Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Anu Menon, Co-Founder Driftaway Coffee Roasters

Transcript

Anu Menon, Co-Founder Driftaway Coffee Roasters · Coffee People Podcast

• 0:26
  It was really easy. I'm just going to ask who you
• 0:29
  are. All right, a little bit about
• 0:31
  Drift Away and why you do it, what you're doing here at Coffee
• 0:33
  Fest. Welcome to the Coffee People
• 0:37
  podcast. I'm Ryan.
• 0:38
  Hi, Ryan. Nice to meet you.
• 0:40
  I do. That like we didn't just shake
• 0:41
  hands a moment ago. But I appreciate it.
• 0:43
  The only time I need you to look right at this camera, OK, is to
• 0:47
  tell people who you are and what your coffee company is, why
• 0:51
  you're here at Coffee Fest. Yes, awesome.
• 0:53
  Hi, my name is Anu. I'm one of the founders of Drift
• 0:56
  Away Coffee. We're a small batch roaster we
• 0:59
  roast out of Brooklyn, NY. What we're really passionate
• 1:03
  about outside of sourcing great coffee is how do we do it in a
• 1:07
  way that creates a more inclusive value chain.
• 1:10
  So 50% of our coffees come from women owned farms.
• 1:13
  And then the other side of the spectrum we're really passionate
• 1:16
  about is really education sites really telling the story of
• 1:20
  coffee. You, you follow us on Instagram
• 1:23
  online, It's always say that we love talking about, you know,
• 1:26
  where the coffee's from, why it tastes like it does.
• 1:28
  We feel it doesn't get talked about enough.
• 1:29
  So really putting the producer at the center of the story is
• 1:33
  important to us. And so we started in 2014.
• 1:37
  We've been around for about 12 years.
• 1:39
  That's a long time. We predominantly were ecommerce
• 1:43
  direct to consumer for about 12 for a long time.
• 1:47
  And now slowly we've been growing in wholesale and we've
• 1:51
  also got a little tasting room out in Brooklyn where we do
• 1:54
  coffee or macasses. Where in Brooklyn?
• 1:56
  E Williamsburg, across from Brooklyn to cool.
• 1:58
  Brooklyn. So it's literally the front of
• 2:00
  our roast tree. OK, so like the roast tree is
• 2:02
  like a 3000 square feet. We kind of powered out a thing
• 2:05
  and we do like a six seat, 66 seat, you know, tasting table
• 2:09
  where we do Omakasi style stuff. Awesome, very good.
• 2:12
  The weekends it's fun. How did you come up with the
• 2:14
  name Jerto Way? Where did that come from?
• 2:16
  So when we were first sort of when we were building it, it was
• 2:19
  like very much very scrappy, very bootstrap.
• 2:21
  We're coming up with like labels and I didn't have much of A
• 2:23
  design background. So my labels were these I'd
• 2:26
  seen, what I had seen were these like vintage baggage tags.
• 2:30
  And I really thought they look, I was like, oh, I can see kind
• 2:32
  of a coffee label kind of based on that because I was also
• 2:35
  learning about coffee and kind of learning about where all
• 2:37
  coffee comes from. And I was like, we don't talk
• 2:39
  about that enough. So I was like, I can see like a
• 2:41
  baggage tag like that sort of is also representative of how much
• 2:43
  coffee travels. And so this whole travel team
• 2:47
  was there. So whatever name we had, we
• 2:49
  wanted it to have some sort of a travel kind of element to it.
• 2:54
  And then the second part of it was we loved just a ritual of
• 2:57
  coffee, you know, that first cup you brew slow in the morning,
• 3:00
  all of that. And so I was trying out all
• 3:03
  these different names like, you know, as one does researching.
• 3:05
  Somewhere of all those. Names, yeah, I probably actually
• 3:07
  had a grasp that would go like, do you want to be sort of
• 3:12
  closed, like coffee related or not?
• 3:15
  How tight? And then do you want it to be
• 3:17
  symbolic, emotional or not? And we were like putting all
• 3:20
  these names, we put it on a graph.
• 3:22
  My background is engineering. We're very analytical.
• 3:25
  Everything comes to, you know, that sort of.
• 3:27
  And honestly, the other thing is we needed a name that nobody
• 3:30
  else had taken. That's part of it.
• 3:31
  And we needed a domain that we could also buy because we were
• 3:35
  online. So we didn't think of it that
• 3:37
  way. So when we came across just
• 3:38
  drift away, we're like nobody had it.
• 3:40
  It was and it kind of alluded to travel and what we call the
• 3:43
  drift away moment, which is. Yeah, I was just thinking to
• 3:46
  myself, that is kind of like that first sip.
• 3:48
  So when I have a really good cup of coffee, which is not every
• 3:51
  day because I'm lazy, not every day, but, but sometimes I'll
• 3:55
  have a cup of coffee or I'll go to a new shop and unexpectedly
• 3:59
  I'll take a sip. And it's like this, this moment
• 4:02
  where my whole body just sort of.
• 4:03
  Oh, yeah. That's what the that's what the
• 4:07
  best part of the world is supposed to be right now for me.
• 4:10
  Yeah. And that's what I thought of as
• 4:11
  soon as I saw the label. I love the font.
• 4:13
  I like. Oh, thank you.
• 4:15
  I actually noticed on the back it says that the bag is
• 4:17
  industrial compostable. I didn't even know that they
• 4:20
  were doing that. Yeah, this is.
• 4:22
  That's what Yeah, we love working with Rostar for it.
• 4:25
  Rostar sponsors me and I know, so I'm learning things here
• 4:28
  about Rostar. That's actually, yeah, it's
• 4:30
  great. And you'll see like it holds up
• 4:32
  really well. We're fans.
• 4:34
  Starting in 2014. This is not 2014.
• 4:38
  I wish I was the same age as I was in 2014.
• 4:42
  What's changed for you guys? How have you seen the industry
• 4:44
  change around you since then? So many things.
• 4:49
  I think for us it's been like this sort of change, like as we
• 4:53
  learn more, we keep changing whether that's our sourcing,
• 4:56
  whether that's sort of our business model, industry wise.
• 5:00
  I feel the biggest is like some of the coffees have changed so
• 5:03
  much. So the coffees I'm serving today
• 5:04
  at the booth didn't exist back then.
• 5:08
  Like we're doing a thermal shop C drive, which is like this
• 5:10
  funky process, you know, driven coffee.
• 5:12
  The funny cracks and the beans. Exactly.
• 5:15
  So it's been interesting to see just coffee changing, you know,
• 5:18
  like they did the origins we were working with in 2014.
• 5:21
  We're probably like classic Ethiopians, Kenyan coffees and
• 5:25
  now a lot more Colombian coffees in the game and a lot more.
• 5:29
  It's just fun, exciting, process driven and I'm here for it.
• 5:33
  Like so. Your palate also though, has to
• 5:36
  change. You've got to change
• 5:37
  perspective, How you cut changes.
• 5:40
  Everything does change, but it's all a reminder that you know the
• 5:43
  industry keeps evolving. You've got to keep adapting.
• 5:46
  How people's taste change and what's available changes.
• 5:49
  It's a. Yeah.
• 5:50
  Every year that I do one of these events, or however many we
• 5:53
  do a year, even from like the spring to the fall, things are
• 5:56
  new. And changing, yeah.
• 5:57
  Somebody thought of something I would have never thought of so.
• 6:00
  And like, I don't like it. Like, I mean, it just keeps it
• 6:02
  fresh. When you've been around for a
• 6:03
  long time, you don't want to do the same thing.
• 6:06
  Do you, so do you think being in New York, how does that impact
• 6:10
  you? Do you know anything different I
• 6:11
  guess would be a good question. So I don't know your background
• 6:13
  here. I've only, yeah, for me, coffee.
• 6:15
  We've always only been in New York.
• 6:18
  I think with New York to me is like just a lot of people want
• 6:21
  to do a lot of things. There's a lot of interesting new
• 6:24
  things going on. We're able to collaborate with
• 6:28
  like other restaurants, bakeries, etcetera who are doing
• 6:30
  incredible work. So I think that energy, you
• 6:34
  know, you feed off of it, it gives you inspiration, gives you
• 6:37
  idea. I feel like if you want to try
• 6:39
  something new, like what we do, the coffee or Mccasse flights,
• 6:42
  like it's so well received in a city like New York, people
• 6:46
  travel to New York so they come for it.
• 6:48
  So it's just really fun to be creative and be able to do
• 6:51
  things that you enjoy again, when you've been in the industry
• 6:54
  and doing things for so long, Wanna have fun at the end of the
• 6:58
  day? That's why I like events like
• 6:59
  this one in particular is because it reminds you to
• 7:02
  reflect on all those things that you've done and go, oh, wait,
• 7:05
  I've done this thing or that thing and so on.
• 7:07
  Yeah. Did I see somewhere that you
• 7:09
  guys won some awards? Yes, we.
• 7:11
  This year. We won, yeah.
• 7:13
  This year we won Roster of the Year for 2026.
• 7:17
  This is by Roast magazine. That kind of involves an
• 7:20
  application process where they ask you about 6 or 7 questions
• 7:24
  all around. How you source, what your
• 7:26
  mission is, how you treat your employees, how you, how you work
• 7:31
  within the coffee community, sustainability.
• 7:33
  So sort of like marketing, all of it.
• 7:36
  And so you first submit answers to those questions.
• 7:40
  I think they get hundreds of applicants and then you find out
• 7:43
  if you're a finalist or not. So we were finalist last year
• 7:46
  and so this year again we just find out your finalist and then
• 7:50
  you have to submit 3 copies and you get kind of like 4 days to
• 7:54
  send 3 coffees. That's obviously what you
• 7:56
  already have, what you're roasting.
• 7:58
  And so two of them are single origin and 1 needs to be a
• 8:02
  blend. And so we came up with a blend.
• 8:06
  We didn't have a light rose blend that we probably could
• 8:09
  submit. So we had like 4 days to create
• 8:11
  A and we submitted and we won, which we're super excited.
• 8:14
  Congratulations. Thank you.
• 8:15
  It's very cool. It's an intensive process.
• 8:18
  Like it's not just about it's, yes, the coffee has to be great
• 8:22
  because that's the kicker at the end, but it also is about your
• 8:24
  whole business. And yeah, engaged with coffee
• 8:27
  generally, so very cool to have it.
• 8:29
  It's also really nice because it kind of gives you sort of what
• 8:32
  you were saying like in coffee guys, you think about like all
• 8:33
  the things you do. It kind of like we really sat
• 8:36
  down and thought deeply about those questions and like we try
• 8:39
  to list out everything we've done overtime and sort of like,
• 8:43
  why did we do it? It was sort of a nice reflection
• 8:46
  exercise. Then like, you know, as a small
• 8:48
  business owner, you're always just going to the next thing.
• 8:50
  So like it takes you time to kind of, oh, look at all we've
• 8:53
  done and we don't talk about this enough and it's so.
• 8:56
  We don't celebrate ourselves. Yeah.
• 8:58
  And so like even just the application process I thought
• 9:00
  was very kind of therapeutic in a way.
• 9:02
  Good to know. So I recommend everyone doing.
• 9:04
  All the time. It should do that.
• 9:06
  Someone has to celebrate. The might.
• 9:08
  As well be me. So then here's my question.
• 9:11
  If someone watches this a week from now, a month from now, a
• 9:14
  year from now, you've been in this process for 12 years.
• 9:18
  In coffee specifically, I assume that you were existed before
• 9:22
  that. But in coffee you've learned a
• 9:25
  lot. You've seen the world through
• 9:28
  the pre COVID joyous times, the covic times, this chaotic time
• 9:32
  we're at now. What advice would you give to
• 9:34
  someone thinking I want to start a small business in 2026?
• 9:39
  I would say always go for it. Start small though.
• 9:44
  I think the things that really helped us was when we started, I
• 9:47
  started it with my husband. My partner had his own but still
• 9:51
  continued his job. So start small where you know
• 9:54
  you can test out your idea. And yeah, first find a small
• 9:58
  test for ideas. See if it works.
• 9:59
  Because all of us build products for things we want, but you want
• 10:02
  to prove that other people want it are going to pay for it.
• 10:06
  So test it out, keep it trading till you get that right mix and
• 10:10
  keep doing it. Like I am so grateful for taking
• 10:15
  that chance 12 years back. And I'm really glad that it
• 10:19
  happened to be coffee. Like I didn't that was I wasn't
• 10:21
  super intentional about that part of justice loving coffee,
• 10:23
  but didn't know the industry, didn't know anything.
• 10:26
  And I'm just really grateful to be here.
• 10:28
  So I'm glad that I took that chance.
• 10:32
  And my background was engineering, digital marketing,
• 10:34
  completely different. So yeah.
• 10:36
  So yeah. Yeah.
• 10:37
  You mentioned Williamsburg, but how can people find drift away
• 10:40
  if they're out in the world So. Yeah, our website, we do do a
• 10:44
  lot of e-commerce, so a lot of online, all the bags are there,
• 10:47
  there all just combinations, subscriptions.
• 10:50
  But if you're in Brooklyn, come visit us, you can book a spot
• 10:54
  for a coffee tasting, which is really fun and we're just having
• 10:57
  really fun a fun time doing it. It's.
• 10:59
  Important to book a spot, not just show up.
• 11:02
  For the flights you have to book a spot.
• 11:05
  They are quite busy right now thankfully so I do.
• 11:08
  Yeah the walk-ins are really not possible anymore.
• 11:11
  But just get a cup of coffee, a pour over or espresso.
• 11:13
  Absolutely you can just come. Back.
• 11:15
  Awesome. Well, thank you so much for
• 11:17
  sharing the moment with us and telling us a little bit about
• 11:19
  your story. Thanks so much for having me and
• 11:21
  thanks for doing this. This is so great that you do
• 11:23
  this. Thank you.
• 11:24
  I'm glad someone's on board with it.
• 11:27
  Great. I love.
• 11:29
  I mean, I love doing. That.
• 12:17
  The.