Santa F‚ Espresso manager Stan Rivera has an unusual background in coffee. He never liked it.

That was until he, with his brother Dwight and sister Bonnie decided to spend a semester in Seattle, researching the still relatively new coffee craze.

“None of us were big coffee drinkers,” Rivera said. “Then we tasted it there and wow … they make it right.

“The freshness and the smoothness is totally different. I still can never get that exact taste like the coffee in Seattle.”

But it wasn’t all coffee shop tours for Rivera and his siblings. While in Seattle, they spent two weeks taking brewing classes from a coffee bean company.

They also researched the layouts of the many coffee shops in the city.

“We learned how to make the perfect espresso, the perfect cappuccino, the perfect latte,” Rivera said. “We really looked into how we wanted to set up. It has a little bit of every coffee shop in Seattle.”

Rivera added that everything in the shop, from the beans to the furniture, is imported from there.

“It has become the coffee capital of the country, if not the world,” he said about Seattle.

The idea of opening a coffee shop came partly from Rivera’s parents, who currently own an Italian restaurant in New York City.

“We learned a lot about customer satisfaction from them,” Rivera said. “We wanted a coffee shop because it’s the new fad.”

Experience isn’t all Rivera and his siblings are taking from their parents’ restaurant. They also took the recipes for some of the popular Italian subs and are serving them at Santa F‚ Espresso.

Other menu items include Italian sodas, hot and cold teas and steamed milk. With the recent plague of cold weather, Rivera said they have made a lot of flavored hot chocolate drinks, adding everything from raspberry to hazelnut flavoring.

Rivera said Santa F‚ Espresso will also feature some of the latest Seattle crazes, including imported cigars.

“Expensive cigars are the next big thing in the coffee shops out there,” he said. “They fit in real nice with the atmosphere.”

Santa F‚ Espresso will experiment with the idea by designating one room for smoking, but only cigars will be permitted.

“A lot of smokers are coffee drinkers. But cigarette smokers drink Folgers, fine cigar smokers want fine coffee drinks.”

Rivera said the secret to any coffee drink is the shot of espresso used to make it.

He named fresh beans, perfect temperature and perfect timing as the key elements to a good drink.

“We keep a close eye on all of our beans,” he said. “Once they are ground, they only stay fresh for a couple of minutes.”

Rivera said that Caffe D’arte, the company that provides their beans, is one of the only places left that traditionally roasts its beans with wood, rather than gas or air.

The company has beat out Starbuck’s and others as the best- tasting coffee the last four years.

“I like to think our prices are very competitive, especially for what we invest in our beans,” Rivera said.

His shop will offer both a coffee- of-the-day and a latte flavor- of- the- day.

Though mixing alcohol with coffee is a new Seattle craze, Rivera said, they have no intentions of getting a liquor license.

Santa F‚ Espresso, 116 Welch, opened Dec. 21 and will be open every day from 6 a.m. to midnight.

“I see Ames as being a big coffee place,” Rivera said. “And in the end, it will all come down to the taste.”