Latest / Coffee People Podcast / S5:15 - Nick Berardi, Mostra Coffee Company Part 2

Transcript

S5:15 - Nick Berardi, Mostra Coffee Company Part 2 · Coffee People Podcast

0:00
I'm Andrea. One of the hosts of the voice of
0:03
San Diego podcast, Every week I get together with the other
0:09
editors at voice and explain the news that matters in San Diego
0:13
elections, politics law, enforcement, big investigations,
0:18
and some fun stuff. The great palm tree debate,
0:21
ranked Choice, voting bike lane Mania.
0:24
It's great journalism and a lot of fun, every Friday, wherever
0:28
you, listen to podcast again, that's voice of San Diego.
0:42
Hey, good morning everyone. Welcome to season 5 episode, 15
0:46
of the roast West Coast coffee podcast.
0:49
I'm Ryan Walton. This is the show where I bring
0:51
you the stories of coffee professionals entrepreneurship
0:54
and coffee education. This is the second of our two
0:57
part interview. With Nick Berardi, the 2022 u.s.
1:01
roasting champion and head Roaster.
1:03
At most, your coffee company, He joined the show from Hawaii
1:07
earlier this year where he was enjoying the perks of being the
1:10
u.s. roasting champion and starting to think about the
1:13
world roasting championships which are in Milan Italy later
1:16
this week June 23rd through the 25th Nick in the most, her team
1:20
will be there representing the United States which dovetails
1:24
nicely into the final portion of this interview in which we
1:27
really go through. Nick's competition, experience
1:30
how he made his roasting plan personal and what being part of
1:33
a team means to him. Follow at most, your coffee on
1:37
Instagram to see stories from Italy and go to moisture
1:40
coffee.com to see all of the roasted coffees they have on
1:43
offer. And if you haven't heard of the,
1:45
most your experience, be sure to click that tab.
1:48
The 2022. Experience event isn't until
1:50
October, but it's already on my calendar.
1:53
Now, you can find those links in this shows notes or subscribe to
1:57
the newsletter on Rose to westcoast.com.
2:01
I'm on the road camping right now.
2:02
So there is a good, a very good chance that I'm heating up some
2:06
water on the camp stove and getting ready to make an arrow.
2:08
Press coffee from a nearby local roaster.
2:12
It's officially summer. But this week my wife and I are
2:14
camping above 5000 feet of elevation.
2:17
So the mornings are still cool. Making this Fireside coffee.
2:21
All the more enjoyable. This is one of my coffee.
2:24
Happy places. Where are your coffee?
2:27
Happy places. I hope you're there now with
2:30
your Favorite coffee drink and you're getting ready to get the
2:33
full Championship roaster experience because it is time
2:36
for the second and final part of this interview.
2:39
With the champ. Nick Berardi had roaster of
2:42
moisture Coffee Company. Yeah, it's sorry.
3:00
I went off on a little tangent there.
3:02
No, no. I what I'm wondering really is
3:05
kind of, you know, what you did win.
3:09
So what do you what goes into that?
3:13
That we don't necessarily see from the outside.
3:15
Obviously, the prep but like when you're actually there that
3:17
That day in the time that you have, you know, what is that?
3:21
That moment, like it mean how, how many batches are you
3:25
roasting it? Like is it?
3:26
It's not like you're doing 25 batches I'm assuming.
3:30
Yeah, it is funny though. This even, you know, they're
3:33
saying, you know, we don't know what's going on.
3:34
He said, what was that day? Like, it was basically three
3:37
full days of basically working. So, I miss the orientation on
3:44
Wednesday evening because I bought my flight as soon as you
3:47
asked Was announced and the Orient, the online learning
3:51
session. Before the competition, they
3:52
said that orientation be Wednesday evening.
3:55
But I showed up early at about 6 a.m. on Thursday to meet with
3:58
Sheila, from the sca u.s. coffee championships.
4:01
And she was super awesome and showed me around showed me
4:05
where, you know, the tent outside in Boston and the 40 to
4:08
50 degree weather with the roasters was and and the area
4:12
where the judges would be, where the green grade, and competition
4:15
would be in where the, the roasters cupping.
4:17
The area was and and then from there that Thursday morning they
4:23
had it set up to where the first stage of the competition.
4:27
The sample roasting where you're given 600 grams of the
4:30
competition coffee and 40 minutes on The Roaster.
4:34
Everybody was scheduled at the same time of day for their roast
4:37
sessions. So I roasted on Thursday and on
4:41
Friday and on Saturday, all my roasts were at about 115 to 130
4:46
in the afternoon. So, People who are roasting at
4:49
7:30 in the morning, we're still dealing with the same condition
4:53
7:30 basically, every day of the week as long as the weather was
4:56
consistent. So the the competition committee
4:59
for the roasters, the judges and volunteers, did an amazing job
5:02
of mitigating any exigent circumstances as they could.
5:06
But I had my opportunity to just hang out and wait until I
5:11
roasted Thursday at about 1:30 in the afternoon and I met a lot
5:15
of the other competitors. A lot of them have brought
5:17
coffee. Vic coffee with themselves.
5:19
So it cop got to know a handful of people went out and you know,
5:24
prior to going out for my sample, roast, people were
5:26
talking to you. We you know, I'm going to do two
5:29
batches at 300 grams each or I'm going to do one batch at 600
5:34
grams and I had only roasted 500 to 600 G batches in my
5:39
preparation for the competition. I was because the the old manual
5:45
that I had taken a look at was based on the previous Roaster
5:48
manufacturer. And so the sample mass that I
5:52
assumed we were going to be giving was 500 grams.
5:55
So I thought, okay well I'm not going to be able to roast, 250
5:59
grams and get to roast in a stronghold that's too low to hit
6:02
the sensor just by that much. But the committee, the judges
6:07
realize this before the competition and put out an
6:09
update prior to sample, roasting beginning that we were going to
6:12
be giving 600 grams of coffee. So I was back and forth during
6:16
the day, but when I went out to the 10, for my sample roast, I
6:18
ended up going to 300 G batches since I knew that I wasn't going
6:23
to have a very strong grasp on. How what, the, what the metrics,
6:28
you know, halogen it nine or what?
6:31
You know, the adjustments on the actual roaster needed to be for
6:34
such small batches because I hadn't done it before.
6:37
I just figured that, I would roast the coffee to be super
6:41
light and fast. And then one really low and slow
6:45
medium plus batch other people took different Just some people
6:48
did a more traditional sample, Rose, some people did for to
6:51
300. Some people just did a 600 G
6:55
batch, because at the end of the competition, at the end of the
6:58
day, on Saturday, we all had to hand in one full pound of coffee
7:02
to the judges for them to Cup and so a 600 gram batch would
7:06
easily yield that. So competing mindsets bow that
7:10
you know, pros and cons. If you do two smaller batches,
7:14
you get to experience more of what the coffee has to offer.
7:17
If you, Did one larger batch you get to see how the coffee would
7:20
roast at a potential production profile.
7:23
So everybody took a different things to it and different
7:26
things away from that quick question, and I'm going to plead
7:30
ignorance here, that 1 pound bash that you turn in.
7:33
Is that a combination of the three days that you're roasting,
7:36
or the different batches or is it separate batches as we walk
7:40
through, how the competition went for all the roasters, you
7:44
know, the kind of that will be more elucidated but that was the
7:48
That I did Saturday. So my Thursday was just sample,
7:51
roasting over the first two days, Thursday and Friday.
7:55
They split competitors out for green grading coffee, which is
7:59
something that people do for Q grading.
8:02
But we're given an evaluation sheet where we have to measure
8:04
the moisture dense and the moisture of the coffee, the
8:06
density of the coffee judge, the color of the coffee.
8:09
This is all green. The the Greek, the color of the
8:12
unroasted coffee, the aroma, the odor of unroasted coffee, then
8:17
then use a screens to size grade, the coffee and then pick
8:23
out defects and that part of the competition for me, almost cost
8:27
me the whole thing because that was a 24-point score sheet 18
8:32
points of it was a defect section and I think I got 11 out
8:35
of 18 on the defects section that goes to again, what I was
8:38
saying about, even though I won the competition, I'm still
8:41
relatively a novice roaster because I was looking at any
8:45
being that potentially had any Damage and categorizing that as
8:49
partial insect damage, that's not how it works.
8:52
A lot of aspects with how the roasters competition is set up
8:55
is to make sure that you don't accidentally do the best.
9:00
So they like, I'll talk about the roast plan late and a couple
9:04
seconds, but there's no way to accidentally roast the best
9:08
coffee. I guess, I would say in this
9:10
competition, my green grading. I did not do very well on and
9:14
that's what I'm going to practice a lot for be if before
9:17
Milan Lawn coming up in June, the green grading session, I was
9:21
in the room with a Rudy from Ultimate, do from a loose to
9:25
Eleuthera coffee. Hi Rudy.
9:27
And he was done in like 12 minutes and he was the only
9:30
person to get a perfect score on it.
9:32
And I asked him about it, not only is the acute greater, but
9:36
anytime he wants to go buy coffee, he just drives to a farm
9:38
in Mexico and actually grades the coffee himself.
9:41
So he just finishes. So old hat for him.
9:44
For me, I definitely need to practice on the vision of what
9:48
actually is, because again, I was picking out things like
9:51
thinking. Okay, well, this doesn't look
9:52
that great. I'm going to throw it in the
9:54
defect pile and that's not the Precision that the competition
9:59
calls for the, the, the competition calls for the
10:01
Precision of knowing is this a withered being?
10:05
Or is this a immature being? And if you look at the typical
10:09
SCA defect chart, they look pretty close to the same.
10:12
But there are some distinct differences.
10:14
More like a bean. Can have like a fold in it.
10:18
That would either look like a withered Bean or potentially
10:21
look like insect damage and in the end not actually be
10:24
considered a defect. So that's something that I ran
10:27
into with that. I didn't do my green grading
10:29
until Friday. So I roasted my sample on
10:32
Thursday and then kind of took an idea whenever we were
10:38
executing any part of the competition as a roaster, one of
10:41
the judges or the volunteers would escort us.
10:45
So we got our coffee inside at the Expo and They Carried an
10:49
outside with us to The Roaster and set it down where another
10:53
judge then took over, just to make sure nobody was doing any
10:55
hanky-panky with the coffee or anything like that.
10:58
And then we were given five minutes to prep The Roaster. 40
11:01
minutes to roast and four and five minutes to clean up our
11:05
area. And then we were escorted back
11:07
inside with the roasted coffee and encoded bag to hand in the
11:12
next day. On Friday.
11:14
We were Able to cup are roasted coffee.
11:17
That was the coffee that was for the competition.
11:20
So it was a washed Columbia, and one of the things I learned from
11:24
other competitors, is, look at the sponsors of the competition.
11:27
The sponsor of the roasters competition for green coffee,
11:31
was a lie coffee. And so, almost all the other
11:34
Roasters knew it was either going to be a Colombia or Brazil
11:37
and that the competition probably wasn't going to give us
11:39
a Brazil. So I learned that a little too
11:42
late. I'd practiced with like Like
11:45
some Ethiopia, some, some El Salvador, some Papa New Guinea,
11:49
just all types of stuff, but that was the coffee that were
11:52
given for the sample roast and at the end for the for the final
11:56
production Rose. So we copped and I figured out a
12:00
couple different things about how I wanted to present my
12:05
coffee to the judges and the green grading was actually done
12:09
with different coffee. It was not the competition
12:11
coffee so that we wouldn't be able to glean.
12:14
Any information from Green grading, the coffee that might
12:17
inform how we want to roast coffee.
12:20
So, Captain Captain cup, I think a cup, my own coffee four times
12:26
on Friday. And then I did my green grading
12:31
and then we did our practice roast, the practice row session.
12:35
I did right after my green grading session, and that was a
12:39
session where we were given another different coffee.
12:42
That was not the competition coffee.
12:44
This one was also a washed Columbia though.
12:47
And this one I guess the idea behind the this practice roast
12:51
was. You have 40 minutes on The
12:53
Roaster to basically do like a proof of concept.
12:56
So, at that point, everybody had cut their coffee, you can go out
13:00
there with a similar coffee and say, hey, if I roast it like
13:03
this, like, am I going to be able to stick to my graph?
13:07
And then, once we roasted that coffee, they took it away from
13:10
us. We never saw it again.
13:12
I think they donated to charity. So we had Idea of the actual
13:16
taste attributes that roast would give us other than what we
13:19
were informed of as Roasters with our experience.
13:22
So that was day, two green grading cupping, and practice
13:26
roasting. And then the evening after day
13:30
to going into basically all morning for day three was I was
13:35
writing out the roast plan. So the sample roast was not
13:39
scored that was just for us to be able to taste the competition
13:43
coffee the Has roast was not scored.
13:46
That was just for us to be able to kind of see what we might
13:49
want to do is the profile. The green grading was scored and
13:53
the roast plan was scored. The rose plan itself.
13:57
Had a couple different scored categories.
14:00
The back side of the sheet was where you had to mark on an
14:04
intensity scale, what you thought, your sweetness, your
14:08
body and I think it was acidity would be on the coffee that you
14:13
had yet to roast. And then I also wrote about
14:16
three paragraphs about the aroma fragrance and taste would be for
14:21
the coffee. I had yet to roast and then they
14:24
score the all that stuff on accuracy from.
14:27
When they cut the coffee, the front side of the sheet is you
14:30
have to write out. There's a little section where
14:33
you can write your rose plan but you have you get scored on your
14:35
start. Wait, you're finished, wait,
14:37
your color scale reading for whole being and green coffee.
14:44
Start temperature and finish temperature, that did really
14:47
well on the rose plan, nailed my, I think I don't remember,
14:52
right? I missed points on the on the
14:54
color meter thing because again, I'm a newer roaster and we
14:58
didn't have, we didn't have a color meter, most your before
15:00
this competition. So using one of those, to guess
15:05
the difference between the color of whole being and roasted
15:08
coffee was not her ground coffee, rather was not something
15:12
that I had. Audience with.
15:14
But there is going to be if something scores like a 68 on a
15:19
color scale, for roasted coffee. The difference is not always
15:24
linear, so it's not always going to score like a 58 on a ground
15:29
grind color. If you roasted a really fast, it
15:32
might score like a 50 for a lighter lower color.
15:35
If you roast it, a long slow and low, it might even be up to
15:39
closer to within a few points of the other coffee.
15:42
That's another thing that I learned.
15:43
And I didn't miss many points on that part though.
15:47
They the next part was the final roast and that was the part
15:52
where I felt like I should have been nervous but I wasn't.
15:56
I was wondering if if in that final roast you could feel the
16:00
clock ticking down so to speak. You know, the tension of the
16:04
moment, you do you feel that? Are you, are you feeling that
16:06
competition or are you just in your own head?
16:10
No. I mean, I was just there,
16:11
there's just roasting coffee. Yeah.
16:13
There's certain things that will make you nervous in life and,
16:16
you know, we all have our different foibles.
16:18
I have trouble feeling shame but also, I was one of those
16:24
annoying kids back in school. Who is a good Test taker,
16:27
everybody hates that kind of a kind of guy.
16:30
And so when it came to this competition, it was just another
16:33
test. I did have a little bit of a
16:35
hiccup because I hadn't basically turned off all the
16:40
notifications on my phone on Saturday before my final roast.
16:46
And so I showed up at my scheduled time and submitted my
16:50
roast plan, but they're apparently had a couple hours
16:54
before been announced that delay That something occurred where
16:59
everybody was being pushed back a little bit because I checked
17:02
in and got my coffee and I was escorted out to the tent, I got
17:06
out there and somebody was on my roaster, there were three
17:10
Roasters in the tent. There were all basically the
17:13
same roaster, but talking to the other Roasters.
17:16
We all kind of figured out, are you on rostered water?
17:18
You on roast or three? We all kind of got slight
17:22
differences out of what temperature readings were.
17:25
And so, They offered to me. Oh, you can go on roaster one
17:28
right away and I was like, no, I'm gonna roast on the roaster
17:33
that I wrote my plan for roaster three or different gentleman.
17:37
Had just started roasting the other aspect.
17:40
I forgot to mention about this is that when you go out there,
17:43
you're taking your tray of your empty bags, for your finished
17:47
product, and your discard coffee, and your defect bag and
17:50
and your green coffee in another bag.
17:54
And that's it, you're not allowed to take out notes or any
17:57
technology or anything like that.
17:59
So before I went in to check in for my final roast, I was
18:04
basically just, you know, I called it Bart Simpson inning
18:07
for like the last hour or two before.
18:09
Roasting is just constantly rewriting my recipe of what I
18:13
was going to roast, so I can memorize it so that in between
18:17
the few minute walk from checking into getting out to my
18:21
roast or I could just write it down real quick and I'd be good
18:23
too. No, but because somebody was on
18:25
my roaster and my chaperone went back inside.
18:28
And all the other judges were busy, I asked Emily, whose works
18:33
at Merck on specialty and we've imported some bought some coffee
18:36
from them. She's really awesome.
18:39
I was like, can I like write my stuff down now?
18:42
No, not until you're on The Roaster.
18:43
So I was pacing back and forth for like 20-some minutes, just
18:49
repeating my numbers in my head to try to keep it.
18:53
All fresh 632 grams in 500 62 grams out or 538 G out a yeah
19:01
I'm Rusty on it now, but I was just like and then going through
19:04
the adjustments in my head times of the different temperatures
19:08
when I was going to make adjustments to either the
19:11
halogen the air or the agitation and all that.
19:14
So, that was the part where I got a little stressful during
19:20
those 20 minutes, but once my roaster, Weird, Emily.
19:24
Let me check on to my machine. I got my blank piece of paper
19:27
out, and wrote down my my recipe.
19:29
I looked at it. Yeah, it was the right one.
19:31
So you're going to wake up in like a month in the middle of
19:35
the night and just shout out something from the recipe.
19:38
Alright. 132 grams yeah yeah it already happened.
19:42
One of the reasons why it was easy for me to remember.
19:45
Some of the numbers is because one of the make sure this really
19:49
meant something to me and, you know, we talked a little bit
19:53
earlier about about the experience of dealing with
19:56
slight variability and certain things and I knew what I
20:02
basically wanted, my batch size to be so that I can groom out
20:05
some defects at the coffee because the competition coffee
20:09
had a pretty wide variance in screen size.
20:12
Lots of little guys, lots of big guys but mostly in the middle.
20:14
So I knew I was going to have to sort a lot of that stuff out at
20:17
the end. Since we only had to turn in a
20:19
pound of coffee, I roasted. So I'd have at least enough to
20:23
sort out. Like 70 or 80 grams of coffee if
20:26
I needed to. But instead of just sticking
20:28
with something that was, you know, numbers that could have
20:33
been any numbers. I knew I wanted my start
20:35
temperature to be in the mid 350s in terms of the urn of the
20:38
initial temperature of The Roaster.
20:40
So I want 356 because I grew up 56 Parkview was my childhood
20:44
home. Pick numbers is many numbers
20:47
that made sense without pushing the envelope of what I could
20:51
thermally accomplish two things. Glued 62.
20:54
Because tune second was my dog's birthday and she died last year
21:00
and I was like, yeah, well I will make this mean something.
21:03
Sorry. Yeah, I still get a little
21:05
emotional talking about her butt.
21:08
So those numbers were easy to remember the, the adjustment
21:12
numbers on The Roaster were a little bit more different, but
21:15
once I got out there and wrote everything down, it was just go
21:18
time. And I actually found out
21:22
afterwards that they were videographers kind of flipped
21:26
around the area and catching different shots and things like
21:29
that. I thought they were just
21:30
shooting like, b-roll for use later.
21:33
So, one of them, Karina from saver Brands, who sponsored my
21:36
trip out to Hawaii here, where I'm going too, Do a roasting
21:39
seminar for the, why coffee Association?
21:42
Karina was going around taking some videos.
21:44
And I had met her earlier in the exponent.
21:45
I was just joking with her while I was roasting because I was, I
21:50
was feeling loose and I found out afterwards and I felt like
21:54
man, if I ended up not doing well, the fact that it was on
21:58
Instagram live streaming that it would have looked like this guy
22:02
hasn't taken this. Seriously, I was, but I was just
22:04
feeling loose. So I almost that knowing that I
22:07
ended up placing First place. And I was joking around on the
22:10
video live stream of the competition.
22:12
I felt kind of like, like, you know, put on the cool sunglasses
22:16
kind of thing there for a second.
22:18
I know I'm not. I know that doesn't make it make
22:21
a lick of difference, one way or another, but that was the lead
22:25
up the three days of basically working that were the
22:29
competition to lead up to the huge anticipation.
22:33
We ended up with on Sunday and I've heard this story about how
22:38
you thought somebody else standing up there with you was
22:41
going to win and so you kind of gave them Place.
22:43
Yeah. Yeah you're like oh well their
22:46
name didn't get called so they're going to be the winner.
22:48
So I'm going to fist pump them now because I'm going to get
22:50
called well. So it was interesting.
22:52
I did talk to a lot of other competitors and judges about
22:56
previous competitions and things like that.
22:58
And everybody had talked about how, you know, a lot of times
23:01
Roasters competition would be announced first.
23:04
It doesn't have the spectacle of Other competitions, the Barista
23:07
stage is like a bunch of rock stars.
23:09
You know, Brewers cop draws a lot of eyes because people are
23:13
really interested and Innovative techniques cup tasters.
23:16
My favorite thing to watch that that Ryan competed in is is just
23:20
tension. You know, waiting for somebody
23:22
to go, we got it done but yeah, Roasters, it's all done with
23:27
that. We didn't have crowd service
23:29
this year. There's not a lot of interaction
23:31
or exhibition. So, a lot of times they announce
23:34
it first because I guess most of the attendees just don't really
23:38
pay much attention to it even though we're you know, the
23:41
people who are responsible for a good chunk of flavor and coffee,
23:46
you know, not better. Anything.
23:48
Anyway, what was really interesting though is we took
23:52
the day Ryan and Andy and Paloma Ryan's wife and and you know
23:57
some most recruit people to kind of walk around, we went to a
24:00
place called broadsheet Roasters and Harvard Square.
24:02
Aaron McDougal, one of the competitors who ended up placing
24:05
seventh it's His shop real cool spot.
24:08
We just kind of walked around for a while, showed up at the
24:11
Expo to catch the finals of cup, tasters, championship.
24:15
And as they were setting up for cup, tasters can see behind the
24:19
stage for cup tasters that the judges for Roasters were
24:22
starting another cupping. It was just like, we were all
24:26
just like, wait a minute. What's going on?
24:29
Then they are and II. Never really asked her got final
24:32
word about what it was, whether everything was so close that
24:35
they had To wreak up or there might have been something wrong
24:39
with the first cupping or whatever it may have been.
24:43
But the whole time I'm trying to watch cup tasters, I'm looking
24:46
over at the judges, all be cupping all the coffees and and
24:49
they made they were they were at it for a while to where a lot of
24:54
us Roasters were talking to each other.
24:56
Like what do you think's going on?
24:57
What's this like is this good or is it bad?
25:00
And they were still actually cupping and judging the coffee
25:03
when announcements started the delayed?
25:06
Announcement started for winners of other competitions.
25:10
And so, they did they announce that?
25:13
I don't remember the exact order, but they did a latte art,
25:16
and coffee and good. Spirits and Brewers cup, I
25:19
think. And there was another one they
25:21
announced but about halfway through those other
25:24
announcements. We look back.
25:25
Then some of the other Roasters, had actually gone back and
25:28
gotten the leftover samples of their coffee because the judges
25:31
turn the results in. So, I went back there and I
25:34
grabbed my sample bag. And I popped one in my mouth
25:37
without looking, and it didn't taste very good.
25:41
It had a little little Carboni taste to it and I was just like,
25:47
ah, ask this. I did, I'm sorry.
25:49
I'm censoring my profanity because we swear a lot of work.
25:53
No, no feel free coffee, show sanity.
25:57
And so I went over to where the most recruit were sitting and I
26:00
just put that put my beans in my backpack.
26:03
I was like, yeah, guys, I don't think we got it.
26:05
I do. God made the podium.
26:07
And so I went over to talk to some of the other Roasters and
26:11
they were all everybody was pouring their beans on the
26:13
little table there is no Grinders or brewing equipment at
26:16
all been packed up at that point.
26:17
So so we were all just like looking at the color like eating
26:21
each other's coffees and I was talking to one of the other
26:24
people think was Evan from Elixir coffee, I think he was
26:28
like, I grabbed me your business card while you're grabbing a
26:30
grab your coffee. And so like, I find, you know,
26:33
no harm. So I grabbed my beans and I went
26:35
over and I poured On the table and they looked a lot better
26:38
than I expected. They look pretty good and I
26:41
tasted my coffee and it was I ate a couple more beans and it
26:46
was basically just as sweet as the sweetest coffee.
26:50
I had tasted from anybody else and so I was like a holdup hold
26:54
on now like I guess that whether he had mentioned earlier, there
26:58
was a lot of variants in the beings I missed.
27:01
When I was grooming one of the larger beings that had scorched
27:05
on the face. Little bit and that just ended
27:07
up being the first one that popped in my mouth.
27:09
So I had a complete 180 of like, oh dang I, I might still be in
27:14
this and then they now sit there going to start announcing
27:19
Roasters and so at that point I was kind of turned around, I
27:22
didn't know what to expect and then the guy who I thought was
27:28
going to win it all got an ounce 26 place and that turned me
27:32
around even more. Joe is what he goes by the name
27:35
window. No Yang.
27:36
He's a guy out of Portland, we talked.
27:38
We got to talk some cut, lot of coffee over the weekend as
27:41
super, like one of the smartest coffee people are going to meet.
27:45
He builds his own latte, art robots, and in Orange County
27:49
qualifiers in 2020, he beat second place by, as much as
27:55
second place beat 13th Place. So he basically lap the field
27:58
and qualifiers and when they announced him sixth, I was
28:02
thinking, okay? What else is going on here?
28:06
So I got faked out at that point and then they were going through
28:09
in announcing Andrew. Another Portland guy in Fifth
28:14
and then Evan and force and I was like, oh I actually kept
28:18
with him a couple times like and then they announced that Rudy
28:21
and third nose. I got a couple was Rudy, the
28:23
handful of times announced that Jennifer touka and in second, I
28:28
was like, I cut those her bunch to actually know standing next
28:33
to next to Justin, who owns a a sip coffee and Merced
28:37
California. We had met and Oakland and then
28:39
also in Orange County and talked a little bit over the weekend in
28:43
Boston. So that's when I looked over at
28:46
him and just like, I was like, well, it's all or nothing and we
28:48
fist-bumped because I felt really good about his coffee,
28:52
but then they said my name instead and from there it was
28:55
kind of a blur until I called my dad.
28:58
So, yeah, I expected to perform in a way that I would Be proud
29:04
of myself and be able to learn and grow for the next year's
29:08
competition. And I guess I just had grown
29:11
enough over the past couple of years.
29:13
Roasting, it mostra that I was able to adapt to what I needed
29:17
to do to roast, what the judges would find to be the best
29:20
coffee. Well, it's an incredible
29:22
achievement and in congratulations.
29:25
And then next up in that, that competition path, you mentioned
29:28
earlier is the world championships in Milan and June.
29:32
And I assume that will just be like Called hat since you've
29:37
already done this, you know you already got a Championship under
29:39
your belt, what's one more right?
29:41
Well, there's a lot more to it. The, the world stage has proven
29:45
challenging for a lot of different people in a lot of
29:49
different competitions and and historically, how the United
29:54
States roasting Championship has changed over the years this
29:58
year. I think it probably mirrored the
30:01
world competition more than any other.
30:03
Year, I can't say for certain because I hadn't participated in
30:07
previous year's competitions, it's going to be different, the
30:13
roasters going to be in front of a grandstand.
30:16
There's going to be bleachers of people watching me roast my
30:18
competition roasts. There's going to be single
30:23
origin as well as a blend component to the competition.
30:26
So there's going to be the sponsored coffee and then three
30:29
other coffees to also Rose then also right Rose plan.
30:34
Accurately for and write a blend plan and then get scored on all
30:39
that. In addition to Green grading.
30:41
So it's just taking its, you know, spinal tap.
30:44
It just taking the u.s. cop and kind of turning it up to 11.
30:49
So, there's quite a bit of practice to do to get ready for
30:53
that. The Roaster sponsors for worlds
30:58
are going to be stronghold again, for sample roasting,
31:00
which I'm familiar with now and giessen.
31:03
In which way back at the beginning of my story, the first
31:07
real Roasters that I Apprentice on was 15 kilo giessen with
31:11
Heather back of bird rock. That was one of the first that
31:14
was the first decent to ever hit the United States.
31:17
So the six kilo model that I'll be roasting on in Milan is going
31:22
to be way different. It's going to have some bells
31:24
and whistles. So I'm going to have to hunt
31:26
down some practice time on one of those in the next, you know,
31:30
three or four weeks before I take off.
31:35
But, yeah, it's gonna be great. I've joked around with people.
31:40
It's almost like, it's almost starting to feel like I'm, you
31:42
know, I'm Team USA here. I know that everyone at mostra
31:47
is excited for what you've already done and what just the
31:51
potential of what lays lays ahead and being part of that,
31:55
I'm wondering what role your teammates have and in helping
31:58
you either preparing or guiding you to the event or just to be
32:01
there supporting you because one thing My notice about mostra.
32:06
I don't want to say more than other shops so it's just
32:08
something that's very out front with mostra is that you really
32:12
are are a team. Like there seems to be a lot of
32:14
like engagement and like a team kind of atmosphere which I don't
32:19
want to say isn't like the first thing you notice with other
32:22
Roasters ever it just is seemingly so obvious with
32:25
mostra. Yeah, it's Yeah, I mean it's
32:29
kind of a no man is an island sort of thing, but at the same
32:33
time, you know, this is a lot of companies talk about our family,
32:36
this and that and the other. But I mean, most are really does
32:40
feel like a second family to me and it's especially important
32:43
with family. You know, my family's 2,000
32:46
miles away back in Ohio, or in Michigan and so having that
32:51
support and then it's not just, oh, it feels like family.
32:56
Like for a lot of them, is it? He is family Jill in one of her,
33:00
one of the owners and mostra three of her sisters work at the
33:02
company to of the owners, Bevin, Sam are married and we've been
33:06
together since high school, you know, Mike the fourth owner
33:11
Cooks Family meals for us all the time which are freaking
33:14
amazing because he's cooked a Michelin star restaurants and he
33:17
runs his own private dining called the lab guiding
33:20
experience ownership. Make sure you know that it's not
33:24
just you know most are is family tea.
33:28
IAM do do do do, do you know it's not like that.
33:30
It's a you know when when there's hardships in our lives
33:34
through their talk and you know if we need help, if somebody
33:37
needs covered at work you know whatever it is.
33:40
It's we're all there were, you know all hands on deck for each
33:44
other and all aspects of our lives.
33:45
So that is something that I guess if it's evident as a
33:50
company it's just because it's evident in the people that
33:53
comprise the company that aspect of contribution that I mentioned
33:57
earlier. Really because we care about
33:59
each other. We care about those around us in
34:01
our communities, whether that Community is our household or
34:05
our neighborhood, or our coffee community, that stretches from
34:09
the Philippines, to Yemen to, you know, wherever it may be to
34:13
here in Hawaii where I met an awesome farmer named a Delvin so
34:17
far. And I meet a couple more awesome
34:18
people and his we actually met at K.
34:22
The farmer on that is one year old daughter.
34:25
Lila Lila has birthday yesterday.
34:28
Day and it's just, you know it's that sense of community and
34:31
caring and contributing giving back and supporting each other's
34:36
is that evident thing. And that's really you know the
34:40
same thing with the competition thing is you know I've got we
34:44
all have our own mental foibles and things like that and for me
34:48
in the competition and in the lead-up to the competition part
34:52
of, it was just like I put my blinders in and just zoned.
34:58
I would have been able to do that without people supporting
35:00
the rest of what other. I wise I would have been doing
35:03
or you know with after you know, I take the blinders off and work
35:07
up and coffee with the whole production, team Ryan, I Andy,
35:11
Tim Mike everybody, you know, coming together and, you know,
35:15
you know, not hold back on anything.
35:18
We're all honest with each other, on that stuff.
35:20
So, Yeah, it's a that's a lot of support that's going to kind of
35:25
take me through the next month and through Milan and beyond
35:29
that and it's a good thing. Yeah, very cool.
35:35
Very cool to see from the outside and and and inspiring as
35:41
well. For those of us who have worked
35:42
either in this industry or just in Industries, where we felt
35:45
that that feeling of community and family.
35:49
I already grilled Ryan on kind of what's next for most or
35:51
coffee. So I'm gonna let y'all look at
35:53
that one, just for today but I do want to make sure that I ask
35:56
is if there's anything I didn't ask you today about you or about
36:00
mostro that you wanted to share and then When you are out in the
36:05
world and you stop and do another coffee shop, or another
36:07
coffee roaster, what do you ordered?
36:10
I can't really think of anything too much.
36:12
I want to share about myself, you know, it's kind of went over
36:16
my journey and coffee and mention their you know, some you
36:20
know, personal things to get over along the way and I think I
36:25
guess if anything that's something is too.
36:29
You know, one of the one of the things after winning the
36:31
competition, I it's still sinking in that.
36:34
I won the competition and part of that sinking in was a little
36:38
kind of episode of imposter syndrome where I was feeling
36:41
like, you know, is this, did I really do, I belong here and
36:47
that can sneak up on, you know, people you know that or
36:52
different mental health challenges can sneak up on
36:54
people and times they don't expect or when you would expect
36:57
it and you still can't deal with it.
36:59
And just, you know, mental health is super important thing
37:02
for everybody. So you know that's something
37:05
that We all need two more recognized as a society.
37:10
So, I guess, you know, from myself to talking everybody at
37:13
large, that's that's one thing I would say in terms of what I
37:16
order when I go into a shop, usually I just go for a straight
37:20
shot of espresso first thing. If I'm feeling fancy, I'll get
37:24
like a shot and a drip, or something like that.
37:27
My favorite coffee drink is a macchiato and I am the worst
37:33
customer to order a macchiato because when I go and Place and
37:38
I drink a shot of espresso, no matter how good or bad.
37:41
The shot is, I'll be able to, at least find three positive things
37:45
to say about it. If somebody says, hey, how was
37:47
it, how? But macchiato is like that's my
37:52
like, that's my there. That there's a Vonnegut book
37:57
about the guy, this guy who write, I was painting this
38:00
masterpiece and it's hidden in a barn, and he doesn't want
38:02
anybody to see. It was like macchiato to me is
38:06
like, don't ask with My macchiato and I'm very
38:09
particular and I'm a dick about it and so I don't order
38:13
macchiato to place until I've been there a couple times.
38:17
Like I don't even ask our new Baristas for macchiato at most
38:21
or until I've had a couple shots from them just because they're
38:23
already nervous enough around me.
38:26
So yeah, my espresso. That's an incredible amount of
38:30
self-awareness Nick. I appreciate you sharing with
38:34
me. Also anyone listening, go read
38:38
everything. Kurt vonnegut's ever written
38:41
Nick. I really just appreciate you
38:42
taking time off from your trip, to talk to me and to the people
38:45
listening to this show. And you know, once again, I
38:49
congratulate you and what you've achieved and wish you the best
38:52
moving forward, and we're going to be excited to follow Aces.
38:55
Thanks for having me. Okay, to recap, this show is
39:05
about tangents coffee is just the beginning.
39:08
I learned a lot about the competition experience today,
39:11
and by extension how Nick thinks about the world.
39:14
The first surprise was that the event in Boston was outside in a
39:17
tent. I assumed you to covid, but
39:19
there was an indoor convention knowing that it was spring and
39:23
temperature and humidity can impact a roast.
39:25
It seems crazy. That there would be such a
39:27
drastic variable Unaccounted for Nick, specifically would
39:31
seemingly have fairly little roasting practice in that sort
39:34
of climate. He lives and works here in San
39:36
Diego. It was 52 degrees with 75%.
39:39
Humidity in Boston, on the last day of the event, the second
39:43
surprise, which should have been obvious, probably was obvious to
39:46
you. And just not to me was that if
39:49
everyone is using the same roasting machines, then many of
39:52
the roasters wouldn't have experienced on those machines.
39:56
Part of the challenge to becoming the roasting champion.
39:59
Is being able to adapt to those types of changes presented to
40:02
you in real time. Also probably obvious when
40:05
considering that the championship is a sponsored
40:07
event? Is that the coffees are provided
40:09
at the event and you don't know, beforehand, which coffee you'll
40:13
be working with. I think that I assumed similar
40:16
to the world beer championships competitors, would roast their
40:19
own coffee to submit there is an entirely added pressure when it
40:24
is live in the moment with unknown equipment and an unknown
40:27
coffee. Finally, to be the roasting
40:30
Champion, you have to be able to do more than just drop beans
40:33
into the machine. It is a three-day
40:36
all-encompassing experience. Nick had a great green coffee
40:39
for quality and defects. He roasted he cupped.
40:43
He examined the individual beings in his roasted coffee
40:45
before turning them in on Saturday and I mean, examined
40:48
them competitors. Go through looking for defects
40:51
and potential seller beans or aesthetically displeasing.
40:55
Ones, Nick mentioned a color meter Challenge and I assumed he
40:58
meant It a printed chart of the potential roast of a coffee
41:01
bean. But no, this is a piece of fancy
41:05
equipment. That literally is measuring the
41:07
color of the beans, either whole or ground and this is used to
41:11
determine a whole host of being qualities.
41:13
I'm going to make sure that gets covered in a future episode of
41:16
coffee smarter, a huge, thank you and a congratulations.
41:19
Go to Nick and the team at moisture coffee, for their u.s.
41:23
Victory. I'll be cheering them out at the
41:24
world events later this week in spirit at least, unless There is
41:29
room in the moisture. Airbnb in Milan for one more.
41:32
I'm just saying I could curl up in the corner or bring my own
41:35
hammock. I'll link to the world
41:38
championship site on roast westcoast.com and also add links
41:42
to most your coffee.com. And as I mentioned at the top,
41:45
be sure to follow at most or coffee and Instagram to see
41:48
those World Championship updates since you're already clicking
41:52
around on the internet. You might as well.
41:53
Subscribe to this shows newsletter at the aforementioned
41:56
roast westcoast.com, you'll Ever miss an episode with the free
42:00
subscription or be cool and help to show grow by choosing one of
42:05
the paid subscription options, thank you for subscribing at
42:08
roast westcoast.com, and thank you to my industry.
42:11
Partners who have been helping me, build a foundation for this
42:14
podcast, including most your coffee company, steady-state
42:17
coffee, roasting Camp Coffee Company, ignite Coffee Company,
42:21
Ascend Roasters Coffee cycle, roasting first light whiskey,
42:24
Maria coffee, Cape Horn coffee, importers and Cafe.
42:28
Share, I'll be drinking all of those great coffees and
42:31
Whiskey's this summer and I hope you are to find links to the
42:35
businesses subscriptions and everything else I mentioned on
42:38
the show today in this episode's notes or online at roast
42:41
westcoast.com. I say roast westcoast.com a lot.
42:46
I hope it's working. Thanks to all of you for
42:48
listening this episode of the roast West Coast coffee.
42:51
Podcast is was has been written produced and recorded by me Ryan
42:55
Walt. I hope this show is found you
42:57
happy healthy. And with at least enough sanity,
43:00
to make it through the day. For those of you headed out for
43:02
a cup of coffee this week, please always tip your Baristas
43:06
and be sure to drink good coffee.
43:08
Happy Father's Day Dad. I like beer, hey, everyone.
43:41
If you like the roast West Coast coffee podcast, you might also
43:45
appreciate the, I like beer the podcast.
43:48
Listening to these guys is like being a fly on the wall of the
43:50
pub with a few of your favorite mates.
43:52
Having a pint these professional beer appreciators, have plenty
43:55
of stories to share on everything from the mating
43:58
habits of penguins to there behind the scenes Brewery
44:01
experiences check out the, I like beer the podcast where
44:05
ever, you are listening to this show about coffee or head.
44:08
To, I like beer, the Podcast.com.
44:09
Podcast.com.