White jolt

Former Olympian turned entrepreneur
offers a novel twist on your fave pick-me-up

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Craig Buntin

Age: 29

Occupation: Coffee vendor/Olympian

Bio: This Olympic figure skater and affable downtown resident had been on the road with his skating crue when he first came across white coffee “at some drive-by coffee shop in the middle of nowhere.” Intrigued yet not overwhelmed, when he got back to Montreal, Craig, a coffee connoisseur who was already roasting his own coffee beans at home for fun, started messing around with certain blends and roasting techniques in the attempt to perfect this enigmatic brew. After six months of experimentation with the help of a professional roaster, Craig finally found his formula, and upon completion of a few business courses at Concordia, set about launching his own white coffee blend through his Teabean Coffee company. “You’ve got to look at this as a totally new drink, sort of tea, sort of coffee, sort of like a flavoured hot chocolate type drink—but with a whole lot of caffeine, maybe twice that of a regular espresso.”

Is this white espresso coffee he’s hawking a new thing, or have Peruvian mountain folk or whoever been enjoying it for millennia? “So far as I know, it’s brand new, I don’t think there’s anyone else in Canada doing this. Some people in Malaysia drink something similar but it’s not quite the same thing. We still use traditional premium-grade coffee beans, except we bake instead of roast them, which turns the beans white and gives them their unique flavour.”

Do serious hardcore caffeine addicts ever tease him about this sweet-tasting vanilla-latte-esque white bean espresso for being a little, um, fruity? “Well, it’s true, for real hardcore coffee connoisseurs, this isn’t really their thing, but I’m cool with that. People who are expecting this to be like coffee will be disappointed; it doesn’t taste like coffee at all.”

Does he think his renown as a figure skater helps him sell the stuff? “It helps a little. When I’m walking in on a cold sales call, people might see me as an athlete instead of just some coffee salesman, which helps humanize you a bit. When you have a name that’s been in the public eye, people are initially a little more receptive.”

Is there often a sexual dynamic among figure skating pairs? Or does most of the sexual tension among male figure skaters generally come afterwards, in the shower room when somebody drops their soap? “Yeah, it’s really common. Skating is part sport, part art, so there’s a sexuality in skating that brings something to the ice. Whether it improves performances or not, I dunno, I guess it depends on how the pair’s relationship is going. And I think the public perception with respect to homosexuals and figure skating is a lot more inflated than the reality. I can only think of a couple of gay male skaters competing in pair skating. Obviously there are gay figure skaters, but there are gay hockey players and football players too. It’s really more a stereotype than anything.”

Where you can taste his amazing new coffee sensation: Go to teabeancoffee.com to find out.

Last book read: Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, by Howard Schultz.

Musical preferences: The New Cities, Mackenzie First, Commander Keen.

Words of wisdom: “Wise people drink Teabean.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net