David McKernan got hooked on coffee in San Francisco, worked for Bewley's for years and now imports, roasts and grinds his own 'coffee with a conscience'. Tom Doorley takes a trip to Java Republic
David McKernan is obsessed with coffee. To him, it's a great deal more than a mere commodity. When he talks about the coffee industry, and its darker side, he speaks with the passion of someone deeply concerned about human rights. And when he talks about coffee as a drink, he does it with such enthusiasm that he could be speaking of art, music, politics.
But it wasn't always so. "When I was growing up," he says, "I hated the stuff. I thought it tasted horrible. Mind you, I reckon it did. It was probably terrible stuff." The conversion came when he left school and went to work for Bewley's. Not only did he have to sell coffee, he also had to drink it. The day always started with a fresh brew and, in time, he got used to the taste. And then he came to love it.
At the age of 20, on holiday in San Francisco, he first encountered the micro-roasters and the coffee culture that these essentially artisan businesses spawned. "Back home, espresso was only just starting to happen," he says. "In San Francisco, it was amazing. The quality was fantastic because of the skill of the roasters and of the baristas. They had a kind of missionary zeal."
Back home with Bewley's, where he spent 12 years, McKernan found it easy to sell coffee, possibly because some of that zeal rubbed off on him. "Coffee, real coffee, was new," he says. "Restaurateurs were open to it . . . And I was selling good coffee for Bewley's." But eventually he decided to start his own company. Putting his house on the line and trusting in the power of real coffee to sell, he left Bewley's in 1997 and spent two years researching the business. "By the time the company started trading it just had to work. Otherwise I would have been ruined. It was as simple as that," he says.
McKernan's obsession with coffee is matched by a remarkable grasp of marketing, from copywriting to graphic design. The result of this is that his company, Java Republic, looks a lot bigger than it is. The quality of the packaging and the sophisticated use of the company's logo suggest that Java Republic is a plc. The reality is very different. Its offices and roasting, grinding and packing facilities are all crammed into a modest unit just off Kylemore Road, in industrial west Dublin. But McKernan's passion, and that of his team, is in inverse proportion to the premises. When I visited, the roasters were working almost around the clock for Superquinn, which was to get its first order. For a small operation, this is a very big deal. But it is no ordinary operation, small or otherwise. For a start, Java Republic deals direct with producers, paying 30 to 40 per cent above the so-called C-contract price set by the New York commodities exchange. Some 70 per cent of the trade in coffee (which in value is second only to the trade in oil) is controlled by a handful of companies, such as Nestlé, Kraft, Sara Lee and Folgers.
"The fact is that 95 per cent or more of commercial coffee is bought at the basic C-contract price," says McKernan. "Big Coffee is a corrupt business. The workers get only a fraction of the real value of their crop. That's why we buy only grade-one Arabica beans and refuse to deal in C-contract stuff." Most of the world's coffee is traded as an international commodity, and prices can fluctuate wildly. "When the price is low," says McKernan, "millions of farmers and pickers live in awful conditions, making barely enough to survive. But when the price rises, it's very unlikely that the extra the consumer pays will ever reach the grower. That's why we started our Coffee with a Conscience programme.
"Our coffees are typically 20 per cent dearer than the competition at retail level, but there are good reasons for that, and not just the premium we pay for green coffee. We hand-roast slowly, and that takes real skill and time."
Java Republic's master roasters put the beans through a 21-minute roasting process at a low heat to retain flavour. The beans are then cooled slowly, roasted and packed, all in a few hours. Some competitors blast-roast for just over four minutes, cool by using water (which adds weight) and then have to wait days before grinding and packing, because coffee processed in this way produces gases. The date and time of roasting and grinding are printed on every pack of Java Republic coffee.
And while many competitors blend beans before roasting, this is done afterwards by McKernan's outfit. Competing coffees tend to be ground to a universal, one-size-fits-all grade; Java Republic's are produced specifically for plunger, filter and espresso.
"You can tell a lot about coffee by looking at the beans," says McKernan. "If it's good coffee that has been slow-roasted they will have a shiny, almost oily appearance. And they'll be a beautiful dark colour. With some other coffees, the beans have been flash-roasted, and they look brown and dry. They will taste that way, too."
Coffee can be as complex as wine, but just as the bulk of the world's wine is produced as a basic commodity to meet certain price points, most of the coffee consumed each day throughout the world is, in David McKernan's phrase, "crap". Just as small, quality-conscious wine merchants champion small, quality-conscious producers, McKernan seems determined to do the same with coffee. And to deal with ethical issues far more complex than anything in the world of wine.
www. javarepublic.com
McKERNAN ON . . .
. . . MAKING PLUNGER COFFEE
Select the proper coarse grind and pre-heat the pot and the plunger. Use one tablespoon of coffee for each standard cup, then add the freshly heated (not boiled) water. Stir the grounds briefly, then let the coffee brew for between two and four minutes, depending on your strength preference. Then plunge.
. . . COFFEE AND HEALTH
There are a lot of health benefits claimed for coffee, but you have to remember that most of the research is funded by the Big Four. There is some evidence that a moderate coffee intake can have certain benefits. But caffeine in excess is bad. If you're mainlining the black stuff, you'll pay for it with a racing heartbeat, the shakes and an incessant need to pee. I limit myself to two or three cups a day.