BY JOHN NEATE, JR
I left Nestlé in 1996 after buying a business called The Coffee Roaster from Pat and Linda Graf. The Coffee Roaster (which consisted of a roastery at Powell and Victoria in East Vancouver and a retail location in the Granville Island Public Market) officially became JJ Bean in December of 1996.
In 1998, JJ Bean joined forces with a local roaster called Torrefazione Coloiera (owned by Glen Gratton and David Mindell), adding several Italian-style blends and a retail location on Commercial Drive.
Forming a Coffee Culture
Over the next 10 years, JJ Bean went through a period of determining who we were and what we would stand for. This took time, because our original focus was all about surviving (and being better than Starbucks). The one thing we knew was that we wanted to be “the best,” whatever that meant.
Aaron DeLazzer was our first Coffee Quality Leader and he was instrumental in establishing us as a quality-focused roaster and espresso bar. He consolidated our blends and moved away from flavoured coffee in retail. Aaron’s passion and education resulted in JJ Bean becoming an early leader in quality espresso, micro-foam, and latte art in Vancouver. Aaron and I developed our first training system and our first set of definitive quality standards. On the roasting side, our goal was to roast each coffee daily.
Passion for Quality
Around 2000, we became very involved in barista competitions. Angie Lof, Niki Schulz (née Neate), and Tina Albrecht all finished in the top five. In 2003, Jon Lewis finished second in the first Northwest Barista Jam and second in the US competition. The culture of a passion for quality had become well ingrained.
Grady Buhler joined JJ Bean in 2003. After working as a barista at Commercial Drive, he became the manager at Granville Island, opened Main Street in 2006, and then opened Park & Tilford in 2007. While learning to roast and cup, Grady’s efforts sparked into a zeal for quality coffee. Grady was the first to move our focus away from flavoured lattes toward traditional espresso drinks and single origin coffees. In 2008, after a pivotal staff retreat and much discussion, we launched what we called our New Direction. Prior to this point, we had one foot in the emerging specialty coffee scene and one foot in the old-school world of secret proprietary blends. The New Direction was all about planting both feet in specialty coffee, on both the retail and the wholesale sides of the business. Our coffee offerings were refined to four transparent blends with specific flavour profiles, as well as a rotating selection of seasonal, terroir-driven single origins that were, simply, the best coffees we could find. In addition, we made the decision to share the offerings and stories of top-quality producers, rather than reflexively purchasing lower quality, albeit certified coffees. Finally, we discontinued supplying wholesale customers who were not in agreement with our passion for quality.
John Neate & Grady Buhler at Finca El Injerto in Guatemala.
These were high-risk, bold decisions that we all committed to, with the understanding that if the New Direction failed, people may be laid off at JJ Bean for the first time. Fortunately, our customers trusted us to lead them to higher quality, and the New Direction changed who we were from that point forward.
Honouring People
It was around 2008 that our fixation on quality and our endeavour towards the best espresso and traditional drinks developed into a somewhat elitist view of coffee. For example, someone ordering a 16oz Mocha may have gotten a disdainful look from our baristas. We were wrong to have allowed this sentiment and apologize to any of you that may have encountered this.
Our big change at this time was that we no longer aimed to honour coffee through people, but to honour people through coffee. It may seem subtle, but for us, this change was fundamental to creating who we are today. We are so thankful for every single one of our customers, and believe they should order whatever drink they deem to be the best for them. And we will endeavour to make the best version of whatever drink they want!
JJ would like to honour and thank past & present Coffee Quality Leaders Aaron DeLazzer and Grady Buhler.