Local Hero: Beverage artisan, nonalcoholic
An interview with Jesus Zamora and Grey Smith, owners
Grey Smith and Jesus Zamora at Slow Burn Coffee. Photo by Stephanie Cameron.
“We want to build a sustainable business that supports small farms, our employees, and our community, and the reality is that is what shows up in the cup,” says Grey Smith, chief roaster and co-owner of Slow Burn Coffee. Smith credits his dad with teaching him to love good coffee. That interest, along with knowing he wanted to be an entrepreneur, inspired his first coffee venture, Prismatic Coffee. He first crossed paths with Jesus Zamora more than a decade ago, when Zamora was working at Anodyne and Smith came in to play pool. Their friendship became a business partnership when they opened Slow Burn Coffee in a beautiful adobe building in Albuquerque’s Wells Park neighborhood.
How did Slow Burn come to be?
Zamora: Grey approached me in 2019 about becoming a partner in his previous business, Prismatic Coffee. Initially, I wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea of becoming involved in another business, but I’ve known Grey for years and our skill sets really complement each other, so I was willing to give it serious consideration. It quickly became clear that it made more sense to partner up on a new business, and in 2020 we signed a lease on a new location for Slow Burn Coffee.
Though not on an altar, the coffee roaster occupies a central space at the coffee shop, and last year Food & Wine named Grey Smith the best roaster in New Mexico. What makes for an exceptional cup of coffee?
Smith: An exceptional cup of coffee starts with the farmer and the quality of coffee being grown. We source the highest-grade green coffee available to us and do our best to roast to profile.
Preparing espresso and iced pour-over at Slow Burn Coffee.
Photos by Ungelbah Dávila.
Early on, I homed in on a few different countries of origin that I prefer the flavor profiles of and that respond well to my style of roasting. I go through a couple distribution channels that have curated selections available. My baseline requirement is that it must be specialty-grade coffee that comes from small farms. I really like Ethiopian, Colombian, and Salvadoran coffees.
This edible award is about the coffee, but fans of the coffee shop also talk about the light. What informed your choices in designing the space, and why did you choose this building?
Slow Burn is in a very special building in the Wells Park neighborhood of Albuquerque. The building will soon be one hundred years old and has historically served the community in many iterations, including a general store, photography studio, architectural firm, and even a former café! We wanted Slow Burn to feel authentically New Mexican and were lucky enough to find an old adobe building that hit all the marks.
Where else can readers find your coffee, and who makes those beautiful cups?
We offer wholesale services and you can find our coffee at Three Sisters Kitchen, Poulin Marketplace, Happy Accidents, Chocolate Dude and Coffee Too!, and The Shop Breakfast & Lunch. Grey reached out to Hanselmann Pottery in Corrales about making custom cups for us and we are very happy with what they’ve produced. In fact, we just placed another order and will soon have some available for sale at Slow Burn.
Jesus Zamora is also the owner of Sister, a bar and music venue near the KiMo Theatre on Central. Do you have a vision for downtown Albuquerque? What would you like to see more of?
Zamora: I’d love to see downtown Albuquerque embraced as an entertainment district and think that a greater density of venues, bars, and restaurants would make downtown feel safer.
Drinking coffee, like making it, can be a practice, a ritual, a ceremony. How and where do you take yours, and what, if anything, do you pair it with?
Zamora: We like to keep it simple. Most days I’m drinking a cortado with whole milk, and Grey typically drinks drip coffee black. However, I do love and highly recommend an iced pour-over in the summer.
Anything else you’d like to share with edible readers?
Be on the lookout for a second location in 2024!
821 Mountain NW, Albuquerque, 505-503-7790, slowburncoffee.com
