Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/609699
spent a summer with a third-division club. I loved to read. I loved languages. I loved to do anything in the outdoors. I had a passion for nature and protecting the environment. I wasn't fond of class. I graduated with a 1.6 grade-point-average, failing in Spanish, in which now I'm ironically fl uent. At Madison East High School, I did well on math, language, and sci- ence exams, but my grades were poor due to a 60-percent truancy rate in my last two years. Everyone who would skip class once in a while would do so with me because they knew I would say yes to join them every time. I have such incredible memories from those high-school years and experiences with friends and with football. They were really some of the most inspiring and preparatory years of my life. My par- ents didn't ask too many questions, although their concern was there. They always told me I would be successful at anything I did. Most of the time, I believed them. At the Evergreen State College [in Olympia, Wash.], I studied wild- life biology and ecology with a period of intensive focus in physics and biochemistry. I traveled to several southern African countries in 1995 as part of an independent wildlife study students are allowed to design with professors at Evergreen. I continued to play football and was named All-Conference selection in 1998 as the captain of Evergreen's team. SA: Then you did some traveling for football, and broke into coffee through your brother's company and that inspirational cupping of Ethiopian coffees via Kevin Knox's Coffee Basics. Can you jump forward and give us some insight about your experience specifi cally in Ethiopian coffees? JB: The estimated 10,000 genetically distinct varieties left in Ethiopia (down from approx. 100,000 when the forests were intact) represents the vast majority of the world's best coffee-fl avor assets. Ethiopian varieties like Gesha are unmatched in quality and diversity. Ethiopian people and food have been part of my life since childhood in Madison. Ethiopia was also producing the only great natural-process coffees at the time I started. Natural-process coffees were what Ninety Plus started perfecting at the outset. It all starts and ends in Ethiopia. It's always been our focus. Clockwise from top le : Joseph poses with Balekara Coop managers while in Yirgacheff e, Ethiopia for Novo Coff ee in 2005. Photo by Ato Tilahun, Oromia Union; Joseph meets with managers from the Kampi Cooperative while in Illubabor, Ethiopia on a buying trip for Novo Coff ee in 2005. Photo by Ato Tilahun, Oromia Union; Young Joseph celebrates with brother Jake and another player being selected to travel to Europe with a regional select club soccer team. Photo by Glenn Trudell, The Capital Times; Joseph preps Yoshikazu Iwase Maker Series coff ees with Superpicker Benjamin Tugri; and two-time and current Japan Barista Champion, Yoshikazu Iwase. Photo by Travis Horn, Thorn Images. 86 barista magazine