Mitalena Coffee shows importance of roastingbeans worldwide

While many people are enjoying that fresh cup of coffee first thing in the morning, Misako and Burhan Ajouz are busy heating up their roasters at Mitalena Coffee - getting ready to roast the beans that go into every cup.

Based in Houston,Mitalena Coffee,by United Intertrade,Inc. is a coffee roasting business that specializes in roasting, blending and packaging specialty coffee for wholesale and retail businesses, restaurants and coffee shops.

Since 1987, Mitalena has been offering a broad selection of coffee beans from all over the world, from Kenya to Costa Rica, Guatemala and Indonesia.

“When we came back to the United States from Saudi Arabia after three years,and since we always enjoyed coffee very much, we decided to try the coffee business, first specializing in ethnic coffees such as Turkish and Greek Mediterranean coffee,” Misako Ajouz said.”As time went on, this attempt evolved into becoming a company that sells not only ethnic coffee but also all aspects of coffees.We have since branched out to stores likeWal-Mart and HE-B grocery stores under the brand name of Café Don Pedro which we purchased a few years back.”

Ajouz said their coffee roasting process is based on a European roasting system where coffee is slow-roasted in batches and then air-cooled. Mitalena’s eight-member team begins the roasting process early in the morning inside the business’s 16,000-square-foot factory working with four roasters. She said the process is very important because it can affect the aroma, strength and boldness of the coffee.

Mitalena offers more than 90 flavored coffees. Ajouz said the Colombian and Kenyan coffees are very popular and the Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is the most expensive variety.

Ajouz hopes to go nationwide with the coffee business, but so far it has been a slow process.”We are still a small company but we have expanded in Texas and into Louisiana and Oklahoma but our next step will be to trying to go nationwide as well as international,” she explained.

What does Mitalena mean?”Mitalena is named afterour three children,Mike,Tarek and Lena.”- Misako AjouzFor more information visitwww.mitalenacoffeeWhat does Mitalena mean? .com”Mitalena is named after our three children, Mike, Tarek and Lena.” - Misako Ajouz For more information visit www.mitalenacoffee.com

“We transport coffee beans from all over the world. At present, we are negotiating with businesses from the Middle East, especially from the Gulf Area, to export our coffees in that region of the world. We plan to be involved in the fair trade business and help support coffee producing farmers to raise their standard of living by earning fair wages.”

Ajouz’s husband, Burhan, also known as ‘Coffee Bob’ has a daily blog on the company’s Web site where he communicates with people who have questions about the coffee industry.

United Intertrade, Inc. has been a WBE for the last five years, is a member of the Specialty Coffee Association of America and the Texas Historically Underutilized Business Program, and is a federally certified 8(a) member.