FULL BLOOM COFFEE BREAK

GOOD COFFEE, GOOD PEOPLE

March 08, 2018

It was the space that grabbed me first: warm and lit up like a Christmas tree with the whole trendy illustrated black board menu in the background.

Only enough seating for two. But it was still frequented by the barefoot yoga people from next door, Instagrammers who’d fallen in love with the space online and professionals from around the neighbourhood. Full Bloom isn’t the typical coffee shop cliché filled with hipsters and freelancers on laptops and tablets, there isn’t room for them (yet). But that’s not what Kiel sells and that’s not what his clientele comes for.

We met up with Kiel at his roasting spot – an equally small and extremely hot wood and galvanized shack – where we chatted about good coffee, whether or not Trinidadians really know good coffee and the learning curve that entrepreneurship inspires.

Let’s start with Kiel… tell us a bit about yourself.

KIEL: Well, I’m a Trini and I’ve only been to two other countries in my life, Grenada and Thailand. I was always into Art but also studied Business Management and Marketing while working part time at a print and design studio.

I liked my job but I really wanted to travel. So I bought a ticket to Thailand and spent two months there. After my time in Thailand, I came back to Trinidad with a whole new perspective and decided that I wanted to do yoga and drink coffee for the rest of my life.

Why Thailand?

KIEL: It was far! Before that I had never been outside of Trinidad, except for Grenada, and I just wanted to step out of my comfort zone.

I was lucky enough to know someone who was doing a round the world trip. The last leg of her trip was in Thailand, so I met up with her for her last two months.

Is that where you found your love for coffee as well?

KIEL: I always loved coffee but, when I was in Thailand, I went to this place called Chiang Mai. It’s a sweet little tourist town and there’s this street with cafes on every single corner so, for three weeks straight, I got up and went to different cafes.

There was also a coffee roaster down the street: real old school with a pot and flame underneath and the roaster’s just turning his pot, roasting his coffee. The smell captured me so much, as well as the entire experience and the ritual and the people. It really made me think about what I wanted to bring back with me to Trinidad: good coffee and good people. So I got into coffee roasting and it just took off from there.

I started off with a really small one-pound roaster. It fit on a tabletop and plugged into the wall. I had that for months and started roasting for friends and family. As more people tried my roasts, I gradually got more requests.

So you started the business at home? The roasting?

KIEL: No. I was roasting out of my girlfriend’s mom’s garage at the start. She is so nice. She said set it up! And she also did the branding for Full Bloom.

I set up propane tanks and a bigger roaster in her garage and she was super cool about it. But now we have a small facility to do all our roasting, so I’m not in her garage anymore thankfully!

Are you the sole owner of Full Bloom?

KIEL: Full Bloom isn’t all me at all. My friend Joe saw what I was doing and approached me because he believed we could really take this somewhere. So, in September 2016, we partnered up, got a commercial roaster and began building it slowly.

Was that how you found the space with One Yoga?

KIEL: Actually, when I came back from Thailand in March 2016, One Yoga had an opening for a studio manager and I thought it was perfect! I took the job, and by April 2017, One Yoga had moved into this space at the Queen’s Park Oval.

So by January when I saw the owner of One Yoga looking for persons to sublet the other 3 spaces in here, I shot the idea of opening a cafe to Joe and he was on it.

We set up the café and it just all flowed from there.

And how did you choose the first roasts for Full Bloom?

KIEL: I can’t actually say which roast I started with first… There’s a website called the Coffee Bean Corral that carries coffees from all over the world. The best thing about them is that you can bring in small quantities. So I brought in maybe five pounds of coffee at a time from everywhere you can imagine. I think I’ve tried coffee from every growing region so far and I was just doing small batch roasting. Because I had a small batch roaster, I was able to try so many different roasts and brew methods for each to really learn the coffee beans.

And what are the types you use now? Do you still have a wide range?

KIEL: No, now we import from a few select regions.

Do you use local coffee?

KIEL: Yes, but it isn’t great coffee. We just don’t have the climate or altitude to produce great coffee, but it’s a mix of poor climate conditions and our poor farming practices. You tell a farmer you’re gonna get paid by the bag and he’s pulling the sticks off the trees, rotten berries… Sometimes I get nuts from cocoa in my bags of local coffee! It’s just really poor practice across the board, but even if we had the best farming practices, we could only grow robusta beans and the best robusta is only as good as the worst Arabica.

Robusta beans are like a commodity because they’re so easy to grow. So worldwide, they’re mainly used for instant coffee. Arabica beans are much more desired for their complex flavours, but they’re much harder to grow and they take a lot more care. We really just don’t have to climate or space to grow Arabica properly.

What is your favourite way to drink coffee and why?

KIEL: French press… depending on how you brew it! I do four minutes to sit, then stir it. Leave it for one minute, then press it. It gives it enough time and it’s not over extracted or anything.

I like an espresso, too, though I find it a bit too strong sometimes in terms of flavour. French press is much smoother and easier. It’s more approachable and highlights single origin coffees in a way other methods can’t.

Pretty much everyone who has discovered Full Bloom so far has come across it on Instagram, except for those on their way to yoga. Did you start the page at the same time that the store opened?

KIEL: Yes. As well as our Facebook page. I don’t have my own personal Facebook page so Joe handles Full Bloom’s Facebook. When it comes to digital marketing, I’m just a loser. It’s so daunting but, then again, we don’t have the space to have like 50 people in here so keeping our clientele small works for now. Keeping the quality high is my main concern.

How can you tell when you’re having a really good coffee? What does that taste like?

KIEL: It’s complex. Good coffee needs to be complex. When you taste it and you swish it around in your mouth, the flavour changes. Flavours like wood, fruits, caramel… and then you let it settle, and you get the after taste as well.

It’s the body, the mouth feel, the after taste, the acidity: all play a role in the experience.

It’s like wine?

KIEL: Yes! Sounds really snobby but…

So what has the feedback been like so far?

KIEL: Great! A lot of people are having fresh roasted coffee for the first time. So this is just something new and exciting for most customers. I look forward to improving my roasts and keeping customers coming back.

And who are the customers?

KIEL: We have a lot of One Yoga clientele, which is great, but there are also the coffee drinkers who choose to come to Full Bloom, which I real like. I love those people and the walk ins from the neighbourhood.

Our marketing isn’t too wide spread as yet, but what I do value are our repeat clients who have made our coffee shop part of their daily ritual. Mad love for those folks!

So do you think the coffee culture here is a passing trend or do you think it’s going to grow?

KIEL: I think it’s in the growth phase. Trinidadians want a place they can sit, meet and chat. We have a drinking culture here, so we have a lot of bars but I don’t think everyone wants to have alcohol all the time. The culture does exist – it’s just scattered all over and needs to be brought together. There’s still so much room for growth.

This will probably inspire a few other people in Trinidad to start up their own coffee shops.

KIEL: Yeah, man! Go for it! Even where I stayed in Thailand, there were all these cafes that were so close to one another and they all had customers. I don’t believe coffee is really a competition.

“It’s all about the culture and we’re just facilitators.”

Kiel, Full Bloom