We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo from Chazzano Coffee Roasters, located in Ferndale, Michigan.

Startups In Michigan: We’re here with Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo owner of Chazzano Coffee Roaster, tell us a little about yourself ?

Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I grew up in New York City as Frank Tamarazo to a Jewish mother and Italian Catholic father. When I was in high school, I applied to two very different colleges: Brooklyn Polytechnic University to be a Systems Analyst and Manhattan School of Music to become an opera singer.

My passion was for singing so I chose Manhattan School of Music. I met my future girlfriend and wife, Lisa Lan     zkron, on the first day of school. I was living on Staten Island and was always gregarious. On that first day of college, I walked down to the cafeteria, introduced myself to every student there, and met Lisa.

In 1995, Lisa and I took on both of our last names because she was well-known in the music world as Lisa Lanzkron and I definitely wanted to keep my Italian name, Tamarazo. I then studied advanced mathematics and philosophy at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland followed by my studies as a synagogue Cantor at Jewish Theological Seminary for five years.

I have been a full-time or part-time Cantor for over 20 years. Although my father was illiterate, he was a serial entrepreneur who often worked two or three jobs. He was working as an elevator starter for Pace University in Manhattan and then started a foot messenger business on the side.

 Why coffee?
My wife and I are serious foodies. We love awesome food, wine, craft beer, bourbon, and of course, coffee. When Starbucks began several decades ago, it was the freshest coffee around.

There were only a few cafes around the country and the coffee was revolutionary. Over 16 years ago, my mother-in-law asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I asked her to send me $100 and I bought a small home coffee roaster.

I roasted my first batch of coffee, Costa Rica Tarrazu Santa Laura, and that first cup of coffee started my passion for coffee and coffee roasting. That cup of coffee has rich nutty and chocolaty notes- it was better than a fine wine. I began to order and roast tens of pounds, hundreds of pounds, and then thousands of pounds of coffee.

I would come home from synagogue and roast from 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. every night. I read every book about coffee and researched everything I could find online. Coffee roasting became a happy obsession.

I was also annoyed that whenever I dined out at restaurants with great food and great customer service, the coffee was nasty and stale.

 

What’s the difference between Commercial Coffee & Specialty Coffee ?
There are many ways to define specialty coffee. First, the quality of the green unroasted coffee beans are very high. Specialty coffee must have less than 10% defects. The brewing method including the proper temperature and grinding also defines specialty coffee.

True specialty coffee is also sold quickly after it has been roasted. After coffee is roasted, the coffee degases with CO2. Three weeks after roasting, the aroma is almost completely gone and the coffee begins to stale.

Seventy percent of the taste of a food is its aroma. We put the roast date on every bag of coffee that we sell. In several specialty markets, when our fresh roasted Chazzano Coffee is unsold after three weeks, we buy it back, replace it with fresh roasted coffee, and give the older coffee to homeless shelters and low-income housing.

Wine has 750 different flavor notes and specialty coffee has over 1500 different notes. Specialty coffee roasters are also interested in the different brewing methods that bring out different flavor profiles: French Press, Espresso, Pourover, Aeropress, Vacuum Syphon, Turkish, Moka Pot, Cold Brew, and many more.

The roast profile also defines Specialty coffee. In specialty coffee, the roast profiles linger between a City roast (light) to a Full City roast (medium). When most coffee is roasted too dark, the roasting kills off all of the flavor profile. Coffee should never look oily.

Those oils on the bean are actually the flavor oils, the taste of the coffee. Once those oils evaporate, the coffee is without aroma or taste.

Commercial coffee is lower quality coffee that depends on volume instead of quality. When you go to the supermarket and a “Best By” date is stamped on the bag, that is commercial coffee. Commercial coffee stays on the shelf for years before someone purchases it.

This coffee is often over-roasted to compensate for the lower quality beans and the staleness of the product.

 

 

Where does the name Chazzano Coffee come from?
When I was a Cantor in a synagogue in Wilmette, Illinois, I would serve my fresh roasted coffee to friends and congregants every Saturday in my home after services.

A good friend, who was a graphic designer, approached me after one Rosh Hashanah service and said, “Frank, you’re a great Cantor with a great voice, but I can’t imagine you as an old Cantor, but I can imagine you as an old Coffee Roaster!” He gave me the name “Chazzano,” because “Chazzan” is the Hebrew word for “Cantor” and the “o” at the end makes it sound Italian.

He also gave me one slogan, “Carefully Chosen Coffee for Carefully Chosen Coffee.” The logo is a representation of an opera singer or Cantor. The one hand of the “Chazzano man” is outstretched because I would stretch out my arm as a Cantor to invite the congregation to sing along with me.

My wife created another slogan, “Good Coffee Makes You Sing,” because we’re both classical singers. My 12 year old daughter, Doris, created another slogan, “Brew Coffee, Not Trouble,” that was directed towards me when I was acting inappropriately during lunch.

 How did you get your start in coffee and specifically when did you get your start in coffee?
I was a Cantor in Cranford, New Jersey and Wilmette, Illinois, before we moved to Farmington Hills, Michigan, to become the Cantor at a large congregation. My job didn’t work out and I decided to do something that would bring great joy to my life.

The clergy life is a beautiful one filled with song, scholarship, and inspiring people to communicate with G-d. However, the politics of synagogue life was not enjoyable. I love being an entrepreneur because my success or failure is completely in my power.

I began to build Chazzano Coffee full-time in 2009. We were shipping coffee throughout the US with our Chazzano Carefree Coffee Club and online ordering. In addition, I began to grow our wholesale business with our first account, The Lunch Cafe in Berkley, Michigan.

Carbonated Coffee, there’s nothing like this out there. What is it ?
My Italian grandmother, Mary Tamarazo, of blessed memory, would ask me to purchase a few cases every week of a local Brooklyn coffee soda. I remember at the age of 7 carrying two cases of coffee soda up two flights of stairs. When I created Chazzano Coffee Roasters, it was always my dream to brew my own coffee soda.

About 1.5 years ago, we began experimenting with different methods to brew and carbonate our coffee. We’ve been selling and sampling the sodas on tap for a year and a few months ago, we began to bottle our two coffee sodas. The Brooklyn Born Coffee Soda is just carbonated Cold Brew coffee.

It will remind you of a craft beer with chocolate notes. For a soda, it has tremendous head retention. The second soda, Fruit of the Bean Cascara Soda, is the fruit surrounding the coffee beans, dried and brewed as tea, and then carbonated.

Both sodas have no sugar, preservatives or additives. The sodas are now sold at Chazzano Coffee Roasters, Dragonmead Brewery, 8 Degrees Plato (Detroit & Ferndale), Michigan Beer Growlers Company, and Randazzo Fresh Markets.

How long has this coffee shop been in this location?
Chazzano Coffee Roasters has been in Ferndale for almost 6.5 years.

We love the atmosphere at the shop, are you planning on keeping it like this?
Yes. Our employees choose the music selections according to their varied musical tastes. It’s important that your favorite local cafe has extremely happy employees who are passionate about the products that we sell.

It’s a calm place where people from different backgrounds will sit, converse, and treat others with respect.

How would you say Chazzano Coffee is different from other coffee shops?
We sell and serve over 15 different single origin coffees. We roast all of the coffee in-house, fresh to order every single day. You could starve to death at my cafe. We don’t sell food at all because we want you to experience the 1500 different flavor notes found in specialty coffee.

There are over 15 different ways to brew each coffee at Chazzano Coffee Roasters including French Press, latte, espresso, cappucino, vacuum syphon, pourover, and Turkish.

We’re also a networking hub for local businesses. Sit for a few minutes at the cafe and I’ll introduce you to other business owners with whom you may have a synergy. We have a table dedicated for the business cards of coffee customers.

After we interview you about which coffee, tea, or hot cocoa you’d love to try, we ask you about your profession, target market, and how you want to grow your business. In addition, if you’re looking for a new job, bring in your resume, let me know what kind of position you are seeking, and I will connect you with many of my fellow business owners who are looking for additional employees.

Chazzano Coffee Roaster is also well known for our fresh loose leaf teas from a former Michigander, Anthony Capobianco of Zen Tea Traders. We’ve won Best Tea Shop in Detroit 2013 & 2014.

At my cafe, you can “Drink for the Cycle.” Try one single origin coffee in 6 different brewing styles: French Press-Iced- Vacuum Syphon- Espresso- Pourover-Turkish. Each brewing method will bring out different notes of the coffee. The mouthfeel, aroma, body, complexity, depth, balance, sweetness, and pungency will change with each brewing method.

You can also try a “flight” of 4 different coffees brewed in a French Press. If you have 5-6 other friends who are coffee lovers, we could schedule a “Coffee Cupping Party” where we’ll violently sniff and violently slurp the coffee and discuss the journey of coffee from bean to cup. We also do Tea Cupping Parties for 5-10 people.

When someone asks for sugar or cream in their coffee, we gently joke, “Do you know what         happens when you put sugar or cream in Chazzano Coffee? God cries and an angel loses its wings.” We want people to enjoy their coffee without sugar or cream. Most cafes have flavored syrups or make chocolate flavored lattes. Why would you put flavored syrups in fresh roasted coffee. Besides, it’s against G-d.

Our cafe and all of our products are Kosher certified. Observant Jews and Muslims around the world can enjoy Chazzano Coffee. In addition, our coffee and tea are Kosher for Passover. We’re closed on the Jewish Sabbath, from Friday night to Saturday night every week, and we’re closed for the holiest of Jewish holidays.

Our five different hot cocoa mixes, made in house, are a Chazzano recipe developed by my wife, Lisa, using only Fair Trade chocolate and vegan sugar.

 I notice you sell other Michigan products in your coffee shop, tell us about that?
We have many partnerships with local companies. We sell Dave’s Sweet Tooth Coffee Toffee that contains our coffee. Aromaholics makes Chazzano Coffee soap and lip balm. In the past, Corden’s Chocolates created chocolate covered coffee beans for us.

We’ve partnered with many breweries and mead makers like BNektar, Cellarmen’s, Atwater Block, and Roak Brewing Company for coffee meads and coffee beers. Drought Juice sells bottles of Chazzano Coffee Cold Brew. We buy all of our promotional products from local Michigan companies like Alternatives in Advertising.

We also sell Chazzano K-Cups that are roasted at Chazzano Coffee Roasters and then packaged at Ground Level Packaging in Clare, Michigan.

 Thinking about that, what qualities do you think entrepreneurs should have?
An entrepreneur should be passionate about their business, their products, and their services. An entrepreneur is hungry for knowledge about improving their business and their lives.

Entrepreneurs looks at the world with different lenses. We have crazy dreams. We climb the tallest trees to see as far as possible into the future.

We feel like we’re always completely in darkness, but we find solutions to get closer to the light. We’re visionaries that find solutions to problems.

Do you have any favorite blends or origins?
One of my favorite single origin coffees is Ethiopia Harrar. It is our best selling coffee because it’s what G-d drinks. It has notes of blueberry, cherry, pipe tobacco, with a red wine finish. After that, Yemen Mocca Sanani is what the angels drink.

It has notes of pepper and dark chocolate and it’s the richest and smoothest espresso that you’ll ever experience. Finally, the Nicaragua Marigogype from our Direct Trade coffee exporter, Gold Mountain Coffee Growers, is one of the most complex coffees in the world.

The Marigogype bean is huge and is a natural genetic mutation of the Tipica varietal of arabica coffee. The beans grow to over 4 times the size of a normal coffee bean.

 What’s your most popular drink?
Truly, any one of our coffee beverages are popular, but the Cardamom Hot Cocoa is one of our favorites.

Would you ever think about opening a second location?
Never say never. When most coffee roasters open multiple locations, their coffee quality and customer service suffers. I would rather assist our wholesale accounts grow their businesses and their brands with awesome fresh roasted coffee.

I love our location in Ferndale, but we only have 1200 sq. feet to roast, bag, and deliver to over 200 wholesale accounts, ship coffee throughout the world, brew and bottle coffee sodas, and brew coffee in our upscale cafe.

However, the next location will have a larger coffee roasting production facility where we’ll devote our time to distributing our coffee to wholesale accounts. We have been looking to expand to a 4000 sq. foot location in Ferndale for the last 4 years!

What advice do you have for people who are looking to follow your footsteps ?
Find a business opportunity that fills your life with joy. When you wake up at an unnaturally early time and you’re smiling because you have the opportunity to do something extraordinary, then you’ve found the perfect life.

Ask yourself, what is your dream life? Life is too short to be miserable. Write down everything that you’d like to accomplish and figure out ways to accomplish them. I love being an entrepreneur, but I also love writing books, singing, playing classical guitar, and going on road trips and traveling. However, most of all, I love being a great father to my three young children and a great husband to my wife.

With everything that I accomplish that grows Chazzano Coffee Roasters is with an eye of how those opportunities will help me spend more time with family and with my other passions. I am selfish before I am selfless. I find what will create happiness, joy, and fulfillment in my life first and then balance that with the needs of my family, friends, employees, and business friends.

There are many expressions for the life choice of paying it forward, but I love the saying, “When you reach the top, send the elevator back down.” If you’re at a point in your life where you’ve found joy, happiness and truth, send the elevator back down and help others reach the top. I am not financially wealthy, but I am one of the wealthiest men around in terms of balance and happiness.

Most Preferred social media platform and why ?
I post regularly on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, Google+ and Swarm, but my true love is Instagram. The UI (user interface) is beautiful and user friendly. As a coffee roaster, I have great conversations with my customers on Instagram.

The posted photographs serve perfectly as ice breakers in the conversation. The text is easily digested with a pertinent and compelling photograph. Twitter is great for reading short news posts about your favorite people and businesses but it’s too crowded and congested.

Facebook’s organic reach is too small and costs too much money to spread information with customers. Swarm is a social media platform of sport. My wife and I have a vicious contest every week to get to the top of the leaderboard.

What’s next for Chazzano Coffee? Any plans on the horizon that you’re able to share?
We have always been great cross-promoters with our wholesale accounts. Our social media is filled with information about cafes, restaurants, and specialty markets that serve and sell Chazzano Coffee. In the same way, we’re introducing the Chazzano Coffee Trail.

Twenty of our wholesale accounts, bakeries, cafes, restaurants, and yogurt/ice cream shops will be participating. Pick up a Chazzano Coffee Trail passport at Chazzano cafe or at our participating accounts.

At each destination, ask to have your passport stamped. When you’ve acquired 10 stamps, return to Chazzano Coffee Roasters for your congratulatory t-shirt commemorating your accomplishment.

Anything you would like to share will our Startup Audience?
I founded God and Coffee Consulting to assist startup cafes and restaurants with metrics, branding, marketing, networking, and customer service advice.

I have published two business books, “God Cries and An Angel Loses its Wings,” about how to create community in your business to grow your life and business and that of your customers, and “You don’t want dessert, do you?” about using entertainment and education to create a great customer service experience for your customers.

I’m writing two more books, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” about balancing your dreams and goals with that of your life partner’s and your childrens’ and “How to kill yourself off (from your business)”. The latter book will discuss ways to slowly remove yourself from the day-to-day operations so that you can be the visionary.

 

Follow Chazzano Coffee:
Instagram: @chazzanocoffee
Facebook: Chazzano Cafe, Chazzano Coffee Roasters, Chazzano Coffee Trail
Twitter: @Chazzanocoffee
Google Play: Download Chazzano Coffee Defender
Amazon Books : “God Cries and An Angel Loses its Wings,” & “You don’t want dessert, do you?”

 

About Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo 

Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo is the Owner of Chazzano Coffee Roasters in Ferndale Michigan. He is also the founder  God and Coffee Consulting to assist startup cafes and restaurants with metrics, branding, marketing, networking, and customer service advice.  He has also published two business books, “God Cries and An Angel Loses its Wings,” about how to create community in your business to grow your life and business and that of your customers, and “You don’t want dessert, do you?” about using entertainment and education to create a great customer service experience for your customers.