Breakers Coffee + Wine, a bar and coffee shop in Del Mar Highlands Town Center. All photos courtesy of Breakers Coffee Co.
Southern California Coffee Plantation Owner Bluetail Coffee Grove opened a coffee shop, roastery, beer and wine bar in San Diego called Breakers Coffee + Wine.
Kyle Rosa, who planted 1,350 coffee trees in a former palm grove in 2019, now roasts beans grown on farms around the world in a blue Diedrich IR-5 for the coffee drinks at Breakers. The bar, which opened overdue last year in the Del Mar Highlands Town Center, also has beer and wine programs.
Greenery and agriculture are themes throughout the interior, while the roastery occupies a contemporary, barn-like space with rustic wood siding and gigantic windows through which customers can watch the production process. Dracaena trees dot the interior, while gigantic white planters containing more than 50 types of plants frame the outdoor patio.
The name Breakers refers to the gesture of breaking the skin with a spoon when drinking coffee. It refers to the blue of the Diedrich coffee machine through the blue slate pillars and the shades of blue/green mixed with shades of brown in the multi-layered, acid-stained concrete floor.
The fully equipped kitchen allows you to prepare fresh breakfasts and California-style dishes such as surf-and-turf burritos, roasted vegetable flatbreads and charcuterie boards, which can be enjoyed with a variety of beverages.
Alongside beer and wine tastings, the menu also includes coffee tastings that encourage sensory exploration of the coffees that Rosa sources from importers in specific regions, such as Colombia. Osito CoffeeGuatemalan-focused Primavera Coffee and Brazilian Fortaleza Organic Farm.
“Our priority is simply to be great storytellers,” Rosa told Daily Coffee News. “We receive the coffee beans at the end of a long journey, so it’s our responsibility to share that journey. As a coffee farmer, I know how much work goes into tending these trees and the high standards that translate into high quality in the cup. These farmers should be celebrated and their stories told.”
The coffees that will soon be available at Bluetail Coffee Grove will have their own stories.
“We had a frost the first winter and I lost about 35 percent of the trees,” Rosa told DCN. “I replanted the trees that were lost and added another 300. We lost another 30 percent the next winter because of a windstorm that brought winds of over 50 miles per hour for two days in a row. I replanted the trees that were lost and added a few hundred more, which gives us about 1,800 trees now.”
Breakers Coffee Co. Founder, Kyle Rosa.
Seedlings for the farm came from California-based Frinj Coffee and were planted on a 4-acre (1.6-hectare) plot of a 50-acre (20-hectare) plantation in San Marcos, California, located in the North County region of San Diego County, at elevations ranging from 200 to 3,000 feet.
To provide wind protection and shade, the coffee plantation is surrounded by avocado trees and fan palms, and mango trees will soon be planted in the grove as well.
Bluetail Coffee Grove, where the first coffee trees were planted in 2019.
Rosa expects the farm’s first harvest to occur in overdue summer and fall, with Frinj Coffee handling post-harvest processing to ensure the greens are ready to roast by the end of the year.
Breakers Coffee & Wine is now open 12843 El Camino Real, Ste 205, in San Diego. Tell DCN editors about your recent café or roastery here.
Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the deputy editor of Daily Coffee News at Roast Magazine. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
