Old Bisbee Roasters

7 Naco Rd., Bisbee, AZ - (866) 432-5063

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Posted By Michael Stern on May 14, 2007 8:58 AM

Seth Appell is a red-dreadlocked muscleman whose enthusiasm for coffee is like that of a miner who's found gold. He invites us to dig our hands into warm, just-roasted beans of Red Sea Blend – one-third Ethiopian Harar, one-third Yemen Mocha Sanani, one-third Ethiopian Yergacheffe. He chews a few beans straight: "Oh, yeah! I've got to try this." Standing in one place in the shop, surrounded by all he needs, he burr-grinds beans, swivels 90 degrees as he tamps the grind into the filter cup and ratchets it into place, then reaches down for two small paper cups to put under the spouts. The coffee comes out dark and syrupy. He hands us one cup and sniffs deep into the other himself. "I hope you like your shots really thick. This should be sharp." Its impact is as smooth as a prizefighter's glove.

"It can take me two days to figure out what I have bought," Seth says, drawing sips of the coffee over his tongue as he shoots hot water through the espresso machine and says, "Let's try this Mexican coffee from Chiapas. I have no idea what to expect, but it comes in a beautiful bag." The Chiapas coffee is shockingly different from the powerful, pungent Red Sea Blend – ethereal and impossible to pin down. "Wow, that is so light!" Seth exclaims. "It's almost like tea but not flowery. It's nutty, isn't it? What is it that I taste?" He is not asking us these questions. He is asking himself. Unable to resolve the issue, he tries again. "I'm going to make stronger shots. I need to know what this one is all about." He grinds the beans finer and packs them more densely. It brews thicker, but the flavor is still elusive. "Oh, my God, this is electric! I can't begin to describe it. It's not like coffee at all. It has no dirt, no earthiness. I am going to have a real problem here."

It is the kind of problem he loves. "You know, we may never be able to get this exact coffee ever again. I live for the excitement of new coffee coming in." Tabling the quest to describe the Mexican coffee, he suggests going back to Africa with another brand-new Kenyan bean. "It's light, it's all spice and no heaviness," he declares. "It is like I am tasting the color brown." Then, maestro announces, "I need El Salvador. "I've got to have it. My taste buds are getting perverted. El Salvador will fix that. It is like crushed black pepper, very dirty, heavy. You can taste the earth of Central America."

Cups of the burly El Salvador coffee may cleanse his palate, but by this point we are buzzing beyond redemption. "Do you know what you need?" he asks. "Chocolate!" Seth tells us about his "factory within the factory," where he makes truffles, chocolate-covered cinnamon sticks, chocolate nut clusters, Michigan pie cherry chocolate bark, and chopped candied gingered orange in Triple Sec chocolate bark. "It's good for you!" he assures us, handing over tastes of everything, along with more different coffees to wash it down.

At high noon we plunge out into the Sonora Desert sun with Seth. He sprints ahead of us to Peddlar's Alley in the heart of old Bisbee, a cluster of Victorian building on streets as inclined as those of San Francisco. Here, each weekend, he sets up a roaster and an espresso machine and serves free shots to passers-by. Seth assures us that time spent at the espresso booth on the street and his work as a chocolatier don't really cut into the coffee roasting-tasting-packaging-marketing operation because he starts at nine in the morning and can make chocolate until three or four in the morning. He gets along fine on four hours' sleep, seven days a week.

Note: Old Bisbee Roasters is not a retail store. It does business primarily by mail-order via internet or phone sales.

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Coffee

Chocolate-Covered Cinnamon Sticks

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