Posted on 6th Mar 2008 @ 3:26 AM
All's well with Wells' roasts
By SAM NISSEN
Coffee expert makes it all a family affair
Coffee roaster “Island” Joe Wells doesn't sleep very much - and not because he downs too much of his own gourmet coffee.
The Island Joe's Coffee owner creates and sells high-quality coffees and is always improving his product, doing so late into the night. Every day but Sunday - a day reserved for his family, Wells says - he's awake until the small hours of the morning, rising again early to see his children off to school.
Family might be the only thing more important to Wells than roasting coffee. And his three children have all learned some of life's important skills through coffee roasting, he says.
Trey, now a college sophomore, roasts coffee in Tampa, where Island Joe's Coffee fills its large orders. Trey invented one of the company's signature blends, Smuggler's Brew.
Brandon, whose initials spell out BMW, also created one of Island Joe's signature roasts called Beemer's (slang for BMW cars) Breakfast Blend. Brandon is also a sophomore, but in high school. He often roasts coffee and cleans equipment for extra money. His dad says Brandon is “his right arm.”
A.J., Wells' 12-year-old daughter, has yet to dive into the business quite like her brothers; her dad says soccer is more important right now. Indeed, he has blown up a photo of her mid-game to hang near his small office.
“This is a family business, as we are partners,” he said. “Roasting coffee is fun and educational ... [and] has helped keep our family tight, since losing my wife and the kids' mother Elizabeth to cancer almost three years ago.”
When Wells is not tending to his family, life is all coffee. He talks about blending beans from different regions, how soil composition, harvesting methods, storage facilities and shipping time affect coffee bean quality. He's fanatical about maintaining his brand, testing his coffee and espresso roasts endlessly - a practice called cupping.
Walking around the Southard Street store in Key West, he'll chew on roast beans or bend down to bury his face in the bags of unroasted beans to inhale their unique smell.
In his world, Sumatra, Colombia, India and Papua New Guinea aren't so much geographic highlights or cultural hotspots. Instead, each destination provides a specific taste - less acidic, more astringent, chocolate tones or hints of banana, ginger or cedar. The complex business has given his kids a concept of hard work, as well as adding worldly education to their lives, he says.
The store looks to be nothing more than a small house from the outside, or a large shed from the inside.
The store's contents provide a dramatic juxtaposition: green (unroasted) coffee beans in rugged and comically large burlap bags sit on one side. Whirring expensive metal machinery for roasting, bagging and grinding sits on the other. And in between sit tightly sealed metallic valve-topped bags full of different blends.
Chickens chase each other down the street (and sometimes across the roof or into the store, Wells says).
The gregarious owner asks customers what coffee they like. “Regular,” they always say. “There's no such thing as regular coffee,” he loudly retorts with a laugh.
But for all his specialty knowledge, the connoisseur stereotypes do not fit. He's neither a bookish, tweedy professorial type with a nose for wine, nor is he a dinner-jacket and leather-chair cigar aficionado. Wells speaks about his “island” mantra with a Memphis drawl, donning a sweat-through hat covering long hair atop his tall frame.
He does, though, betray his passion talking about roasting temperatures and new clients, pacing in a circular motion. When he says he's checking his e-mail, he really means he will be distracted by nearly everything on the short walk from the store's single counter to his cramped back office.
He will talk first about how different beans smell and why, then detail the company's newest product (espresso pods for at-home cappuccino machines), mail 10 pounds of one blend or another, demand tastings of straight espresso and parlay the company's most recent high review.
Reviews seem particularly important in the roasting world, not unlike the wine industry.
The Island Joe's Web site proudly features the ratings of the company's signature blends, which typically range in the low 80s and high 90s from Coffee Review magazine. The review numbers - out of 100 - constitute a “very good” or “outstanding” review, depending on which side of 90 the review comes in.
Wells loves roasting coffee - he calls it his “Zen thing.” And where passion flows, so too does good business. Key West's high overhead isn't a problem for those who roast coffee well, he says.
Wells, once owner and manager of a gas station in Marathon, decided to roast coffee full time. Why? “Because I couldn't find a decent cup of coffee,” he said. From there he captured the business of restaurants like Cafe Marquesa, Hot Tin Roof, Martin's Cafe and Nine One Five, local grocery stores Albertsons, Waterfront Market and the Navy exchange. He recently snagged another high-profile contract: Keys Publix stores sell Island Joe's Coffee blends, and the company may add his product to more Florida stores, he says.
And another business model is brewing for Island Joe's. Recently Wells trained employees of a Miami business, The Bookstore in the Grove. Wells is smitten with the new venture, and the bookstore's owner fawns similarly over Island Joe's coffee.
Felice Dubin owns the independent bookstore. She says she was sold on Wells' coffee for the young business after tasting every brand under the hot Florida sun. Now her store uses most of his signature blends.
“People love it - I mean really love it,” Dubin said. “All his coffees have a great taste ... and it's something new.”
For more about coffee blends and ordering information, check out www.islandjoescoffee.com. Island Joe's Coffee is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Customers desperate for a taste after hours can walk down to Walgreens on Duval for a fresh cup of Joe.
