By John Kriz
Step into Zumbach’s Gourmet Coffee shop on the corner of Pine and Grove Streets and you’ll get the vibe of a classic New England general store: townspeople discussing local news, greeting neighbors, and fortifying themselves with not just freshly brewed, but just-custom-roasted, coffee. And everyone knows your name.
Overseen by Doug Zumbach, its jovial, eponymous owner, Zumbach’s Gourmet Coffee has become not only a New Canaan – if not regional — institution, but also an anchor retailer in what has evolved into a vital food hub, with neighbors Tony’s Deli, Miyuki’s Noodle Shop, Dante’s Pizza and Greens On The Go.
How It Began
Hailing from Yonkers, Doug spent his early years working in human resources for Fortune 500 companies, but became “tired of the career path. I wanted to work for myself.” His first step out was managing a small gourmet food store in Mount Kisco. “And in that store were three containers of what we now call gourmet coffee. And this is in 1991.”
Doug observed the shoppers of Mount Kisco and saw them “buying this [gourmet] coffee and not canned coffee — Maxwell House, Taster’s Choice, Folgers…like everyone was doing.” And then the lightbulb is illuminated. “What is this?” So Doug started doing some research. “The gourmet coffee industry in 1991 was in its infancy. It was just starting when I opened up in 1992. Starbucks had three stores, so I was very fortunate to have discovered the industry in the beginning.”
Doug went to the West Coast where gourmet coffee was developing, eventually finding his way to Oakland, California “where there was a lot of roasting of coffee going on.” He found a roasting school there, and “it was in a warehouse with about four roasters and it was a little guy just teaching people how to roast coffee. And I enrolled and it was like a two-day course and I loved it. I loved that aspect of the business — the roasting aspect — because you turn something into your own product. You’re not buying coffee from someone else. It’s my product.” He was hooked.
Returning to Vista, where he was living at the time, Doug just said “’I’m going in the coffee business.’ And that’s how it started, not knowing anything about really the industry.” The next task was finding space. Doug would “travel through Westchester towns like Scarsdale, Rye. Then I’d come up into Greenwich, New Canaan and Westport, Southport looking for space.” That’s when he found his location here. “I looked at the space. It’s visible. It has its own parking. And at that time people thought I was nuts for not going up on Elm Street.”
“This was kind of desolate down here,” Doug notes. “It’s not like it is today. So I sat outside in a lawn chair with a clicker, counting cars going north, counting cars going south, and I estimated, well, if I get a certain number each way coming into my parking lot, I could make a go of it.”
“I opened up on a Monday,” Doug recalls, and suddenly “the town closed me down. There was something wrong — if I remember correctly, the plumbing in my espresso machine. It didn’t meet code.” So a plumber was called, the issue was fixed, the town gave its stamp of approval, and Zumbach’s Gourmet Coffee was on its way.
The store re-opened on a Tuesday, and “I stood here all day long and no one came in and I thought, ‘What have I done?’”
“The local newspaper gave me a little blurb, but they called me a delicatessen, not a coffee roaster. Now I’m having people coming in asking for roast beef on rye and stuff, and I’m having to tell them what I am and they just scratched their heads left.” The local newspaper provided a more correct post, and “the next week people started coming in, more out of curiosity. David Letterman, when he was a resident of New Canaan, came in.” News of that visit got out “and it took off.” For the next three months Doug worked on his own, and then hired his first employee and “never looked back. It’s a wonderful industry. It still grows. I meet great people. I’m lucky.”
Though Zumbach’s Gourmet Coffee shop does sell brewed, whole bean and ground coffee, and some tea, “I have always thought I’m a coffee roaster,” stresses Doug. According to Doug, his “main competition has always been not the Dunkin’ Donuts, not the Starbucks, or anyone else who sells coffee. My main competition in New Canaan is the supermarkets.” What Doug emphasizes is that his “business is fresh roasted coffee.”
Doug doesn’t see Starbucks as competition, though he does monitor their prices. Nevertheless, Doug concedes that “Starbucks does a lot for this industry. They’re always in the paper, they’re always promoting and they’ve introduced coffee to multiple generations of kids.” Doug believes Starbucks has “gotten away from coffee.” And then there’s the time it takes to make those concoctions. Result? Barista back-ups.
Another piece of Doug’s coffee business is the wholesale side: “restaurants, caterers, corporations, country clubs — over probably forty wholesale customers every year,” says Doug. In addition, there’s the mail order side. “We ship it to Florida, Texas, California. I’ve shipped it as far as London. This is a very transient town at times. So people will love my coffee for ten years and then move to California, but they still remain customers.”
C&C
No description of Doug Zumbach is complete without mentioning Caffeine & Carburetors, which he started as a small gathering of gearheads at his coffee shop, and has since evolved into one of the largest auto enthusiast events on the East Coast. With thousands of attendees and over 1500 vehicles – mostly classic sports cars, but trucks, motorcycles and newer specialty cars, too – C&C has become a signature happening in New Canaan. C&C donates money raised from participants to charities.
New Businesses
In addition to his current shop, and wholesale and mail order businesses, Doug has two new ventures in the works. One is the Caffeine & Carburetors Café, to be housed in the nearby building that now has Dante’s, Miyuki’s and Greens On The Go. According to Doug, it’s “going to be more geared towards the automotive clientele,” with small events and speakers – and coffee. “Many of my sponsors for Caffeine & Carburetors are interested in having the opportunity for a space to promote their products,” such as the introduction of a new automobile.
Doug’s other new venture is The Factory, a café and roastery on Burtis Avenue, across from the condominiums now being built. The plan is for The Factory to have its own coffee line and merchandise. One of that location’s features that attracted Doug and his daughter Claire Drexler, who works closely with her dad on his businesses, is that “there’s some wonderful space on the outside.” And there’s parking right in front.
Both Caffeine & Carburetors Café and The Factory are scheduled to open soon.
Choosing the Coffee
When choosing which coffees to buy, Doug notes that “they all have different flavor characteristics. And then there are the blends, which he creates himself. “It’s kind of like cooking. You have ten spices, you mix well. Same with coffee.” An African, a South American, an Indonesian – all have “individual flavor characteristics.”
So is there a terroir in coffee, as there is in wine? Yes, declares Doug. Raw coffee is a function of four things: Soil, altitude, sunshine and moisture – rain and mist. Of these, “it’s altitude first. The higher quality coffees are grown at 3000 feet and above, on mountains. If you picture the equator on a globe, a little up, a little down of the equator are all the coffee growing regions.” And “volcanic soil is important.”
The Roasting
According to Doug, “you start with a green bean full of moisture and starches. So what we do with the roasting process, we change with temperature starches into sugars, and the best example I can give you is a green banana full of starches on your kitchen counter ripens. In three days of room temperature starches have turned to sugars and that’s what we’re doing. We do about 20, 25 pounds each, and it takes about 17 minutes. So now we’ve actually changed the complexity of the green bean and we can roast it kind of light, or a medium roast in color. It’s like a nice mahogany. And then a darker roast, more like an espresso, a darker brownish color. And by doing that I can roast the same bean Colombian light, medium, dark, and I’ve created three different flavors. Not all beans, in my opinion, taste good dark roasted.”
How to Brew Coffee
It seems people make many errors when brewing coffee. But fear not: just ask Doug for advice, and not simply generic advice: Advice that’s specific to the freshly roasted coffee you just bought, and your taste profile. The major mistake people make? “They’re using too much coffee per cup.” Doug advises two heaping tablespoons per 12 ounce cup. Imagine this: One morning you wake up and decide you want something stronger so you put more coffee in. “That’s not what you need to do. Now you’re wasting coffee. You need to change your coffee beans.” You could very well be drinking a mild coffee, but need a stronger coffee, and with the stronger coffee “you can still continue to use just two scoops.”
Should you buy whole bean and grind it yourself, or buy ground coffee? “Let us grind it,” advises Doug. Why? “Inexpensive grinders have blades and they’re just chopping.” On the other hand better grinders have burrs that can be adjusted from course to fine. “And the beans funnel through those burrs which are rotating and you get a much, much better, consistent grind. And the grind has to be consistent. Whether it’s super fine, fine, medium, course, it’s very important to have the right grind for your coffee. It should match your brewing process.”
There are several brewing choices, continues Doug, such as drip, percolator, stovetop espresso and espresso machine. “Your coffee has to be ground properly for that brewing method.” How do you determine which grind and brewing method is appropriate for the coffee you’re buying? “You need to ask us.”
Doug notes that “if you grind it too fine, it’ll come out bitter.” For example, for “an espresso grind, which is like a powder and you use it in a drip machine, it’s going to come out muddy and very strong. A drip machine is a medium grind.”
Another mistake people often make is “that they may have a drip machine at home as well as an espresso machine. Two absolutely different grinds. You can’t use the same coffee for each because if you grind it medium for the drip, you can’t use a medium in an espresso machine. It needs to be ground fine.”
Doug’s advice does not end there. Next up: The quality of your water. “If you don’t have a filtration system, your coffee brewer after a year is not brewing hot because the insides are all gunked up with scale.” As well, Doug recommends “Italian machines because they brew the hottest water temperature.” And temperature is “another aspect of brewing. That perfect cup we brew at 180 degrees with the commercial brewers — that’ll burn you. But by the time it dispenses and goes through the grinds, drips into a cup, it comes down to maybe 160, 165.” To get all of the characteristics out of your coffee, it needs to be hot. “An inexpensive home machine does not brew coffee hot enough, especially after a year. And especially if you don’t clean them.” Although you can try to descale your machine, at some point all the mechanics in it break down. Recognizing this, “I never recommend like a $100 or $200 espresso machine. You have to spend seven to eight hundred to get a quality espresso machine.”
But be careful of water that’s too hot. “Boiling water can scorch and create another flavor characteristic. Maybe not what you want, especially in coffee. So we always recommend boiling water, bubbling, let it sit for five seconds and then pour it.”
If you’re looking to get an everyday coffeemaker, Doug recommends a drip. “Drip is a little easier to brew a good cup of coffee,” Doug says. In a drip machine, the water “flows through the grinds once and it produces a cleaner cup of coffee.”
Staff & Customer Relations
Prior experience is not top of mind when Doug hires. Rather, “what’s so important is the ability to engage an individual.” This includes being able to smile, to communicate. The late afternoon shift at Doug’s shop is mostly high school students. “We’re talking about high school students and they’re talking to adults. A lot of times they’re shy, but after a while it doesn’t hurt and they become very, very comfortable. I enjoy working with the teenagers from the high school just to see them develop, learn other skills than just making a cappuccino.” He calls his current high school crew “one of my top crews I’ve ever had.” And many people want to work at Zumbach’s Gourmet Coffee.
Customers will “tell us their likes and dislikes, and we always ask ‘What are you currently drinking? Are you drinking a Starbucks? Are you drinking a Dunkin’ Donuts?’ So now we have a base to compare our coffees to and we’ll make subtle suggestions when someone goes from canned coffee to fresh roasted coffee. It’s like a big jolt. It’s a big surprise. And they often say it’s strong. It’s fresh roasted. Anything … always tastes better if it’s fresh. There’s more flavor characteristics with freshness. So it initially tastes strong, but if they drink it for like three or four days now it’s flavorful.” It’s “not strong. It’s what you should be tasting. Most people drink stale coffee. My coffee can be two hours old. Some of my competitors, the coffee they’re serving was roasted six months ago.”
Being in New Canaan
One thing Doug emphasizes about New Canaan is that “there is more diversity than you think there is out there in what people do and what their interests are.” In addition, “they respect quality. I have found that great service and then price, in that order” are what drive customers. “I’ve had customers since ‘Day One’ and like I said earlier, I have customers all over the United States that I still talk to who lived here for ten years and now they’re in California or Seattle.” As well, “I’ve seen kids grow up, college, married, kids, and then come back here. So that’s the benefit of being in business so long.”
The Future
“I’m a lucky guy,” says Doug. “I super enjoy what I do. I love getting up in the morning.” Plus, “I enjoy it. I’m sitting here with you, and I like to meet and talk to people.”
