Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Roast! Classics - Bev Magtanong & Jelynn Malone, Mostra Coffee Company

Transcript

Roast! Classics - Bev Magtanong & Jelynn Malone, Mostra Coffee Company · Coffee People Podcast

• 0:11
  Hey, good morning everyone. Welcome to another classic
• 0:14
  episode of D. Roast West Coast coffee podcast.
• 0:18
  I'm Ryan Walt and this is the show where I bring you the
• 0:20
  stories of coffee professionals entrepreneurship and coffee
• 0:24
  education. And for the next few weeks were
• 0:27
  between Seasons. I'm taking some time to travel
• 0:30
  drink coffee and see what is out there in the coffee world.
• 0:34
  So, for now, I'm re-airing classic interviews from the
• 0:37
  roast West Coast coffee podcast. I spent the last week in Idaho
• 0:42
  and right now, I'm passing through Washington, on my way to
• 0:45
  Vancouver, Idaho is set a high bar.
• 0:47
  I had great visits to a dozen different coffee shops but my
• 0:51
  favorite was to a place called Wilder coffee, which was a
• 0:54
  simple three seat Cafe. Say serving, great coffee inside
• 0:57
  of a plant, shop called firm in downtown Coeur d'Alene.
• 1:01
  I just want to shout out, Savannah who made me and my
• 1:03
  wife. Several great coffees last week,
• 1:06
  today's Classics Edition interview features, the
• 1:08
  cofounders of moisture Coffee Company, Bev and Jalen, they are
• 1:12
  an inspiring Duo. And during our first
• 1:15
  conversation, they were sitting at a table in the front of their
• 1:18
  Cafe. I hadn't realized it at the
• 1:20
  time, but the first covid lockdown was hitting me hard.
• 1:23
  I could hear the sounds of coffee being made.
• 1:26
  And drinks being served in the background and I got pretty
• 1:29
  emotional. I tried to keep it together.
• 1:31
  Long enough to hear the most your origin story while you're
• 1:34
  listening today. Be sure to follow this show at
• 1:37
  roast West Coast and at most your coffee on Instagram.
• 1:41
  Moser is gearing up for their moisture experience anniversary
• 1:43
  event this fall and you can find tickets on most your coffee.com.
• 1:48
  As always you'll find those links in this shows notes or
• 1:51
  make it easy on yourself and subscribe to this shows
• 1:54
  newsletter on roast West. S.com, you'll get all the links
• 1:58
  that come up in the show, learn more about the featured guests
• 2:01
  and more about coffee. I write this newsletter and I
• 2:04
  host this show and I still learn stuff on roast westcoast.com,
• 2:08
  okay? I'm going to pull into one of
• 2:09
  the many, many, many drive-through coffee.
• 2:12
  Hut's here in the Pacific Northwest, it is a Fang and I
• 2:16
  hope it is a good one, because we are almost to the border, and
• 2:19
  I haven't done any border crossing in more than three
• 2:22
  years. Wherever you are spending the
• 2:24
  last days of July. I You've got access to great
• 2:27
  coffee too. If you're headed out into the
• 2:29
  wild for a camping trip like us, be sure to stop by your favorite
• 2:32
  Roastery or hop online to buy, some coffee to bring along
• 2:36
  morning coffees in the mountains or the woods or by the lake.
• 2:41
  Sorry, I was daydreaming. What are we talking about?
• 2:44
  Oh yeah, thanks for being here and making sure your coffee mug
• 2:48
  is full because it is time for this classic interview.
• 2:51
  With the founders of moisture coffee company.
• 2:53
  In Southern California, Beth in jail.
• 2:55
  And I appreciate that.
• 3:18
  You guys took the time to meet with me and I would say welcome
• 3:21
  to the roast West Coast podcast now that we're actually talking
• 3:24
  and starting. Thank you.
• 3:26
  Is it too loud in our background?
• 3:27
  Because we are in our shop, they're all working back there.
• 3:30
  So now I'll add Ambience, it's very cool.
• 3:35
  Most people hide in a closet. That I'm in my closet now
• 3:37
  actually. So you guys I was really excited
• 3:42
  that you were willing to talk to me on the show I feel like you
• 3:45
  guys have so much going on and have done so much already that
• 3:48
  we could dedicate like three shows to you.
• 3:50
  I'm already deciding that I'm an invite you back for season two
• 3:54
  and three and we're just going to keep mine on running it.
• 3:57
  But for people that are listening, could you give us a
• 3:59
  little background on how how moisture got started?
• 4:02
  How did it go from an idea to a shop and a Roastery?
• 4:06
  And It's happening now. Yeah, so she and I have been
• 4:11
  friends for 22 years, so our story together goes back about
• 4:16
  long but most just story actually goes back to 2009.
• 4:21
  So she and I were doing work here, in San Diego with the
• 4:24
  Filipino community and then we had an opportunity to go to the
• 4:28
  Philippines with a really good friend of ours and mentor.
• 4:32
  And we learned a lot about social entrepreneurship and
• 4:35
  social Enterprise. Eyes.
• 4:36
  And for me, personally, I hadn't been there since 1986 when I was
• 4:41
  four. So that was my first time back
• 4:43
  since then. And we just, we visited a lot of
• 4:46
  farms there. And then we learned a lot about
• 4:49
  all the abundant resources that the Philippines has.
• 4:53
  And for me, personally, I only Associated the Philippines with
• 4:56
  a lot of poverty. Unfortunately, you know, that's
• 4:59
  why, you know, my parents immigrated from the country to
• 5:03
  give us opportunity. So we were there, we learned a
• 5:06
  lot. About all of the resources and
• 5:09
  then we interacted with the people there and just they
• 5:13
  reminded us so much of our own family that we were like, you
• 5:17
  know what we were the ones that won the jackpot, you know,
• 5:20
  coming out of the Philippines over their parents and we wanted
• 5:24
  to be able to create more opportunities for sustainable
• 5:27
  livelihoods for the people there.
• 5:30
  So we came back from that trip in 2009 with that really tugging
• 5:34
  on our heartstrings, you know and And then a few years went by
• 5:39
  and we were doing our own thing. I had a voice Studio.
• 5:41
  At the time, she was still in Hollywood doing acting and
• 5:45
  singing for you. You're singing.
• 5:47
  Yeah, and hosting. And then my husband was working
• 5:52
  at a Skilled Nursing Facility where there was an opportunity
• 5:54
  to open a cafe. And she and I just have always
• 5:57
  wanted to open a business together.
• 5:59
  And so, we said sure, you know, like let's take this on lets,
• 6:03
  you know, higher my other best friend who's a pastry chef and
• 6:06
  then we To provide really good coffee for the doctors and the
• 6:10
  families there except we didn't know anything.
• 6:13
  We didn't even dream a drink, happy we drank, you know,
• 6:16
  Starbucks Frappuccinos, so extra caramel and with green, right?
• 6:22
  So she actually reached out to our other friend Mike who is our
• 6:26
  other business partner and said, hey you know, you post all these
• 6:30
  coffee things on you know, your social media, do you think you
• 6:32
  could maybe teach us a few things and he said, sure, you
• 6:35
  know me to meet me. Me at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters,
• 6:38
  which at the time in 2012, they were our micro roaster of the
• 6:41
  year. He said, they're the best
• 6:43
  roaster. The nation meet me there.
• 6:45
  So he took us there and bought a few things, I think it was like
• 6:48
  a double shot of espresso, a cold brew and then a drip.
• 6:53
  Yeah. Just like a pour-over, right?
• 6:55
  And he said you know try this out with nothing in it and we
• 6:59
  were like hmm I think so we don't like Connell like coffee
• 7:05
  but then we tried And we were so shocked at how it didn't taste
• 7:10
  like charcoal basically because that was our only reality of
• 7:14
  coffee at that point and it had all these different flavors.
• 7:18
  So he said yeah, well, this is what happens when, you know
• 7:21
  poppies Source really well and roasted really well and brewed
• 7:24
  really well. So then we came back from that
• 7:27
  situation and did a bunch of research on coffee and in that
• 7:32
  research, we found out that the Philippines actually grow Oh,
• 7:36
  specialty coffee. We had no idea because, you
• 7:40
  know, Philippines is really known for barocco coffee
• 7:42
  liberica but we've never heard of, you know, them growing
• 7:46
  specialty, copier high quality coffee.
• 7:48
  So when we found that out, we said okay, scratch the plan of
• 7:52
  this Cafe and my husband Skilled Nursing Facility.
• 7:55
  We are going to be Roasters, you don't roast coffee, this is Bev
• 7:59
  and I we got it all the puzzle pieces are coming together.
• 8:02
  We're gonna become Coffee Roasters of Philippine coffee,
• 8:06
  right? Even though we don't drink
• 8:07
  coffee, but then, the bigger the bigger picture for us was,
• 8:11
  create this company that roast specialty coffee, but through
• 8:15
  our company being based in the United States, create a platform
• 8:18
  for that coffee. That is unknown essentially in
• 8:21
  the industry and in the world really, and we hoped to create a
• 8:25
  demand for that coffee globally. So then that would draw business
• 8:29
  into the country and provide more jobs and livelihoods for
• 8:33
  the Filipino Farmers, but we didn't know anybody there that
• 8:36
  Proof course. So we didn't know anybody who
• 8:39
  didn't drink coffee, we didn't Rose coffee.
• 8:41
  We didn't know how to make coffee at an opera singer and an
• 8:44
  actor and then what we felt so strongly about it.
• 8:48
  You know, and honestly, it wasn't even about money for us.
• 8:51
  It was money for them and, you know, we still talk about it
• 8:54
  now. It's like, you know, during the
• 8:55
  pandemic when everyone was shutting down, you know, when we
• 8:58
  were on the fence about whether we should stay open or not, the
• 9:01
  reason why we stayed open was because we were like, we've got
• 9:04
  employees here that are counting on us for Livelihood and be
• 9:07
  packed Farmers. Not only in the Philippines but
• 9:09
  all over the world because we don't just Source copy from the
• 9:12
  Philippines that are counting on us staying open and continuing
• 9:16
  to purchase coffee from them so they can put food on the table
• 9:20
  for their families. So you know that was just really
• 9:22
  like the heart of how most your it came about and which actually
• 9:28
  makes like winning Tony Tony roaster of the year like even
• 9:31
  crazier because it's like you know you can really go from
• 9:34
  knowing nothing to You know being closer dear and you know
• 9:40
  when we went on that first trip to Puerto Rock and they were
• 9:42
  microstrategy year. I mean that was like my God.
• 9:45
  That's yeah. And every year since then, we've
• 9:47
  been following the winners and it's just been like, wow, you
• 9:51
  know, Portola one or whatever. What's the other one in?
• 9:55
  Riverside flat Clash, you know, and I've and these like met the
• 10:00
  owners or people that have worked for these different
• 10:02
  companies just in passing at the specialty coffee Expo or And I
• 10:07
  remember feeling like Starstruck over them like you and roaster
• 10:10
  of the year you know, like you must be doing some cool stuff
• 10:12
  and then anyway. So we're still Starstruck by the
• 10:16
  our own situation. Well, I was I was planning on,
• 10:20
  congratulating you on winning 2020, roaster of the year.
• 10:23
  You seem to be winning quite a few things.
• 10:25
  I think you just want something from Qualcomm and their small
• 10:27
  business accelerator as well. Yeah, but now that you're
• 10:31
  winning, you mentioned your feel sorry, Chuck.
• 10:33
  But have you started to feel any pressure from that too?
• 10:36
  Oh my God. It started with that.
• 10:39
  No. So literally when we one roaster
• 10:42
  of the year, the pressure escalated like crazy.
• 10:47
  And I think for us we didn't just take this award as an
• 10:51
  Accolade to put up on our wall and to like you know bragging
• 10:54
  rights like at all like for us it was more of a responsibility
• 10:59
  as a role model and a leader in the industry that we took on as
• 11:04
  individuals and as a as a company.
• 11:06
  You know, everything we've done since winning has been with that
• 11:11
  in money to, you know, with all of our, you know, our mission
• 11:15
  and vision already intact. But you know, it was like, okay,
• 11:17
  you know, there must be someone else out there like us that are
• 11:20
  looking to these companies that are winning, you know, looking
• 11:23
  for direction and inspiration for what to do.
• 11:26
  So we definitely were feeling a lot of pressure and I mean,
• 11:30
  we've always used our platform to be able to push our mission
• 11:34
  and always do good. You know, but just to have that
• 11:36
  That that Accolade on top of it. Now then you have, you have just
• 11:41
  even more eyes on you, you know what I mean?
• 11:44
  Sure, it's street cred. Yeah.
• 11:45
  So, I mean, yeah, there's definitely a lot of pressure and
• 11:48
  then it was, you know, right in the middle of the pandemic.
• 11:50
  And just, you know, you had a pandemic, you can have like you
• 11:54
  had the Civil Rights Movement going on and you just had
• 11:57
  everybody looking to the company and saying, okay you know what,
• 12:01
  what's your stance and? And the other thing too, is
• 12:03
  that? So we do On like hundreds of
• 12:08
  craft beer, collaborations with breweries from all over the
• 12:11
  country. And sometimes internationally
• 12:13
  to, and these collaborations are like massive.
• 12:17
  So, every year at our anniversary party, we will
• 12:21
  highlight those collaborations. And some of these beers if not
• 12:24
  like, the majority of them are like the most sought after
• 12:26
  sought after craft beers, like for the year or in the country.
• 12:31
  So people who like fly in from all over the country for this
• 12:33
  party. So it was like when we one
• 12:35
  roaster of the year also. So and it's parties in January,
• 12:38
  it just like Amplified the entire situation.
• 12:41
  And so we had this massive party to it was just like most earlier
• 12:45
  mostra 6, then it was the pandemic.
• 12:48
  And then we opened another store up like in the middle of the
• 12:51
  pandemic because we were halfway through and we already dumped
• 12:53
  all this money into it and you know, we were like do we pull
• 12:56
  out of it or do we open it? Just open it and we added that
• 13:00
  to our plate to. Well, you could get you've been
• 13:03
  covering a lot of the things I was going to ask you but before
• 13:05
  I get too far. Into kind of the beer and the
• 13:08
  new store. I want to mention that talking
• 13:10
  about your platform, but one way you use that is you just gave a
• 13:14
  small business grant to another coffee company out of Kentucky.
• 13:17
  Yeah. And which I thought was really
• 13:19
  interesting. You, collaborated with roast
• 13:21
  magazine. They have a great name.
• 13:25
  So I want to know how did you choose the that small Roastery
• 13:29
  there and and why, why start using this platform?
• 13:32
  You're already, you already mentioned, a bunch of ways that
• 13:34
  you're using it but why Focus? Hassan creating an opportunity
• 13:38
  for this other small Roastery. Well, I mean, we were as the
• 13:42
  pandemic was happening, it's obviously still happening, but
• 13:45
  we just couldn't help but feel really grateful that we were
• 13:49
  still in business and doing well.
• 13:52
  You know what I mean? Yes, we saw a drop in our stores
• 13:55
  by about 30%, but then our online e-commerce grew by 600%.
• 14:01
  I mean during that time and for us to even continue To be in
• 14:07
  business. During this time is a movie.
• 14:09
  See everybody else shutting down left and right was it was just
• 14:13
  amazing. And we just felt so grateful
• 14:15
  that we were like, you know what, we want to help another
• 14:17
  business and our industry come out of this situation.
• 14:20
  And so we were like, okay let's start our own small business
• 14:24
  grant let's reach out to Rose magazine, partner up with them
• 14:28
  and just create the situation where we can provide
• 14:30
  opportunities for them to, you know, be out in the media to get
• 14:35
  a lot of Exposure. Yeah, and honestly, what the
• 14:40
  apart of the process was actually High.
• 14:43
  A part of the process was actually, a video.
• 14:47
  They had to turn in a video and they had to answer some
• 14:49
  questions. And a lot of the questions were
• 14:52
  about, you know, not about like a coffee itself.
• 14:55
  It was like, what are you doing to give back at this time.
• 14:57
  What are you doing to help? Raise the morale of your, your
• 15:02
  company, or build your company culture, giving back to the
• 15:05
  community and Got a ton of videos actually from all over
• 15:08
  the world. Yeah.
• 15:10
  And we could not believe it and we chose the company whose
• 15:15
  answers and their video were the most moving they were doing the
• 15:20
  most. They were actually, I would say
• 15:22
  even the most aligned with us into it doing, like really
• 15:27
  similar things, and just going above and beyond to take care of
• 15:31
  people, their staff the community.
• 15:33
  So, that's how we chose them. They They are an incredible
• 15:37
  company and we actually have more projects coming out with
• 15:41
  them to kind of just continue that that collaborative process.
• 15:45
  Yeah I'll be right back with the second half of my conversation
• 15:50
  with Bev and Jalen of most your coffee and just a moment this
• 15:53
  show is sponsored by the award-winning steady-state.
• 15:55
  Roasting a small batch Coffee Roastery, dedicated to the craft
• 15:59
  and care of providing specialty responsibly sourced coffee from
• 16:02
  around the world. And turning that into an amazing
• 16:04
  cup of coffee. You can learn more about A
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• 16:25
  you can still pre-order beverages tasty treats and
• 16:28
  coffee beans to go on steady-state roasting.com.
• 16:32
  And now back to the show, one thing that's interesting about
• 16:36
  It shouldn't be interesting, but it is is that you are a female
• 16:41
  fronted, female owned business, you have if you have your
• 16:44
  business partner, Sam, and Mike but being in that position.
• 16:47
  Do you feel there is a growth in female representation in the
• 16:52
  coffee industry and how do you feel being someone who might be
• 16:55
  leading that way or being a role model for someone coming up
• 16:58
  behind you? So you know yesterday she and I
• 17:00
  did a live on Instagram and I had a weird moment Like I was
• 17:07
  walking, I was re-watching. It last night and then I had a
• 17:10
  moment where I stepped out of myself and I saw us talking
• 17:13
  about it and representing the company, and I was having that
• 17:18
  like, outer body experience. I was actually like, really
• 17:21
  inspired to see two Filipino American women leading this
• 17:27
  company because growing up, I grew up in Rancho Bernardo and
• 17:31
  it's just, I was literally like, the only Filipino kid at my
• 17:35
  elementary school. You'll probably until I was
• 17:37
  like, in fourth or fifth grade. So I'd like had a little bit of
• 17:40
  like an identity crisis because I didn't have really anybody
• 17:44
  that looked like me around other than my family.
• 17:47
  So, you know, work in the, like, in the thick of the hustle.
• 17:51
  So we don't actually get to step outside of ourselves, very often
• 17:55
  to really, like, see the impact that we're having.
• 17:57
  So, it's hard to imagine that we are, but I assume that we are,
• 18:03
  you know, because there just aren't a lot.
• 18:05
  I mean, there aren't a lot of, like, you Filipino American
• 18:07
  Coffee Roasters out there. There are some obviously, but
• 18:10
  there just aren't a lot. I mean, and I think that like,
• 18:14
  you know, we have had people come to us our own staff, the
• 18:17
  women in our staff, people in the community, tell us like how
• 18:20
  inspired they are by the work that we're doing and not only
• 18:24
  that were moms too. So it's like juggling
• 18:28
  motherhood, you know, were married.
• 18:30
  We got our families who got the business and then, you know, our
• 18:33
  mission is just bigger than I'm just me roasting coffee.
• 18:38
  So I mean, I definitely feel that we are making some impact
• 18:43
  and I hope that we are, but it's crazy.
• 18:46
  Because when you're in it, you're not even realizing that,
• 18:49
  that's that that's happening. And I think, you know, it's this
• 18:54
  is a, I don't want to see a new calling, but it's something that
• 18:57
  has that we've been really inspired by really recently
• 19:01
  because when we were starting this business was really
• 19:03
  intimidating, we both didn't have any business.
• 19:06
  At all let alone coffee, you know, background.
• 19:09
  But you know, the business world that has a lot of masculine
• 19:13
  energy around it. You know, what you mean?
• 19:15
  There's a lot of business jargon, you know, things like
• 19:18
  that, that we had to learn along the way and it was really
• 19:20
  intimidating. But for both of us over the last
• 19:25
  seven years, we've really, we ran this business on pure
• 19:28
  intuition. You know what I mean?
• 19:30
  And being emotional and being compassionate and being empathic
• 19:35
  and all of these These things that sometimes in the business,
• 19:38
  in the business world is considered negative. - you know,
• 19:42
  what I mean, don't bring that kind of stuff and in the
• 19:45
  workplace or how you work, but that has really been, you know,
• 19:49
  the Difference Maker for us and almost the secret sauce for us
• 19:52
  running mostra. And just to say one thing that
• 19:55
  she did say emotional which again could be looked at as -
• 19:59
  but Bev and I have been working. We're best friends.
• 20:01
  Like you said 22 years. We've been working together this
• 20:03
  entire time. Like she said in an emotional
• 20:06
  state. But we've actually, we've never
• 20:08
  fought in the entire time we worked together.
• 20:11
  We have not gotten into one fight about this because we have
• 20:14
  like when she says emotional, it isn't like what you imagined
• 20:18
  like drama like that. It's like being emotionally
• 20:22
  aware of everything going on around us and we both literally
• 20:27
  put our each other, our partners, and our family's
• 20:31
  first, actually before the business.
• 20:34
  So like just we always are Operate that way.
• 20:37
  So it's like you know there's a big business opportunity but
• 20:39
  like somebody's not good. We're like we gotta address how
• 20:43
  this person is feeling before we can even move on to that point.
• 20:46
  And that is probably not again looked at traditionally and
• 20:50
  business as a way to operate but I just had to say that no no
• 20:54
  things. I feel like someone's like is so
• 20:57
  totally. Maybe instead of emotional the
• 20:59
  way I was listening to it. Is it sounded like human?
• 21:04
  I'm feeling human were running her business as Means and
• 21:06
  thinking about humans. Yes, and not just about, you
• 21:10
  know, coins and dollars that are coming in and out.
• 21:12
  Now, that's important obviously, but like you're acknowledging
• 21:16
  this whole other component to running a business, especially a
• 21:18
  small like feeling your way through building a business.
• 21:23
  So I mean, we're the people that, you know, get presented
• 21:26
  with an opportunity and we'll be the ones that say, okay, you
• 21:29
  know what, we need to meditate on that and I mean literally
• 21:33
  like what separate and meditate on that for a minute, right?
• 21:36
  We're gonna go to the beach and meditate about that real quick
• 21:39
  and then call me in an hour. I know and some people are like
• 21:41
  okay, you know, it's a little weird but it works.
• 21:45
  Yeah. And I mean we so something us
• 21:48
  also with that is that like a long the lines of what she's
• 21:50
  saying is that like we make decisions with our entire being
• 21:53
  so like we you know like an opportunity will come and we're
• 21:57
  not just like yeah. That sounds good right in
• 21:59
  numbers. Look good.
• 22:00
  Yeah. The numbers look good or you
• 22:01
  know that opportunity seems good.
• 22:02
  We're like how does that actually make us all feel?
• 22:05
  Is that something that I feel like we can decide a partner or
• 22:09
  does that partnership feel like it's something we can live with
• 22:12
  our. We are we aligned with them
• 22:15
  culturally as far as how they conduct themselves as business
• 22:19
  people to, you know does that align with us and make us feel
• 22:22
  something? Is that something we're proud of
• 22:24
  moving forward? So it's like operating from that
• 22:28
  space. And I think that is where that
• 22:30
  like feminine energy that we both have leading mostra has led
• 22:35
  us and that we hope that That it inspires other women to embrace
• 22:39
  those gifts. You know what I mean?
• 22:41
  And that you can build and run a business using all of those
• 22:46
  amazing feminine gifts that were born with the, you know, I think
• 22:50
  that's important. I've always been lucky to be
• 22:52
  surrounded by female entrepreneurs and so I never
• 22:56
  really thought about it is much until it was I started doing
• 22:58
  these shows and thinking about it, not just the show, but also
• 23:01
  some beer, I came up in the beer industry.
• 23:03
  But so I think that's a really interesting Anything one thing I
• 23:07
  would say to you is when I when I came up with the concept for
• 23:11
  the show, I reached out to about a dozen Roasters in North County
• 23:15
  and I was no thought process, I just thought.
• 23:17
  Okay. Who's the best Roasters that I
• 23:19
  would like to talk to companies and of them?
• 23:22
  I found, I was looking at my list yesterday and I saw that I
• 23:25
  have exactly five male and five female on our final list.
• 23:30
  And so, I think San Diego and particular in coffee, and in
• 23:33
  beer, maybe a little ahead of the curve.
• 23:35
  Yeah. Because I don't know that I've
• 23:37
  seen that in my other stops and Chicago or Pittsburgh or even
• 23:40
  New York a little bit. And so, and you've been, you've
• 23:44
  been doing it obviously, as you since 2012, 2013 is when you
• 23:48
  first started most her. Right?
• 23:50
  So, so you certainly have had influence.
• 23:52
  You've got all these people have come up, who may be saw that
• 23:55
  example? And it gave them.
• 23:56
  The idea that hey, I can do this, I hope I do hope even if
• 24:00
  it's just like going from saying oh I'm I'm working in a coffee
• 24:04
  shop and maybe I should manage the coffee shop.
• 24:05
  Maybe I Here at the coffee shop. There's all these.
• 24:09
  These other roles that. I mean, I'm a, I'm a
• 24:12
  middle-class Midwestern white male, like, I never questioned
• 24:16
  that I could do things. It was never an option, and it
• 24:19
  wasn't something that I understood wasn't.
• 24:22
  There was a question for people until later in life, right?
• 24:26
  And it wasn't that I was looking at it as, like other people.
• 24:29
  Shouldn't is just, I never thought about it because I never
• 24:31
  had to. And so, I think it's really
• 24:33
  interesting to see the path that you guys have come up and then
• 24:36
  other People are coming up now and having Trailblazers people
• 24:39
  that you can say, well, they did it.
• 24:40
  So why can't I do it? And for me, I get inspired by
• 24:44
  talking to people like you who started with some of our coffee
• 24:47
  background is similar. I did not drink coffee until I
• 24:50
  was in my 30s. Okay, yeah, I did not have any
• 24:54
  interest in it and for whatever reason, got really excited about
• 24:58
  it. Once I started and you were
• 25:00
  touching on this earlier. It kind of takes over in your
• 25:02
  brain, you get Pat. It's not just I'm going to start
• 25:05
  drinking coffee now. I'm going to learn about coffee
• 25:07
  and are, all right, I'm going to find out the background and
• 25:09
  who's impacted one thing we haven't talked about yet and I
• 25:13
  know we've already run fast, like our normal time.
• 25:15
  But is your coffee who's doing? Who does the roasting and what
• 25:19
  your philosophy with the coffee beans that you're actually
• 25:22
  bringing in is, you know, I'm wondering if you could talk a
• 25:24
  little bit if you have time about how you guys treat your
• 25:28
  coffee at mostra. Yeah, so our head roaster is
• 25:31
  Nick. How do you pronounce the Knicks
• 25:33
  last name for R&D? Variety.
• 25:37
  Yeah. He and Nick actually comes from
• 25:44
  Bird Rock, which is so awesome because, you know, our story
• 25:48
  kind of starts there. And then our coffee director, is
• 25:51
  Ryan Sullivan and he actually comes from Bird Rock to.
• 25:53
  So those two together, Nick is our head roaster.
• 25:57
  And then Ryan is our coffee director.
• 25:59
  And they actually, I mean, they're like the coffee Dream
• 26:01
  Team. Those today truly are.
• 26:03
  I mean, we literally sit there and aw.
• 26:06
  When they talk about coffee because I mean, they just they
• 26:09
  get into like, the nerdy science.
• 26:11
  Yeah. I think they took it to the next
• 26:13
  level. They definitely took it to the
• 26:14
  next level but for us it's always been about coffee being
• 26:18
  approachable. You know what I mean?
• 26:19
  I think when we entered the industry, there was kind of
• 26:24
  this. It's just really intimidating
• 26:26
  specialty coffee. For some people, you don't need
• 26:29
  mean, there's there can be a tendency for it to have a
• 26:33
  smoothie by the sometimes, you know, like you should You can't
• 26:36
  add sugar, you can't add cream to your coffee, all of this
• 26:40
  stuff. And for us it was like, hey man,
• 26:42
  it's your cup of coffee, you know you enjoy it.
• 26:45
  However you want to enjoy it. We're going to do everything.
• 26:48
  We can to roast it. You know, the best way and Brew
• 26:52
  it for you. But at the end of the day it's
• 26:53
  your coffee. You know, what do you mean?
• 26:54
  So we've always approached the coffee that way and we've always
• 26:59
  presented that way to our consumers which is very just
• 27:03
  approachable. Not what's the word?
• 27:07
  Not intimidating, but pretentious pretend over
• 27:10
  attention. Sure, I use that word, a lot in
• 27:13
  the show, you know, a lot of people, you know, think it could
• 27:17
  be. It can be really pretentious,
• 27:19
  you know, sometimes and so for us it was really important, you
• 27:23
  know, Mike was the one that was roasting all of the coffee up
• 27:27
  until a couple of years ago when we opened our shop here in
• 27:31
  Carmel Mountain. So, it was really important for
• 27:33
  us to find a team that Was going to have that same approach to
• 27:39
  it. So but obviously have all the
• 27:42
  knowledge and all the, you know, the the no house that, you know,
• 27:46
  how to pull out all the great flavors of the coffee.
• 27:49
  So that's really what Nick and Ryan do.
• 27:52
  You know, they spend a lot of time sample roasting they Cup
• 27:55
  every single day. I mean, the quality control is
• 27:58
  just insane with them over there.
• 28:01
  But there they always have that approachability in mind, you
• 28:05
  know, at any. And then also, Partner.
• 28:06
  Mike is a fine-dining chef and so you know when he was building
• 28:11
  the roasting program in the beginning, I mean he's got a
• 28:14
  pallet, he's got a refined palate and really knows how to
• 28:18
  develop those flavors. He always Compares like roasting
• 28:21
  to like making a steak you know, and just developing at those
• 28:24
  different stages. And so you know he's and he's
• 28:28
  there with them just going over everything and tasting
• 28:31
  everything with them and just like really pulling out like
• 28:34
  which coffee profile is really going to be the best.
• 28:37
  So that's, you know, on the roasting side but he's also the
• 28:39
  one that develops, our entire menu and really develops drinks
• 28:44
  that are like subset approachable.
• 28:46
  He's really Innovative, he infuses our cold.
• 28:49
  Brews with all kinds of ingredients, our lattes also
• 28:54
  are, we've got a bunch of lattes that are inspired by like really
• 28:57
  popular Filipino desserts. But the whole thing is meant to
• 29:01
  be like this all-encompassing experience from sites and taste.
• 29:06
  And sounds and everything. And so our bar I don't even see
• 29:09
  it, but our bar is actually designed to be really low,
• 29:12
  there's nothing obstructing your view.
• 29:14
  We've got him a bomb espresso machine, which is an under
• 29:17
  counter espresso machine, so people can really see the the
• 29:21
  show and have this open kitchen experience in our shops and then
• 29:26
  like just and then, you know, we're torching some of our
• 29:28
  drinks for our creme, brulees and our creme brulee lattes.
• 29:32
  And we're basically like plating drinks as well.
• 29:35
  So There's just like so many layers to this, you know, at the
• 29:39
  from The Roasting level and them just developing all those layers
• 29:42
  and then Mike takes it and creates more layers with the
• 29:46
  actual drinks themselves. And like I said, and it's really
• 29:50
  Innovative. We also work with Brew bomb and
• 29:53
  there another company that we do our whole group production
• 29:56
  Brewing on and it's just we are, you know, figuring out every way
• 30:02
  that we can to create the most consistent quality.
• 30:06
  What are you tasting? You know, coffee hold grow and
• 30:10
  then drinks in the store with Arma bomb.
• 30:13
  And what's fun is that, you know, a lot, a lot of Mike's, a
• 30:16
  inspiration comes from the craft beer Community as well, you know
• 30:20
  what I mean? So he'll take you know, things
• 30:22
  from there and he'll try it with the copy and then it's awesome.
• 30:25
  Because over the last couple of years, we've seen it kind of
• 30:28
  come full circle where people will take drinks that we've
• 30:32
  created and they're inspired by it and then make a beer after it
• 30:35
  like Very cool. You know what you mean, which is
• 30:38
  the vinca creme. Brulee is one of our most
• 30:39
  popular drinks here, so it's kind of cool to see all of his
• 30:43
  Innovation, you know, kind of go for even or even we just
• 30:47
  released a Buko pandan cold brew.
• 30:49
  Again, that's a Filipino dessert.
• 30:51
  And Harland just did a Buko pandan beer, which is really,
• 30:56
  which was released last week and it was like an insane.
• 30:59
  There's an insane line for hours just for that before waiting,
• 31:02
  like over four hours to get this here.
• 31:06
  Double crossing over. I think that's going to be a
• 31:08
  good place for us to kind of start bringing it around and I'm
• 31:12
  going to ask you. I want to ask you one.
• 31:14
  If there's anything else we didn't cover that's important
• 31:16
  for people to know on this first episode because I'm just
• 31:19
  assuming we're going to get together again.
• 31:20
  Oh, and yeah. Then I want to know you
• 31:23
  mentioned that when you started all this you didn't drink coffee
• 31:27
  but when you go out for a cup of coffee now and you're not at
• 31:30
  work, what are you ordering? What are you drinking?
• 31:33
  I mean I'm I'm a honey lot, a girl.
• 31:36
  Girl everywhere. All right, everyone.
• 31:41
  Yeah, honey, honey latte with oat milk ice is typically where
• 31:45
  we go. If not, I'm probably more like a
• 31:48
  cappuccino person. Occasionally, a gay shot.
• 31:53
  Oh yeah. Occasionally of cortado.
• 31:56
  And if I'm wanting us to eat or drink, then I'll do like a come
• 32:00
  Hannah and then anything else that we should know about most
• 32:04
  of Roasters today, If you would like to try some most your
• 32:08
  coffee, please visit our website.
• 32:10
  Most your coffee.com, we have coffee circulating on our shop
• 32:16
  page. That are our coffee team is
• 32:19
  continuously developing and creating and then just come and
• 32:23
  see us in our store. We would love to continue to
• 32:26
  share our coffee and our story with people.
• 32:29
  And if you see Bev or myself or micro Sam, please say hi.
• 32:33
  We love communicating and connecting.
• 32:36
  Acting with people in the community.
• 32:38
  Well, thank you again for being on the show.
• 32:40
  I just really appreciate your time and I'd say,
• 32:42
  congratulations on all your success.
• 32:45
  Thank you so much for having us. Thank you.
• 33:00
  A huge thanks to Bevin Jalen for doing the interview.
• 33:03
  And for supporting the show, most drawing the most your team
• 33:06
  has been a roast industry partner.
• 33:08
  Almost from the beginning, their co-owner and talented Chef, my
• 33:12
  carquinez has been a guest on the show, their operations and
• 33:15
  quality expert. Ryan Sullivan appeared on
• 33:17
  several episodes as a coffee smarter expert and just recently
• 33:20
  in season, 5 mosters head roaster, Nick Berardi called in
• 33:24
  from Hawaii, for a huge, too. Episode right after he won the
• 33:28
  US, coffee roasting championships, while he was
• 33:31
  getting ready for the world championships in Milan.
• 33:33
  Italy, you can find all of those podcast episodes on roast
• 33:36
  westcoast.com or just search for the show and apple podcast
• 33:40
  Spotify or even Amazon music and if you want to support the show
• 33:44
  but you're not ready to become a subscriber, please take two
• 33:47
  seconds to give the show a ranking and review on your
• 33:51
  preferred podcast platform. It really does help.
• 33:54
  Then check out all of this shows, roast industry, Partners
• 33:57
  they make and sell incredible coffee.
• 34:00
  And in the case of First Light whiskey whiskey, find and
• 34:03
  support mostra coffee companies, steady-state coffee, roasting
• 34:06
  Camp Coffee Company, ignite Coffee Company, assigned
• 34:10
  Roasters Coffee cycle, roasting first light whiskey, Maria
• 34:13
  coffee, Cape Horn coffee, importers Cafe litter.
• 34:16
  And of course, zoom bar coffee and tea, the links to all of
• 34:20
  those websites are on roast westcoast.com there.
• 34:23
  Right there on the front page. Page on the right hand side and
• 34:26
  I'm always sharing and reposting their social media.
• 34:29
  There are vents their job openings, their new coffees on
• 34:32
  the roast West Coast Instagram. We're only weeks away from the
• 34:36
  official ignite Coffee Company, Grand Opening, so make sure
• 34:39
  you're following them for sure. They don't post much so when
• 34:41
  they do, you know, it's going to be big.
• 34:44
  This Classics episode of the roast West Coast coffee podcast.
• 34:48
  It is, was has been written produced and recorded by meet
• 34:51
  Ryan worked this time from the road.
• 34:54
  And I hope this shows how you happy healthy and with, at least
• 34:57
  enough sanity to make it through the day.
• 35:00
  For those of you headed out for a cup of coffee this week,
• 35:03
  please always tip your Baristas and be sure to drink.
• 35:07
  Good coffee.