1. Subject: Culinary Article, Full Length Feature
Working Title: Strong Relationships with Culinary Community Are Key
Ingredients at S&D Coffee
Alternate -Title: From the Farm to Cup, S&D brews up Beverages with
Culinary Community
[
Chef Patrick Gebrayel, Carlos Lopez and Brian Bradley of S&D Coffee
Stepping out into the crisp morning air at the Finca Concepcion in Guatemala,
the world seems new. There in the Antigua coffee region, “the land of eternal
spring”, members of the S&D Coffee management team are getting a first-hand
look at a possible new source for high-quality Arabica coffee.
There are more than 60,000 coffee farms in Guatemala, but this one has
something special: the recommendation of the former Executive Chef of the
Dunwoody Country Club in Atlanta. On this morning in 2009, he is also one of
S&D’s guides.
Trained at the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Patrick Gebrayel, CEC, is a
well-known advocate of farm-to-table programs that promote locally grown,
seasonal foods for their taste and health benefits and as a way to support area
farmers. Even though coffee can’t be grown in Georgia, that didn’t stop him
from wanting to see the best coffee make its way to his table. That desire made
him think of S&D.
Chef Patrick was familiar with S&D and had met some of the company’s
employees including Brian Bradley, Executive Vice President of Corporate
Operations. They had made a very positive impression.
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S&D Coffee Marketing, 101 Commercial Park Drive, Concord, NC 28027

2. “I was impressed with their knowledge and I was impressed by the culture of
the company. There’s an integrity there that is hard to find these days,” Gebrayel
said. “S&D supports numerous charities. They put money back into the
community and the company. They invest in their facilities and in finding the
best sources. Management is very ‘hands on’. I respect and appreciate all that.”
So two years ago, he invited Bradley and John Buckner, S&D Coffee’s Director of
Marketing, to travel to Guatemala and meet the family that has operated the
Finca Concepcion for generations.
“They are now an S&D supplier,” Gebrayel said, “one of many in Guatemala, but
the owners are friends of mine and it has been interesting to see the relationship
grow between a farmer and a giant coffee company.
“S&D’s hands-on approach helps them to know the farm and the coffee better
than any other roaster could, because of that direct relationship,” he continued.
“That’s a positive for the farm, the company and their customers.”
Chef Selects S&D For Chef’s Select
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S&D Coffee Marketing, 101 Commercial Park Drive, Concord, NC 28027

3. Chef with Tom McAdams and Tim Fallar;
The raw coffee beans that come to S&D are carefully handled and roasted to ISO
9001:2008 quality standards. Some remain as varietal or origin coffees like
Guatemala Antigua. Others are blended for a specific flavor profile.
With more than 100 blends and a roasting capacity of more than 120 million
pounds annually, consistent processes are necessary for consistent results.
Still, there’s room for innovation and passion, which is what another renowned
culinarian, Chef Michael Deihl, is bringing to S&D.
Coffee begins and ends almost every day for Chef Deihl as the Executive Chef at
the prestigious East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, home of the PGA Tour
Championship and FedEx Cup Championship.
“It’s the first thing people want in the morning and often the last thing they have,
with dessert, at night”, he said. “It’s always been very important. Now it’s even
more so. Over the past 15 years, there’s been a real awakening about coffee.
People expect good coffee and appreciate coffee flavor. That’s why it’s coming
more into the kitchen now as an ingredient, a flavoring, or a rub for meats.”
With 39 years in the food and beverage industry, Chef Deihl has had more than
his share of honors and recognitions. A C.I.A. graduate, he is a Certified
Executive Chef, a Certified Culinary Administrator, ACE Certified and a member
of the ACF Honor Society, the American Academy of Chefs. He has received
numerous awards for his work in the kitchen and his humanitarian efforts.
Michael Deihl is dedicated to serving others. One example is his outreach to
others who serve. Chef Deihl is the co-founder of Operation Chefs Unite (OCU),
which in conjunction with the USO has fed over a million soldiers passing
through the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. He also coaches
and teaches culinary arts to students in high poverty areas.
Ten years ago, Chef Deihl had an idea that combined his passions for food and
service, the development of his own special coffee blend. A coffee that could
please the most discriminating tastes could also help fund more charitable
endeavors, he believed.
When his coffee supplier at the time couldn’t help him, he explored other
roasters but was not able to find the flavor profile or the scalability needed to
make his idea a success.
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S&D Coffee Marketing, 101 Commercial Park Drive, Concord, NC 28027

4. That all changed at S&D Coffee. S&D sales rep Tom McAdams brought Chef
Deihl to the company’s headquarters in Concord, N.C. for a series of tastings
with S.V.P. Fred Taylor. Taylor’s sophisticated palette has helped develop
proprietary blends for McDonalds, Dunkin’ Donuts and others.
Chef Deihl loves to tell the story. “We went through about 30 different possible
blends, and they were good but they just weren’t what I wanted. We were down
to the last four when I tasted one that was really good at the front of the mouth,
but didn’t have a good finish. It just went away. Then the next one wasn’t as
good at the front but had a great finish. I was sitting there with these two cups in
front of me and I thought what if we mix these two, so I poured them together
and that was it. It was exactly what I was looking for.”
After several months of perfecting the blend, the roast and the pack weight,
Chef’s Select is now being marketed, and a portion of the proceeds will be used
to support Chef Deihl’s educational charities.
“This is something I have been dreaming about for 10 years,” Chef Deihl said
recently on another visit to S&D headquarters. “Now I’m holding that dream in
my hands.”
Supporting the Next Generation of Chefs
Catherine Rabb Stephen Schulman; Contest winners shot with big check
Supporting chef education and culinary dreams is not something new for S&D
Coffee. The company provides both financial and educational support to
Johnson & Wales University’s Charlotte Campus. JWU is a recognized leader in
culinary education.
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S&D Coffee Marketing, 101 Commercial Park Drive, Concord, NC 28027

5. Established in 2004, the Charlotte campus features new, state-of-the-art business
and culinary facilities, including the S&D Coffee Beverage Lab, funded by the
company and designed to simulate conditions in a busy dining establishment.
According to Associate Professor Catherine Rabb, the S&D Beverage Lab “is the
most exciting room on campus.”
In the S&D lab, students are taught about the entire range of beverages and
beverage service, including wines and champagnes, coffee origins, coffee
roasting techniques, tea selection, beer making and tasting, and the art of cutting-
edge “mixology.”
S&D’s involvement doesn’t stop there. The company provides guest educators
like Stephen Schulman, Director of Business Development for S&D. Schulman
has more than 25 years experience with specialty coffee in sales, marketing,
green coffee purchasing and roasting. He is a certified Q grader, the most
rigorous coffee skills certification in the industry. There are less than a few
hundred in the country.
The company also sponsors coffee and tea recipe contests at the school. In 2010,
Johnson & Wales students were challenged to use green or black tea to create a
fresh food or beverage recipe using ingredients that can easily be found in a food
service environment. S&D is the nation’s largest supplier of iced tea to the food
service industry.
The Grand Prize of $500 and the chance to do something new and innovative with
tea drove dozens of JWU students to submit original recipes.
“The recipe contests are important for our students,” Rabb said. “Coffee and tea
are critical in many ways. We’re cooking with it, we’re serving it to more and
more sophisticated customers and it’s a major center of both flavor and
profitability.”
Rabb is also a restaurateur, owner of Fenwick’s, a casual neighborhood
restaurant in South Charlotte, and an S&D customer for 26 years.
“We opened on August 4, 1984. S&D came in and set up the equipment. They
had different blends, more styles of coffee for us to choose from. Our coffee is a
little milder and our customers love it. I’ve always had very good comments.
I had no idea how big S&D was. They were very responsive. I thought they
were just a small local company.”
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S&D Coffee Marketing, 101 Commercial Park Drive, Concord, NC 28027

6. Rabb was surprised when she toured S&D’s roasting facility as a part of the
Johnson & Wales faculty.
“It’s just about the coolest place to tour ever,” she said, noting the size,
sophistication and cleanliness of the operation, from incoming commodities and
cupping to roasting and packaging. “The people who work there obviously care
about what they are doing. It makes a difference in the quality of their products
and the service they provide.”
“I am very pleased to see this partnership continue with Johnson & Wales, and I
am pleased to see S&D giving so much to the university and reaching out to
nurture young culinarian students,” she continued. “I have been completely
impressed by their commitment to training, educating and supporting the youth
that are going to make our field rather spectacular in the future.”
S&D’s commitment to and involvement with the culinary community will
continue far into that future.
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