Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Chuck Patton, Chuck's Roasts and Patton Coffee Consultants (VIDEO)
Transcript
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- 1:18None. Hey there everyone, welcome to
- 1:19the Coffee People podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Waltz.
- 1:22This show is presented by Rostar Coffee Packaging found online at
- 1:26rostar.com. They've been a great source of
- 1:29support, helping enable us to tell the stories of people in
- 1:33the coffee industry and we really appreciate that.
- 1:35You can also go to roastwestcoast.com to find
- 1:38recaps of this show, our Coffee Smarter podcast, so much other
- 1:42coffee content. And if you haven't poured
- 1:44yourself a cup of coffee like I have, now is the time to get
- 1:47started. Our guest today is Chuck Patton,
- 1:50the founder and head roaster of Chuck's Roasts.
- 1:53He's also the human being behind Patent Coffee Consulting and was
- 1:56the original founder of the iconic Bird Rock Coffee
- 1:59Roasters. You can find him online at
- 2:01chuckroastscoffee.com. Course.
- 2:03Those links will be in all of our show notes wherever you're
- 2:05listening. Mr. Patton, welcome to our
- 2:08podcast today. Well, thanks for having me.
- 2:10I'm excited to be here. I should memorize all that.
- 2:12I've said it like 300 times, but it just seems like a lot of
- 2:15work. I mentioned that at the top
- 2:19there that you got started, or at least I, I know of your start
- 2:23as Bird Rock Coffee, but I'm wondering if before that even
- 2:27what got you into coffee in the 1st place?
- 2:29You know, was there a moment or memory that you thought, Man,
- 2:31this is interesting. Yeah, You know, I, I was
- 2:35thinking about that and then I guess my earliest memory of
- 2:38coffee. I grew up here in San Diego,
- 2:41actually very close to where we live now in Bird Rock.
- 2:44And I think my, my earliest memory of coffee, my, my parents
- 2:49would entertain quite a bit, have friends over all the time.
- 2:52And every time they had company, I would go with my mom and we'd
- 2:57go over to a place called The Panic and which was really known
- 3:00as one of the first coffee houses, not just in Southern
- 3:03California, but definitely in San Diego and kind of an iconic
- 3:06place, but across the street from the Panic.
- 3:08And they had a store, they would sell coffee equipment and of
- 3:15course, roasted coffee and bulk tea that kind of, and I, I will
- 3:21never forget the smell of walking into that, that, that
- 3:24powerful roasted coffee smell when you go into a store that
- 3:27has bins of roasted coffee. And my mom would buy some coffee
- 3:31there and then go home and after dinner, she would brew that
- 3:33coffee in a, in a Chemex. And this is probably, you know,
- 3:36mid 70s, late late 70s. And I can distinctly remember I,
- 3:39I didn't, I was too young to drink the coffee, but I just
- 3:41remembered loving the smell. She would grind it up on one of
- 3:44those little home grinders at the time.
- 3:46They were kind of like a, it was kind of like a spice smell
- 3:48basically. But it was the smell and just
- 3:51watching the process and the ritual that always, always
- 3:53fascinated me, especially because what they drank was U
- 3:57ban in a can with a Mr. Coffee, you know, seven days a week.
- 4:02And so this was kind of a special event and and certainly
- 4:07the smell was nothing, you know, the smell of that fresh, fresh
- 4:11roasted coffee was nothing like the smell of EU ban.
- 4:14And so I guess that would be my first real kind of memory of
- 4:17coffee and how special coffee can be and how and how people
- 4:20use coffee and, and the ritual of coffee and that and that
- 4:23comes all wrapped up into that that event and then kind of got
- 4:28into to to drinking coffee. And as I got older, of course,
- 4:32in, in high school, it was more about getting the buzz, the
- 4:37caffeine buzz and, you know, having that before, you know,
- 4:40going to school, meeting some friends for breakfast or
- 4:42something and seeing how much coffee we could drink and, and,
- 4:45you know, getting the shakes during that first period of
- 4:47class. And then I think probably I was
- 4:52kind of starting to get into coffee in, in college.
- 4:54And certainly right after college, my wife and I moved to
- 4:59Japan for a year and I was seeing things in, in Japan that
- 5:03I hadn't hadn't seen here. Their coffee culture was was far
- 5:06different than at least what was going on in San Diego at the
- 5:09time. And this was to been mid 90s
- 5:11ninety 3. And a lot of the cafes there
- 5:14used as the siphon or the vacuum brewing and they were all into
- 5:19brewing by the cup. And I thought that was
- 5:21fascinating. And the and the flavor, you
- 5:24know, blew blew me away a lot of the times there.
- 5:26And then when we moved back, we actually ended up in San
- 5:28Francisco and that had a little bit more of a coffee culture
- 5:31going on than than Southern California at the time.
- 5:35So many of the so many of the, sorry, I was going to say, so
- 5:38many of the stories I hear from people, their first coffee
- 5:41memories involve a grandmother usually.
- 5:44And I think that's such an interesting way to connect.
- 5:47I have these tin enamel coffee mugs that my grandmother had in
- 5:53her house and I still have the cast iron grinder that was
- 5:57mounted on the wall of the kitchen at the farm.
- 6:00That's awesome. I've used.
- 6:02It. It doesn't work well.
- 6:04That was in central Wisconsin that that grinders kind of like
- 6:09taking 2 cast iron pans and just smashing them together.
- 6:13There's not much delicate balance there.
- 6:16Well, I think that's, that's how powerful coffee is.
- 6:18I mean, we, we, we kind of take it for granted.
- 6:21But there are also many moments over coffee or the, OR like I
- 6:25said earlier, the ritual of coffee that you're exposed to as
- 6:27a, as a, as a young kid that just stay with you or can stay
- 6:30with you and have that power to, to, to make you think about
- 6:35coffee as something different from just a commodity and
- 6:38something different from a way just to make it through work or
- 6:41make it to school. So you come back from Japan.
- 6:45Japan's coffee culture is always seemingly a step or two ahead.
- 6:48To everyone else, and like I said, I had never seen anyone
- 6:52even attempt to do coffee by the cup before, and that's kind of
- 6:55was an interesting concept. And then it was San Francisco
- 6:57and I was more, you know, San Francisco had some independent
- 7:01cafes, but it was certainly wasn't 3rd wave coffee level.
- 7:06When we moved back down to San Diego then it was kind of
- 7:11starting to get into the espresso thing, getting an
- 7:13espresso maker, getting an espresso.
- 7:15And then and about 9097 or or 98, my wife got me a home
- 7:22roaster. And that's really when I started
- 7:23to, to experiment with, you know, obviously roasting, but
- 7:28really appreciating the differences between the
- 7:31different origins and, and varietals.
- 7:33I mean, before that it was, it was either Starbucks or Pete's.
- 7:37And, and even though those two companies would sell a Sumatran
- 7:40coffee or Colombian coffee based on their, their level of roast,
- 7:43it was often not a huge difference between between
- 7:49their, their, their so. So that was pretty cool, you
- 7:53know, getting all the beans from, I got all the beans from
- 7:55Sweet Maria's. And, and yeah, that was really
- 7:58the start of it. I was still teaching at the
- 8:00time, but that was. I was going to ask that you you
- 8:03must have had another career. You're you're teaching.
- 8:07What made you decide that you wanted to take the step from
- 8:10hobbyist to I think I could make some money doing this, and then
- 8:14I actually want to do this every day?
- 8:17I was, I was an adjunct at Grossmont College, City College,
- 8:22National University. I think I was also doing a gig
- 8:28at an ESL school at the time. So, I mean, part of it was, it
- 8:33was, it was a profession and I, I worked more than full time,
- 8:37but I, I didn't have a tenure track job.
- 8:39And so, and it's kind of known as a freeway flyer.
- 8:45I would drive out to Grossmont in the morning and then downtown
- 8:48in the afternoon and National City in the evening.
- 8:51And that was just a grind. And, and I was kind of really
- 8:54enjoying the coffee thing. And then what I started to do, I
- 8:57started to do both at the same time.
- 9:00The La Jolla farmers market I got, I got a booth in the La
- 9:04Jolla's farmers market. So I would roast, you know,
- 9:06maybe Thursday or Friday night out of my garage and then I
- 9:09would sell that coffee on Sunday morning at at the LOI Farmers
- 9:13Market while still teaching full time Monday through Friday.
- 9:16Sure, you had a side hustle before the rest of us.
- 9:18Yeah, I think, you know, that was that was good.
- 9:23And then as that started to get a little bit more popular, you
- 9:29know, my wife had a really stable job at the time.
- 9:31And, and she was, we had good insurance.
- 9:35And so I was able to kind of make that leap because you
- 9:37can't, you can only do that side hustle for so long and then you
- 9:40have to either forget about it or, or, or go for it.
- 9:44And so luckily I was afforded the opportunity to go for it.
- 9:48And then we evolved into having the Cafe in in Bird Rock and
- 9:54then rest of history, I guess, and.
- 9:58I don't want to spend this whole show talking about bird rock.
- 10:00I think we usually could. There was a lot of history there
- 10:02and I look, I kind of think of Bird Rock as, as I'm looking
- 10:07around San Diego's coffee scene now, it's like the coaching tree
- 10:12in football. So many people that have their
- 10:14own coffee shops or their own roasteries now got their start
- 10:17there or learned there or, you know, and, and moved on.
- 10:20And that's a legacy that, you know, just continues to expand
- 10:23and expand. I'd also like to take a moment
- 10:26to toast to your wife and to my wife who also has good insurance
- 10:29and enables me to do what I am doing, at least right now.
- 10:35You, how long were you? Was Bird Rock running as a
- 10:39roaster under you and your and your family?
- 10:42Well, I found it in 2002 and at the time, you know, I didn't
- 10:48really have a location. Like I said early on, I was just
- 10:50roasting out of my garage and then that was technically
- 10:54illegal. I had, you had to use a
- 10:56commissary to do any food prep. And so the, the VFW, there's a
- 11:00VFW on turquoise and they allowed me to roast in there
- 11:03once they started to, to get a little more volume.
- 11:07And then I think I'm going to say around 2003 or 4, I actually
- 11:15purchased a, a company called Destinations and we did it with
- 11:18a home equity line of credit. And it was a guy who was
- 11:22operating in La Jolla. And it was just a wholesale
- 11:23business that he had out in Miramar.
- 11:26And around that time, I, I needed to buy a bigger roaster.
- 11:29I think I was using a Dietrich IR 3 and operating out of a
- 11:32kiosk on Turquoise. But I really needed to, to step
- 11:35it up because I was starting to get some wholesale accounts.
- 11:39And so I bought, we bought his company and his book of sales
- 11:42and the roaster and that was out in Miramar.
- 11:45And then we moved everything in in 2006 to the Bird Rock
- 11:48location. And then we opened the roasting
- 11:52facility on Linda Rosa, I think in around 2014 or 15.
- 11:57And then the shortly after that, the Little Italy location.
- 12:00And then we sold in 2016, so 2002 to 2016.
- 12:05That coincides with my arrival here ever.
- 12:08I mean, the news that you were selling was big news to the
- 12:10people that, you know, I was in hospitality and I'd met a few
- 12:14people and I lived in that area just South of of Bird Rock
- 12:19Coffee's original location there, that Cafe location.
- 12:22And so it was certainly something people were talking
- 12:24about. And it, it was kind of a
- 12:27precursor to a bunch of brewery sales that were about to happen.
- 12:30And in our marketplace, what was the impetus?
- 12:34You're running a business from the outside.
- 12:36People are going, oh, this is cool.
- 12:37And it must be a lot of fun and doing this.
- 12:39What? Why sell?
- 12:41You ended up selling to Jeff Taylor of P TS Coffee.
- 12:44Right. Yeah, I think we, we just, we,
- 12:49that's a difficult question to answer and I'm trying to figure
- 12:52out a good way to answer this. I think.
- 12:54I think really in a nutshell, we never figured out how to run the
- 12:56company, how the company would run without us.
- 12:59And so I think some owners are really good at, at say pros and
- 13:07cons to it, but some owners are really good at, at being able to
- 13:09step back and saying, Hey, this is your manager's
- 13:11responsibility. You know, you deal with it.
- 13:13I'm, I'm going on vacation for, for two weeks or whatever.
- 13:15And we were never able to really figure out how to do that.
- 13:18So it was really a seven day week operation.
- 13:21And when you get up to about 50 employees in multiple locations,
- 13:25you're pretty much dealing with something every couple weeks,
- 13:28either an employee issue or you're dealing with equipment
- 13:31issue or a customer issue, obviously.
- 13:35And it just begins to wear on you after a while.
- 13:37And, and it was basically, we were just overworked and
- 13:44starting to get a bit burnt out. And then, so I think there was
- 13:49actually one Sunday in particular.
- 13:52I was, we, we decided to not work on a Sunday.
- 13:55It was, you know, crazy, right? So when we decided to take our
- 13:58bikes and, and go around the Bay and I remember we were halfway
- 14:01around the Bay and I get a call from Bird Rock saying the some
- 14:04plumbing issue that they couldn't figure out what the
- 14:06problem was because I put the plumbing issue in.
- 14:08So I knew exactly what the problem was.
- 14:09So of course I had to turn the bike around and ride up there
- 14:12and on the way. I'm just saying this isn't
- 14:13really a quality of, I mean, the quality of life that we're
- 14:17living isn't really what we should be enjoying.
- 14:20So it was really about that. It was really about if I maybe
- 14:23in hindsight, if we had figured out a better way to take time to
- 14:27step back and and do some, you know, self-care or more
- 14:32vacations or recharge, so to speak, we maybe would still own
- 14:36the company, but we didn't. Now, now that can be thought of
- 14:41as kind of a negative, but the positive was, I mean, I visited
- 14:46every location every day and I was constantly involved in the
- 14:50quality control and I was constantly involved.
- 14:52Obviously Heather and Tony were, were our roasters and, and then
- 14:56Nick and Heather and, but I was, still had a hand in the
- 15:00roasting. And so I was still intimately
- 15:03involved in the business. And I think that the plus side
- 15:06of that is as far as a quality and from a, from a customer's
- 15:09perspective, I mean, there was, I think very rarely a quality
- 15:13issue on the customer's part. And that was primarily because I
- 15:16was so involved as an owner and making sure the place was clean
- 15:20and, and making sure, you know, helping out when I needed to
- 15:22help out. So all was kind of available.
- 15:23So that's kind of the flip side of of being kind of a more of a
- 15:26hands on owner. Yeah, I mean, nobody will ever
- 15:29see it the way that you see it. It's yours, you know, it's I
- 15:33always tried to to treat places I worked at like that.
- 15:36But even then there's a step between me and whoever was the
- 15:40owner or whoever was the thing, because I could only see so much
- 15:43because I didn't have maybe all the context of every location or
- 15:46whatever it might be. Well, plus you want your
- 15:50employees to to understand that the owner is invested and
- 15:53involved and, and, and there I never wanted to give the idea
- 15:58that the employees were working for a manager.
- 16:01I mean, obviously there was a manager in charge or shift lead
- 16:03in in charge. But everyone I think needs to
- 16:06understand that, OK, the owner has a vested interest in this.
- 16:09The owner's actually coming into work.
- 16:11The owner's, yeah, actually willing with some stuff.
- 16:15So I think that's important. I think mostly.
- 16:18Came from Martin Dietrich. I, I, I got to give Martin all
- 16:22the credit in the world of that before we opened, I went up and,
- 16:25and sat with, and for those of you who don't know, Martin
- 16:27Dietrich was, was part of the Dietrich coffee brand that was
- 16:32pretty ubiquitous in Southern California.
- 16:34And of course, Dietrich Roasters is, is the same family.
- 16:39And he just gave me that piece of advice.
- 16:41He said you never want to expand to the point where you can't
- 16:43visit every location every day and that was how he designed
- 16:47Keen Coffee, which is what he is his company is now.
- 16:50And I, I kind of took that to heart and it made a lot of sense
- 16:53to me. I never wanted anyone to think
- 16:55that I wouldn't do what I was asking them to do.
- 16:58And I think most of my employees always just felt bad for me.
- 17:02And so they step up to do more because they saw how tired I was
- 17:05all the time. So you sell and all of a sudden
- 17:09you have this kind of clean slate, you know, what are you
- 17:13doing with yourself? You know, and now it's been how
- 17:16many years you've decided to come back.
- 17:18How did that all transpire? Yeah.
- 17:21Well, I, I wasn't exact. Well, you know, I worked for for
- 17:23Jeff as a coffee buyer and kind of helped make that transition
- 17:27for our growing partners for about a year or so.
- 17:32And then I went back to teaching at USD.
- 17:37In this case, I taught for about a year at USD and I think I
- 17:42didn't want anything to do with coffee for a while.
- 17:47But as I was teaching, and I also was teaching at an ESL
- 17:51school and then up at Nam, which is the National Association of
- 17:54Music Merchants. We have a headquarters up in
- 17:57Carlsbad and I was working with their museum up there.
- 18:01But kind of gradually I kind of got back into, you know,
- 18:05thinking about coffee and if I was going to get back into
- 18:07coffee and how, how would I do it and how, what would I not do
- 18:10and what would I do better? And, and really what it came
- 18:14down to in a, in a nutshell, was trying to set something up that
- 18:17was more education based and high, you know, super high on
- 18:22quality coffee. On the education part.
- 18:25I, I, I love my, my part of my favorite things about, about
- 18:30having Bird Rock coffee was educating the customers about
- 18:34either how coffee is bought and sold.
- 18:35And I did a weekly free cupping every Friday in Bird Rock for
- 18:40well over 10 years. And that wasn't just an awesome
- 18:43opportunity for me to explain, you know, what exactly is coffee
- 18:47buying and how do people do it? And I want to continue to do
- 18:50that. And then the the act of teaching
- 18:52people how to roast and then also helping other people coming
- 18:56up in in the coffee business as far as kind of giving them some
- 19:01advice or counsel about how to start a coffee business and
- 19:05maybe some things they should avoid and some things they
- 19:07should do should should do as they're as they're figuring
- 19:10stuff out. So how can I kind of put all
- 19:12this stuff together? Then during COVID, I bought AI
- 19:15guess small decent from a company in Cape Town that wasn't
- 19:18using it. And it sat in our garage for
- 19:20about two years in a crate to, to Elkie my wife's dismay,
- 19:24because it was taking up a lot of space.
- 19:26But then I was kind of throwing these ideas around, kind of
- 19:31conceptualizing what was going to happen.
- 19:32And then it came down to, OK, where am I going to put it?
- 19:36And it doesn't really it it well, I was thinking at least at
- 19:40first, didn't really pencil to rent my own space because I
- 19:44didn't know how it was going to go.
- 19:45And it was I knew it was going to be super small scale.
- 19:47And then Chris from coffee cycle was opening up the OB space and
- 19:52offered a little kind of corner in his face to sublease.
- 19:55And that was really a perfect opportunity for me to to pull
- 19:58the trigger and and see what's going to go, see how this is
- 20:00going to go. So that's that's where I am now.
- 20:03Well, and it's a little bit full circle because I think Chris
- 20:05worked for you for like 7 years at at Bird Rock before going off
- 20:09on his own to do coffee cycle. And then I worked for Chris for
- 20:14a year when he opened his cafe. So there's this kind of weird
- 20:17connection here. One of the things with Chuck's
- 20:21roast. Obviously you, you went, you
- 20:24know, on the nose. It's my coffee.
- 20:26I'm roasting it. Let's call it Chuck's roast.
- 20:28That was a bit. Of a problem because yeah, I
- 20:32mean, part of it is marketing marks off and my expertise and
- 20:35the ability to source coffee and roast coffee.
- 20:37But like, you know, it's funny, when I was trying to think of of
- 20:41a name for the company, all the cool names are now taken.
- 20:43It's totally different than it was 20 years ago.
- 20:45And I was asking, you know, I have, I know a couple of great
- 20:48and a tube amp maker in town. And I was saying, Hey, can you,
- 20:52are there any cool names of old amps or, or vacuum tubes I can
- 20:56use? And, and the ones he presented
- 20:57me were actually already taken by other coffee companies and,
- 21:00you know, guitar maker kind of the same thing.
- 21:02And so it came down to Chuck's roast, and it came really from a
- 21:05joke with my friends trying to come up with a name and ground
- 21:09Chuck what might have was in the running for a while.
- 21:12And the great thing about Chuck roast is or chuck's roast is not
- 21:16the great thing. But the thing I didn't really
- 21:18think about it is how hard it is to now do a search for for
- 21:20chuck's roast and you get a bunch of Chuck roast recipes.
- 21:23You know, it doesn't actually. Yeah.
- 21:25So I didn't really think that probably threw him all the way.
- 21:27But yes, that's, that's what I'm stuck with now.
- 21:29It's Chuck's roast. But overtime, overtime it'll
- 21:32grow. But I want it.
- 21:34I want to, I, I wrote this down. I just want to make sure that I
- 21:39get it right. One of the things that I thought
- 21:41was really interesting about what you're doing now is you
- 21:44kind of you're, you acknowledge you're kind of looking beyond
- 21:49just the baseline of specialty coffee.
- 21:51I think, you know, it's specialty coffee, what we
- 21:55describe as it or the quality level of it, say 83 plus points
- 21:59if you care about that sort of thing.
- 22:01It's pretty ubiquitous. You can go to almost any town in
- 22:03America and get a, a pretty damn good cup of coffee.
- 22:06Excuse my language. What I've noticed with some of
- 22:10the offerings that you've been putting out and some of the the
- 22:12way you've been presenting it is something special and unique.
- 22:15How do you go about sourcing something that's the next thing
- 22:18beyond what people have been drinking now for, say, 10 years?
- 22:23Well, that opens up a lot of questions as far as how much of
- 22:25that is out there. And, and there's been this kind
- 22:28of side discussion that specialty coffee's over and
- 22:31there's no more real good coffee.
- 22:32And, and I think there is an you could make an argument that a
- 22:37lot of the the top people aren't really selling exceptional
- 22:42coffee, they're just selling good coffee.
- 22:43So it's definitely not easy. And this is, this is one of the
- 22:50things that's going to be difficult obviously going
- 22:52forward is because a lot of times that I may only offer one
- 22:55or two coffees on my offering sheet.
- 22:57And I'm, I think what I would like to do is just offer copies
- 23:05that, well, I mean, I said on the site just copies that I
- 23:09like. And that kind of eliminates a
- 23:12lot, a lot of coffees out there. Not, not or I really like, I
- 23:15guess I should say. And so to go about sourcing
- 23:19those coffees, you know, it takes a lot of, a lot of work, a
- 23:23lot of getting samples in and not really worried about the
- 23:26price of the coffee. And, and hopefully the consumers
- 23:30that are going to buy coffee from me aren't so much worried
- 23:32about that because a lot of them are going to be on the spend
- 23:35your side. But for now, it's kind of
- 23:38leveraging a lot of the contacts we had in at Bird Rock as far as
- 23:43the brokers and the importers and going through some of their
- 23:48offering sheets. Of course, you know, a cup of
- 23:49excellence. Looking forward to doing that
- 23:51this year. I'm not going to be doing as
- 23:53many sourcing trips as I did and it doesn't really pencil with a
- 23:57small scale that I'm doing. But I probably will go to at
- 24:00least Panama this year, probably March and and maybe one other
- 24:06Central American country. Not to get too personal and you
- 24:09can tell me, you know, I'm not answering that you're on your
- 24:12own. Does the does the, the finances
- 24:17of this whole operation, How important is that over the, the
- 24:21coffee, getting these coffees out to people?
- 24:23And because when I think about, say, if I were talking to
- 24:27somebody who was looking to start a coffee company and they,
- 24:30you know, when we talk about coffee companies serving just
- 24:33good coffee, maybe not great coffee, part of that is because
- 24:37there's a mass audience there. There's a level you have to get
- 24:40at. So you're making enough money to
- 24:41stay in business, right? Is that something you're
- 24:44factoring in here or is this more about, no, this is
- 24:47important to me That'll come. I want this type of coffee to be
- 24:50in the marketplace. Well, I think that'll come.
- 24:52I, I do, I do think, and, and I can't, like I, I don't, I think
- 24:57it's a mistake for a lot of younger coffee retailers, unless
- 25:01you have a retail location to offer a wide range of coffee #1
- 25:06So if I look at, at someone's like, let's just, if you're
- 25:09imagining, OK, who the hip people are in the country that
- 25:12are considered, you know, the best coffee people.
- 25:14And a lot of them have 10 or 15 options on that.
- 25:18And I think if you eliminate the eight of those, you're probably
- 25:25going to be left with a couple really exceptional coffees.
- 25:27And, and that's really what I'm, I'm, I'm going for as far as the
- 25:32finances, you know, I would be first to say that this, we're, I
- 25:38mean, this is the fourth month that Chuck roast has actually
- 25:41officially been in business. And, and if we were renting a
- 25:45place, it would not be sustainable at this point.
- 25:47There's, there's no way. And you know, I, I, I owe Chris,
- 25:52you know, a lot of that. It's just subleasing space and
- 25:54not having utilities and a lot of the extra costs that are
- 25:58associated with renting a space allows me to kind of get to the
- 26:04point where maybe the, the brand is known and the, and the
- 26:08coffees are becoming known before I get to that next phase.
- 26:12Now, obviously they'll come a day when Chris needs the space
- 26:17that I'm in, you know, as they're, as they're growing that
- 26:19roasting operation and or they're going to have to roast
- 26:21every day. And right now it's working out
- 26:23really well because they aren't roasting every day and I'm
- 26:25roasting on the days that they aren't roasting.
- 26:28So I know that there's an end point when he's going to say,
- 26:31Chuck, it's time for you to move on.
- 26:33And I'm hoping by that point that I have.
- 26:36And it's basically this whole situation has given me time to
- 26:38kind of see if I can get to that point where I'm just offering a
- 26:43small, small handful of coffees. Is that going to be sustainable?
- 26:46Does, is this going to be penciling?
- 26:48And I, I'd like the direction we're going.
- 26:50I, I'd certainly like some of the successes I've seen so far.
- 26:52But yeah, we'll see. We'll see.
- 26:57You know, as somebody who drinks a lot of coffee from a lot of
- 26:59different places, in part because of my work and in part
- 27:02because of what I, I just enjoy going to new places.
- 27:06I, I think you, you do have a, you hit the nail on the head
- 27:11saying there's only so many excellent coffees being offered,
- 27:15in part because I can count, as you know, it's the beginning of
- 27:172025 and I've been reflecting a little bit on 2024.
- 27:21I think on one hand, I can count the number of coffees I drank
- 27:25last year that when we stop and go, oh, that's exciting.
- 27:31So when you're out there, you know, looking for those coffees
- 27:34or when you're sourcing and, and trying to do that, you know,
- 27:39what else is coming into play there?
- 27:41I ask a little bit because I'm thinking about sustainability
- 27:44and about our changing coffee culture and climate.
- 27:47Are you able to find those excellent, excellent coffees?
- 27:50And then also meet all the other factors or other criteria that
- 27:54you might have personally putting into it.
- 27:58Well, you know, that's a good, that's a good question.
- 28:01And again, well kind of take a part of a couple things that you
- 28:07said as far as thinking back on having a couple coffees in 2024
- 28:10that you really made you stop and that would be the goal of my
- 28:14entire offering sheet. So any coffee that someone gets
- 28:19from Chuck's roast would have that effect on something.
- 28:22Now, the, the flip side of that is everybody has different
- 28:26tastes and different appreciation for a different
- 28:30appreciation of coffee. And so sometimes when I'm
- 28:32sourcing coffee, I'm, I'm definitely thinking of it from
- 28:35from my perspective. So I chose to kick this company
- 28:41off with that Yemen coffee because Yemen coffee had a huge
- 28:46impact on me when I was good starting my coffee journey as
- 28:49far as the wildness of it. Now, not everyone digs Yamini
- 28:55coffee because it is super particular and super
- 28:58interesting. But so that was really coming
- 29:01from my head and my space. Hey, I want to do this.
- 29:05This is important to me. Maybe someone else will dig it.
- 29:08Now I have a, a couple canyons which I, I'm selling now that I,
- 29:12I know right when I tasted them. OK, this is people are going to
- 29:16dig this. So I'm going to by these coffees
- 29:19now with I have a Colombian coffee that's incoming.
- 29:23And again, it was a very personal move.
- 29:25It's a it's a it's a solid, great cup.
- 29:29But again, it's coming from a place that OK, this cup reminds
- 29:33me of of of sourcing in Colombia.
- 29:36And this is what I always liked about Colombian coffees as
- 29:38wrapped up in this cup. Now again, it's going to be kind
- 29:41of like the Yemen will will other people get that same vibe?
- 29:44But I'm really sourcing coffee from a kind of a personal
- 29:47perspective a lot of the time. And now when it comes to
- 29:50sustainability and, and climate issues, if I'm not actually
- 29:56doing the sourcing on my own, obviously I'm dependent on, OK,
- 29:59who's bringing this coffee in. And, and the people I'm using
- 30:03have that same ethos like Cafe imports.
- 30:05I, I use for that, for that Yemen.
- 30:08And, and of course they have a long history of, of being
- 30:10sustainable and, and doing things at the farm level.
- 30:14Of course, I've used, you know, Red fox and, and Aleko, you
- 30:19know, also I, I trust what they're doing and know that they
- 30:22do good work as well. So I'm kind of reliant on, on
- 30:25those people. I.
- 30:26Don't know if you can see it, but I I don't think you can.
- 30:28But I actually have a red fox burlap sack behind me behind
- 30:32this little stand here blocking the view of the closet behind
- 30:36me. I saw a a article about your new
- 30:41venture in Daily Coffee News that referred to you as a
- 30:45legend. When you look in the mirror, do
- 30:48you think to yourself, I am legend?
- 30:50Chuck Patton going to work today.
- 30:51Like how does that make you feel?
- 30:54I try and remind my wife all the time when I get in trouble.
- 30:57Hey look, I'm a legend right there in front.
- 31:01I'm allowed some some mistakes every now and then.
- 31:05No, of course not. But yeah, that was a pretty
- 31:10nice, nice compliment. But well, I mean, I do.
- 31:15There is, I mean, I guess a certain amount of ego involved.
- 31:18I mean, I am proud of what we accomplished with with Bird
- 31:20Rock. I think we were able to do some
- 31:24things that hadn't been done in San Diego and maybe some things
- 31:27that had not been done by a lot of other roasters anywhere.
- 31:33There were times and and I was reflecting last night, you know,
- 31:36looking forward to this interview.
- 31:37And I was kind of reflecting about, you know, there were
- 31:40definitely times in in when I was running Bird Rock when I
- 31:43knew for a fact that we had the best say offering sheet than
- 31:47anyone else in the country right now.
- 31:48Not, not all the time, of course, but maybe there was a
- 31:51month and a year where I know there was no way there, there
- 31:53wasn't. I don't care.
- 31:53Stump down. I'll just see any of those guys.
- 31:55I know our coffee's better. And so there was certain amount
- 31:58of ego and there was definitely amount of pride in, in, in
- 32:03running that. Now, like I said earlier, as far
- 32:07as, you know, calling the company Chuck's roast, part of
- 32:11what I'm selling is, is the past success and expertise going as
- 32:17far as legend. You know, I don't know about
- 32:19that, but I, I do, I do have to kind of rely on the fact that
- 32:23I've accomplished XY and Z and, and that's kind of what I'm
- 32:26building on for this new venture.
- 32:28Sure. Well, not for nothing, somebody
- 32:31once told me that I was possibly the best restaurant manager they
- 32:34ever had right before they fired me.
- 32:36So you never really know if you're up.
- 32:38You might be up one day and you might be down the next.
- 32:41So you know, you just never really know.
- 32:44You obviously have extensive roasting experience and with you
- 32:47know, what you were doing at home and then Bird Rock and now
- 32:50with your, with your new venture where you're kind of exploring
- 32:52some really cool coffees. If if a young roaster came to
- 32:57you and just asked, you know, what would you, what advice
- 33:00would you give them? Said, Hey, you know, if I could
- 33:02get any piece of advice from you, what would you say?
- 33:05And I'm saying specifically like someone who wants to be actively
- 33:08roasting the coffee. Yeah, I would say don't use
- 33:11roasting software. I, I think it's a mistake to
- 33:13learn and, and start out using roasting software.
- 33:17And, and the reason I say that is because I think what happens
- 33:21if you're learning how to roast and you're using software at the
- 33:24same time, the Cropster, for example, or, or artisan or.
- 33:28I think what happens is you become sucked into this graph
- 33:33and these. And then at the same time you're
- 33:36listening to these experts in the field.
- 33:39And there are some some great people in the field talking a
- 33:41lot, but a lot of the message that they that they are
- 33:44presenting young roasters is you must be absolutely consistent.
- 33:48You have to stick with this roast curve.
- 33:50If you wait more than 6 minutes between your roast, then you
- 33:54know you're not going to have the consistency.
- 33:56And I think that's bullshit. I think, I think roasting the
- 33:59approach, especially early on, more like cooking.
- 34:02And sure, you have a recipe here, but you should be a little
- 34:07bit flexible with it and maybe try some things out.
- 34:10And I think going down that roast curve and the software
- 34:12kind of stifles creativity in a lot of ways because you have
- 34:15this, you're looking at this roast curb and say, Oh my God,
- 34:18I'm almost spent 8 minutes, 15 seconds in this drying phase.
- 34:23I, I got to hurry this up. And you know, well, maybe not.
- 34:26Maybe the coffee's going to be better this time if you just let
- 34:29it, let it go. And I think a lot of times when
- 34:33I'm seeing younger roasters roast, they're not even looking
- 34:37at the beans. They're not smelling the beans.
- 34:39They're not taking the dryer out at all sometimes during the
- 34:42roast. And I think that's a huge
- 34:44mistake. Now, once you learn how to roast
- 34:47in an analog fashion, when you're looking at the beans,
- 34:50when you're experimenting more than I think roasting software
- 34:54is, is very important. And I think it can help you not
- 34:57only with consistency, but I think it can help you identify
- 34:59maybe where you went wrong with a particular post.
- 35:02But I do think it's a mistake to go down this software and even
- 35:07this, this very rigid approach. And you know, of course, it's
- 35:11science based. And of course you have my
- 35:13reactions and, and of course you're dealing with moisture
- 35:17evaporation and you're dealing with airflow and all that, of
- 35:20course. But my point is, is that if
- 35:24you're not paying attention to the actual beam, I think you're
- 35:27missing out on on your potential as a roaster.
- 35:32Now, we started when we were roasting.
- 35:34We didn't use software from the time we opened and even before
- 35:39the time we opened Birdrock all the way until we got our Loring
- 35:42roaster in 2014. So we got roaster of the year.
- 35:44We got all kinds of high scores on coffee review without using
- 35:48any roasting software. We we kept manual logs of rate
- 35:52of rise and you know, power adjustments, but that was about
- 35:57it. And so I don't subscribe to the
- 36:00belief that I think a lot of young roasters are, are getting
- 36:04into where they have to have roasting software, they have to
- 36:06have X percentage in, in, in development or have to have X
- 36:11percentage of their roast in, in drying.
- 36:13I think part of it is, is all about experimentation.
- 36:16And, and even the other thing I would tell a young roaster is
- 36:20even when you think you've dialed in a profile, OK, stick
- 36:22with that profile for a month. And if you still have the
- 36:25coffee, start over because maybe maybe you've learned something
- 36:30in that month and, and maybe the coffee's changed a little bit.
- 36:32And, and I just did this with one of our copies.
- 36:34I did, I did. I was doing a roasting class and
- 36:39I decided to use one a coffee that I've had one of the the
- 36:42Ethiopian 1 and I decided to do 3 different with, with the
- 36:45student to do 3 different completely profiles on it.
- 36:48And one of the profiles I'm going to switch to going forward
- 36:51because it's actually better than the profile I've been using
- 36:53for for the last two months. And so I think there is also
- 36:55that belief with, with young roasters that once they dial
- 36:58something in, they can't change from it.
- 36:59When in, in reality, like I said, it should be more of a get
- 37:04your feeling, you know, get a feel for what the bean is doing.
- 37:07Get it, get it loosen up a little bit, I guess is what I'm
- 37:10trying to say. And I think the software and,
- 37:12and again, a lot of the advice that they're getting is, is
- 37:15don't be loose, you know, be rigid the exact and.
- 37:20I think rigid is the word that I was was running through my head.
- 37:23Rigidity, you know, it's a little bit of a get off my lawn
- 37:26moment for me because I think we are have been teaching people,
- 37:31younger people in particular, whether it's in careers or in
- 37:34schools that this is the the path, this is the way you do
- 37:37things here's resources to help you do them exactly this way,
- 37:41but they never quite learn what to do if things go off the path
- 37:44they. You know what?
- 37:46What if the software goes? Down right like they did and I,
- 37:49you know, thinking creatively or problem solving are things that
- 37:52you know we've in our in our American kind of ideal of
- 37:58getting things perfect or exact or excellence.
- 38:01We've set a standard. This is what that is and this is
- 38:03how you get there. And all of a sudden, if you
- 38:05start falling off that path, I think those are the best things.
- 38:09You know, This is why my wife, I do most of our cooking and she
- 38:12hates it because whenever I make something she likes, she goes,
- 38:15Oh, well, you can you make this again?
- 38:16I'm like, well, sure, but I got no idea how I got here.
- 38:18Like it's. Yeah, but you're consistently.
- 38:21Good. You might have might not have a
- 38:23consistent product you have consistently.
- 38:26Yeah, I, I know. The same, but it but it's a
- 38:28consistently good product and that was I, I remember getting a
- 38:31complaint like that because we'd always change our espresso blend
- 38:34because I was trying to be more seasonal and the customer said,
- 38:37well, how are you going to maintain consistency when and
- 38:40well, well, it's consistently good and and that's just like
- 38:43how I approach roasting. I mean, it's, it's obviously
- 38:47when you, when you nail a roast and especially if you get,
- 38:49let's, let's say a coffee review score, you, you want them to be
- 38:53exactly, you want people to experience exactly what the
- 38:57coffee review score on that coffee.
- 38:58So you follow that exact profile and that's a very specific
- 39:02event. But, but yeah, you're, you're,
- 39:04you're absolutely right. I, I, and that's kind of how I'm
- 39:07trying to teach roasting. Is, is with that in mind, OK,
- 39:10it's going to be analog. You're going to look at the
- 39:11bean, you're going to smell the bean.
- 39:12What are the differences between that?
- 39:14Because I want people to roast with confidence and the ability
- 39:18that they can do it without using any software.
- 39:23And, and when you remove that software pod, then part of it,
- 39:26then they kind of get more creative and then they're
- 39:28looser. And I think the coffee will
- 39:29benefit from it in the long run. I have no plans of ever being a
- 39:33roaster myself, but I'm feeling very inspired right now.
- 39:35Chuck. What comes next for Chuck's
- 39:39roast? For next for you as a
- 39:40consultant? You know what?
- 39:41Do you see the the future path being for you?
- 39:45Well, I think like I said, you're getting building the
- 39:48brand, making it a sustainable brand.
- 39:52And like I said, I mean there will come a day that Chris will
- 39:57say, hey, but I'm trying to move out.
- 39:59And so I was kind of thinking about that.
- 40:02What I really would like to do is have the training be a bigger
- 40:06part of the business and to have a a space where I can do that on
- 40:10a more regular basis. And what I'm, what I'm kind of
- 40:13toying with is to have a space that I could offer a little bit
- 40:17of retail in the morning. I never want to get back in the
- 40:20espresso game, but I in, in theory it would be with, have
- 40:23you heard of the ground control units?
- 40:24You know, those Brewers? So we hosted their, one of their
- 40:29first prototypes at, at Little Italy.
- 40:30And so we worked with those guys before that came to market.
- 40:34And I was always fascinated with it and I thought it was a such a
- 40:37great tool. And I think I really believe the
- 40:40way Eli and that and that group have designed it that you can
- 40:44run, you can run a, a coffee retail location without an
- 40:49espresso machine and just use that.
- 40:52And that's what I want to do. If, if, if, if I ever found a
- 40:55really small location to have a little bit of retail, but just
- 40:58use the ground control. So just offering brewed coffee.
- 41:01And it also brews a concentrate. And so you can't, you have a
- 41:04little bit more flexibility, flexibility there than than say
- 41:07a Curtis Brewer. And to offer really perfectly
- 41:10brewed coffee and as a way to sell coffee beans, you know, in
- 41:14the morning and then run some classes and and consulting in
- 41:16the afternoon, that would be that would be ideal.
- 41:20So yeah, I guess that would be the long range plan of Chuck's
- 41:23roast. I, I don't know if you got this
- 41:26message I sent kind of late, but something new that we've been
- 41:28doing on the show is just asking people about the things that are
- 41:31important to them and if they have any sort of charitable or
- 41:33nonprofit efforts that they care about or that they support.
- 41:36And if so, we want to share it on the show.
- 41:38You know, I, I haven't really thought about that, but I, I
- 41:42have always had a soft spot for grounds for health And, and we
- 41:46aren't, you know, to the point where we, we can do a lot of
- 41:49charitable work right now or Chuck's Broast isn't, I can say
- 41:51I'm not to the point, but that was a company or an organization
- 41:56that we always love to support and, and hopefully we'll get to,
- 41:59to support that again as we grow a little bit.
- 42:01We'll definitely share that in our podcast show notes and
- 42:03everywhere that the show comes out, when you're out exploring,
- 42:08maybe not an origin show, maybe you're just running up the coast
- 42:11somewhere and you pop into a new place, what are you going to
- 42:13order? I always just order brewed
- 42:17coffee and, and I think you can tell a lot about us, the place
- 42:20and, and how they present that to you and, and you get a feel
- 42:24for how they're roasting or, or how their roaster is roasting.
- 42:30I very rarely get an espresso or curtato or, or strata.
- 42:34I always gravitate towards, OK, how's the brewed coffee?
- 42:37And so that's 99% of the time. That's that's what I.
- 42:40Do did I miss anything today that you wanted to share?
- 42:48No, I think, I think, I think, I think we're good.
- 42:50I want to thank you so much for giving the opportunity to come
- 42:52on here and and talk a little bit.
- 42:54Hey, I'm the one talking to a legend, Sir, and it's been a
- 42:59pleasure. I appreciate you being here.
- 43:01To everyone else listening, you'll find all the links that
- 43:03we chatted about in today's episode, including the one to
- 43:06Chuck Chuck roastcoffee.com. That's also the Instagram at
- 43:09Chuck Roast Coffee. Yeah.
- 43:10And that that's kind of a mouthful Chuck's
- 43:12roastcoffee.com. But it's actually, so we have a
- 43:14a workaround of that is Chucks Dash roast.com.
- 43:17That's a little easier and it it links to that thing.
- 43:20We'll make sure people can find it.
- 43:21It's in our show notes. It's in our newsletter.
- 43:24This show is part of our Roast West Coast Coffee Network and
- 43:27can be found on all the favorite podcast platforms.
- 43:30Apple and Spotify. Just search for coffee people.
- 43:33And shout out to our presenting sponsor, Rostar Incorporated.
- 43:35We appreciate their efforts and their coffee packaging company
- 43:39helping small businesses tell their big story.
- 43:42That's all for today. Anything to anything to say?
- 43:45No, I think, I think we're all good.
- 43:47Thank you so much, Ryan all. Right, We're out for listening
- 43:49to the stories of coffee people. Tip your baristas and be sure to
- 43:52drink your coffee. That's it.
- 43:59Yeah, You're welcome. Just call in and say hello.
- 44:06You're more than welcome here. Certainly appreciate that.
- 44:10I already hit the, the recording thing and I, I saw your e-mail
- 44:15and I mean, we talked about so much stuff last time.
- 44:18I didn't want to run out of time, but you in addition to
- 44:22like making good coffee, you teach people and I was hoping
- 44:25you. Excuse me.
- 44:28That was the thing I was thinking about after I talk to
- 44:31you because we were talking a lot about feasibility of just
- 44:34offering a couple awesome coffees rather than a line of 10
- 44:37coffees. Those are awesome.
- 44:40And it is maybe a A. On the surface, it may seem like
- 44:45a difficult thing to pencil out, but the other part of this
- 44:50business is, is the education part.
- 44:52And that's really what got me kind of back into coffee was the
- 44:55hope, you know, to teach people about coffee, to continue on
- 44:58with the, the coffee cuppings that I did at Bird Rock Coffee,
- 45:02to do that again, to teach people how to roast coffee.
- 45:05And then business consulting. That's a big kind of a, a big
- 45:09part of the, of the business. And Chuck's roast is really the,
- 45:12the coffee line. But patent coffee consulting is,
- 45:15is the education part of it. And that's really kind of what I
- 45:18wanted to say. I guess how important that part
- 45:22is to me because I've been a teacher for so long.
- 45:24I, I, I think this would be a great opportunity to continue to
- 45:27teach and do it in a way that would kind of help people grow
- 45:31as, as coffee people, either on the roasting side or on the
- 45:35business side or as the employee side, or even the hobbyists too.
- 45:38I mean, a lot of people who come in to, to, to the cuppings are
- 45:43usually just people that want to learn about coffee.
- 45:45They're just, they like coffee and they want to learn more
- 45:46about it. Whereas the, the coffee roasting
- 45:49classes are usually, maybe sometimes it's, it's been a home
- 45:51roaster and other times it's been someone who's just starting
- 45:55a coffee business. And so that's a a great
- 45:58opportunity. I saw a photo of a recent class
- 46:02that you were offering at the shop there.
- 46:06I know you have, you've all this experience and obviously you
- 46:08teach on the, you know, in your other life, but do you get, did
- 46:12you get nervous kind of getting back into it where you're
- 46:15telling people your coffee information and going, Hey, I,
- 46:18I, I know this, I've done it, but I'm doing it again for the
- 46:21first time. That was a great question.
- 46:23I forgot, you know, because I kind of had a stick because for
- 46:27from basically 2007 to 2016, every Friday I would host
- 46:31cuppings for the general public at, at at the original Bird Rock
- 46:34location. And so I, I, I different coffees
- 46:38every week, but the same kind of stick as far as how coffees are
- 46:41processed, how coffees are grown.
- 46:43And I think it was one of the first times I did a cupping
- 46:45after not doing it in, in public for so many years.
- 46:48I forgot how to explain the wash process and I was stumbling over
- 46:54and I had totally just like I couldn't, I couldn't explain to
- 47:00the guests properly what washed process coffee is.
- 47:03And that's really the most basic thing you should know if you're
- 47:06if you're going to do a coffee cupping.
- 47:08So yeah, definitely had had some stumbles early on and it but it
- 47:11was just it then it's just kind of like muscle memory.
- 47:14Once you get going it, it's pretty easy again.
- 47:17Is that not a not, I never taught people how to to roast
- 47:21coffee before. So that's a a brand new Lesson
- 47:23plan. And what we're trying to do or
- 47:25what I'm trying to do is not teach roasting on a home
- 47:28roaster, but to do it on the decent.
- 47:30So they actually have some experience roasting coffee on an
- 47:36actual commercial roaster. And the customer for that then
- 47:40just to clarify, maybe somebody who's already tried a little bit
- 47:43of home roasting on a 1 LB roaster or something, you know,
- 47:46small roaster they're looking to see, can I take the next step?
- 47:49That's the person. Absolutely right.
- 47:51And that's pretty much everyone who's taking the class before.
- 47:53And I have one person who's been in the business for a while just
- 47:57needs to refine kind of what they're doing.
- 48:00And I gave him some tips over the phone and, and he's going to
- 48:02come down and, and take a lesson and, and we're kind of work on
- 48:05some refining with his style of roast.
- 48:08But as far as approaching those roasting classes, as I was
- 48:12talking about earlier, I don't think young rosters should rely
- 48:17on software. And when I teach a roasting
- 48:20class, it's all, it's all analog and they're, I'm having them
- 48:25really write down temperature tracking and they're not relying
- 48:28on the software basically at all until they do a couple rows.
- 48:32And then I can kind of teach them how software works and how
- 48:34software can help you with consistency and stuff.
- 48:36But, but I do think it's crucial, as I was saying
- 48:38earlier, when you're teaching someone or when someone's just
- 48:41starting out to kind of do it the analog way at first.
- 48:44So that means I. Have to ask about.
- 48:47No that's OK, I have to ask then.
- 48:50There was an article that I saw recently, this is over over the
- 48:54pond, where a roaster developed an entire profile and roast
- 49:00using only chat GPTAI prompts, didn't tell the anyone that's
- 49:07where it came from and put it out as one of their own coffees
- 49:10next to their other coffees. I bet it, I bet it was great.
- 49:14What do you say? What?
- 49:16What do you say? They're saying that it's one of
- 49:19their most popular coffees at this point, that they went
- 49:22through the process. How?
- 49:24How do we move into this new world where we can do that?
- 49:28Well, well, well, well, wait a minute.
- 49:30Now a couple things now, now chat GT is a little different
- 49:33because it's kind of going back to, you know, that methodology
- 49:36of how people I'm sure it's science based method.
- 49:38You know what happens the chemical reactions when you
- 49:40should do it. But my point is, is that what
- 49:43you actually said in the last in the last and our last chat was
- 49:48the rigidity of how people are supposed to roast down.
- 49:50And that's a great demonstration of you can maybe do it a
- 49:53different way and still come up with a different result, you
- 49:56know, and be open and be open to new things and and mistakes
- 49:59even. And that could lead to some some
- 50:01great coffee. So I'm sorry, what was the
- 50:03second part of your question? Not no ro, just curious about
- 50:05your your feeling about it. You know you're talking about
- 50:08analog and writing things down on a piece of paper that's.
- 50:11The idea? Yeah, for our younger audience,
- 50:14paper is like this thing that comes from like, trees that get
- 50:16cut up and mashed and then they dry it and you can use charcoal
- 50:19to write on it. It's cool.
- 50:21I'll look into it. But I, you know, it's just a
- 50:25totally different, you know, model.
- 50:26There's going to be a generation a few years from now coming out
- 50:29that that's how they'll get started.
- 50:31That's how they'll learn the basics.
- 50:33And so. Yeah, I.
- 50:34I do, and, and I'll go back to the cooking analogy too.
- 50:36I mean, you, you can, you have a recipe for anything you're going
- 50:39to cook. And it's just about, I think
- 50:41what we, what we're kind of losing is that feel is that kind
- 50:47of sensory feel that just just trusting your intuition and when
- 50:51you, when you're kind of feeling, OK, I think I should
- 50:54make an adjustment here. I mean, that's OK to do that.
- 50:56It doesn't have to wait for a sign and a signal to tell you to
- 50:58do it. Once you've roasted several
- 51:02coffees, it's just like cooking a dish for a while.
- 51:05You know, the, the temperature might be different.
- 51:08So that's so whatever protein you're cooking might, you know,
- 51:12work differently or might something might be different.
- 51:13Just be open to that and go with it.
- 51:15And what do you feel about it? Trying to get people to that
- 51:18state where they're not, where they're kind of, I guess what it
- 51:21is, is getting getting to the point where you're confident
- 51:23enough to trust how you're feeling about a roast and not
- 51:27depending on what something is telling you to do in a
- 51:29particular time. Sure.
- 51:32Anything else that we missed when we talked last time?
- 51:36Well, I, I think the other one little thing I wanted to bring
- 51:38up was, you know, as far as the coffees, I do have a couple
- 51:42coffees I'm kind of excited about right now.
- 51:44We have a, a couple from Kenya, one called a key Kenya Key,
- 51:48which is the middle name, and then another one, Rune Ghetto.
- 51:51And they're very, very different Kenyan coffees.
- 51:54Coffee review just gave the key at 94 and that'll probably be be
- 51:59published next week. But the key is kind of real
- 52:01peachy. It's one of my favorite canyons
- 52:04of all time. It has it's just a little bit
- 52:06more delicate than a traditional Canyon, but the rune ghetto is
- 52:10more of a traditional Canyon. It's really heavy bodied, dense,
- 52:13thick black currant and and the key is more, you know, Peach
- 52:18kind of tropical. So there it's kind of a nice
- 52:20pairing. I'm kind of happy with those two
- 52:22Kenya's that I'm offering right now.
- 52:23And we have a wonderful Columbia coming in next week that I'm
- 52:26really excited about. And then later in the month we
- 52:28have a or late, late, early next month we have a Washington
- 52:32coffee. I watched Geisha from Peru
- 52:36that's coming in that should be outstanding.
- 52:37So those are the things I'm kind of excited about as far as our
- 52:39offering sheet at. The moment we'll make sure that
- 52:41we share those with everyone. I brewed a coffee in an
- 52:45automated machine at the car dealership this morning, and I
- 52:48bet every one of those is going to be a lot better than the one
- 52:52that I dumped in the grass outside the car dealership.
- 52:56Did you buy a new car? I did not, no.
- 53:00But I am deciding whether or not I'm going to spend a bunch of
- 53:03money to do all the things that they want me to do in the
- 53:05service department. So that's always fun.
- 53:09Chuck well, thanks for popping back in.
- 53:11I'm glad we were able to clarify that with people and make sure
- 53:15that we send. The.