[Nfbf-l] unseen beans

[Jody W. Ianuzzi]

This article was on the Guide Dogs list and I just love it.  Let's all order
coffee from him!


>
> Unseen Bean: The Blind Coffee Entrepreneur
> by
> Cherl Petso, Disaboom
>
> The Unseen Bean sits in an unassuming building off an ordinary, industrial
> street
> in North Boulder, Colorado. Its only marking is a small sign of a
> sunglasses-clad
> black lab with an exceptionally large muzzle. As I push open the door,
> bells jingle
> and immediately two dogs are jumping around me, tails going every which 
> way.
> I cringe
> as a tail just misses a coffee mug. I recognize one of the dogs as
> Midknight, the
> large-snouted black lab on the sign.
> "Hello!" I hear a man's voice call. His voice has sort of an older folksy
> tone,
> as though he's been singing all night at a bluegrass concert and has 
> stopped
> between
> songs to tell a story. I call back, "hello!" and we play this Marco-Polo
> game until
> he appears in front of me. He sticks his hand out, "I'm Gerry." I grab his
> hand
> and he begins to show me around his place.
> He gestures to the other roasters and I am introduced to his coworkers. 
> The
> majority
> of the space is a large room with high ceilings and a concrete floor. 
> There
> are
> about fifty garbage bins that line the wall, all labeled. In the middle of
> the room
> flop burlap sacks, some of them have a tiny rip where a few beans have
> escaped their
> roasting fate. These sacks are adorned with big black letters: COLUMBIA,
> ZAMBIA,
> BOLIVIA.
> Gerry turns toward me, "Well, shall we talk?" And the interview begins.
> Gerry Leary, blind since birth, was raised in a family of car mechanics.
> Despite
> his parents' desperate attempts to keep him out of the garage in fear he
> might hurt
> himself on tools he couldn't see, it was inevitable that this would become
> his trade
> as well. Despite his determination and skill, however, Gerry found that no
> one would
> hire a blind car mechanic. Undaunted, he decided to start his own garage,
> and for
> the next forty years proceeded to prove his doubters wrong by succeeding 
> as
> the owner
> and highly-regarded mechanic of Leary Automotive. It wasn't until a trip 
> to
> San Francisco
> that he realized that as much as he loved being an auto mechanic, another
> passion
> might take his life in a completely different direction.
> Coffee Roasting Passion Begins
> During that fateful trip in the early 1990's, Gerry was dining at a San
> Franciscan
> restaurant when he heard an odd clanking noise. When he asked the owner
> what was
> making the curious noise, the man enthusiastically took Gerry back into 
> the
> kitchen
> and described to him the coffee roaster that was making such a loud,
> clanking sound.
> Fascinated by the machine, Gerry was equally intrigued by what it was 
> doing:
> roasting
> coffee beans. And thus began Gerry's fascination with the art and passion 
> of
> coffee
> roasting.
> It took Gerry nearly seven years after his San Francisco epiphany to get
> started
> roasting. For years he attempted to apprentice under other coffee 
> roasters,
> but
> they all roasted by color and couldn't or wouldn't imagine an alternative 
> to
> roasting
> by sight. Finally, however, Gerry was referred to a coffee broker on the
> West Coast
> who taught and certified people in coffee roasting. He not only believed
> Gerry could
> learn to roast coffee by using his heightened sense of smell as well as 
> some
> assistive
> technology that would help him organize and run his business, he was 
> willing
> to take
> Gerry on as a student. After years spent learning the differences among
> beans and
> roasting techniques, Gerry received his certification in 2003, and was 
> ready
> to launch
> his business.
> Blind Entrepreneur Once More
> With a bit more entrepreneurial enthusiasm than experience, Gerry figured
> all he
> needed to succeed in his roasting business was a talking timer and talking
> thermometer,
> plus the small quarter-pounder roaster he purchased to begin roasting 
> coffee
> in his
> backyard. Slowly, and in small quantities, he earned enough to rent a 
> place
> in a
> small town northeast of Boulder to set up an additional roaster that was 
> too
> large
> to run from his home. His roasting business continued to grow, and by 
> March
> 2007,
> Gerry was finally ready to open his store, the Unseen Bean coffee shop, in
> downtown
> Boulder.
> Gerry begins showing me around, accompanied by Midknight, who serves as 
> his
> seeing
> eye dog, but seems to be off-duty much of the time. Gerry leads me over to
> the many
> trash cans lining the walls, and feels along the sides of the bins, 
> reading
> their
> Braille labels. "Ahh, here's Guatemalan beans. Here, reach in and smell
> these!"
> I reach into the bin and grab a handful of small green coffee beans. I
> smell. They
> have an earthy, root smell to them, not the delicious smell of a roasted
> bean. "Okay,
> now smell these!" Gerry opens up the bin to the Panamanian coffee beans 
> and
> I reach
> in again and take a big sniff. "Smell how different those are to the
> Guatemalan?"
> I answer, "Yes!" with false enthusiasm; I'm not sure I smell as big of a
> difference
> as Gerry's heightened olfaction does. While a visitor stumbles and trips
> over wood
> crates and bins,Gerry navigates his way confidently among the bins and
> canvas bags.
> To an observer, the Braille labels seem unnecessary, since Gerry has
> memorized the
> locations of his many types of beans.
> He shows me his smaller roaster, the one he started with in his backyard
> only a couple
> of years ago. He talks about an order he received the first Christmas 
> after
> he began
> roasting. "I got an order for 360 quarter pounds of coffee. I said, 'look
> I can
> do it, but I can only put out about 4 quarter-pounds an hour. So in an
> 8-hour day,
> I can get about 34 roasts in.' So it took me two and a half weeks to do
> that man's
> order, but it was the first thousand bucks I made and it allowed me to buy
> the bigger
> roaster. It was a huge step for me in getting going."
> He walks me over to the finished beans, exhorting me to "smell this 
> roasted
> Zambia."
> I stick my hand into the brown beans and pull out a handful. It takes all
> my restraint
> not to climb into the barrel of roasted beans. The smell is rich,
> flavorful, amazing.
> It's one thing to walk through the coffee aisle at the supermarket, but 
> this
> is heavenly.
> The beans I smell have been roasted hours ago. I'm sold. I buy a couple of
> half
> pounds, the Malawi and a Delta Gamma blend. The thirty minute car ride 
> home
> gives
> me a second-hand high of smell.
> Assistive Technology and Giving Spirits
> When he isn't roasting, Gerry likes to bike, camp, fish, hunt, connect 
> with
> his amateur
> radio, hike, cook, eat, listen to Bluegrass, and socialize. One of his
> first events
> as a coffee roaster, in fact, was serving patrons at a Bluegrass festival.
> Well-liked
> and accepted in his community, Gerry has found that he rarely needs to ask
> for help,
> as it is often given freely. He has also received assistance from The
> National Federation
> for the Blind, which has helped Gerry to obtain his assistive technology.
> Additionally,
> the Delta Gamma sorority has members who volunteer at the Unseen Bean and
> fund-raise.
> Coffee beans Gerry Leary has proved to the world that sight is not a 
> factor
> in following
> your passion - or starting and running a successful business. Those who
> doubted
> Gerry's ability to become a car mechanic - or coffee roaster - were sorely
> mistaken.
> To the contrary, Gerry feels strongly that because he relies on other 
> senses
> to roast
> coffee, he's much more involved in the care of his coffee - which makes 
> him
> an exceptional
> roaster. It's his life and anyone who has a sip of his coffee will be hard
> pressed
> to disagree.
> You can order Gerry's delicious roasts by visiting
> www.theunseenbean.com