My conversation with Doug Graf spans his entry into a family roasting business to learning how to navigate complex roaster and roasting machines problems over the phone. Doug has been diagnosing, repairing, installing and helping roasters past 2 decades and the secret to his long career is a constant learning mindset.
Will Chacon- Banging the Drum for Wilmington Coffee
Will Chacon founded the Wilmington Coffee Fest over 5 years ago. What started as a coffee crawl for locals to try out different shops and roasters has evolved to a 2 day festival attracting professionals and consumers alike. Will started a small coffee shop in front of his drum studio as a way to keep the parents entertained while their kids banged away. Now he’s working in coffee full time and bang the drums for the local coffee scene. Please enjoy this episode!
Joe Morrocco - Hedgehogs and Relationships
Long time coffee educator, green trader, roaster and all around coffee guy, Joe joins me to talk about his pathway through coffee. From origin trips as a teenager to leading a growth organization, how to maintain relationships in coffee on all sides of the equation and going home at night knowing he did his best to create fair and equitable solutions for all parties.
Lucas Venturim - Solving the Robusta Riddle
Lucas and his extended family have been growing coffee in Brazil for 5 generations, dating back to 1872. Early on, they focused on arabica, but government programs and the market began to change in the 1960’s and they began growing robusta. In the mid 2000’s, Lucas began his experiments with various post harvest processing methods to learn expand the flavor profiles and within 10 years, had developed a market for his micro lots of amazing robusta coffees. Today his journey continues and Fazenda Venturim coffees are now known around the world. Listen in to his journey.
Sara Gibson - Finding your North Star
Talking with Sara Gibson on her path into coffee and how she took the leap to not only start her own coffee company, but Rising Tide co-roasters as well. Helping women in coffee throughout the chain is paramount for her company and defining a North Star keeps her on track to fulfill her coffee and life mission and values.
Brandon Bir - We Need More Hippies
I’m talking today with Brandon Bir about finding his path from farming community to the coffee community. How he’s learned to have a voice inside a company that advocates for producers, sustainability and his own personal values. And why we need more hippies.
Anne Cooper - Australia
I always learn something when talking to Anne and often, it’s the really simple things that resonate. He understanding of the depths of coffee roasting seem infinite, but at the end of the day, it’s about knowing what you as a roaster want to achieve that’s most important. Anne and I are also both swimmers and while she prefers the open waters off the coast of Sydney, I prefer the fish-less predictability of a lap pool.
Allen Leibowitz - Houston
Allen Leibowitz, Pit Crew Coffee Service, has been around coffee for almost 20 years, first as an espresso junkie, then roaster, coffee shop owner and now owns a tech service company operating out of both Houston and New Orleans.
Stephen Houston - Belfast
I interview roaster and fellow Coffee Roasters Guild member Stephen Houston on how he got into coffee, his career trajectory and roasting filter vs. espresso from the same beans.
Agaseke Women's Coffee Group - Rwanda
I interview Ruth Church, Moses Mbonimpaye and Esperance Uwamahoro from their operations in Rwanda. Esperance is the president of the women’s group of growers under the Agaseke Cooperative.