Latest / Coffee People Podcast / S6:E20 - Jack Quint, Deltina Coffee Roasters

Transcript

S6:E20 - Jack Quint, Deltina Coffee Roasters · Coffee People Podcast

0:00
Hey, good morning everyone. Welcome to season 6 episode. 20
0:17
of the roast West Coast coffee podcast.
0:20
I'm Ryan Walton. This is the show where I bring
0:22
you the stories of coffee professionals, entrepreneurship
0:26
and coffee smarter education. This is the very last episode of
0:30
season 6 and it's a great interview with Jack Quint, he
0:34
founded, and with his wife, co-owns Del Tina Coffee Roasters
0:37
in Oceano, California. I'm going to start this show off
0:41
with a bit of a geography lesson.
0:43
Just to give you some context on where Del Tina is informally to
0:48
Central Coast region. Runs from just north of Ventura,
0:50
California up to Santa Cruz where it runs into the bay area
0:54
that's around. San Francisco Oceano is near
0:57
Pismo Beach close but not quite Way between Los Angeles and San
1:02
Francisco. The Central Coast is a
1:04
combination of agricultural, land, military base and small
1:08
Beach communities. And it has the iconic Coastal
1:11
views associated with the rugged landscape of the drive-through
1:15
Big Sur. It's that stretch of highway
1:17
that you often see in TV commercials for automobile
1:20
makers. That's where you'll find Del
1:22
Tina Coffee Roasters which opened in 2018 to get a better
1:26
sense of that Vibe. Check out at Dell, Tina coffee
1:29
on Instagram. While listening to Today's Show
1:32
Jack was sitting outside leaning up against the Roasterie while
1:35
we chatted. As always, I'm going to play the
1:38
interview and do a little recap. Be sure to stick around after
1:42
that for details on a big change to the roast West Coast coffee
1:46
podcast. And if you haven't already, go
1:49
get a coffee. Fill up that mug, maybe a
1:52
traditional dark roast today. That's a bit of foreshadowing
1:56
and make sure you get it quick because it's time for this
1:58
interview with Jack Quint founder of Del Tina Coffee
2:02
Roasters in Oceania. California on the roast West
2:06
Coast coffee podcast. And with that, I'd say Jack,
2:16
welcome to roast West Coast, I really appreciate you being here
2:19
and talking about what you do. I'm hoping you we can start with
2:23
just having you. Let our audience know what your
2:26
name is, what your role is, what your coffee company is.
2:29
You know what, what you're doing?
2:31
Absolutely. So my name is Jack Quint.
2:33
I am the owner of Del Tina Coffee Roasters.
2:35
We're in Oceania, California. We opened our business about
2:40
four years ago. My wife's My partner, where an
2:43
organic coffee roaster right on Highway 1 and Central Coast
2:47
California. We also have a full Espresso
2:50
Bar. So yeah, I'm excited to be here.
2:52
And thank you Ryan, for inviting me.
2:55
Oh no, I'm excited. You're here.
2:57
I did some Google Earth and Google mapping to figure out
3:00
where Oceano was from the from the view.
3:04
You're caught, you're right by the beach, but it's not
3:06
necessarily. You're not like in a major
3:08
Metropolis, you're not in a Malaria to say you're kind of in
3:13
the middle and even in more of an industrial area, how did you
3:16
end up where you are? Yeah, what the heck?
3:19
Great question. So, I had never heard of the
3:21
Central Coast of California. I'm born and raised in Seattle.
3:24
I've through my previous career, I lived in DC and Chicago, but
3:29
actually met my now wife, who was a Cal Poly graduate.
3:33
She got her graduate degree in Seattle.
3:36
We met up there, and this was where she grew up, vacationing,
3:40
so you'll Pismo Beach. Is a hot spot for the Central
3:43
Coast. There's a lot of agricultural
3:45
areas, little small towns out there and they come out here
3:48
when the Summer's get hot and vacation.
3:50
And then there's also, like I said, Cal Poly.
3:53
So it's a big college town, just north of us.
3:56
So I've never heard of this area when we wrote the business plan
3:59
and I got really interested in and starting a coffee company on
4:03
my number one protocol for a location with somewhere that my
4:06
wife and I really love and we were struggling to we go back to
4:10
Seattle. Do we go to California.
4:12
Do we go in between an Oregon? And I asked my wife, where is
4:15
your favorite place in the world and she said the Central Coast.
4:18
San Luis Obispo was her happy place.
4:20
So I scoped it out and saw there were very few specialty Roasters
4:26
out here. And I saw those right on a real
4:29
tourist Highway and so you know the hair stood up on the back of
4:33
my neck, I got really excited and we just didn't look back.
4:38
Well, now it's been several years.
4:39
Have you been incorporated into the community?
4:42
They accept you as one of their own.
4:44
That's the big question. Absolutely, absolutely.
4:46
You know, we kind of went into, I was looking for an area that
4:50
didn't have, you know, six or seven Coffee Roasters.
4:53
Part of my vision, for this business was educational and I
4:56
wanted to spark curiosity and the community I was going into
4:59
and I wanted people to walk in who had never seen a coffee
5:02
roaster. So, I picked an area where, you
5:05
know, historically, there aren't, there aren't a lot of
5:07
coffee shops. Cops were like the first one and
5:09
absolutely especially during covid you know tourism didn't
5:14
exist and we had you know as about a year into our operation
5:18
and we had this great flood of support come from the Oceano
5:21
community and the surrounding areas and they really kept us
5:24
afloat. Everybody was ordering coffee
5:26
online and I was dropping off coffee at people's houses, and
5:30
it was just really a windfall that we weren't expected at all.
5:32
And, and it just really reaffirmed our decision to go
5:36
into a smaller area versus I'm trying to Elbow our way into a
5:40
more established region. You mentioned that you wrote
5:42
your business plan before choosing your location, but that
5:45
means you are already thinking about coffee already into
5:48
coffee. So, I want to go back a little
5:50
bit in time and just did you have an experience with coffee
5:53
that made you think? Yeah, this is something that I,
5:57
I see being important to my life.
6:00
Yeah, I definitely came full circle, you know, the Seattle
6:02
weather. We were drinking coffee as 12,
6:06
13 year-olds, just to get out the door on those dark.
6:08
Dark winter days in high school, just on a little bit of a whim.
6:12
I had saved up some money and I wanted to go visit my family in
6:16
Ireland that I had never met. And my uncle agreed to go with
6:19
me. My uncle has been a coffee,
6:21
roaster his entire life. He roasted for a bunch of
6:25
companies in Seattle and about 15-20 years ago, we sold his
6:28
house in Seattle and opened up his own small batch Roastery in
6:33
central Washington. So him, and I went on this trip
6:36
in Ireland and he brought a couple small little Is the
6:38
coffee and he brought you know, this was 10 years ago he brought
6:42
what was a single serve pour over contraption that?
6:47
I don't know who made it. I never seen anything like it
6:49
before and every morning you know I'd be making toast and
6:53
he'd be making us each a little cup of coffee and you know this
6:56
is a Guatemala you know this you know tomorrow we're having a
6:59
Colombian to me. My first thought was so it's a
7:03
lot of work like they have coffee and Ireland why are you
7:05
doing that? But it was just really cool and
7:08
Seeing how much he can do. This was his vacation.
7:10
He still was spending 10, 15 minutes, every single morning
7:14
making a single cup of coffee and I kind of went back to that,
7:17
that was such a cool experience, fast forward ended up in Chicago
7:21
working for larger companies and kind of I knew, I wanted to get
7:26
into something that was more passionate about.
7:29
I kind of went full circle back with him and said, tell me again
7:32
about what you do. Why do you do what you do?
7:34
When visited his Roastery one more time and just It was hot.
7:39
So that was my first experience that really planted the seen the
7:43
seed that would I would later cultivate you know in my 30s to
7:46
my own business. So well you just mentioned you
7:48
were in Chicago. You're actually the second
7:51
roaster. I've had on this show.
7:52
Who was a corporate accountant in Chicago?
7:55
Really earned roaster. Oh man, that's funny.
7:57
Taylor fields of nostalgia coffee, if anyone's listening,
8:00
go back, those are great interview and she mentioned
8:03
something that I went to thought about because coming from
8:06
restaurants bootstrapping is Was my growth process, you always
8:10
kind of do that. She was coming from a great
8:12
career in corporate accounting and a lot of stability and a lot
8:17
of easy future. Kind of, she could see that
8:19
laying out and chose to leave that to jump into coffee.
8:22
What made you think that was something you want to do?
8:24
Obviously, you had this experience with your uncle, but,
8:27
you know, was Their Fear when you made that leap was there,
8:31
you know, hesitation, you know, how did your wife feel about
8:34
giving up that and and moving forward, great question.
8:38
It was a tough, sell it really was, you know, we had a lot of
8:41
stability. I had almost a moment of panic
8:45
when I was 10 12 and years into my career things started going
8:50
really well. We had made a lot of sacrifices
8:53
to get me to that point. We had moved our whole family
8:55
out to Chicago to pursue this opportunity and you know it was
9:00
almost the situation of the dog catching the mail truck, all of
9:03
a sudden it was right there in front of me and I had a panic
9:06
because I realized that wasn't what I wanted the rest of my
9:08
life and it was his gut wrenching.
9:11
Okay, I have small kids, I know, I don't want to do this, the
9:15
rest of my life. Well now, what?
9:16
And I had to really just as gut-check time, you know, come
9:20
up with another alternative and once I did decide, you know, I
9:24
got really interested in sourcing my food while we lived
9:28
on Chicago, Chicago is so much process.
9:32
Yes, we're all the frozen burritos are made and you know
9:34
the the a lot of the apples are they ship?
9:38
Out the year before and they freeze them.
9:39
So there's really not a lot of fresh produce out there.
9:42
And so I got really interested in sourcing my own food,
9:47
personally, and learning what goes into, you know, is this
9:51
going to lab are really healthy or is it full of sugar?
9:53
And so I got really passionate about that.
9:55
So, we're maybe I could do something.
9:56
I saw this trend in the cities of younger consumers willing to
10:00
pay more for a chicken breast. If it's labeled organic from
10:05
this Farm, you know, especially in the Urban areas.
10:08
So I saw this trend of okay, there's a self-awareness that is
10:11
developing maybe I could capitalize on that through
10:14
coffee, you know? And maybe if I could get people
10:17
to stop going through drive-thrus where they get, you
10:20
know, really sugar ice drinks. And instead walk-in see coffee,
10:25
being roasted and really kind of start asking questions about
10:28
where products are coming. They're putting into their body
10:31
that could be really cool. So I had to run some numbers and
10:34
I knew it wasn't going to be a home run.
10:36
You know it took my wife and I a couple of Is a okay.
10:38
We're going to pay off all our student loans are going to pay
10:41
off all our cars, you know, we saved up and we ended up, you
10:44
know, cracking my 401k to do it. So it took us a number of years
10:48
to feel like we're in the right place to do it.
10:51
And then, obviously, with covid, the rug got pulled out from
10:53
under us in those look very different than it.
10:55
We had written it up but it is very risky.
10:59
You know, my approach to it and what I told my wife is
11:02
worst-case scenario, we fall flat on our face and we go back
11:05
to doing what we were doing before.
11:07
So, So when I left the company, I work for for 10 years, I left
11:10
on really good terms and you know relationships are crucial,
11:13
I didn't burn any Bridges, I told him what I was trying to do
11:17
and I told him, you know, if it doesn't work out, do I have a
11:19
spot to return to to feed my family and they said absolutely?
11:23
So I was able to take a crack at it knowing that if I had to fall
11:27
back on something, more secure, the door was always open.
11:31
Sure, you mentioned, two things there that kind of stuck out to
11:34
me. One was, you wanted people to be
11:36
able to come in and experience In their their relationship with
11:40
coffee. And the way that you were
11:42
starting to do with the food you were sourcing in Chicago, I'm
11:45
from Wisconsin, it's Farm country.
11:47
I mean, I grew up not realizing this was a special thing, but
11:50
like I knew people who worked on farms, we bought food from
11:54
farms, you know, hunt and that kind of things and you, you were
11:57
starting to do that. I can hear beans.
11:59
Being poured in the background there is that kind of the
12:03
atmosphere. You're trying to cultivate now
12:05
with Del Tina, and then you also you brought up Coronavirus again
12:09
and I'm just wondering you. Obviously, you had to Pivot you
12:12
had to adjust and be flexible. What were some of those changes
12:14
that you made obviously besides really honing in on your
12:18
neighbors? Yeah, absolutely.
12:22
They're a couple things are right off the bat, you know,
12:24
everybody was so scared. I think everybody felt it.
12:28
Customer customers were just projecting the stress onto
12:31
employees. So, we had to do a, hey guys,
12:33
you know, we're allowed to stay open during the lockdown.
12:35
Do you guys want to, you know, there's these huge benefit
12:37
packages out there if you guys don't want to work, but if you
12:40
want to stay open, I'm game and they did so.
12:43
Okay, well then we're going to really need to follow the rules
12:45
and trying to kind of keep our ear to the ground.
12:48
Things were changing so fast, you know, and I felt like
12:51
everybody had different. Recommendations.
12:53
We have the CDC, where the state of California, we had our own
12:56
County. We had customers misinterpreting
12:59
rules and coming in and yelling at us.
13:01
We had, we actually are the county was receiving complaints.
13:05
That the local police officers were hanging out at our coffee
13:08
shop, just goofy stuff. So it was just a big
13:12
distraction, you know, it became masking.
13:15
Was so politicized at first, you know, we weren't going to tell
13:19
people to wear a mask. Well, then the county was
13:22
Evoking business licenses if you weren't forcing masking?
13:24
Well, then we have, you know, 18 year old, Baristas asking, you
13:28
know, full-grown men to wear a mask or very vocal about, not
13:31
wanting to wear one. And well, what are we even
13:33
doing? Like we just want to serve
13:34
coffee financially. You know, there were some safety
13:37
nets that came through, I had to call on some friends and family
13:40
and you know secure some financing just in case, we just
13:44
didn't know how this thing was going to play out.
13:46
I feel like because we stayed open during the lockdown and not
13:50
a lot of other companies did. There's a little bit of their
13:53
Silver. Linings everywhere.
13:54
You know, we were pretty new company and because we were the
13:57
only open shop in town. We got quite a bit of exposure
14:00
that way, you know, I just every day is a little bit different.
14:03
I think the biggest challenge was just trying to interpret the
14:07
rules because they're changing so fast and making sure that
14:10
we're following the rules to the best of our abilities and that
14:15
our staff understand the rules and that, you know, the
14:17
customers, understand the rules. So that was our biggest
14:20
challenge. It wasn't more, it was Not so
14:22
much the financial side of it, it was just a misinformation and
14:26
just how charged up everybody was, I am very covid safe and
14:30
aggressively about that. And I appreciated businesses
14:34
that went out of their way to do that.
14:35
But as a former restaurant person who's been through a
14:38
localized outbreak of a virus hep C, I also understood how
14:43
difficult it was. When I had to go to my staff and
14:45
say, hey, we have you can get vaccinated.
14:47
Hey, we have to do these things to prevent it and you mentioned
14:50
something I think is really interesting and Thing that you
14:53
might not think about on the other side, but you have
14:57
essentially kids engaging with the community and trying to
15:01
enforce rules and laws and that's difficult.
15:05
It's a challenge. Absolutely.
15:06
So finding what workarounds around that was certainly
15:08
difficult. Absolutely.
15:10
I want to make sure that we're talking about your coffee today.
15:13
Sir, you mentioned to me before the show in a note that you sent
15:17
that you have been focusing on some of the darker roasts kind
15:19
of going against the trend. I'm Ring why you've chosen to do
15:23
that? And I one of the reasons that
15:24
really kind of sparked interest in me is I have several family
15:28
members and friends who ask me hey when our Roasters going to
15:31
make dark roast again sure it's one of those things.
15:36
So what inspired you to go that way?
15:38
You know, my approach to Coffee Roasting, I really looked for
15:42
mentors and took advice everywhere, I could get it.
15:44
But the end of the day, I decided I'm going to kind of
15:47
trust my gut roast coffees by coffees that.
15:51
I Like and hope that people get on board with it, you know, I
15:55
don't want to be trying to do what everybody else is doing.
15:57
I don't want to be pivoting and doing what I think people are
16:01
going to like, I'm going to really lean into it.
16:04
Learn the coffee is the best I can.
16:07
You know, coffee roasting is all trial and error, I'm going to do
16:09
my due diligence cut my roast when I'm done.
16:12
I found especially for espressos or any non-filtered coffees.
16:17
I just really like dark roast and there's a way to do it
16:21
without out getting a lot of burnt bitterness in it and I
16:24
think it's a little bit of a lost art.
16:26
I did notice. So while this light Rose things
16:28
really trendy but I've heard from people who have been
16:31
roasting you know 20 30 40 years that is cyclical and sometimes
16:35
the dark Rose come back around you know the last couple years
16:38
light roast so really the popular thing.
16:40
So I said okay well I like a light roast but I don't want to
16:44
drink it every day. So you know, I do one I've tried
16:47
every one of my blinds through our espresso machine and I just
16:52
Thirdly, I really enjoy a darker roasts espresso.
16:56
I think you know if I get any hints of the acidity to me, it
17:00
tastes sour and I'm just very passionate about that.
17:03
So I kind of started with developing my espresso blend and
17:06
then I kind of went from there, but I think you know, there's
17:10
there's a lot of stigma out there and I've gotten a lot of
17:13
pushback just misinformation of. Well, you know, I heard that
17:19
people that roast dark roast, buy cheap coffee.
17:22
And that's how you disguise. Flaws is eurostat dark.
17:25
Some people do that. Yes, yes you can disguise flaws
17:29
and coffee by roasting a dark. I pay five dollars a pound for
17:32
coffee. I by very high-end coffees which
17:35
by roasting it dark. You can transform certain
17:38
flavors. You know.
17:39
You can take the sweeter floral notes and you can transform them
17:43
into this chocolatey molasses nose.
17:44
So I also am constantly battling the well I heard light Rose has
17:49
more caffeine. We don't have to go down that
17:51
rabbit hole but I just tell people you know drink what you
17:53
like if you find a dark roast you like Going to get
17:56
caffeinated, you know I like that the darker roast because of
18:00
the lack of a city they're easier on your stomach.
18:02
I can drink multiple cups a day and I don't you know, have as
18:05
many issues. So circling Back My Philosophy
18:08
is just to trust my gut and my palate and roast coffee the way.
18:13
I like it presented the way I like it and I know some people
18:16
will love it. Some people won't I have people
18:19
that ask you know, do you do like super light roast?
18:22
No but I know three or four Roasters in this area that do.
18:25
You and I send them to him. I said, hey go check out this
18:27
guy, he's a mild the street, I think you're going to like what
18:29
he does and he does the same for me people show up and want dark
18:33
roast. He kicks him down our way, so
18:35
it's fun. It's collaborative you're
18:37
roasting your dark roast on a San Franciscan roaster which I
18:40
just think they're beautiful looking machines are there so
18:43
many options out there? What how did you end up with
18:46
that machine? Especially since you were coming
18:48
into roasting with kind of some guidance from your, from your
18:51
Uncle, Dan sir. But coming from a different
18:54
career? How did you end up there?
18:56
I mean, it was very overwhelming.
18:57
I started looking into the major manufacturers.
19:00
I was in Chicago at the time probe at had a new North
19:03
American Plant, just north of Chicago.
19:05
So net with them a couple times, you know, I think the older
19:10
probe at Roasters are really cool to me.
19:12
The newer ones. I didn't love quite as much.
19:16
I looked into, you know, being in California Lorien.
19:20
They're still seems pretty aggressive.
19:21
I met with them a couple times. I got a good piece of advice.
19:25
Us to look at the roasters that are placing at the national
19:30
competitions. And look, what kind of Roasters
19:32
are using. So, look for something that's
19:33
battle-tested. So, you know, I knew as a new
19:36
row, sir, I'm not an engineer. That's not my background.
19:39
I'm not going to buy a seventy-year-old roaster, you
19:42
know, I just that's too much baggage for me.
19:45
So, on my way out here, you know, I had a couple different
19:48
manufacturers in mind. I was driving cross-country with
19:52
my family, and we were planning to stop in.
19:55
Denver and we end up end up breaking down in Denver and I
19:59
put my wife and my kids on a plane to Fresno and I hung out
20:03
with my sister in Denver for a couple days and so it's okay.
20:07
Well, let's go check out a couple Coffee Roasters while I'm
20:08
here and sweep Bloom. Yeah, I don't have permission to
20:12
use her name on this but please Loom, I've had just placed
20:14
second in a Brewers Cup in Salt Lake City.
20:16
So hey, let's go check those guys out.
20:19
They had to San Franciscan Roasters.
20:21
I had honestly never heard of San.
20:22
Franciscan the owner happened to walk by and I I caught him and
20:26
said, hey Andy, why are you San Franciscan roaster and he said,
20:29
you know, they're just workhorses.
20:31
He said he had his SF 25 and he ran it every day and it just
20:36
consistently produced results. And so I end up calling this
20:40
company and, you know, I end up talking to either the owner or
20:44
the owners brother and really, again started their
20:47
relationship. I wasn't talking to a Salesman.
20:49
I was talking to the Head technician, and, you know,
20:52
developing that relationship with them.
20:53
I just felt like if Had an issue, they would answer the
20:58
phone and they have. So, you know, that small company
21:01
feeling, it's just, you know, I didn't want to get a sales rep.
21:05
I didn't want to talk to, you know, a technician on the field.
21:10
If I had a roaster out of an issue with my vent one day and I
21:13
called, and the main customer service person at a San
21:17
Franciscan didn't answer and they put it through to Bill
21:19
Kennedy, who's the owner San Franciscan.
21:21
He was in Seoul Korea at some convention and he answered said,
21:25
I'm in Korea right now. Can I call you the one?
21:27
I'm like, you've got to be kidding me, but that's the kind
21:29
of, that's kind of thing that, you know, I haven't experimented
21:32
with a lot of other Roasters, but I feel like I have such a
21:35
good relationship with San Franciscan.
21:37
At this point, they really show up for their customers.
21:40
So, that's how I ended up with a San Francisco, and I'm very
21:42
happy with that decision. That's a really a value.
21:46
Add, I think to, to you as The Roaster.
21:49
And this is just kind of my soapboxing for the audience a
21:52
little bit, but when you are going into that process of
21:55
buying Something you need to think about the maintenance
21:57
expenses and the long-term expenses, not just the first
22:01
price that you pay because if it's five thousand dollars
22:04
cheaper but there's nobody to work on it.
22:06
Or there's no way to get any assistance, it's going to cost
22:10
more in the long run. Absolutely.
22:12
And you know, this coffee equipment is so specialized that
22:15
I can't call an electrician to come work on my coffee roaster.
22:18
They've never seen anything like it.
22:19
They don't want to, you know, my afterburners having issues.
22:22
I've called eight or ten different heating companies.
22:25
Locally way, it's a coffee roaster.
22:27
Yeah, we don't do that, you know.
22:29
So I really had to lean in and learn a lot about myself and
22:32
that's where having that you know, relationship really has
22:34
paid. Dividends you.
22:37
You're the coffee that you are serving.
22:38
You mentioned, you paid five dollars a pound give or take,
22:41
which is a higher price for coffee than especially them to
22:44
see Market. Uh-huh.
22:46
You also serve coffees that are organic, I think mostly
22:50
exclusively and fair trade is often as you can.
22:54
Why is that important? To you or why did you choose to
22:56
go that route? You mentioned earlier, you were
22:59
getting into the sourcing of your food.
23:01
I'm assuming that's part of that inspiration.
23:03
Yep, great question. So when I started getting into
23:08
roasting and actually making green coffee purchases, you
23:12
know, I'd realized before I start this in Denver that you'll
23:17
how the consumer has a lot of power.
23:19
And I think people kind of forget that, you know, even with
23:22
the larger companies, you know, if there's a need large
23:26
companies will pivot and try and fill that need.
23:27
So as a consumer are you know, the way we spend our money is
23:31
can really help shape policy and impact you know, the behavior
23:36
and policies of other. So it's a small part but I
23:40
figure well if I'm gonna be buying green coffee, I want to
23:42
be doing it in a way that I feel good about and you know coffee
23:46
Yes. Is there a lot of chemicals you
23:48
know, and some growing operations to me.
23:52
It was more about how do I reward Farmers that are growing
23:56
sustainably and do my research. I discovered that while it's not
23:59
a perfect system operations that grow organically because they
24:04
can't use a lot of the fertilizers and a lot of the
24:06
pesticides, they really have to treat the tree as well.
24:09
They have to spread them out, they can't over plant and they
24:13
have to do it in a sustainable way.
24:15
So, you know, and And The Organic Market is so regulated
24:19
that while there's a lot of Fraud and it generally, I know,
24:21
if my importer certifying something organic, it's going to
24:24
be organic. So I'd made a decision to
24:26
purchase exclusively, organic coffee, not because I'm an
24:29
organic nut because I felt that it was the way to best reward.
24:33
The farmers that are growing. What using sustainable practices
24:37
fair trade is great, you know, there are a lot of these
24:40
programs, they're definitely steps in the right direction.
24:43
It's, it's not an end-all be-all, it's not a Solution.
24:47
So little of coffee is certified fairtrade that you know, to be
24:52
providing coffee to other businesses and keep my flavor
24:56
profiles consistent. You know I just made a decision.
24:59
I can't be exclusively fair trade.
25:01
I'm already pretty pigeon-holed being just organic and it
25:03
creates some challenges sourcing beans a certain times of the
25:06
year so if I have the option to buy fairtrade I will but I am
25:10
100% exclusively organic. Well, it's important to note
25:14
that fair trade is a certification that farmers have
25:16
to pay for and that may not always be available to them as
25:19
well. I also want to point out if
25:21
you're listening, you can't see Jack, but I can.
25:24
And when he started talking about organic and sustainability
25:27
a ray of sun, literally came out and eliminated him on my screen.
25:30
So there must be something to that.
25:33
I haven't been to your shop. I have traveled kind of that
25:36
direction, and I certainly will again.
25:37
I'm based here in Southern California, when I walk into Del
25:41
Tina, what, what is the experience?
25:42
It's like what is divided? You know what is you mentioned?
25:45
Another roaster down the road. So it's obviously been growing
25:48
since you've moved in what is that Central Coast coffee region
25:52
experience? Like it's really important to
25:55
us. That everybody feels welcome.
25:56
So when we first were building out this location Oceano itself,
26:02
historically is a very heavy Latino neighborhood and over the
26:08
last five or ten years. There have been a lot more
26:12
investors You're setting up Airbnb type properties in
26:15
Oceania because it's so close to the beach.
26:16
So, when I set up, I had eyes on me going, you know, is this
26:22
gentrification, you know? And so I had to just walk around
26:25
giving out, hot chocolates to kids, waving to people showing
26:28
like everybody's welcome. So when people walk in, we
26:30
really make a point smile. Good morning, how are you?
26:33
Come on in, you know, especially coffee is very intimidating.
26:37
So people walk in, I don't know what to order.
26:39
I've never been here, okay, what do you like and we try and get
26:41
that dialogue going? It's also really important to
26:44
us. You walk in the first thing you
26:46
see, is our Roasters in the back, but we have a line of
26:48
sight and then I have all my inventory right there next to
26:51
the roaster. So, it's very open, you know, I
26:54
don't encourage customers to go open my green beans and look in
26:58
them. But, you know, we have it set
27:00
up. We're trying to encourage the
27:01
dialogue. We want people to feel welcome.
27:03
We want to spark that Curiosity and then have a great customer
27:06
experience as well. You had mentioned earlier that a
27:09
nice want to come back around to this but that there were other
27:12
Roasters in the area who are the customers outside now that the
27:16
world is opened up again. Who is coming to visit you,
27:19
besides your neighbors, or is it still kind of exclusively local
27:22
neighborhood. I'm that you guys have.
27:25
We're definitely seen an uptick in international travel.
27:28
What was really cool about our location.
27:30
We first opened is, we're on Highway 1 but right next to us
27:33
is coming a major highway. So if you're On Highway 1.
27:39
You'll Pacific Coast Highway. You're either a local or you're
27:42
just joyriding. So what was really neat and why
27:44
I chose this location was I talked to a couple other
27:47
business owners and they said, yeah, all all July Europe's on
27:51
holiday and the travel agency. Sell these bucket list vacation
27:56
packages where you flying to San Francisco, you rent an RV, you
28:00
drive down the coast to La you know you Circle back around hit
28:04
Vegas on the way back. So okay, that's cool.
28:07
So all July You have people from all over Europe and you know,
28:10
the Europeans, they love espresso and they like the dark
28:13
roast. The oh my gosh, this is really
28:15
been America. We can, this is the first
28:17
European style espresso I've had, which is really exciting
28:20
for us. So July, and we're starting to
28:22
see an uptick again. We see a lot of Europeans, we
28:25
see a lot of South Africans and then in August, not try to be
28:30
surgical but later in the summer, a lot of Asian countries
28:33
go on their holiday. So then we see this other influx
28:36
from, you know, Korea. You know, Japan and it's just
28:39
really fun. So we get a great mix of the
28:42
locals and then we have people just from all over the world.
28:45
And so my, my background, I used to work in international tax and
28:49
I used to help non us companies. Set up u.s. subsidiaries.
28:52
And what was really cool about that was that I got to work with
28:55
all these non us businesses and learn the way.
28:58
You know, how do you do business in the Netherlands?
29:00
When do people get into the office?
29:01
When you people the keishon, our holiday.
29:03
That was one of the few things. I really enjoyed about my
29:05
previous career and being where we Are now I get to talk to
29:09
people from all around the world, all summer, and is kind
29:12
of got to take a piece of that with me and it's really fun.
29:14
So being able to find common ground with people and learn,
29:18
you know, how how they serve a macchiato in the Netherlands or
29:22
Turkish cost you whatever people from all over the world have
29:24
their own practices and and it's fun to kind of pick their brains
29:28
and find some common ground with them.
29:31
Sharing coffee is one of those very few things that unites 99%
29:35
of the world. That's amazing.
29:37
Right? Right.
29:38
And growing you you chose where your shop is.
29:43
You made a decision as a family to come there.
29:46
Now that you're there and you've been in business for four years
29:52
going on five probably I believe you've been through this massive
29:56
business nightmare called the Patrick and you're still open.
30:01
What's something that you've learned over the last several
30:03
years? Kind of through that experience
30:05
that you're going to take with you moving forward.
30:08
That's a great question really to trust.
30:12
Trust my gut and you really need to be persistent when starting a
30:16
new business and I feel like I've talked to so many potential
30:20
coffee professionals that you know, it sounds like a fun idea
30:25
and they get into it and they hit a couple roadblocks and they
30:27
give up. And you know, I was going to
30:29
open a coffee roaster Santa Barbara but it's really hard to
30:31
get a permit, okay so you just stopped, you know, so we had a
30:35
lot of roadblocks, you know, in addition to the It's tough, you
30:38
know, getting our building up to code was just a nightmare and we
30:41
just you hit these little roadblocks.
30:43
And I've learned that if you just push through it, you know,
30:47
you'll eventually get there and you know, you're going to make
30:50
mistakes, obviously, anything you go into for the first time.
30:55
So just be patient and get used to saying what, you know, right
30:58
now this is the best I can do and I'm proud of that and
31:01
knowing that we're all flawed and you know, you're not going
31:03
to do anything perfect, but it's important to just keep pushing
31:06
and keep keep moving. In forward.
31:08
So, you know, after all we've been through over the last
31:10
couple years, you know, I learned a ton, I learned to
31:13
trust my gut. I've learned to not, you know,
31:15
suffer in silence when things are going sideways.
31:17
You're scared pick up the phone and call somebody call somebody
31:20
who's been in the industry for a long time or call call a family
31:23
member called friend. Just say, hey, I'm struggling.
31:25
You know, I'm stressed. I don't know, I don't know.
31:27
My kids are going to go to school this year.
31:29
I don't know if we're going to be able to stay open and just
31:30
get it, you know, that suffer in silence, it's kind of part of
31:34
our culture. But yeah, if you do, don't dump
31:37
your problems on, Pool. But, you know, fall back on
31:39
support when you need it. And you know, there's there's a
31:42
group of people around you that usually rally and guys, say a
31:45
business like this, it takes a village, you know, I couldn't
31:48
have done this on my own without the support of my family and my
31:51
community. So that's something I've taken
31:53
with me. Is this to fall back on that
31:55
support when you need, it suffer in silence.
31:57
You definitely spent time in the midwest.
32:00
That's how we approach all of our problems.
32:03
What Sonny? What?
32:04
Something that I didn't ask you today.
32:05
That I should have over. What should people know?
32:07
About Del Tina or about you that we didn't get a chance to cover
32:10
today. Um, you know, one reason that I
32:16
really wanted to get into coffee, as I went to a couple
32:18
trade shows before I was a professional and the culture is
32:23
just amazing, it's very collaborative.
32:25
And, you know, being in a small town, I felt like the small
32:30
business owners are less, so and a little bit more territorial,
32:35
but I found coffee as a whole is very collaborative.
32:38
And, you know, like I said before, it took a village to
32:41
kind of Get our business to where it is today.
32:43
And so I'm always looking for ways to pay it forward.
32:46
For example, there's another coffee roasters behind me, using
32:50
my roaster because he had to move his roaster this week and
32:53
he have anywhere to roast, and he called, man.
32:55
Yeah, you can use my roaster. So, you know, I'm here, I'm
32:58
available. I'm happy to be a resource.
33:00
If anybody is listening to this, and they think they might want
33:03
to go into coffee roaster. They want to know, realistically
33:06
what it looks like every day. I've had people say, oh, I want
33:09
to be a coffee. Roaster, can I, you know, Mentor
33:11
you And a and this is why I don't like lifting coffee bags.
33:14
Like what would you think we're doing here?
33:16
So if you think you're interested, reach out, you know,
33:18
people love talking about what they do.
33:20
Yeah, this is a perfect example. It's really fun for us.
33:23
So reach out, you know, you can always email me, you can always
33:26
call me, I'm happy to collaborate.
33:28
I'm happy to kind of, you know, impart, whatever knowledge I've
33:31
gained over the last few years into the Next Generation.
33:34
The last thing I always ask every guest is the next time
33:37
you're out and about you're on the one and you're just
33:39
traveling on your own and you pull over at an unknown coffee.
33:42
A roaster. What are you going to order for
33:44
yourself? As a great question I'm an
33:47
Americano guy, especially in the afternoon, I love decaf,
33:50
americanos, you know, so few people really put as much effort
33:54
into their decaf as they do their their non decaffeinated
33:57
coffees. So if I'm scoping somebody out,
34:00
I'll order decaf Americano Just to see if they're really on
34:02
their game. You know, if I'm it's totally
34:05
depends on. This is a great question,
34:06
depends on the time of day, if it's 6:00 in the morning, I'll
34:10
get you know, four shots over ice.
34:11
If it's It's later in the afternoon, decaf Americano, you
34:14
know, if it's just after lunch, I might get, you know, splash of
34:19
vanilla latte. I'm big note fan.
34:22
So usually this splash of milk and it took my like Jim coffee,
34:25
I don't drink coffee all day long.
34:27
So, great question. Anything else you want to talk
34:30
about, right? Yeah.
34:32
I mean, do you ever do you ever sleep?
34:35
I'm assuming, if you're not Sam, then trip and then coffee in the
34:38
afternoon, you know, I take a lot less coffee as a coffee,
34:40
professional that I did. Isn't an office job.
34:44
Like I drink coffee just because I was bored.
34:46
Whereas now, you know, I don't drink coffee in the morning
34:48
because I'm so excited to come down and cup.
34:51
You know, the batch I ran two days ago, you know, I drink
34:54
little bits here and there, you know, if I pull a double shot,
34:57
I'll take a sip of it. I'm not going to down it, you
34:58
know, if I try or cold brew, I'll have a couple sips and then
35:02
I usually cut it off, you know, by about noon, but yeah, coffee
35:06
for me, I enjoy drinking it so much more now because it is part
35:10
of my profession that I do. Don't it's not a drug to me
35:13
anymore. It's really something.
35:14
I love Well Jack, I really appreciate you taking the time
35:18
to just chat with me and all of our listeners.
35:21
Thanks for being here. I really appreciate it.
35:23
Of course. This is fun.
35:31
Okay to recap, you will hit roadblocks, lots of them, some
35:36
little and some big and you have to push through them to get to
35:39
where you want to go. It's a lesson that Jack is
35:43
learned. And the more I think about it,
35:45
the more I find it applies to just about everything not just
35:48
business. But life in general at Dell Tina
35:52
coffee, they roast on a San Franciscan roaster.
35:55
It's a brand that Jack came across through the
35:57
recommendation from another roaster.
36:00
Word of Mouth goes a long way, when starting a business, and
36:03
here's a little bit of unsolicited equipment, advice
36:07
when pricing out equipment, be it an espresso machine for your
36:10
new cafe or Coffee grinder for home consider.
36:14
The long-term expenses is a cheaper now but harder and more
36:17
expensive to fix. How long will it last?
36:20
Is it more or less efficient than another option?
36:24
For example, I bought a grinder that was a little bit less
36:26
expensive because the version I chose did not have a static free
36:30
cup to catch the grinds. It was like 20 bucks difference
36:34
and I regret that choice because of the mess that gets made.
36:37
When I'm pulling the grind cup out, leaving behind a mess of
36:40
grinds. That's Stick to the cup and get
36:42
all over the place. And so on the waist, I create
36:45
may not be worth $20 of coffee, even over time, but I'm also
36:50
spending more time cleaning up my coffee station and generally
36:53
just being annoyed in the morning.
36:55
When I should be enjoying, my cup of coffee Jack mentioned,
36:59
the rabbit hole that is caffeine and coffee the caffeine content
37:03
differences between light and dark.
37:04
Roasts are relatively minimal. What will have more of an impact
37:08
on your caffeine intake will be the size of the grind, the
37:11
Brewing. Third its concentration and
37:13
especially the variety of coffee.
37:16
A longer roast can slightly reduce the caffeine content but
37:20
then how you measure your grinds to water ratio will be more
37:23
indicative of the caffeine that eventually ends up in your cup
37:27
more than anything. This conversation with Jack
37:29
inspired me to consider where people choose to live, where we,
37:33
my wife, and I have chosen to live, is it most impacted by our
37:37
careers, by family community lifestyle.
37:40
How do we wait those Is and how does being an entrepreneur
37:43
impact? Those choices there don't seem
37:46
to be right answers. Nor does there have to be but
37:48
taking time to assess the question every now and again,
37:52
might help create a life. Lived better, finally, Jack
37:57
thinks crafted dark. Roasts are becoming a lost art
38:01
one that he gladly continues, because he roasts coffee that he
38:04
likes. And at Dell Tina, he hopes to
38:07
create a space where we as guests can experience more than
38:10
just the taste of coffee. If you want to reach out to Jack
38:13
or the Dell Tina, team follow at Dell Tina coffee on Instagram or
38:18
head to Del Tina Coffee Roasters.com.
38:21
Of course you can also head to roast westcoast.com to find
38:25
those links and read the news letter that accompanies.
38:27
This podcast on to some podcasting news after season 6
38:33
and 130 episodes interviewing coffee industry professionals
38:37
about their entrepreneurial Journeys personal motivations
38:40
and experiences. And Coffee and the sharing of
38:43
their coffee smarter knowledge. In pursuit of a better cup of
38:46
coffee at home or a coffee experience out in the world.
38:50
I think it's fair to say, we have a pretty good sample size
38:53
of what works and what people want from the show that combined
38:57
with feedback from listeners, like you has inspired a huge
39:01
change in the format. Specifically we are splitting it
39:04
in half roast, West Coast will remain a coffee podcast focused
39:09
on telling the stories of coffee industry.
39:11
Facials through interviews with Roasters Coffee Shop owners
39:15
Baristas farmers. And so on, and we're launching
39:19
an entirely new second podcast called coffee smarter, where
39:23
we'll focus on coffee education, that is specifically targeted
39:27
towards helping you make a better cup of coffee at home
39:30
along with a little bit of History to improve your coffee
39:33
drinking experience, either at home or out in the World.
39:37
Season 1 of coffee, smarter is going to focus on the different
39:41
at At home brewing, methods will break down the V60.
39:44
Pour over the French press the Chemex and more.
39:48
We're going to focus on how and why they may be a good fit for
39:51
you. The episodes will be more
39:53
Compact and provide all the knowledge.
39:55
You need to make a great cup of coffee.
39:58
If you already subscribe to the roast West Coast coffee podcast,
40:02
newsletter, paid or free, nothing will change for you.
40:05
You'll get both shows sent right to your email, just like always
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40:26
This might be a pretty good time to subscribe to the coffee
40:28
newsletter, roast westcoast.com. But if not find coffee, smarter
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40:37
Helping me split the show into is the continued support from
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our coffee industry Partners including Cafe litter, most your
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coffee company. Steady-state coffee, roasting
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Camp, Coffee Company, coffee cycle, roasting ignite, Coffee
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Company. Maria coffee, Cape Horn coffee,
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importers zoom bar, coffee, and tea, and Ascend Coffee Roasters.
40:58
The founder of ignite Coffee Company.
41:00
Tyler Whitehead, just sent me some photos of the interior of
41:03
their new Cafe space in Oceanside, which I posted on at
41:07
Roast West Coast on Instagram and Facebook.
41:10
The coffee bar is in. And the espresso machine is
41:13
unboxed, they are on the precipice of opening.
41:16
It's an exciting time over there and I'm stoked to be one of the
41:18
first in line to get a cup of coffee when they open the doors.
41:23
Thank you to everyone, listening to this show, reading the
41:25
newsletter at roast westcoast.com.
41:28
Don't forget to search for and follow the coffee smarter
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podcast as soon as possible. Like right now, please and thank
41:35
you. This episode of the roast West
41:37
Coast coffee podcast. The last of season 6 is was has
41:41
been written produced and recorded by meet Ryan Walt.
41:45
I hope this episode is found you happy healthy and with at least
41:49
enough sanity to make it through the day, always tip your
41:52
Baristas and be sure to drink. Good coffee.
42:19
Hey everyone, thank you for sticking around.
42:22
Once again, I have some last requests of you today first.
42:26
Please go get your flu shot. Get that covid booster or even
42:29
your first covid shot. It isn't too late.
42:31
My amazing wife works in the school system with kids, mostly
42:35
with special needs. And many of them are still
42:37
considered at risk and haven't been able to get vaccinated the
42:40
way. The rest of us have staying
42:42
healthy and getting those shots helps prevent the spread of
42:45
viruses which in turn, protects kids and adults, who don't have
42:49
the benefit? Bit of a strong immune system,
42:51
not to mention the rest of the people we love.
42:54
It is a very good thing to do second.
42:57
Please vote, if you are listening to this, the day drops
43:00
tomorrow is the last day to vote in the mid terms which are
43:03
incredibly important. Finally, treat yourself to a
43:07
good cup of coffee. You've earned it
43:22
Hey, good morning everyone. This is Ryan will time the host
43:25
of the roast West Coast coffee podcast.
43:28
And for the first time in seven seasons were splitting to show
43:31
in half to bring you a new version of our popular coffee
43:35
smarter series, The Coffee smarter podcast will be focused
43:38
on helping you create a better cup of coffee and a better
43:42
coffee experience at home. While also sharing the history
43:46
economy and impacts on culture that your cup of coffee has on
43:50
the World season 1. Is focusing on the methods of
43:53
coffee brewing that you might use at home.
43:55
Be sure to bookmark, the coffee smarter podcast on your favorite
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podcast platform, like apple or Spotify, or just sign up for one
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of the free or paid newsletter options, at roast westcoast.com
44:07
and get access to every episode of the brand-new coffee smarter
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podcast season 1 coming soon.