger brother, Jake, out of Denver, where his dad, Herb, lived. Novo Coffee was—and still is—going strong, and for the fi rst fi ve years, Joseph delighted in work as the roaster and green buyer. He was still thinking about Kevin Knox and those Ethiopians though, fi ve years into Novo. He was still baffl ed by the complexity of those coffees descended from the fi rst of their kind. So what did he do? "I called Kevin on a number I found online and asked him the se- cret behind coffees of this caliber from Ethiopia, to which he replied, 'No secret. Sample from importers until you fi nd one. If none are available with those qualities, I just don't have Harar or Yirgacheffe coffee [on my offerings] that year.'" This was at the beginning of 2005, and after that conversation with Kevin, Joseph put himself on an education expressway. "I decided I needed to go there [Ethiopia] myself, and I accepted a tasting-judge invitation to the Ethiopian Cooperative Coffees Competition in Febru- ary of 2005. I planned the visit for two weeks, but I extended for two additional months." When he wasn't cupping during those eight weeks, Joseph was hiking deep into coffee-producing regions to the south and west of Ethiopia. What he found, however, was far from ideal: "I returned with more questions than answers, having seen the often abysmal and inconsistent practices in Ethiopia commodity coffee," he recalls. "Buying direct from Ethiopia for Novo in 2005 and 2006 only showed me more problems in supply chain and sampling procedures." Remember, Joseph doesn't do things halfway. At the close of those two months in Ethiopia, Joseph says, "I decided I wanted to become a coffee producer in Ethiopia, left Novo, and moved to Addis Ababa in 2006 to start Ninety Plus." What Joseph has done with Ninety Plus—which is far more than a coffee producer or importer these days—is nothing short of phenom- enal. It encompasses a coffee farm in Panama, where baristas from Ninety Plus does something that's never before been done in specialty coffee, and it exists still as the only one of its kind. PHOTO BY TRAVIS HORN, THORN IMAGES 84 barista magazine