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CHARACTERS IN COFFEE continued from page 30 easily, and the bitter parts—the caffeine and the acids—don't. That means that if you don't use enough ground coffee for a given amount of water, you will not make good, balanced coffee. The American industry and therefore the American public never used enough ground coffee in preparing their cup. And the secret was that simple. That was the main conclusion of the study. RESEARCHING: Dr. John examines a nutmeg tree intertwined with a coffee plant. A harsh stickler for quality, John ensures the farms he buys from maintain high standards. Q:A: Did you get interested in coffee from that and then start pursuing it? No; there was an unrelated set of incidents that happened. One of our friends from India owned a coffee plantation, and his son was in San Diego around the same time we were. When he was getting ready to go back, he came to say goodbye. And I asked him, "Have you done everything you can do in the U.S.?" He said, "Yes, I'm going to go back and help my father run the coffee estate." And I said, "Have you ever thought of being part of international business as opposed to being a coffee farmer?" One thing led to another, and he called me back a few days later and said, "I've decided to stay over and finish an advanced degree in international business." He went to the Thunderbird School of International Business, and when he finished there he went back and not only helped his father run the estate but also got involved in trading coffee. Some years later, my wife went to India and spent a few days at the estate. She asked the father, "If you think that your coffee is so good, why don't you sell it in the U.S.?" After she came back, the son wrote to her saying, "We have actually been trying to sell coffee in the U.S., and we have not been successful. Is there anything you can do to help us?" And the rest is history. It was not by design. It was really just sheer accident. I had never had any intention of being in the coffee business. April 1992 was our first official appearance in the coffee industry; we had half a table at the SCAA show in Seattle. 32 COFFEE ALMANAC 2012