Not many coffee professionals can say they wielded a machete while leading expeditions to unearth Mayan ruins, but that’s exactly the case with Martin Diedrich, who just opened a second branch of Kean Coffee in Tustin with wife Karen.
Diedrich grew up on his family’s coffee farm in the Guatemalan highlands and studied to become an archaeologist at the University of Texas. He was on his way to becoming a real-life Indiana Jones, but his parents needed his support, so he left the jungle to help lead his family’s coffee company. They started Diedrich Coffee in an Orange County garage using his father’s handcrafted roaster. In 1986, Martin opened a retail coffeehouse in Tustin. By December 2004, when he resigned from Diedrich Coffee, the company had grown to be a 200-outlet chain. One year later, Martin and wife Karen resurfaced in Newport Beach, naming their coffeehouse in honor of son Kean. Two weeks ago, in phoenix-like fashion, they opened a second Kean Coffee on the original Tustin site of Diedrich Coffee.
Kean Coffee has a varied drink menu that mimics the Newport original, including specialty beverages and “milk steamers,” but there’s little doubt that the company is grounded in coffee.
While Kean Coffee isn’t a genre-busting company like Intelligentsia, which is propelling the industry to new heights, Kean is still producing better coffee than most Southern California coffeehouses.
During our visit, the café was crowded. The Diedrichs said they’ve been seeing a lot of the same people that used to frequent Diedrich Coffee. Those customers fled when the storefront housed a short-lived Starbucks, but Kean has given them good reason to return.
Blog Comments
Tara
July 25, 2009 at 1:42 AM
LOVE Kean!!!!! The Grasshopper, mmmmmmm!
Colleen
May 13, 2009 at 1:52 PM
While visiting my son this past weekend, he took me to Kean’s. Wow! Amazing coffee. Delicious, no bitterness, smooth-tasting. I can’t wait until my next visit. Next time I’ll bring back some beans to brew at home in Arizona.
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