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Third Wave Water Company's Taylor Minor and Charles Nick Join The Coffee People Podcast. · Coffee People Podcast

0:00
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Coffee People
0:04
podcast presented by Rostar Coffee Packaging.
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You can find them online at rostar.com.
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I want to say thank you for being here with us today.
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I'm your host, Ryan Wolt. I'm near the end of season 15.
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If you've missed any episodes, we'll curate them in our
0:19
newsletter, which you can sign up for on our website,
0:22
coffeepeoplepodcast.com. You can also find all of those
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episodes on your favorite podcast platforms like Apple,
0:30
Spotify, or YouTube. Thank you for watching and
0:33
listening, liking and subscribing, and generally just
0:36
appreciating the world of coffee and the entrepreneurial effort
0:40
that it takes to get that coffee into your mug.
0:43
OK, now that we've got that out of the way, I hope you have a
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good cup of coffee today too, because we're going to get into
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the conversation with two great guests, the Co founders of Third
0:53
Wave Water. I'll add their links into our
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show notes. Cheers.
1:23
None. And, and like, I just set off
1:28
there. I appreciate you both being
1:29
here. Welcome to coffee people.
1:32
I'm excited to be here. I haven't done a show in a while
1:35
and you know, it's just me and the dog.
1:37
So I get kind of lonely up here in Oregon.
1:40
Would you, would you gentlemen mind introducing yourselves for
1:45
the audience just so they can hear your voice, maybe your name
1:47
and and the company you work for?
1:49
3rd Wave water, what you do there?
1:51
Sure. My name is Charles Nick, the
1:53
president of Third Wave Water. I lead a lot of the marketing,
1:56
administration and sales efforts.
2:00
My name is Taylor Miner I guess, functioning Co founder CEOI do a
2:06
lot of the operations, facilities, making sure sticks
2:10
get made, all of the kind of behind the scenes stuff.
2:16
Well, I'm excited to talk more about those sticks in a little
2:19
bit, but I'm hoping that we get a little more background before
2:23
we do that. You know, coffee is something
2:27
that impacts all of us even when we're not working in it.
2:30
I'm wondering if you have kind of memories of coffee or a first
2:33
coffee kind of aha experience that made you think, oh, this is
2:36
something that I'm interested in and put it on your radar in that
2:39
way. Sure first experience the first
2:44
experience was negative. If I'm going to be honest about
2:47
coffee, specialty coffee, very different.
2:51
The term that comes to my brain is bad breath.
2:55
So, you know, burnt flavors, just, you know, nothing that's
3:01
really pulling me. And I, I hated coffee for a long
3:04
time and kind of forced my way through it in office
3:06
environments, dumping sugar into get my, my daily caffeine and
3:11
then eventually force myself to stop drinking sugar with it so I
3:14
could drink it black. And then still didn't like it,
3:17
but discovered specialty at Pete's actually in Dayton, OH,
3:21
when they were here still, they had a luminous blend, which was
3:25
a surprise. And I was challenging some of
3:28
the, the, the people there and I'm like, what do you, you know,
3:30
who cares about Hawaiian this and blah, blah, blah.
3:32
And then they kept brewing a bunch of different cups of
3:35
coffee. And the one that got me was a
3:37
Chemex version of their Luminous.
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And after they closed, I'll end with this, I tried to find that
3:42
luminous blend and their other Pete's and it was different.
3:46
So they had a different sorcerer for the roaster for that
3:49
location in Dayton. And I, I never got to discover
3:52
who it was, but they did such a good job in that one.
3:54
But the one in Columbus, that one tasted too dark and I didn't
3:56
like it. How about you, Taylor?
4:00
Yeah, so my parents owned a coffee shop in the late 90s and
4:05
so I grew up working that and then got into a specialty coffee
4:11
myself, started home roasting in the mid thousands.
4:16
I started a Cafe roastery in 2008 and had that for about 10
4:22
years before transitioning all the way to 3rd wave water upon
4:27
my first really aha moment would be when I was home roasting.
4:33
I think it was. So it's been like 2007, just
4:39
like a good Sumatra and fresh roasted.
4:42
It was, yeah. It was kind of like, oh wow,
4:45
this is really good. So I think it was on a French
4:48
press, so. Why start home roasting just
4:52
because you'd had that experience in the coffee shop
4:54
with your parents? I mean, you know, what is it
4:57
about your personality that made you think this is something I
5:00
kind of want to tweak around with and and figure out?
5:02
So I had always had the dream, my wife and I, of, of having a
5:07
coffee shop, coffee roastery. So the getting into home
5:11
roasting was like, oh, I'm going to start doing this and then
5:14
kind of see where it goes. So, yeah, yeah, I had always had
5:19
the idea of going into owning a cafe roastery, you know, when
5:23
you have like a shop and then you don't anymore.
5:28
You keep thinking about, oh, next time if I, you know, I want
5:30
to do this, I'm going to do this.
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You kind of always have that running tally in your head of,
5:35
of, of, you know, features or what you would do different or
5:40
so. Yeah.
5:43
So we've got Charles, you're working in an office somewhere.
5:48
Taylor's got some coffee background.
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How do you guys connect? I mean, are you guys friends
5:53
from childhood? Do you meet as adults?
5:55
You know where does this, this relationship, this partnership
5:57
begin? On it was through.
6:01
The Right Cup was a coffee subscription business I had at
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the time and the Wright Brothers, you know, Right Cup,
6:07
that kind of homage because we're in the Dayton area and it
6:10
was just trying to launch specialty coffee, you know, help
6:14
you discover great coffee. So you get 4 samples of all
6:17
kinds of different ones. So I met Taylor is a roaster,
6:20
one of the local roasters in Dayton and basically kind of we,
6:26
we had some, some fun, you know, talking science and other
6:29
different things. So we would talk other subjects
6:31
off, off side. And we kind of came to it two
6:34
different ways, though, as far as the origin story.
6:37
And I know we'll eventually get there, but mine kind of came
6:40
from, I was buying really expensive coffee and shipping it
6:47
to my customers. And they were not having the
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same experience I was at home. And I couldn't figure out why,
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you know, is it the brew method is a process or are they using,
6:56
you know, horrible Brewers they haven't cleaned or something
6:58
strange. And eventually, I was working in
7:01
Kansas for Kansas State University as a researcher at
7:04
the time. And when I would bring all my
7:07
stuff out, I was, you know, bringing Aeropress and kettle
7:10
and, you know, some local coffee I like that I would brew at
7:13
home. And when I brewed it in Kansas,
7:15
it was disgusting. Like it wasn't just, like, a
7:17
little bit worse. Like, it ruined the coffee so
7:20
bad. Sorry, Kansas.
7:21
Your water's atrocious, at least on that.
7:24
So yeah, I wasn't. And where?
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Where what kind of popped in my head was at least from, from
7:29
this perspective, was then, well, the water is the only
7:32
variable, but I didn't know the answer, but at least I knew the
7:34
right question to ask. And and I'll let Taylor tell his
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story. So he came from it from a
7:39
different angle, but we were coming to the same conclusion or
7:42
the same questions. Sure.
7:44
Yeah, yeah. So I, you know, I had the Cafe
7:48
going, decided to join the SCA, started going to SCA Events,
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Special Coffee Association. There were some events back then
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called Symposium or Rico. So it took place about 3 days
8:03
before Expo and was kind of a little smaller event but had
8:07
speakers. Then we dive into, you know, the
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deep nerdery of coffee. One of the years was when
8:16
Maxwell and Chris Hendon came out with water for coffee.
8:21
So I met them, you know, it's kind of introduced in that book.
8:25
And then I was just, you know, always trying to, you know,
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tweak things in my Cafe roastery.
8:32
And so had come up with kind of an elaborate water filtration
8:35
scheme for my Cafe that was kind of bespoke.
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And, you know, if you would have people take, you know, gallons
8:43
of water home to brew with. And, and so that's kind of where
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I went into the water for coffee was on that Cafe Roastery side.
8:54
Was there a discussion that the two of you guys had in one of
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these, you know, meetings that threw coffee where you both
9:00
realize the other one is, is addressed this issue and you
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start going, well, how can we fix it?
9:06
Sure. No, we were sitting having sushi
9:08
and Tai 9 and we're like, hey, 'cause I was asking, I was like,
9:13
you know, what do you because I brought up basically my story
9:16
from Kansas and I'm like, what do you do as a roastery for your
9:19
water? And then he explained he had
9:20
built this water system and that there was the, that there was an
9:25
actual water standard. And that was the first thing I'm
9:27
like, oh, interesting, there's a water standard for coffee.
9:30
So then the question was, can I deliver that to my customers on,
9:34
on the, the shipping side? And I didn't want to ship a
9:38
bunch of weight. So the question to him was, what
9:42
if we like make a condensed version of yours and then add it
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to, because you can make a, you know, a condensed version of
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most waters and concentrate and then ship it and add it to a
9:53
distilled or something or an empty base.
9:56
And then he kind of joked back and was like, well, yeah, I know
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we could freeze dry it. And we're like, well, actually
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we wouldn't freeze dry it. We would just start with the
10:03
minerals. And then that, that's what kind
10:04
of started off this whole, this whole journey because we, we
10:07
didn't want to ship heavy, heavy water and we wanted to make a
10:12
concentrate. But then powder was the most
10:14
efficient way to get it because then you don't have any
10:16
concentrate. You're just starting it with a
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complete open, empty base. I guess after our, after our
10:24
conversation, I, I kind of had a, a laboratory and for, for
10:30
testing coffee and stuff. And and so I got all these
10:33
minerals came up with a kind of the first beta version of third
10:38
wave water, put it in some micro centrifuge vials.
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It looked really suspicious. I dropped it off at the office
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Co share that Charles was at just at the front desk.
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I'm like, hey, this is for Charles.
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It's not sketchy, but and, and then the next time I think he
10:56
was in Kansas, he used that to brew with and and then kind of
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came back with his experience. You know, those first batches,
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those beta tests, as you mentioned, which first of all,
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good on you for not trying to mail them because I think that
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would have probably gone horribly wrong.
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But also, how do you know what minerals to combine?
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Did you break down the water that you were using, you know,
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at your facility and, and say, well, this is what is in this,
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this is the the solids that are dissolved here in this water and
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reverse engineer it. Did you go to resources like
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Chris Hendon, who I just saw speak and I only understood
11:37
maybe 20% of what he was saying? You know, how did you determine
11:41
this is what I think might make sense for what Charles is doing
11:44
over there. Yeah, so I, I kind of backed
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into it. So you know, there's obviously,
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hey, this is kind of big picture, you know, there's
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obviously there's no one water, right.
11:56
But they're they're objectively bad waters and objectively
12:00
better waters. And those can vary different
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from different roast types, but in general.
12:05
Water stand like. OK.
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We're looking for this target, right?
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And you can specify that as much as possible.
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Then it started looking at the practicalities of mixing
12:16
multiple minerals together the not and not having chemical
12:21
reactions that were unintended, right.
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So if you, if you mix in a liquid form, for instance sodium
12:29
bicarbonate, baking soda and calcium chloride, they have a
12:34
chemical reaction and then actually break separate and then
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create calcium carbonate and sodium chloride.
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And, and so there are some powders that will react to if,
12:50
if the moisture changes or the temperature changes.
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Then I started looking at, OK, water solubility of different
12:58
minerals right there. So there's some minerals like,
13:00
Oh yeah, we can put in water, but we need carbonated water to
13:02
dissolve it or And then there are some minerals that were
13:06
like, OK, these are really corrosive to stainless steel.
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I didn't really like like them. I also thought, like, man, if
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somebody were to use this improperly, right, they could
13:17
really ruin their coffee equipment.
13:19
You know, for instance, calcium chloride.
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It is, is can be really corrosive to stainless steel and
13:26
Nespresso machine. So you know, say somebody puts
13:29
in a 5 gallon stick into the one gallon container, they use that
13:32
and they can ruin their machine. So it was kind of all these
13:34
different things. I was like, OK, what would work
13:37
best in all of these scenarios and, and how can I get to it?
13:42
So it there are already lots of people in specialty coffee
13:47
making their own water. So that that was a thing, you
13:51
know, even Maxwell and Hendon were making their own water for,
13:55
for doing taste tests at the symposium.
13:59
So, so there was already a lot of people making water, but I
14:02
just came about it like, OK, practically, how can I, what
14:07
powders can I mix together? What minerals can I mix together
14:10
that will will dose properly that I can store, that I can
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package? And so, yeah, it was, it was
14:18
multifactorial. But definitely beyond the
14:20
mechanics, it started with the SCA specs.
14:22
So like 150 TDs was was a generic to start and work
14:26
backwards. Well, when he knew from
14:28
magnesium, like he had read through the book, which we still
14:31
can't find by the way. I know it's here somewhere.
14:34
The water for coffee book. You know, magnesium is an
14:36
importance. So we made sure magnesium was a
14:39
part of a recipe. But yeah, he, he, we definitely
14:42
had a lot of mechanics on the the blending the specific
14:46
powders into a fluid and to figure out what was going to
14:49
work. It sounds like you guys are at
14:52
at that point already thinking about it as a potential product.
14:58
Yeah. Yeah.
14:59
Are you working together at this point?
15:01
Are you saying we want to develop this into a product?
15:04
Why? Why go from the this is a a
15:07
curiosity, a rabbit hole we've fallen into to, oh, there's a
15:12
business here. 'Cause it was solving my issue,
15:16
like I wanted this fix for my customers.
15:18
So I, we, we made a, an additional batch set and sent
15:21
them off to my customers just to see with an, you know, an, A
15:28
specialty coffee consumer base. Like would they react to it
15:31
well? And it was overwhelmingly
15:33
positive. And that's why we just, you
15:34
know, that was a big part of why I think we decided to look.
15:37
Forward so Charles and I both read a lot of business books had
15:42
a lot of you know less than successful businesses before 3rd
15:46
wave and we had learned a lot. So when we met what I found is
15:50
we were both speaking the same language and kind of on the same
15:53
wavelength and I knew like oh, I want to work with this guy.
15:57
I don't know really how yet, but I think we make a good team.
16:02
So there was there was some of that kind of in in that was the
16:06
idea of like, hey, let's what's minimum viable product?
16:09
How can we test this and and make it fail quick right before
16:15
you launch something? How can we do So what is that?
16:17
So yeah, we I mean, our first thing was all hand weighed out
16:23
and little centrifuge vials and we didn't even have a name yet.
16:26
We just called the coffee spice. I was a kind of a Dune nerd and
16:31
I thought, you know, this is like the spice.
16:35
And yeah. And then, you know, we got some
16:40
feedback. People really liked it.
16:43
And then I think we're at a Dayton start up week.
16:47
They had a little like start up entrepreneurship convention and
16:50
and we both decided, hey, let's, let's launch this for real.
16:54
There's a, you know, a small coffee event in Chicago in a
16:58
month, Let's launch it. So we then decided, OK, now we
17:03
have 4 weeks let's launch this company in four weeks.
17:07
So, and from there then we, you know, got some, some came up
17:13
with the company name, the logo, made our first batch.
17:17
And again, this was OK, like we know some people like it, but
17:21
let's do a little bigger and see what, what people say that at
17:26
that industry event, you know, people, the right people were
17:29
saying the right things, at least we thought.
17:31
So we're like, OK, let's launch it.
17:33
You know, let's keep growing this, let's have our website,
17:36
let's sell online. And then that quickly went into
17:40
let's do a Kickstarter. So that discussion we had was
17:45
the beginning of October, the end of October, we launched.
17:48
We had our first online sales in November.
17:51
We decided in December to do a Kickstarter.
17:54
We launched the Kickstarter in January.
17:57
It funds in 11 hours. And then we get an e-mail
18:00
February from Shark Tank saying, hey, we think you'd be a good
18:04
fit for the show. Oh, that's interesting they
18:07
reached out to you. Yeah, yeah.
18:09
They reached out to us. So it was, it was all extremely
18:11
quick and, and just kind of, you know, once it got going, just
18:19
kind of kept going. Like kind of holding on for dear
18:23
life. I, I've launched a, a couple of
18:26
Kickstarters or you know, start up fundraisings myself.
18:30
They always tell you that you should take six months to plan
18:33
for it. It doesn't sound like that
18:34
happened in this case, did you? Was the response what you
18:38
expected or were you surprised at how quickly people kind of
18:42
caught on? I mean, are are there
18:44
competitors at that time doing this that you would like?
18:47
Put in six months of work in into one month so we listen to
18:53
countless Kickstarter podcasts and you know kind of money
18:58
bolded as much as possible even down to like what day of the
19:02
week is the best time to launch it?
19:06
How many, how many days should you do it?
19:09
What time of day? What's the average ticket price
19:12
that you should have, you know, having correct upscale bundles
19:16
right for. And so we weren't, I guess
19:21
shocked at its success. Now this was, I mean, we did, we
19:26
raised $20,000 on Kickstarter, which nowadays for specialty
19:30
coffee products on Kickstarter, that's nothing, right?
19:34
You know, you'll see stuff go $2,000,000, you know, $200,000
19:38
is, is like almost a, a Gimme. So this was still kind of early
19:43
on in specialty coffee. This was beginning of 2017.
19:49
But yeah, the the we, we definitely didn't go in naive.
19:57
So we, we, we really tried to plan everything out and, and go
20:02
about it in a smart way. So yeah.
20:06
And, and it did what it was supposed to.
20:08
So like it did kick start our business, like we were using it
20:11
for leverage to buy equipment, to be able to scale the
20:14
business. And, and one of the things that
20:18
you, you, you don't make your first Test to your business,
20:21
especially 99% of the time scalable because you're going to
20:24
waste your time and money trying to make something scalable.
20:26
And you don't know if anybody gives a crap yet.
20:28
So you got to 1st find out on that first.
20:31
Like your, your very best customer base.
20:33
If you whoever you think that is, if you market it to them and
20:36
there's no hook, then, you know, how much money and time did you
20:40
just waste before you got to them?
20:42
So it's it's all Erica rise lean startup principles.
20:46
That was what we were trying to incorporate, which is why we
20:48
launched the business in a coffee of it, because we're
20:51
like, we're going to go directly to the people that are going to
20:53
ask us the questions, the hard questions and and see if we're
20:57
in the right space. You know, are they going to say
20:59
you should have been here yesterday or are they going to
21:01
say you're an idiot? This is a horrible idea.
21:03
Why are you even here? Is it going to be a hard sell or
21:07
an easy sell? And for us it was.
21:09
It was an easy sell like they were telling us.
21:11
Wow, You know, this has been way too long in the industry coming.
21:14
You know, somebody should have been doing this a long time ago.
21:17
So when that e-mail comes in from Shark Tank, which has
21:23
become this huge empire of a show and it was even fairly
21:27
popular in 2017, but, you know, maybe not quite where it is
21:30
today, you take that opportunity.
21:33
And you take all the credit for bringing it up, but.
21:37
Hey, you never know. What made you think, yeah, you
21:40
know what? This is going to make sense for
21:41
us. And then what was that
21:42
experience like? How did it change what you're
21:44
doing? So funny thing is, is July of
21:47
2016, right, was the first time we sat down and talked about
21:50
this. Charles actually took meeting
21:52
notes and we said this would be great for Shark Tank.
21:59
Yeah, we kind of had, you know, early on that like, yeah, this
22:02
kind of takes all those boxes that would make for great Shark
22:07
Tank. But, you know, Fast forward to
22:09
February, I think it was our Kickstarter success that kind of
22:14
put us on the map. I think they they go through and
22:16
they are are are trolling and looking for hey, this
22:20
Kickstarter was successful, right.
22:22
So, you know, you have a a start up something that's been, you
22:26
know, proven that some people are wanting you can kind of look
22:31
at it and then and and then, you know, kind of cast a wide net
22:35
there. So when we first got the e-mail,
22:39
I thought it was like fake, right?
22:42
It it, it was like, you know, I'm like Charles, I don't know
22:45
this, you know, is this real? I'm like, well, let's just go
22:49
ahead and try it so. Well, if it came from
22:51
sharktank@aol.com, you would have been a good.
22:53
But it was like it was like Fox so they did they do something
22:56
where like the people that film it are different than so it was
22:59
like a fox studio e-mail. But but even that even getting
23:06
on Shark Tank is is crazy. They said 30,000 people a year
23:09
apply and 120 make it onto the show, 200 film.
23:16
So even if you go and film and get a deal, there's no guarantee
23:20
you'll make it on the show. So the fact that we started this
23:24
process, you know, we launched in October, in February they
23:28
reach out and then in June we were filming and, and then that
23:36
beginning of that next October it was airing.
23:39
So we went from launch to airing on Shark Tank in under a year,
23:44
which really should never be a business plan.
23:48
It wasn't our business plan, but that would be a terrible idea
23:52
for a business plan because there's a lot of a lot of things
23:55
outside your control. There was a lot of stuff we did
23:58
for Kickstarter to help but be successful though, I mean,
24:01
launching at the right time, putting the time in the
24:03
campaign, you know, hiring some local college kids to help us
24:05
with the video, stuff like that. But I'd say the biggest ones was
24:09
doing a podcast, you know, we we actually pre filmed with I think
24:12
it was Brian Bakey and Brian Shelley.
24:14
Is that his name? Yeah.
24:18
And and they were one of the they launched that podcast on
24:21
the day of. So we had the podcast launching
24:24
the day we were doing the Kickstarter.
24:26
I think we had a few other things playing that day for
24:28
launch too. So it wasn't just like a cold
24:30
launch. So we had done some pre sales
24:32
for some stuff that they we. Were mocked in some some news
24:37
outlets about hipsters or ruining coffee.
24:39
It's great. And so that kind of gave us
24:43
Sprudge did a thing on it. So yeah, there, there was kind
24:48
of a confluence of, of, of stuff.
24:52
But again, it was, it was kind of planned out our idea, the
24:55
idea wasn't like, oh, let's just kind of kick it off and see what
24:58
happens. It was we we tried to be very
25:01
deliberate. Well, that and brings me to I'm
25:04
going to skip ahead a little bit to a question that I've been
25:07
thinking about a lot, which is you are you, you just mentioned
25:10
you're you're getting mocked. Hipsters are ruining coffee.
25:14
Is this a specialty coffee nerd thing you know, does the normal?
25:18
Is this a product that you think appeals to the normal person?
25:21
Who is the customer for a packet of Third Wave water?
25:25
And we're too far into the show, so I'm going to mention this at
25:27
the top, but essentially if I buy a box from 3rd Wave, it
25:30
comes with 12 little mineral packet sticks that I add to
25:34
distilled water that I then use in the brewing process of my
25:38
coffee at home, which I have done and I'll have another
25:41
comment on later that I don't want to.
25:43
Share so the the majority of our customers are mainstream coffee
25:48
drinkers, lots of Keurigs, lots of Nespresso, lots of people
25:55
that buying from Starbucks and Dunkin.
25:59
So I, you know, and, and that was kind of our idea of having,
26:03
you know, light, medium dark roast.
26:05
So have profiles that are meant for dark roast because our idea
26:09
was how do we improve? We want to improve your coffee
26:13
when that's really subjective, but you can kind of get into
26:17
some different camps. And you know, when I you'd have
26:20
a cafe, you could kind of be like some would be like, oh, I
26:22
like coffee. You would ask like 3 questions
26:25
like Oh well you know, you know like dark roast or light roast,
26:28
right? Like what kind of, you know, if
26:29
someone comes in and says, I, I want a macchiato or like a
26:33
Starbucks caramel macchiato or like a, a real macchiato, right,
26:37
'cause you give that long drink and, and you know, they're not
26:42
going to be happy. So the, yeah, I would say that
26:46
we, that we, we do have a, a pretty, yes, there are.
26:50
We, we have, our roots are in specialty with a lot of
26:52
specialty consumers, but also we have a lot of, you know,
26:56
regular, regular salt, salt of the earth people.
27:01
Our low acid profile is kind of out there.
27:04
It's, it's not really, it's outside of SCA or specialty
27:09
spec. It's just a really high
27:11
alkalinity water that will will reduce acidity up to, you know,
27:16
400%. And so it's yeah.
27:22
So yeah, I would say it's a, it's a good spectrum of, of
27:26
especially coffee people and regular coffee people.
27:29
Yeah, our goal is to help anyone in coffee the easiest way
27:32
possible, like emphasis on easy. So to get you to the SCA profile
27:37
as quickly as possible, to get you to a calibrated cupping
27:40
profile as quickly as possible to help people that are
27:44
struggling with low acid issues. Like that was one we started a
27:46
couple years ago doing the light medium dark is is it's logical
27:51
because it matches what people are reaching for, right?
27:54
Like they're when they're picking up coffee, whether it's
27:56
specialty or non specialty, there's arguments that say no,
28:00
don't even say what the roast is.
28:01
You're roasting to the being. And it's like, OK, ignore that
28:04
conversation for just two minutes.
28:06
Most people are still reaching for something that says light,
28:08
medium or dark on it. So that helps them on the
28:11
branding to at least get them in the close pocket.
28:14
It we still explain to them to to experiment.
28:17
So if you have a light roast, try the medium.
28:20
If you have a medium roast, try the dark or the light.
28:22
You know, kind of go on both sides of the spectrum and then
28:24
start to find out what flavors you like because between them,
28:28
they will empathize certain notes and then they will also
28:30
leave behind certain notes depending on what you're doing
28:33
with the water. So it's always fun to experiment
28:35
and see, Oh, I didn't know. I actually would like this
28:38
coffee with this different water versus the other one.
28:40
But. Yeah.
28:42
The other is espresso machines. It's kind of agnostic to coffee
28:48
flavour. So obviously coffee flavour is a
28:53
key to that, but probably more so is the the sustainability of
28:59
your espresso machine. So a lot of people spend
29:02
hundreds if not thousands of dollars on an espresso machine.
29:06
They didn't scare you. And they're like here, your
29:08
water needs to be like this. And then you're like, well, how
29:11
do I get that? Well, we're not going to tell
29:12
you. We're just going to tell you
29:15
what I was joked called it the Kobayashi Maru water recipe.
29:20
Where where they they, you know, that's like a Star Trek
29:22
reference to this unwinnable game.
29:24
So the, the, the water recipe that you see is kind of useless
29:30
to most people, right? When they're like, oh, it needs
29:32
to be this much total hardness, this much general hardness, this
29:36
much calcium, this, you know, and it's like the pH of this
29:39
will like most people like, what am I supposed to do with that?
29:42
Just tell me what I need to do. And so it's really an actionable
29:47
way for people to protect their equipment and then also to get
29:53
ideal coffee flavor. So I, I would say our biggest,
29:57
most popular product is our espresso machine profile.
30:00
Which is why we partner with a lot of espresso machine
30:03
companies now, so more and more trying to help them.
30:05
Like, how do you have a good experience with your product?
30:08
Meraki It comes with the 3rd wave water.
30:11
Delonghi Ranchilio They recommend us.
30:14
We don't we're not in their box yet, but we we're starting to
30:17
work with more and more lawnmower's Oklahoma.
30:20
They'll mention it still not on a publication there yet, but but
30:25
that's that's our, our another part of the goal in helping
30:27
people enjoy their coffee is, is making sure they're super
30:30
expensive. Machinery doesn't die.
30:32
And then the last thing I'll put on that is the, SO when I
30:38
calculate out how many sticks we sell, it ends up being about
30:42
150,000 cups a day are drank with third way water.
30:48
And so there we've shipped to like 83 different countries.
30:53
We so, so, yeah, I would say that it's, yes, it's specialty,
30:59
but it's also, you know, that's what's nice thing about in the
31:02
US you have the, the, some of the food that people eat
31:05
nowadays, right? Is better than the elite we're
31:08
eating 50 years ago, right? So, and then once you kind of
31:12
have that experience of like good balsamic vinegar, good
31:16
olive oil, good bread, good chocolate, right?
31:18
You're like, well, I kind of like that and I want to stick
31:21
with that. And so I think the same as with
31:24
coffee, people have those, you know, oh, wow, I can't go back
31:28
to drinking coffee like I used to.
31:30
And they're kind of now they've upgraded and and they're going
31:33
to stay that way. The first third wave water
31:38
packet that I ever I actually got at A at ACA event was a
31:42
sample product I brought home. I went and picked up the
31:45
distilled water and put it together and I wanted to be, I
31:52
didn't want it to work. I'll be honest, I was like, I
31:54
don't want this to work because I don't want to have to buy a
31:57
new thing. I don't want to deal with it.
31:58
I already have my system in place.
32:01
And then I used that first box that I had and brewed from a
32:07
machine and a pour over French press kind of all the different
32:11
ways that I like to make coffee depending on the, you know, the
32:15
attitude I wake up with in the morning.
32:18
And it was it was actionably better.
32:21
I mean, it was noticeable to me like, oh, and I was coming from
32:25
a place where the water is not great coming out of the faucet.
32:28
And so I actually remember this kind of like, Oh shit, well, now
32:32
this is something I'm doing. So it was something that I was,
32:36
I really had that experience as a customer.
32:40
And then, you know, I buy my own 3rd wave water and and do use
32:43
it. I'm wondering, you know, the to
32:48
go back a little bit between that kind of Kickstarter launch
32:53
and the filming of the show, you're still, it's not all just
32:57
getting ready to be on television, you know, which is
33:00
is cool. But you're still have this thing
33:01
that's growing and you're still figuring out details and if it
33:05
can scale and how to do that. Was there ever a time where you
33:08
went to that show and you wouldn't have taken a deal that
33:12
was offered or you would have just used it for potentially
33:17
marketing or, you know, hey, we were on Shark Tank sort of
33:19
thing. Did you ever think about it that
33:22
way? And then what value has come to
33:24
you, you know since then as part of that?
33:28
The show was a great experience like it was to me and I, I think
33:32
Taylor to like we, it was a lot of fun.
33:34
Of course, it's a bit of stress. You know, you're trying to
33:35
figure out some things and people are like, how is it
33:38
scripted? You know, do they do anything?
33:39
And it's like, no, it's not scripted.
33:41
The only thing scripted is your pitch, which makes sense.
33:43
You know, you've got to, they want to make sure you can walk
33:45
out there and clearly communicate your business idea.
33:49
And then after that, it's just hashing out the ideas and
33:52
arguing with people to, to get to some investment And as
33:58
changing anything. I, I, I don't know if you mean
34:01
like later in the business or just in general.
34:03
Like looking back 2020 hindsight 2020 being like, would you
34:07
change anything going on then? 2020 looking back, I guess, I
34:12
guess what the question is more related to how did things change
34:16
after that? Was it, you know, what did the
34:19
business, did the attention change?
34:21
Did people's perception of the brand change?
34:24
You know, it's, you know, Shark Tank is a show that is, you
34:28
know, I don't mean to harp on that too much, but I my in laws
34:31
were just here and Shark Tank is a show that we can all watch
34:34
together. And there's not a lot of those
34:36
shows out there. Yeah, so I mean, we still, even
34:42
when we knew we were going to be on Shark Tank, even when we
34:45
filmed, we were like, let's pretend this didn't happen.
34:50
And and we had these conversations like, there's a,
34:52
you know, it could even air. And if it airs, it happens to
34:56
air on the same day that a national tragedy happens,
34:59
nobody's going to watch it, right?
35:00
So it was like, we need to build a business that stands on its
35:05
own without Shark Tank. And so that was from day one
35:10
kind of our mantra, like, OK, we'll keep doing this Shark Tank
35:14
thing and, you know, act like it's not going to happen and,
35:19
and then keep building and growing, you know, even without
35:23
it. So we, you know, we're really
35:27
trying to do business stuff, you know, the nitty gritty of any
35:30
business, right? You can have a great idea, but
35:33
if you don't execute well, right, it's, it's, you know,
35:37
you're going to lose it all. So it really has to be, you
35:40
know, both. So, you know, even when we, so
35:44
we, we aired on Shark Tank and we had 10,000 orders and, and
35:49
you know, a day and it was a crazy amount of traffic, crazy
35:54
amount of sales, but it petered down.
35:58
And so that following year, year and a half, I mean, we had
36:04
sometimes where it's like, oh man, we might need to go back
36:08
and get real jobs again, right? And so, and, and we went to, you
36:14
know, during this time, we went to this place called Aileron,
36:18
which was kind of small business leadership, entrepreneurship
36:23
classes. So, you know, really trying to
36:26
like, OK, you know, let's, what do we need to do?
36:29
We got, we got a board of advisors, people that could, you
36:33
know, really speak wisdom into what we were doing to make sure,
36:36
you know, you're not crazy and help, help you focus on things.
36:39
So, you know, this, the Shark Tank was a huge launch, but it
36:44
was one of those things that, man, there were, you know,
36:47
probably 100 different ways that we could have screwed the pooch.
36:51
You know, we, we, we thankfully have made more good decisions
36:56
and bad decisions at this point. But it's still one of those, you
37:01
know, it's a daily thing. Yeah, it changed everything
37:05
though, as far as the business. So like the Shark Tank effect is
37:08
100% real. It's just got to be ready for
37:11
it. And we, we did our best to be as
37:13
prepared as we could because one of the biggest questions you
37:15
have is how much inventory should you have in stock?
37:19
Well, probably double or triple that.
37:21
So we still had no idea like what the Shark Tank Effect was
37:24
going to be. We prepared as best we could.
37:26
We were still doing, we had the machine at that point.
37:29
So we but we had such a small team.
37:31
We didn't have that many employees at all, like maybe
37:34
1-2. And then when the show hit, it
37:38
was like we would fall. We would finish when we got back
37:40
after the filming, it was still two weeks into the filming or
37:44
after the show it aired and we're still getting like all you
37:47
know, you have a little. So it's sometimes people keep
37:49
these on. We had to turn it off.
37:51
Or you have like Shopify Dings worth of sale, you know, in
37:54
Amazon and we would finish the day with with more orders than
37:59
what we were shipping off that day and for like the next two
38:01
weeks and we just couldn't keep up it.
38:03
But it was so fun. And then I was like, OK, we got
38:05
to keep hiring. It's a good problem to have as
38:06
long as you don't, you know, burn everything to the ground
38:09
and how you deliver your product.
38:10
So it's still got to be a quality product.
38:13
And final note on the Kickstarter, I think the one of
38:17
the ways that we helped them, I think impress and anybody on
38:20
Kickstarter can impress somebody.
38:23
Shark Tank if they're trying to get their attention or an
38:25
investor is it wasn't just the Kickstarter or even that they
38:29
sold, it was that we delivered to.
38:31
So I think all of those things together because we delivered on
38:35
time, the product we promised, those things are what's
38:39
investors and what people is because Shark Tank is investors.
38:42
That's why the producers are looking, maybe looking there.
38:45
They didn't tell us they were looking there is because they're
38:49
looking and people are looking and finding those companies or
38:53
organizations that can actually do that whole process.
38:56
If you can do that and actually deliver because there are many,
38:59
many, many people, as you've seen on Kickstarter that do not
39:02
deliver. And they promise, especially in
39:04
coffee world, we have a ton of people that sell coffee stuff
39:06
and it's like there's 100K, here's 2 million and it's like,
39:09
well, did they deliver the machine yet?
39:12
Anyway, Yeah, that that's a big part of it.
39:14
I mean, that's there's something to be said for having an idea,
39:18
but then the execution of that idea.
39:21
You know, I used to always share a lot of my thoughts or my
39:24
creative ideas or entrepreneurial ideas just to
39:27
see if there was interest or if it was a good idea.
39:31
And I didn't worry that much about, you know, who I was
39:35
sharing it with. Because not only did they have
39:37
to have like the idea, they have to have the skill and the will
39:41
and the time and the energy to do that thing.
39:44
It's changed a little bit on the creative side with, you know,
39:48
the advent of things like ChatGPT and so on.
39:50
But I'm still fairly liberal with, you know, if I have an
39:55
idea, I want to throw it out and get as much feedback as I can.
39:59
You know, you mentioned that those first, you know, 10,000
40:01
orders all of a sudden, you know, coming from probably a
40:04
much smaller amount. I understand sourcing for green
40:08
coffee. You know, I've learned enough
40:10
about that and talked to enough traders.
40:11
Sourcing of minerals though isn't something.
40:14
That I had ever thought about it in my head.
40:16
I'm I'm thinking about beta testing, but you're like where
40:19
you're like going and buying products off the shelf
40:21
somewhere. How does that even become
40:23
something you're aware of and and how does that go?
40:25
Work yes, so early on, you know, it's not only just the product,
40:30
but it's it's like, hey, is it in the right size that we need
40:32
it? So I had a a Versa lab grinder.
40:36
It's a, it's the Weber grinder before Weber grinders it, it,
40:42
it's one of the first low RPM espresso grinders.
40:45
Anyways, I, I use that to grind down our magnesium sulfate for a
40:51
year before we found a supplier that we could get it in the
40:56
sizes that we need, right. So, yeah, it was it was a
41:01
learning experience. You know, there, you know, you
41:04
have to figure out, you know, you got to Google it, but you
41:06
don't know what the terms yet to even Google.
41:09
So it's like you have these kind of ideas and then you see a word
41:13
or a, you know, phrase, you're like, oh, that that's what I'm
41:15
looking for. And then now you know what to
41:17
search for. So yeah, there there was that
41:20
there was, you know, even from from making the stuff, right?
41:24
Like, you know, making one hamburger is easy right?
41:27
Now make a a million of them the same way, right?
41:31
That's, that's exponentially harder because there's, there's
41:36
so many steps along the way. So, you know, just even from
41:40
launch to where we are now, we've had lots of, of iterations
41:45
and internal testing and you know, in terms of making our
41:49
product better and, but yeah, the, the sourcing is different.
41:56
So, but it wasn't necessarily harder.
42:01
Business is just, it's a constant troubleshooting because
42:05
you're creating new problems that you never had.
42:08
So like every time, like you're like, oh, I'm going to
42:10
manufacture this thing. It's like, well, crap, OK, how
42:12
am I going to do that? If it's an original idea or
42:14
you're even with a coffee roaster, you still got to find
42:17
where am I getting my bags? How am I getting stuff packed
42:19
together? And there's a lot more people
42:22
today that will help you with pieces and parts, but can they
42:25
help you reach your audience in your specific neighborhood?
42:29
What's the marketing look like for that region?
42:31
So you're still going to have different troubleshooting for
42:33
your business and customer service and in marketing and
42:36
reaching out and in product development and as you grow and,
42:40
and try all the different things in your business.
42:43
I, I, I think that's one thing that Taylor and I have been
42:46
blessed with is we enjoy the troubleshooting process.
42:49
And that's been a strength of ours that when we do have a new
42:52
challenge, whether it's in production or in other parts of
42:55
the business, it's, and it's not just us fixing it, but we, we
42:59
don't just give up. So we try to bring in other
43:02
people like where we have, we mentioned the board of advisors
43:05
so they can help us and we can call them and ask them, hey, we
43:07
have this issue. So in business, if you're don't,
43:11
don't remain alone. Once you start business, start
43:13
making partnerships or friendships with other business
43:16
people. You don't need to partner with
43:18
them for them to help you, and that's a big part of growing
43:22
businesses is knowing other business leaders and owners.
43:26
That kind of leads me to this segment we do here.
43:29
This show is sponsored by Roast our coffee packaging.
43:33
They've asked me to try to collate or collect advice for
43:36
other burgeoning entrepreneurs. Taylor, you said something
43:39
earlier that stuck with me, and that was that you knew that you
43:43
wanted to work with Charles. You made maybe you didn't know
43:46
how yet at the beginning. How do you how, if you were to
43:50
give advice to somebody coming up who is considering going into
43:54
business and considering working with a partner, what advice
43:57
would you give them on traits to look for?
44:00
I mean, or how would you say, how do you qualify someone you
44:03
think might work for you? And, and I know it's a very
44:05
personal question, but what do you look for in a partner?
44:10
What is the things that have stood out and now that you've
44:13
been in this partnership for some time, you know, how is that
44:17
held up or, or how has that? Changed, I think when it comes
44:20
to entrepreneurial stuff, you know, if you're
44:22
entrepreneurially minded, you learn really early that most
44:27
people aren't and you're going to start talking and they're
44:30
going to freak out and they're going to be like, well, what
44:33
what about this? What about the And so sometimes
44:36
you can learn that you kind of feel people out right?
44:39
And you're like, you know, before I start talking crazy
44:42
entrepreneur talk, now you find out that they, hey, these, you
44:46
know, this, this, you know, OK, we're on the same page.
44:50
So I think it was early on and working together, it was just
44:54
like we vibed really, really well.
44:56
And it was I, I had admired what he was building and I liked it.
45:00
And it was one of those things where it's like, man, my current
45:03
brand, you know, this is what we're striving for.
45:06
I like what he's doing. Like I, I, I want to learn from
45:08
some of that. And honestly, so that that day
45:12
we had lunch, I was setting up a cold brew tap at the office Co
45:19
share and to, to do Nitro cold brew.
45:23
And I'm like, man, like, hey, let's just go get lunch together
45:27
because I'm like, hey, I, I, I don't know what, but I, I feel
45:31
like we should do more business together.
45:34
So it was just kind of like, hey, once you find those people
45:38
that you the vibe with and are on the same wavelength, you
45:43
know, just just being around each other, discussing your
45:48
problems with each other, like, man, those kind of people are
45:51
great for for ideas And and then, you know, you can give
45:56
them ideas, but the the fact is that we're just really few and
45:59
far between. And so it's like you, once you
46:02
find those people who are like, man, these these are my people.
46:07
It's just, you know, figuring out ways then to, you know, keep
46:11
those people around you. Any other thoughts, Charles on
46:16
that? Yeah, no, it, it, it reciprocal
46:21
for, for me looking at Taylor as a business partner and, and why
46:25
I felt it would work and, and still works is because as a
46:28
trait to look for another just either if it's a business
46:33
partner or it's other business people you're working with,
46:36
trustworthy, hard working and realistic.
46:42
So any, and it wasn't overly critical.
46:45
So like that. That's the thing I think he's
46:46
hinting at is when, when you pitch ideas, they're not just
46:50
shot down, but expect some good questions.
46:53
So he's going to ask you or your other, you know, business helper
46:57
people are going to ask you good questions.
46:59
They're not going to give you the right answers.
47:02
And and that's a big thing that I think works for advisory
47:05
boards for working for with other business entrepreneurs.
47:09
Don't ask them for the answers and try to get good questions.
47:12
I know that's a little bit of a side tangent, but for business
47:15
partners and working with people in general, those would be, to
47:19
me, some of the strongest traits.
47:22
You know, coming up on 45 Minutes, I've got a million
47:24
other questions I could ask, but I want to make sure that we get
47:27
a chance to figure out what, you know, what you're how many years
47:33
into this, what's coming, what's next, You know, what's the
47:36
trajectory that third wave is on?
47:38
Is there more innovation, more growth or what is the, you know,
47:43
is it just survival at this point?
47:44
We're in a weird time economically.
47:47
You know what is What's the future for 3rd wave water hold?
47:51
If you're not growing, you're not growing.
47:55
So for sure like innovation, you're always trying to do
47:58
something new, even if it's just finding a new market, new sales
48:01
channel, you've got to be doing something.
48:03
So at a base level, that's where we're headed.
48:05
We just launched into Europe this year through a company and
48:10
they're helping us quite a bit and, and getting correct
48:13
distribution. We struggled with that one for a
48:14
long time. So for our European customers,
48:17
we we apologize for all the hassle you've had to go through
48:20
until now, but today they finally have a good option.
48:24
Other intellectual property and stuff is coming, but we'll we'll
48:28
kind of hold off on on some of those ideas for now.
48:32
Yeah, I would say that there's some products out there like
48:34
Oreo or what's the, the, the, the spray that you spray on
48:43
things when it gets squeaky. WD40 can't.
48:47
Think of a what? WD40.
48:49
Yeah, WD40, those are products that like you never see
48:53
commercials for, but they've been selling for, you know,
48:57
years, right? And all Oreo needs to do to keep
49:01
cashing that check is just keep making Oreos, right?
49:04
They have this secret product that that is fantastic and
49:08
nobody's been able to duplicate. So not saying that we have
49:12
Oreos, but you know, what can really turn people, you know,
49:16
just like those traits in a business partner, you want to
49:20
look for somebody who does what they say they're going to do,
49:23
right? Is trustworthy, is, is honest.
49:26
You know, those are what customers are looking for
49:28
businesses, right? So we try to be radically honest
49:33
as much as we can with our customers.
49:35
You know, if we make a mistake, hey, our fault, we're going to
49:38
fix it, right? And especially in this day and
49:40
age, man, so many companies do terrible job of customer service
49:45
and support that we found that, hey, if we just offer, you know,
49:50
the level of support that you would expect to get at a local
49:53
place, you know, where you have somebody who will fix something,
49:58
man, people are are over the moon.
50:01
And so, you know, moving forward, our goals are like, OK,
50:04
how do we keep making our stuff, make it better?
50:09
We just got some new equipment and our sticks in the future are
50:13
going to start coming where you can tear them.
50:15
Now they have a easy tear strip built into it, right?
50:18
So something little, but it's like, man, this is, you know, an
50:23
improvement on life. Yeah, we're we're we're always
50:28
trying to innovate. Thankfully we've been growing,
50:32
you know, at least 30% a year every year.
50:36
And the, I don't know, yeah, with, with the economy,
50:39
everything's, you know, up in the air when it's like, OK, you
50:42
know, in a year from now, will anybody want our product?
50:45
Well, you know, I don't know. But you know, I feel like with
50:48
the things that we know and that and our ability to problem
50:52
solve, you know, we may not be making third wave water, but
50:55
we'll make something else, right.
50:56
So, you know, you kind of got that, that entrepreneurial
51:00
spirit, right. The goal is just to surround
51:03
yourself by people and, and be able to pivot before it's too
51:07
late. But yeah, moving forward, I
51:11
think we have one of our business advisors told us it was
51:15
companies don't go out of business because of lack of
51:17
opportunity. They go out of business because
51:19
you have too much opportunity and you're not focused.
51:23
So you you end up trying to do too much and you do a bad job at
51:27
all of it. And you know, you can spend all
51:30
of your money real quick, so. Well, there's that's my solution
51:35
is I just started with no money and stick stuck with that the
51:37
whole way through. Is there a regulatory body that
51:43
you have to answer to with your products?
51:45
Is it an FDA product or is it you know how, who's checking in
51:48
to make sure that what you're putting in there is what you're
51:50
putting in there? Yeah, it's a good question.
51:51
So we had to register through the FDA when we first launched.
51:56
FDA is a little different than local health departments.
51:59
It's like it's the onus is on you to register, right?
52:03
And if you were to say, hey, we're registering a, a shrimp
52:05
processing factory, right, they're going to have somebody
52:08
out there the next day inspecting you.
52:11
But ours is pretty low risk. So the FDA then got a hold of
52:17
the Ohio Department of Agriculture and then they come
52:19
out every year or two and inspect us.
52:23
So we have basic FDA regulation requirements.
52:30
The they, you know, we have a pretty in terms of risk level,
52:36
we have a pretty low risk level, right.
52:38
We're not not processing, you know, raw chicken or stuff like
52:42
that. And so I think then the next
52:47
level would be any kind of independent, you know, there's
52:50
some big box stores that require, you know, you know,
52:54
some four letter, four letter, you know, company, they have to
52:58
come in and inspect you right. And it's like a whole different
53:01
set of, you know, ISO 9000 or whatever compliance you need to
53:06
be in. So I think as we grow, we're
53:08
kind of like, hey, let's, let's do a good enough job.
53:12
So if one of these opportunities come along and we need to be
53:17
able to be certified by another third party, you know that we
53:21
can, you know, fit into that rather quickly.
53:25
It's level of effort as we need. Sure.
53:28
I have two last questions and the first is for anyone
53:33
listening where, where's the best place for them to find
53:35
third wave water? You mentioned markets, is it
53:38
available in grocery stores online?
53:40
You know what's the best way to do that?
53:43
Definitely online, there's tons of grocery or specialty cafes
53:47
around the country. If you want them to carry us,
53:50
please let them know and let us know we'll reach out to him too
53:53
and say you said hi. But Amazon, our website is
53:56
totally fine. 3rd Wave water.com.
53:59
OK. And then the last question I
54:00
have is if you are out and about, let's say you're headed
54:05
off to some convention for coffee somewhere and you stopped
54:08
to order a cup of coffee, What is it that you're going to order
54:11
from a coffee shop? If it's a specialty, coffee.
54:17
Let's assume it's a pretty good, you know, coffee shop, and
54:19
they've got all the right hipster things on the wall and,
54:22
you know, it looks like they know what they're doing all.
54:25
Right. I, I would probably learn more
54:29
towards asking them which Colombian or African is their,
54:32
is their current favorite. So I, I, I like quite a bit of
54:36
the Ethiopian Yorgasha for Kenyan or on the Colombian side,
54:42
but I like all the coffees. But those are where I naturally
54:44
gravitate to. Some of the Co fermented stuff
54:47
I'll say I'll take a step back from.
54:49
I do enjoy the Co ferment if it doesn't have that weird after
54:52
taste. If it does have the fruit for
54:54
front taste, I'm all about it. It tastes like liquid gold.
54:56
It's amazing. But once that goes bad, it's
55:00
it's atrocious. Yeah, I'm, I'm real, I'm I'm
55:05
impatient. So a lot of times I'm like, if
55:07
they already have a, a drip already made, right?
55:10
This is like, hey, I'll take whatever is in the batch brew.
55:15
I usually don't, don't order a pour over.
55:19
You know, it could be hit or miss on pour over in terms of
55:22
level of effort or, you know, you're just waiting around and
55:26
you're like, you know, twiddling your thumbs.
55:29
But yeah, if I'm, if I'm really hungry or I might get, you know,
55:36
a, a flat white or a, you know, a mocha or something with some
55:39
milk in it, right. That'll kind of, But no, I, I'm
55:43
usually it's batch brew, pour over something, filter coffee.
55:48
And yeah, I like Ethiopian or yeah, asking the barista, what's
55:53
your favorite? What's your, you know, what do
55:56
you like? Or hey, I'm looking for
55:57
something little brighter, more acidic, little more fruit.
56:00
What do you recommend? And, and that can be, you know,
56:05
fun in terms of, you know, building those relationships
56:08
with people and, you know, finding undiscovered gems.
56:14
It is fun to see like what specialty drinks they have
56:16
because there are so many specialty cafes now have like a
56:19
specialty drink section where it's not just the coffee, but
56:22
it's like a mixed drink almost sometimes without alcohol or
56:25
whatever. But they, they have their own
56:27
unique recipes for like a like a really nice, you know, it's got
56:31
a pinch of orange and who knows what else that they put in
56:34
there. And those are the types I do
56:35
like to experiment and try to find recipes.
56:38
And then it's got to be brewed by an alpha diminci steampunk
56:40
machine. Throwback.
56:44
Yeah, yeah, I'm a. Yeah, I'm a sucker for like,
56:47
hey, we're known for this thing, right?
56:50
Like, this is our, you know, I can get this here.
56:55
And so I like, yeah, experimenting with those things.
56:59
It's always exciting when the barista is excited as well.
57:03
Then I that then I'll go outside my normal box for sure and end
57:08
up with like a lemonade coffee that I never would have ordered
57:11
on my own or something. I, I feel like I would love to
57:15
have you back at some point to talk more about, you know,
57:18
aeronautics and film and, and who you are outside of third
57:21
wave water. But I've stolen too much of your
57:23
time already today. Anything that I missed that you
57:27
wanted people to know or that I forgot to ask or we just didn't
57:30
get to, That's important. No, and if, and we're, I don't
57:35
know, pretty open books, people could contact us and, you know,
57:39
find us on the socials or e-mail us.taylor@thirdwavewater.com.
57:44
He's Charles at 3rd wave water.com.
57:48
If I don't respond, e-mail me again.
57:50
I'm the dyslexic ADD entrepreneur and I I, yeah, I'm
57:57
in chaos a lot of times. So, but yeah, we're we're pretty
58:01
open. Yeah, we'd love to to talk about
58:04
whatever people are trying to do to make coffee better.
58:08
And there's so many different steps.
58:09
And, and I'm with you and your initial skepticism.
58:12
You're like, I really don't want this to work.
58:14
There's so many new ideas and things that come out, so many
58:16
regurgitations of old ideas. You're just like, is really, we
58:19
need another one of those? It's the same thing I had last
58:22
year but with a different color. But when you see a new idea and
58:25
it comes out, it's like, is it, is it something truly going to
58:28
help somebody with their coffee, whether it's processed, flavor,
58:31
whatever. So yeah, we love learning in the
58:34
coffee space, so definitely reach out and say hi.
58:38
Will do. Well, gentlemen, thank you so
58:40
much for your time and, and for being on the show and, and I'm
58:43
looking forward to sharing some of your thoughts with everyone
58:45
else. Awesome.
58:46
Thank you so much. Take care.
58:50
Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed that episode.
58:52
I just wanted to pop in here at the end to say thank you for
58:55
watching and listening. I really appreciate it.
58:57
Please tip your baristas and be sure to drink good coffee.
59:46
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