Photo credit The Argus.
Soon after graduate school, I became a campus chaplain at Wesleyan University. The campus was small with about three thousand students. As the Muslim chaplain, my community was even smaller. Thankfully though, there were a bunch of students who were very welcoming to my presence on campus. They told me about a local cafe on campus and the owner was Muslim. "Amazing!" I thought. I was looking for a Muslim coffeeshop owner to befriend for caffeine reasons.
I was introduced to Abdelrahman. He owned a coffee shop, Qawa, in Middletown. I was a few months into my coffee journey and my wife and I were talking about getting coffee equipment instead of paying $4 a cup every time we went to a cafe. Sensible. What direction would we take? There was always Google, but that could take you to fifty different directions at the same time.
I remember the first conversation between Abdelrahman and I. He wanted a way to be a part of the Wesleyan campus and I wanted a space to host events. I had recently learned that coffeehouses were places in the United States and Europe where amazing things happened and the world changed. Bright university minds fueled with caffeine and in need of direction? Sure. Where do I sign? Simultaneously, I learned a bunch about where this generation is trying to go to. The arena of ideas is filled with conflicting voices. As their chaplain, I learned there is a lot of hope for upcoming generations. I was going to be one to push them into a corner with a coffee from Burundi or Ethiopia.
When I had the chance, I'd go visit Qawa and would often catch Abdelrahman with students and customers. It was the first time I was introduced to a Chemex. I would ask him many questions about coffee and origins, and brew times and more. Here I had a Yemeni teaching me the ways of his ancestors. It was an honor.
I would take my wife who also enjoys a good cup, to his cafe. Once I called in an order and as we got onto the highway, Abdelrahman called me back and asked if I would rather have a brew from an Ethiopian guji-berry batch. He had leftovers. I said absolutely! 25 minutes later, I arguably had the best coffee in my life, at least at the time. That cup still holds a high place on my palette. Abdelrahman would explain to me varietals and why coffee like this is $45 a pound. It was a whole new world.
He also helped me put together my first coffee setup. I followed the brewer of choice in Qawa and bought a Chemex. I grounded beans with a Capresso Infinity burr grinder. Lastly, we bought an electric gooseneck kettle by Ovalware (which was pretty solid). Sadly, the base got wet and the motherboard short-circuited.
These conversations were the foundation of my coffee journey. Many cups brewed came out terrible. Many cups brewed came out really well. He showed me that coffee is a process. There's the good stuff that is sometimes $45 a pound. Yes, that is worth the wait.