Inside the new Proyecto Diaz coffee shop in Oakland, California. All images courtesy of Proyecto Diaz.
Oaxaca-linked, Oakland, California-based coffee roaster Proyecto Diaz this month opened its second cafe shortly after firing up a brand-new Loring roaster in its Oakland roastery.
The company also launched a new bean-to-bar, single-origin Latin American chocolate brand called Metate Chocolate.
The new cafe opened on the north edge of downtown on the ground floor of a building that also holds coworking space and corporate offices.
There, Proyecto Diaz took over the former Bicycle Coffee Co. space, adding pendant lighting and rope-suspended terracotta planters to bring a little more earthiness and Mexican cultural flair to the existing foundation of a white marble bar and concrete counters. Behind the bar, vibrant green dragon-scale tile remains, now topped with Oaxaca-made pottery pieces.
A warm pot of ready-to-serve tamales joins signature drinks at the Broadway shop, including cafe de olla and lattes flavored with mazapan and horchata. Metate Chocolate — named after the ancient stone grinding tool still used in rural Latin American households for corn, spices and cacao — supplies drinking chocolate for both cafes.
“Specialty cacao is kind of synonymous with coffee, in that it’s grown in similar regions by small lot growers, similar producer backgrounds,” Proyecto Diaz Founder Fernando Diaz told Daily Coffee News. “Chocolate is one of those things that is like the heartbeat of Mexico.”
The first Metate chocolate bars now for sale online and in Proyecto Diaz cafes spotlight cacaos from Chiapas and Tabasco, with coffee-like provenance details including elevation, processing method, varieties and details about the producers. While cacao is not grown on El Carmen, the Diaz family farm in Oaxaca, Diaz said family members grow cacao on other farms nearby, which he hopes to bring into the program soon.
“A lot of these small-scale producers are also growing cacao on their farms oftentimes for their own personal use, because chocolate’s one of those things that you always have on hand in Mexico, and predominantly in Oaxaca,” said Diaz. “You always just have a little stash.”
Metate’s drinking chocolate and individual bars are now being offered to Proyecto Diaz’s wholesale clients. Cacao roasting takes place at the company’s Oakland roastery on a San Franciscan SF-25 machine, while the company dials in a new Loring S35 Kestrel for primary coffee production.
Progress at El Carmen remains focused on recovery from recent floods and storm damage, Diaz said. Coffee production is gradually returning to roughly 80% of potential, while experimentation is underway with raised beds for post-harvest coffee drying, as opposed to the traditional concrete patios of the region. Diaz said the goal is for the coffees to result in a crisper, cleaner cup profile.
“[Producers] don’t want to change because they’re afraid something’s going to happen, that it’s not going to taste good anymore, [or] just because that’s literally what they’ve been doing for generations,” said Diaz. “It’s difficult to introduce a new concept, and it does take a little bit more time to dry because the cement is hotter. So there’s that learning curve and then there’s a patience curve, too.”
In the meantime, Diaz said the company is trying to catch its breath while solidifying its footing on three fronts: expanded roasting, Metate Chocolate and operating the two Oakland cafes.
“We have all these irons in the fire and it’s just a matter of focusing,” said Diaz. “We’re tempering and sharpening those again. I know that’s what I said [to DCN] last time, but now we have new irons.”
The new Proyecto Diaz cafe is located at 2201 Broadway in Oakland.
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
