Mark Orintas (pictured with his coffee roaster) is ready to fulfill his life’s dream by the Q River and to change the world, one cup of coffee at a time.
He knows that the change will be small but hopes it will be significant in its way. He will use only “fair-trade” coffee so that the farmers who grow the coffee will be fairly compensated for their work. He also will sell only organic coffee, so the beans he sells won’t be treated with gas or pesticides.
Orintas, a slim, young looking man of 42, sat Wednesday in his new shop, Bare Bones Coffee Roasters, just east of the Quinnipiac River bridge on East Grand Avenue, hours before his first public event. That would be a “cupping,” similar to a wine-tasting, but with coffee.
Part of his self-directed mission is to teach about coffee, the many varieties from nations in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
He is on his own with Bare Beans, which is rising from the grounds of a previous attempt to run a coffee business by the river. (See Orintas’ website here.) His core business will be roasting coffees for sale to other shops, stores and the public. He also plans to open his shop weekday mornings to sell by the cup to commuters and others. He is looking for a source of organic muffins and other pastries to sell with the coffee.
He has long dreamed of working with his beloved coffee, but that dream had to be postponed for decades.
The Waterbury native spent the first 20 years of his working life in management and buying for the former G. Fox & Co. and successor owner, Filene’s. After Macy’s took over the chain, he saw the downsizing handwriting on the wall two years ago. He decided it was time for his dream to come true.
To finance his start-up, Orintas, who lives in Westville with his life partner, Jordan Nodelman. works part-time selling upscale fragrances at malls in tony parts of Fairfield County. That job that is less removed from the coffee business as one might think, he said, because coffee depends on the sense of smell for much of its impact to the drinker.
Orintas is a graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York, a school he attended with coffee in mind. His dream had always been to open a coffee shop and sell food as an alternative to the national chains.
“We don’t use refined sugar, but instead use agave, the plant from which tequila is made. The liquid has the thickness of honey and no bitter aftertaste.” All his coffees, save one, are both organic and free trade.
He said he also hopes to make a difference by pursuing relationships with coffee growers. He has one already, with the Selva Negra farm in Nicaragua, owned by the Kuhl family. The 300 workers there are provided housing and elementary school for their children, Orintas said. He said he hopes one day to be able to sponsor higher education for the child of one of the workers at the farm.
Orintas said his expertise comes from five years of coffee roasting at home, plus taking classes at the Specialty Coffee Association of America and courses offered by roaster manufacturers.
Orintas uses an electric-powered Fresh Roast Systems roaster, a round machine four feet high and about two feet in diameter. He said his is the first installation on the East Coast. He prefers it to others because it has a lower carbon footprint and does not need to be vented to the atmosphere. A laser reads the color of the coffee and assures proper roasting. The device is connected to the Internet, so the company can automatically adjust the device when necessary.
He said he hopes to roast 1,000 pounds a month. The coffee will be available in one-pound or five-pound bags.
“Five pound bags are not really a good idea” for retail customers, he said. An avid coffee drinker goes through about a pound a week, he said. He said he thinks he can succeed with his niche of organic and fair-trade coffees.
Anyone starting a coffee-roasting business in this area now is entering “a pretty mature industry,” said Bob Williams, co-owner of Willoughby’s Coffee and Tea, headquartered in Branford.
“I don’t know if a start-up can survive in this economy,” he said. Willoughby’s has been roasting coffee since 1985, he said. “Developing a palate for coffee and sourcing coffee takes a lot of experience,” he said. Williams said he had not heard about Bare Beans opening, but “we wish all entrepreneurs well. I hope he’s successful.”
Orintas leases the 1,100 square foot space in an older building at 14 East Grand St. hfrom developer Joel Schiavone for $600 a month. It is divided into a roasting room and a coffee bar with three tables and a sitting area with an eclectic collection of easy chairs. The central feature is the two-sided bar with a large coffee grinder.
Comes The “Cupping”
It was to this space that more than a dozen friends and invitees gathered Wednesday night for a cupping, which Orintas called a wine-tasting with coffee.
The evening started with a short course on coffee, its various colors and flavors. Among those featured was a variety from Ethiopia, which Orintas said was the birthplace of coffee centuries ago. It happened, he said, when a farmer noticed his formerly lethargic goats were full of energy after eating a certain plant. The farmer used the plant to make a drink and enjoyed the rush it gave him and coffee was discovered.
A dozen or so people, including Tony Szpara and Diane Robertson, both of New Haven, sampled the fragrance (smelled while dry) aand aroma (smelled when wet) of the coffee. They slurped the liquid, expressing a preference of lighter roasted Ethiopian coffee over darker. Orintas explained that it was important to know how much roasting will bring out the best in a bean. One sample had a fine aroma and a slight taste of blueberries when roasted lightly, but a heavier, less pleasing aroma and flavor with a darker roast.
A Mexican decaf was pronounced quite drinkable.
Bare Beans Coffee will be serve coffee some food weekdays from 6:30 until 9 a.m. weekdays. It also will be available at the various farmers’ markets around the city.
Finally, a walkable coffee place in our area - well at least until the Grand Ave Bridge closes for repairs. I hope they do well enough to hire someone to serve coffee and beans on weekend mornings. Our weekend coffee ritual now is to drive miles to one of a few places, grab a couple cups and our week's supply. We'd be good for $15-20 a week if open Saturday morning. Undoubtedly, that's not much of an incentive with us alone, but I'm sure many others in the area would patronize enough to support Saturday openings. Hopefully there are enough people that would be great.