Photograph by Katherine Bish
When he was growing up, “making coffee” involved two scoops of Sanka and a hot-water dispenser. Today Howard Lerner, founder of Kaldi’s Coffee, remains St. Louis’ most eloquent and passionate spokesman on espresso and coffee culture. For the last several years, he has been researching and developing InBru, a process that—to my taste buds, at least—has revolutionized how coffee is flavored. An overstatement, perhaps? Your proof is in that first cup of Nutcracker Sweet at your local Kaldi’s, the perfect pairing for which is the following Q&A.
Were you a barista, or did you work for another roaster before Kaldi’s? Before we started Kaldi’s in 1994, I was a writer for the St. Louis Business Journal.
There were no baristas here; Starbucks was not here. Coffee had not yet hit third wave.
One minute into this and you just lost me.
Third wave is when the barista came about and also the time they were considered culinary professionals. First wave was when coffee was a pure commodity, when we bought it in cans. Second wave was when the first coffee shops sprang up, like A&M Tea & Coffee and Shenandoah Coffee. They were really more like gift shop. They did have whole bean coffee, but generally no espresso machine, so no need for a barista.
Is there a fourth wave?
It hasn’t happened yet, but I predict it will be the first coffee movement that is completely customer-driven, where the customer understands what a cappuccino is: a 6-ounce expression of a barista’s skill. Barista competitions and elevated skills are now creating a customer that is demanding something better, not just a timed shot from a machine.
Similar to what’s happening in the food and dining industry?
Those industries have been driven by what chefs and food professionals want to give people, but it is changing. Maybe it started with “special orders don’t upset us.” Gone are the days when a chef is going to roll his eyes when he gets a special request.
Old-school chefs would never make it as baristas…
Never. Quality, customer service, and atmosphere…that’s what makes a retail experience. If you have all three, you’ll be successful; if you’re lacking in one, you better be compensating with the other two. It’s like a three-legged stool. Once people know what is available, they will demand it; woe be the retailers who can’t give us what we want.
What if customers want their cappuccino to be 187 degrees? I heard it the other day.
We can’t control that. All we can do is respond to it and figure out how to accommodate. Thermometers fall out of calibration too easily so it may be the barista’s hand that may solve that problem. We all have sensory powers that we only need to tap and summon. A good barista today can tell the difference between 20 grams and 21 grams of coffee…and get it right every time. It’s muscle memory—you can teach yourself to feel the difference between one paper clip and two.
Can one be taught to properly roast, taste, and “cup” coffee, or is that a gift from above?
It’s not so much a teaching process as a discovery of what you have. You can train your senses. You can slow your mind down enough to realize the flavors that are present, just like wine tasters do. There’s no magic to it.
What happens at “cupping” school?
You learn the characteristics of espresso. It’s all about the espresso and how to identify the harmonious balance between bitter and sweet. That’s really it. If the espresso is wrong, the latte or cappuccino will be wrong as well.
You took Kaldi’s from a one-unit coffeehouse to a successful multi-unit operation and wholesale roastery, then sold a some of it and eventually all of it. Why?
My partner Suzanne and I never had designs to open multiple stores; in 2005, we had one little rockin’ cafe and a roastery we wanted to build—we wanted to grow through wholesaling. It never occurred to us to do both. The Zimmer family brought money and organization to the table; their people listened well, they learned, they remembered, and they deserve the credit for taking Kaldi’s to where it is. And I thank God every day that it turned out the way it did.
How many Zimmers are involved?
Don and John own the company, and their son Tyler runs the roastery. This is a guy who learned the business and has become one of the more respected roasters in the country. He’s far exceeded my coffee skill and is a brilliant coffee person. Trisha, Tyler’s sister, runs the retail and is an amazing and very effective manager.
So what is your title?
I am Kaldi’s biggest booster. If you want somebody with a long, institutional memory, I’m your guy. If you want someone who understands the direction of the company, that’s the Zimmer’s. We all can talk about the company, but we all have our places.
Kaldi’s invested $11,000 in a Clover machine at its Crescent location. What makes it so special?
It’s like a combination of a French press and a vacuum brewer, but the barista has full control of all the variables. The Clover expresses the truest potential of what coffee can be.
It’s the only one in town. Has it been a success?
Absolutely. It’s part of the experience of enjoying a really fine coffee, and customers at the Crescent location are willing to pay what the coffee’s worth. I think paying $2 to $3 for a 12-ounce cup brewed just for you is actually a pretty good deal.
Why did Starbuck’s buy the Clover company?
They had a bit of a confused moment. Their research had shown that their most important component was speed but the Clover takes 2 to 4 minutes to brew a single cup. It wasn’t a good fit.
What's the main difference between Kaldi’s and Starbucks?
Our machines are all manual pull; theirs are automatic. To grind, dose, tamp, and properly extract an espresso takes at least a minute and a half. Those drawn to quality and a sensory experience, as we are, come to us. Those who prefer speed go elsewhere. For them, fast trumps quality. Fast has been done. We wanted to be really good…and reasonably fast.
I’m sure training helps with speed.
We train extensively, down to the baristas in the Schnucks cafes. Different colored aprons signify different levels of proficiency: Apprentice baristas wear black, certifieds wear brown, and master baristas wear orange. But you can get a great espresso from an apprentice barista—it’s just that the others have been trained to speak on any coffee topic, bean to cup.
Has the quality of coffee improved in St. Louis?
Measurably. When we started, our scores on Coffee Review were in the 80s. Now we’re getting mid-90s, among the highest scores in the country. In 2009, our East African Burundi coffee took best African coffee in the country.
How is Kaldi’s unique?
We insist on the very best tools. We will spend whatever it takes for the best equipment and the best training. I shop quality and we make it work. Just like the Clover.
And each store has its own bakery. That has to give you a leg up on the competition.
It does…but pastries are a challenge because we are coffee people and coffee’s a lot easier to scale up than pastry. Our pastry program is like a bake sale—we make some things and have other things brought in. Not finely crafted pastries, mind you, just things that are fun to munch on, that, quite frankly, might taste a little different than the last batch did….just like a bake sale.
What about WiFi…I know you don’t want people hanging around all day.
We don’t mind as long as they are respectful of the business.
The ones I see aren’t.
I don’t know about that. I think it’s more a lack of knowledge. But regardless, our policy is two free hours of WiFi and then you have to ask for more time. Then, we’re hoping you’ll buy something else, but you don’t have to. But c’mon, have a cookie.
Is the Fair Trade movement working or is it mostly hype?
Free trade is not fair trade. Fair trade levels the playing field. It provides a subsidy to the farmer when the market drops, while organic programs protect the land. So if we contract for a free trade and organic coffee together, we are ideally protecting the farmer and the land. Most all of Kaldi’s coffee is both.
Your newest project, InBru, is actually what prompted this interview.
Although flavored coffee represents 30% of the local coffee market, no one in the business likes doing it. It stinks—literally—so my interest partially arose from my distaste for the existing process. Plus, the flavor carrier [propylene glycol] has a distinctive bittersweet taste that cannot be filtered or removed.
Describe the InBru process.
There are 3 layers of flavor in a flavored coffee: the foundation coffee, the esters in the nose, and a mechanical process that carries and drives the esters into the coffee bean after it’s roasted. We first infuse the flavoring esters into organic rice hulls [a natural carrier], which then get added to the brewing basket; the result is a predictable concentration of flavor in every pot. The flavor gets extracted, the coffee gets extracted…it’s two extractions going on at onc. This process allows the barista to flavor any coffee; we’re no longer restricted just to the bean the roaster chose. You can now taste the flavor on one level and the coffee on another. The personality of any coffee can now come through.
What are the next trends in coffee?
The Cup of Excellence auction lot program treats coffee not as a commodity but something based on quality, where better coffees fetch better prices. We will pay more for coffee that is better. Countries send their best coffee to Cup of Excellence, the ones chosen are then taken off the commodities market and sold at auction. A few years ago, Brazilian coffees that would have sold for $2 fetched over $40 a pound. When word of this spreads, others get tempted to become coffee farmers…and good coffee farmers.
Do you prefer the wholesale end to the retail cafe end?
To me, wholesale’s the same as retail: a customer’s a customer. You’re just selling them….more. It’s retail with delivery. I gravitate toward that because I really like machines. I was Kaldi’s first technician, and now the service staff is huge, one of the largest and most respected in the country for the LaMarzocco machine.
What’s the biggest myth in your business?
That we all make a killing. Lattes are $4, but it’s not all profit. If your rent is $3,000, that’s a lot of lattes. And yes, profit per latte is good…but you need to sell them. And don’t forget once that 5-pound bag of coffee is open, the clock is ticking. At Kaldi’s, we use roast dates and don’t use coffee if it’s over three weeks old. Margins can be are deceptively low if a shop’s not busy.
What else is in the hopper for Kaldi’s?
You’d really have to ask the Zimmer’s, but I know 2009 was Kaldi’s best year. The retail model is solid; it’s something that Starbuck’s calls “the third place.” It’s not home or work, yet it’s a place where you can be productive. It’s relaxed, but not a party, so you have a clear mind when you leave.
You are so passionate about coffee. I bet you have a pet peeve ot two.
One thing that bothers me is that no one knows what a real macchiato is, only Starbucks’ interpretation of it. A macchiato is espresso that’s simply been marked with milk, not some sweet, caramelly latte with syrup and whipped cream on top. Starbuck’s usurped the word…they should have called that drink something else.
Locally, is there still room for new shops, or has that tipped over?
There’s still so much demand for coffee; there are coffee lovers here who don’t even know they love coffee. There’s always room at the top—and even good coffee is affordable.
As a wordsmith and coffee pro, does it drive you crazy when people call it “expresso”?
No. What drives me crazy is the lack of understanding of what espresso is and what coffee is. I just wish people knew all the coffee options available to them. Mispronouncing it is OK with me; ignoring it is not.
Other aspirations?
Personally, I love teaching my courses at Wash U, one in entrepreneurship and the other in business communication. I’m involved with the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Wash U. and I’ve been fortunate to have been asked to be a judge in the world’s largest social entrepreneurship competition there, where students compete for a $150,000 award.
You seem very grateful.
I’m the happiest guy in the world. St. Louis is a livable city with a lot of opportunities. I don’t think I could have done this in any other city.
