PHILADELPHIA, PA  February 2, 2009 – All of a sudden, people are talking coffee.  Superb small-batch roasters are spreading out across the country.  Coffee “cupping” is the new wine tasting.  Food and coffee pairings are the current curiosity on boutique menus.  In Philadelphia, Peregrine Coffee (http://www.peregrinecoffee.com) is adding something new to the brew with its full bespoke coffee service.

“Bespoke coffee means coffee sourced, stored, and roasted to order to suit your particular palate,” explains Peregrine Owner/Roaster Kevin Lawrence.  “If people care enough to grind and brew their own coffee at home, they should be drinking something they really love, something chosen and roasted just for them and supplied whenever they want it – that’s what we do here at Peregrine.  Just think of me as a coffee sommelier.”

Lawrence began roasting coffee six years ago when his coffee maker broke and he started to research what it would take to brew a better cup.  He soon discovered that the magic of great coffee lay in the fresh roasted beans, and began to experiment at home, moving to progressively more sophisticated roasters as his skill grew.  By June 2008, he was ready to launch Peregrine Coffee.

When Lawrence started roasting his own beans he was amazed by what really fresh coffee tastes like.  “There is no bitterness, no sourness, and the range of flavors in beans from different parts of the world is astounding – who knew coffee could taste like blueberries?  I wanted to share my discoveries with everyone who loves coffee as much as I do.”

Peregrine Coffee is the way he does that, by showcasing a carefully chosen selection of single-origin and single-estate coffees, roasted to order through the online store, and by providing his unique bespoke service.

This is how the bespoke service works: The first step is a tasting, which can be booked through the free “bespoke coffee for the curious palate” option in Peregrine online store.  In the Philadelphia area, customers can come to Lawrence’s roast shop in Northeast Philadelphia, or he will bring coffee samples to homes or workplaces.  In addition to tasting coffee, Lawrence discusses other sorts of flavor preferences with prospective clients – when ordering dessert, do you always go for chocolate or lean toward the berry option?  Do you prefer white wine or red?   Do you drink coffee first thing in the morning, with meals or only after dinner?

The client’s responses help build their personal coffee flavor profile, which Lawrence uses to source the perfect beans for that particular customer’s palate.  After the tasting, Lawrence prepares a proposal outlining several different selections he thinks the customer will enjoy.  He then purchases the green beans, stores them for the customer’s use alone, and roasts them to their specifications on demand.  Bespoke orders are priced according to the individual coffees chosen and the amount desired (once-a-week for six months, a year’s worth, etc.) with minimum purchases beginning at $45.

Customers outside of the Philly area can purchase a Peregrine Pack ($9.25), which provides whole bean samples of three distinct Peregrine coffees.  From there Lawrence follows up by phone or email to discuss the flavors sampled and hone in more precisely on the customer’s taste preferences.  Peregrine Coffee can be shipped anywhere in the U.S. and abroad.  The company also custom-roasts coffee to complement the specific flavors of a wedding cake, or to go with any specialized menu.

“People are staying home more, cooking at home more,” points out Lawrence.  “You may not be able to afford the vintage Bordeaux this year, but you can treat yourself and your guests to your own custom coffee for a fraction of that price.  It’s an affordable luxury for coffee drinkers who want to explore just how good their own coffee can be.”

# # #

CONTACT: Luise Z. Moskowitz
luise@peregrinecoffee.com
(215) 240-4474

Sometimes the first sip of a new coffee makes us giddy. The complexity in this bean is astounding. The tasting notes read like a Sauterne or a top notch Washington Riesling. Apricots and peaches abound. Smells like wild strawberries had a fling with the raspberry bush and that combo is what emerges on first sip. There is a lot of acidity but not in a sour or tart way — very crisp. The finish is extremely long and fruity. Extremely limited quantity.

In light of the articles and talk about cooking more at home in tough economic times, I wanted to let you all know about Peregrine Coffee, which focuses on bespoke coffee for people who care enough to buy beans, grind and brew at home, or want truly special coffees to complement a specific meal/dessert. My husband Kevin Lawrence is the roaster, and not only do we have single-origin coffees roasted to order in our online store, Peregrine Coffee, but we also offer a free coffee consulting service, as part of the bespoke part of the business. If you know what you like in a cup of joe, you can call or email and work directly with the roaster to source and roast beans to your specifications. If you love coffee but don’t know why, you can try a sample pack and then use the contrasting flavors you find there to start the conversation and Kevin will help guide you to your ideal cup. We basically just love really fresh roasted coffee, and want more people to experience it too. We might not to be able to afford the 6-course tasting menu anymore, but we can treat ourselves to small things, done perfectly!

Posted on Serious Eats!

Today’s coffee tasting went exceptionally well.  A special thanks to Mike and Edna for hosting; Jen and Kristen for helping; Cameron for running the show; and to Cory, Pat, Scott, Becky, May, Karen, Pat, Sue, Dan and Janet and Don for joining us this morning.  We sampled the following: Panama Robusta Rustico, Colombia Huila Piedras de San Augustin (light and dark), Brazil Cerrado and the Kenya Kiamaina Estate.

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer
Northeast Times

A busted coffeemaker probably never had ignited so much productivity as it did for Kevin Lawrence some five years ago. Yet, a setback that might have stopped most working folks in their tracks actually got the longtime financial services representative’s creative juices flowing.

Faced with the prospect of missing his beloved caffeine fix, Lawrence did not run out and buy the first new machine he could find on the shelves at his local Target. Rather, much like he does for clients at American Express’ Center City office, Lawrence took a thinking man’s approach.

He scoured consumer reviews and Internet reports describing a gamut of available commercial coffeemakers. In the process, he learned that the way to make truly spectacular coffee has surprisingly little to do with the brewing, yet everything to do with the bean.

From there, it was only a matter of time until he found a place to open his own gourmet coffee roasting company. Three months ago, he realized that ambition when his Peregrine Coffee business began production inside a modest commercial warehouse in Tacony.

The place is not to be confused with the local Dunkin’ Donuts or even a Starbucks. Firstly, there is no seating area and are no over-the-counter sales. It’s purely an Internet-based mail-order business in which Lawrence acts as consultant, sales representative and craftsman. His wife Luise Moskowitz handles publicity.

“With my business model, the difference is the custom component,” Lawrence said.

Using his own keen sense for coffees borne from his years as an infatuated consumer, Lawrence interviews new clients, develops a profile of their tastes and scours the market for raw or “green” beans to suit those client preferences. Coffee beans come from tropical regions around the globe, including South America, Africa, Asia and the Far East.

Lawrence will then complete each order by hand-roasting the beans in his custom-built commercial roaster, seal them in air-tight packaging and ship them immediately via U.S. Mail. Customers in Philadelphia will usually get their beans within a day, ready for grinding and brewing. “The basic concept of hot water and freshly ground beans is key,” Lawrence explained.

Even non-drinkers of coffee couldn’t help but taste and smell the difference between Lawrence’s products and what supermarkets and most coffee shops have to offer. Commercial coffees are generally processed as much with longevity in mind as flavor. It all starts on the farms or plantations where the beans grow as seeds inside cherry-like fruit on shrubs and small trees. Some farms are expansive and highly  commercialized, while others are small family operations. Variables from farm to farm and region to region affect the flavors in the bean. Major factors include soil composition, climate and altitude. Mass-produced coffees commonly found on grocery store shelves and in the pots at convenience stores and doughnut shops are usually blends. That is, they are made from a combination of beans from different farms or regions.

Many popular varieties like hazelnut and vanilla often are made from coffees treated with artificial flavoring in the form of sprays and syrups. By contrast, Peregrine coffees are not blended. Each selection is produced from the beans of a single farm, thereby preserving the unique and potent natural flavors present in the bean. “I’ll do an Ethiopian coffee that tastes like blueberries and peaches and people ask, ‘Is that flavoring?’” Lawrence said. “And I say, ‘No, it tastes that way out of the ground.’”

Not exactly.

Drawing the natural flavor out of coffee beans is a relatively short, but exacting process during which a slight variance in temperature or duration can completely spoil the outcome.

A coffee roaster is essentially a rotating barrel over a heat source. The roasting temperature is key, as are the level of heat used to achieve that temperature and the time it takes to do so. The operator must listen for the beans to pop or crack, then calculate carefully how long to continue the process to meet the expectations of the client. “That’s totally the art of it,” Lawrence said. Other variables include ambient temperature and humidity, the amount of beans in the roaster, the size of the beans and their moisture content.

“I love that it’s all the senses,” Lawrence said. “You’re smelling, you’re looking, you’re tasting, you’re feeling. It’s insane.”

Another unique element to the business, he explained, is hunting for the best beans. Traveling from continent to continent is not in his budget, so he relies largely on professional scouts or hunters who go from region to region and farm to farm identifying marketable beans and buying them up for redistribution in the United States.

Lawrence used their spirit, in fact, as an inspiration of sorts for the name of his company. The word peregrine is from Latin and means wanderer or traveler. “It was one of those names that when we sat down and came by it, we said, ‘Oh, that works.’ It means traveler and we’re letting coffee be the guide,” Lawrence said.

Internet orders aren’t the only way that the entrepreneur will be bringing his product to market. Though he never envisions his roasts available on store shelves — specifically because stores can’t ensure freshness — Lawrence hopes to reach the public through special tasting events at area cafés.

One such activity is scheduled for this Sunday at 8:30 a.m. at Walnut Bridge Coffee House, 24th and Walnut streets.

Peregrine is also available for special events, such as weddings and private parties.

All requests are being handled through the Web site www.peregrinecoffee.com. ••

Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com

Kevin J. Lawrence
Owner/Roaster, Peregrine Coffee
kevin@peregrinecoffee.com
http://www.peregrinecoffee.com

Northeast Times Article