On August 23rd and 24th, I hosted eight coffee ceremonies in San Francisco alongside Neel Khare.
Our ceremonies were hosted in a well-care for victorian home owned by the SF Zen Center.
We brought in wood slabs from Ponderosa Millworks, beautiful ceramics from Yeogi-Damki, glassware from Peter Dupont and Breanna Box, handmade mulberry paper, and custom drawings from Neel’s friend, among other items.
Thanks to Agniv Sarkar, one of our attendees, for taking some of these wonderful images.
Testimonials
Here are just a few testimonials from our first ceremony.
These were the words (other than words like “coffee” and “food”) which showed up most frequently in people’s responses (in order of their frequency):
- Community
- Intentionality/Intention
- Grounded/Grounding
- Peaceful/Peace/Calm
- Beautiful/Thoughtful
- Meaningful
- Connection
- Learning/Learned
- Slow/Slowness
Loved the intentionality and craft behind the entire ceremony! It gave me space to slow down and observe. Love the pairings and flavors as well! – Jonathan
thank you for giving us space to save or something. We rushed through the day doing. – Audrey
I’m so used to coffee being a rushed experience – a means to an end. It was so peaceful and humbling to sit with the steps it takes for a cup to come into our hands. Bringing people together without the disingenuity of networking or transactions is so powerful and you both did it in such a memorable and fun way. Zero notes on the pastries – marmalade was 1000 out of 10. Honored to have been part of the first ceremony, which we had ended with the meditation like we had started with thank you to the guy on dishes. – Anisha
Thank you for having me at the face. The peach heart was one of the best desserts I’ve ever had. – Shubh
Thank you for such a beautiful experience. I could tell that everything was super well planned and care for. Hope to visit your guys restaurant and café shop real soon. Wishing you both the best of luck. – Aditi
The details of this experience were very special – of course, the full body beans, brewing process, gorgeous, and tasteful, dessert, pairings, the rustic environment, and dishes! Appreciate the hard work you put into the aesthetic and creation of this coffee ceremony! Really excited to see where you take this and what you do next – thank you for inviting me into the space. – Soufia
Thank you for such a lovely and well thought out/curated morning! The food brought out the notes and the coffee. Learned a lot! Great sense of community as well – so great.
San Francisco NEEDS an experience like this. It’s so go dash go-go-go, people are craving places to slow down and spend quality time with people. We need more people like Neel plus Ben. Please keep this going! – Sarin
Phenomenal experience.
Much like a dialed in espresso, the ceremony, pairings, coffee beans, conversation, ambience blended together with the best aroma. The intentionality for the ceramic,s paper and every other small elements showed your choices, intentions, and depth of information. Keep crushing it!
Thank you for hosting this moment with such a clear intention. Hope it was a learning experience for you both as it was for me. Keep it up! – Helen
Thank you for a slow, insightful, warming. More than having all the yummy coffee, I definitely enjoyed the conversation, connection, and comfort that the group offered. Looking forward to more events and opportunities to connect! – Divija
Neel & Ben, this was incredible. Thank you for creating this experience. It showed me once again how it all comes down to how you make people feel. I felt cared for and special. Love the set up parentheses what is a brilliant idea parentheses, coffee bites were so good. Looking forward to the next one. – Zebo
Thank you for an amazing experience, introducing us to different types of coffees. The pairings from Ben were truly magical. It was an amazing place for a great conversation. Good luck and looking forward to your cafe next year. – Aravind
Very glad to have been a part of this awesome experience. I appreciated the knowledge of attention to detail that went into it. I’m excited to visit the restaurant and coffee shop in the future. – Charvi
Thank you for hosting such a thoughtful event, really enjoyed learning about different coffee types, and prep methods, I can now appreciate coffee more than my daily iced latte. Also lovely event space and furniture/ceramic set ups and tasty food pairings. Excited to see what y’all do next! – Hannah
Thank you so much for this wonderful unique experience, Ben and Neil! I really enjoyed learning about the various coffee types and your backstory since it’s the first time I’ve really tried coffee to taste and appreciate it! – Alec
Such a well thought out and masterfully crafted experience. Thank you so much for curing this experience and strong community.
This was the first time in my life. I have felt peaceful drinking coffee. Thank you for providing one of the most interesting experiences of my life.
To me, the most important ingredient in food/drink experiences is memory. The tasting today was a wonderful, memorable experience. Thank you.
Thank you, Neel and Ben for creating a space. We could all slow down, listen, and connected. The world needs more of that and I’m so grateful for what you’ve created. – Rosina
Never thought coffee could be this intimate or mindful. Brought in my horizons tremendously.
I’ve been feeling like my consumption of coffee has been more pragmatic, but this is brought coffee to such a new light for me!
Thank you so much for putting this together in such an intimate setting. The coffee choices were great and the description and stories and pairings were excellent. – Vijay