By Eliza Ridgeway

joe hu/town crier Tom McBay, owner of Mr. English Coffee Roasting Company, releases freshly roasted beans from his state-of-the-art roaster.

The bean’s the thing at Los Altos’ newest coffee shop, Mr. English Coffee Roasting Company, 325 State St. It offers fresh-roasted coffees from around the world - many organic or fair trade. Weekday mornings, the aroma of crisping beans wafts out the door from the Diedrich roaster the owner calls the world’s best commercial roaster.

High-maintenance coffee-drinkers can order the unusual latte macchiato.

Rich white foam mounded in a pitcher as owner Tom McBay warned that his technique might disappoint. “Half the time I can do it right - it takes a long time to trickle the espresso in,” he said.

The layered drink alternates between velvety steamed milk and black espresso, and comes to the table in a stout glass goblet. For success, a barista needs to get the fat content of the milk just right, and pour with a rock-steady hand.

McBay was using a Guatemalan and Brazilian espresso blend that day, and had just roasted a batch of chocolaty Tanzanian Peaberry beans. Customers wandered in for beans or refills of the drip coffee, which McBay offers all day for half-price. Only open for a month, he has already developed some regulars, and he guesses their orders out loud as they walk in the door.

Latte snobs won’t get the trendy curlicues of cappuccino art at Mr. English, at least not yet. The barista business is only a sideline to McBay’s primary love: roasting.

After growing up in Los Altos, McBay followed his wife, Itsuko Kumazaki, to Japan, where he taught English and, frustrated with the beans available in his region, imported a personal stash of fresh coffee. Impressed students who sipped his roasts inspired McBay to start a coffee business, with the jocular moniker “Mr. English.” That business continues in the hands of McBay’s partner.

McBay started working in the industry as a teenager in Los Altos 25 years ago, working at Tea & Spice. “It made such an impression on me, I’ve been a lover of coffee ever since,” McBay said. He recalled discovering, at 15, that drinking a couple of cups of coffee made him feel really, really happy, even mopping the floors at closing.

Despite the business’ emphasis on whole beans, the McBays have taken pride in the service and quality of their espresso. Iced coffee is served with frozen coffee cubes instead of ice (decaf or caffeinated), and McBay prices his drinks according to how long it takes to make them, in the name of eliminating lines in his shop.

When pressed for a fulsome description of a type of coffee, McBay refrains from adopting the complex nomenclature of a gourmand. “I’m not good at describing a taste, like a sommelier,” he said. “In my opinion it’s all a bunch of hogwash,” he said. At the same time, he passionately describes the qualities of the coffee he loves, like the sour earthy Columbian roasts, and the acidic smooth taste of Hawaiian Kona.

McBay likened his coffee business to the creation of the perfect steak: “You use the filet mignon of the coffee world, and you cook it the best way you know. Keep it simple like that.”

He hopes that Mr. English will provide a comfortable home to longtime residents, who can appreciate the quick service, ample seating and lack of fussiness of his roastery.

He’s willing to fine-tune roasts to customer’s special requests, but he draws the line at the Robusta beans (”It’s a nasty, inferior coffee.”) often mixed into chain coffee houses’ blends.

The beans at Mr. English come from the San Francisco wholesale company Knutsen Coffees Ltd. and through McBay’s personal connections. He has a shipment coming in from a farmers’ collective in El Salvador.

McBay stocks organic baked goods from Esther’s German Bakery of Mountain View and unusual chocolate bars. He just started carrying Mark Jensen’s home-raised honey from Los Altos Hills.

Kanako Mesgarzadeh, who runs Los Altos’ mobile pet spa, hangs portraits of her clients on one wall. Viewpoints Gallery art decorates other walls. Mr. English also stocks Los Altos inventor Alan Adler’s coffee-making Aeropress, and McBay plans to expand a retail area of the store.

Mr. English is open 7:30 a.m.-7 p.m., Monday through Saturday. For more information, call 941-4756 or visit www.mre-coffee.com.