Home / By / Len Brault
Len Brault
lbrault@clockworkcommerce.com
Len is an avid coffee lover who had become increasingly disappointed with the object of his affections in the 1990s and began to wonder "Is it me, or is it the coffee?"
A 25-year veteran of marketing and design, he decided in 2005 that he would turn his strengths to the beverage he loved and began a pilgrimage to find the "original" coffees that he had once loved so much more than the modern-day hybrids and unidimensional Arabicas that seemed to permeate the land. He would find the best heirloom coffees that remained largely undiscovered and unchanged by Wesern influence, and showcase these coffees on the Internet.
The search led him to Southeast Asian coffees, established a century or more ago and still being cultivated, processed and brewed locally in traditional manners from an era gone by, unknown to the industry, markets and media in the USA and Canada. Len has evaluated thousands of coffees in a continuing search for the original, traditional, and unspoiled. He has undertaken the task of writing about these coffees, the cultures from which they came, and the manners in which they are brewed and enjoyed. His comment? "It's a rough job, but somebody has to do it." His new company, Heirloom Coffee, LLC, is devoted to helping indigenous producers gain access to international distribution under their own brand names so that they achieve the most "fair" of all trades, which is, eliminating commodities brokers and receiving all the fruits of their own labors.
He also hopes that his efforts will help bring traditional Eastern methods of coffee brewing and consumption to Western cultures before Western corporate coffee cultures can overwhelm these Southeast Asian countries and destroy fragile heirloom coffee strains and processing methods. He is dedicated to preserving the biodiversity of the coffee plant and works with a number of producers of endangered species and varietals such as true Philippines Liberica (Barako Coffee), Vietnamese "Sparrow" Arabica and Kopi Luwak, a coffee process (civet coffee) that has already been lost in Vietnam and some other regions due to lack of preservation of indigenous civet populations.
Some of the results of his efforts can be viewed on www.vietnamese-coffee.com.
| Article | Section | Topic |
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| Coffee From Thailand | Travel | Thailand |
| Nacha coffee, a grower based in Chiangmai, Thailand, produces a strain of Arabica Typica that will win over anyone skeptical of the taste quality of South East Asian coffees. |
| Caffeine Sensitivity in Coffee | Health | Caffeine |
| This is an article for people who want, or need, to understand more about caffeine, their problems reacting to coffee, and what to do about it. There is no reason why caffeine sensitivity should prevent you from enjoying a delicious cup of coffee. |
| True Vietnamese Coffee | Coffee History | Vietnamese Coffee |
| More and more coffee lovers have discovered Vietnamese coffee, its little single-cup filter, and the rich, dark cup it produces. Vietnamese coffee "style" refers to treating the brewing and enjoyment of coffee as a event, not just a commodity that you grab at a drive-in window on the way to work. |
