Madcap Coffee…In Your Pants
Neither mad nor angry nor especially prone to wearing caps, Madcap Coffee has indeed still won over our ever-lovely-beans-loving hearts here at Wormhole Coffee in Chicago.
Our guest roaster for January, 2012, their beans will be gracing our espresso and/or pourover counters on most days. Of course, that’s when the burros are able to make it through the interwoven mountain passes they must traverse to get Madcap’s mad-lovely (did we mention they’re ever-so-lovely beans?) beans to you. We’re completely making things up now, but that’s the last of that.
Now, The Notes
Founder, Visionary and Head Bean Sprayer at Madcap Coffee is Trevor Corlett, who founded the company in 2008 with help from stand-ups like Ryan Knapp, who we talked to for this installment in our so-so-lovely guest roaster series. Knapp is the head of roasting operations at at Madcap and one of the founders.
Some background on the Madcappers: “Trevor is the main founder,” says Knapp. “I came up with him and helped him launch it but it was his dream and idea, and it came together.
“He’s a super laid-back dude but is so into coffee it’s ridiculous. He’s been doing it for [a decade or so] and was determined to make it work,” continues Knapp. “Even when everyone told him it was crazy, he kept going for it. He loves coffee and really wants to break it down and get people excited about it, to enjoy it.”
As you know, we’re not afraid to range far and wide for our Wormhole Coffee guest roasters, but not always. We haven’t mentioned this yet, but Madcap’s main HQ (i.e. roasterie and coffee shop) are located a scant four hours away in Grand Rapids, Mich. Not San Francisco? The horror, etc. Seriously, though, coffee is a staple. We all get it. Humans get it. Grand Rapidians get it.
“A lot of people are surprised when we say we’re from Grand Rapids,” says Knapp. “It’s not where you’d expect something like Madcap to be, I guess, but this community was definiteliy ready for it, is into great food and beverages. We had a ton of support from the get go and keep getting more.” Go Grand Rapids; make you less reticent to bring a true coffee shop experience to your hometown? [Bad (or Good?) Angel: Are you crazed? Don’t get into the coffee shop business! You’ll never sleep…or make money…again.] We’re back. What was that? Anyway…Madcap Coffee.
The Present…And The Future (Of Course)
Per mention above, Madcap’s in their third year of roasting coffee with a sweet, totally hipster-ready shop in downtown Grand Rapids that gets all kinds of overly-effusive reviews (we’re just jealous) and seem to have a bevy of ridiculously cool people working for them. Barista exchange, guys? Not permanent but, lingering, perhaps? Let us know.
Anyway, “At this point, we’re one cafe and one roasterie,” says Knapp. “Our roaster is in the basement of our cafe and all of our coffee is done in real legit small batch roasting. Our batch size is 15 pounds, so we put a lot of emphasis on profiling and bringing out the best flavor in the coffee.”
All cool, all good. What’s that he went on to say? “We’re expanding with an upcoming cafe and roasterie in Washington, D.C., sometime this summer,” says Knapp, noting that Corlett has moved to the area to spearhead the effort. Just like in Grand Rapids, the philosophy will be to acquire, roast and brew killer coffee.
Start-to-finish isn’t just paid lip service at Madcap. “I do all the buying for the company, so I get real excited about offerings,” says Knapp. “Even as a small company, we’re very focused on relationship coffee, so everything we’ve got coming in are from farms we’ve traveled to, worked with the producer and cooked hundreds of samples of those particular coffees.
“A lot of the coffees are repreats from [previous years] and we’re cooperating with farmers to get beans from special lots and try new techniques based on our feedback. In my experience, the coffee gets better as the relationship with the farmer deepens.”
For example, Santa Lucia. “It’s a coffee we’ve bought every single harvest of since we opened,” says Knapp. “Each harvest, the producer invests more money in his farm, the quality gets better each year. It’s exciting on our end because the first year it was fantastic and each year scores higher and higher and we’re seeing that more and more with different farms we’re working with.
“I think a couple of the biggest factors in that is coffee, where it’s able to grow, ends up being in some of the most remote areas of the world and you’re trying to work with people who grow coffee as their only option, to survive,” says Knapp, settling into his subject.
“Where coffee grows and is produced, they’ve often just produced it and not taken care, so a vital part of this collaboration between roasters and farmers is that farmers are starting to realize what makes a good cup of coffee,” he says. “Farmers are getting to taste the coffee, which is really unique, and they’re able to do things differently and make more money. A lot of farmers are geeked out about growing coffee. One of the biggest things is bringing awareness to farmers through conversation: if you pick ripe, we can pay you a dollar more a pound.”
Where To Find’em
You can always order online here.
You can find their blog here, their Facebook page here, and their Twitter here.
Meet Ryan Knapp in this video and get his thoughts on the Hario V60.
They’re “not looking to be in every shop” by any stretch of the imagination, but they are open to the idea. If interested, let’em know.
