Wilkerson chases the perfect cup of coffee too
Before he pursues any flies, OF brews — from scratch
NEW YORK — Early Monday morning, before the Orioles began a brutal stretch of four games in 48 hours against the New York Yankees, eyes were already heavy when they arrived in the clubhouse.
It was the type of day when morning routines go straight out the window, unless you are do-it-all Orioles player Stevie Wilkerson.
YANKEES 6, ORIOLES 5
For Wilkerson, every day that might end with him lobbing in 60 mph floaters on the mound begins with a scratch-made cup of coffee brewed with so much equipment that he sometimes needs to bring a second bag on the road.
It’s not because he needs the caffeine as much as several years ago, when he was grinding it out at High-A Frederick. He simply needed a hobby.
“I definitely enjoy a cup before I get on an 8 o’clock bus,” Wilkerson said. “I love drinking a cup of coffee on the way in, but it’s definitely more of a hobby than a necessity.”
Wilkerson credits Brian Guzman, then the trainer at Frederick and now with Double-A Bowie, for sparking his interest in brewing coffee. Guzman was extolling the
“All the freshly roasted beans and stuff like that, they all have very different flavor profiles, and it’s kind of fun to toil around with beans from South America, Ethiopia, and taste how much different they really are.”
virtues to someone else with the team when Wilkerson overheard and asked about how it all worked.
“I got kind of interested, and ordered my first pour-over set, the dripper and the kettle and everything; started picking out my own beans — the freshly roasted beans,” Wilkerson said. “That’s what started to get me into it.”
The next year with Bowie, Wilkerson’s host family was in Falls Church, Virginia. It’s a long way from Prince George’s Stadium, but it was right near Rare Bird Coffee Roasters. Wilkerson found himself there every morning, talking to their roasters “and watching them do their thing when they were tasting their new beans and trying to pull the notes out of it,” he said.
Wilkerson, 27, hasn’t received any formal training — they’re known as cupping classes, not unlike a wine-tasting course — but he knows his stuff.
“All the freshly roasted beans and stuff like that, they all have very different flavor profiles, and it’s kind of fun to toil around with beans from South America, Ethiopia, and taste how much different they really are,” Wilkerson said.
He always traveled with the proper equipment, a setup that now includes a dripper, a carafe for multiple cups at once, plus an electric kettle, a coffee bean grinder and scales.
“It fills up the suitcase a little bit, but it’s definitely worth it,” Wilkerson said.
The kind of coffee he was looking for was only available once he climbed through the minors and reached the big cities. That opened up his horizons to some of the best java spots across the country.
“Each road trip, I’d go on Yelp and find a coffee shop that looked appealing to me and stop in and grab a bag. Then I started collecting the bags and stuff too,” he said. “That became a hobby on the road.”
The bags of coffee became part of the charm. Once he had enough, he gave them to his mother, Kathy, to make an art installation that now adorns his apartment wall right next to his coffee station.
With his road setup, however, every hotel room he stays in has a coffee station. And while it’s not for a wide customer base at this point, it’s open for business.
“On multiple occasions this season, I’ve brought an extra cup on the bus for somebody or had somebody stop by the room if they ask, but I try to keep it on the low so the line doesn’t get too long,” he said. “(Former Orioles player) Joey (Rickard) was really into it earlier on this year, and (pitcher) Branden Kline definitely has stopped by for a few cups as well. (John Means) loves it too — we always run into each other at coffee shops on the road as well. We never plan it, but we’ve probably sat down10 times this year at random coffee spots across the country. It’s been fun.”