Photo courtesy Katz Coffee/Austin Beck
Houston Strong
Avi Katz with his new Ghibli R15 roaster from Coffee-Tech Engineering
Avi Katz is the Astros Orbit! of Houston coffee. Orbit! is the lime-green, baseball-antennaed outer-space mascot of the best team in baseball. Like his Sivitz-roaster Katz Coffee namesake, Katz is a coffee industry icon. His organic coffee, Fairtrade and direct-trade selections are in all the major grocers and a favorite in coffee shops, restaurants, and served at his University of Houston alma mater.
“Houston’s coffee culture is still emerging. Starbuck’s set the tone but new roasters and independents emerge daily,” said Katz. “Houston is now America’s third largest city [displacing Chicago] and the coffee community reflects the city’s culture; diverse and rich, drawing inspiration from experiences in coffee around the country and world.”
A pioneer in the specialty coffee segment, Katz launched his small-batch, custom roasting business in 2003. He graduated with a hotel and management degree from Conrad Hilton College at the University of Houston and worked for Diedrich Coffee out of college. He returned from California to roast at Houston’s Lola Savannah and founded Fontana Coffee Roasters. Katz Coffee has experienced exponential growth, making the University of Houston’s “Cougar 100” the fastest growing business list four years in a row.
HOUSTON HAS IT ALL
Houston, a Coffee City of Spirit, Resilience, and Community
Port Houston is the tenth largest in the world and the second busiest port America. Logistics make Houston ideal for coffee, explains Katz. “You have everything you need at your fingertips; from coffee storage and logistic terminals, to the only decaffeination plant in North America, endless industrial supply houses and ample manufacturing and fabrication business,” he says.
Katz goes beyond what other companies are doing to develop the community by partnering with non-profit organizations. The roaster donates a portion of its sales of its Coffee Cause branded coffees. Recipients include Bat Conservation International, Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center, Friends of Enchanted Rock, Houston Area Firefighters & First Responders, and The University of Houston.
“Houston Strong has become the city’s motto. Harvey wreaked havoc on our city’s infrastructure and thousands of residential homes. We have had a rough 2017 but our ability to bounce back fast is a testament to how hard we all work here every day in every industry. Coffee is no exception,” said Katz.
“Hurricane aside, our coffee community is comprised of close knit folks who share a passion for coffee. They have worked to create amazing products catering to various niches,” says Katz.
“Business is booming in Houston’s coffee scene and I see it continuing,” he says.
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By the Numbers...
• Port Houston was the second busiest coffee port in the US in 2016. More than 142,000 20-foot equivalent container units — 6.5% of the 2.2 million TEUs processed — were filled with coffee.
• Coffee stocks totaled 944,956 60-kilo bags in October 2017 and averaged 789,000 bags monthly during the year making Houston second only to New York in warehouse stocks.
•ACS Atlantic Coffee Solutions operates the largest chemical- free USDA certified organic decaffeination facility in the world. The company uses CO2 to decaffeinate up to 600,000 bags per year.
• Cadeco Industries in Houston operates the largest integrated bulk coffee silo receiving, storage, and processing facility in the US Cadeco’s 100+ silos can store 10 million pounds of coffee.
• The five-story 55,062 sq. ft. Cheek-Neal Coffee Company roastery at 2017 Preston Ave., completed in 1917, is where Joel Owsley Cheek and John William Neal developed and roasted the famous Maxwell House coffee brand. During the 1920s Maxwell House accounted for one-third of US coffee sales.
• A record 27 trillion gallons – 51.88 inches of rain (132.8 cm) fell on Houston during Hurricane Harvey, the greatest amount ever recorded from a single storm in the continental US (regional rainfall records ranged from 40-61 inches)