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Coffee People: Nick Schmitt, Roastar (Bonus Episode) · Coffee People Podcast

0:04
The coffee. People podcast is presented by
0:06
rho. Star Coffee Packaging, rho Star
0:09
is a digital printing company that makes custom printed
0:12
packaging for coffee products. They make even small Roasters
0:16
look like a really big deal at roast are.com you'll find out
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about their fast. Turnaround time high quality
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products and low printing minimums rho star will quickly
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become your favorite source for custom American made product.
0:30
Aging roast, our works with small mid and a large coffee
0:33
roasters. So if you're ready to upgrade
0:36
those bags or coffee, tins, go to roast.
0:38
Are.com to learn more and connect with the team, you'll
0:42
find the link in the coffee, people podcasts show notes.
0:53
Got a little tangent T anyway. It's so filthy little tangents
0:57
are what this show is all about. I mean I keep asking you
1:00
something and then thinking you know what I should have asked
1:02
them about this. I'm going to go back to that.
1:17
Hey, good morning everyone. Welcome back to the coffee
1:19
people podcast which is part of the roast West Coast coffee.
1:23
At work. I'm Ryan Walt.
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And this is the show where we get to know coffee people often,
1:29
it's Coffee, Roasters or green coffee, buyers or Cafe owners,
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but coffee touches. So many different people in, so
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many different Industries. Today, I'm chatting with Nick
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Schmidt, who works for this show, sponsor rho star, Nick.
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And I met last fall at Coffee. Fest, la, which is also how I
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found out that the company that produces some of my favorite
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coffee packaging is based in my hometown of Wausau Wisconsin.
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I'll be honest before meeting Nick, I hadn't thought much
1:56
about coffee packaging. Other than to admirers some cool
2:00
artwork or a well-designed bag, my biggest packaging concern was
2:04
to figure out how much longer I could shove coffee bags into the
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kitchen drawer before it bursts that changed.
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When I met Nick, it was a reminder that every cup of
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coffee. I enjoy either at home or out in
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the world has connections to an entire world of people an entire
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world of entrepreneurs and small businesses.
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That I never think about technically.
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We are between Seasons seven and eight, but I wanted this show to
2:30
come out now because I'm going to be seeing Nick and the roast
2:33
our team at the specialty, coffee Association Expo in
2:36
Portland this weekend. I'll even be hanging out in
2:39
their booth on the vendor floor on Friday, and Saturday,
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afternoons. There I'll be interviewing
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visitors about their own coffee, passions, and Ambitions.
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So if you're in Portland, I hope to see you at Booth 954.
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Until then, I hope you enjoyed this coffee.
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People podcast conversation, featuring Nick Schmidt overall
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star preferably accompanied by a good cup of coffee.
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I don't really think so. This is my first time ever
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speaking in any format like this.
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I'm looking forward to it. Nervously excited.
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I would say you'll be fine. It's just a conversation for the
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most part. Yeah, and we'll start by saying,
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welcome to the show. If you could tell everyone your
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name who you work for and your title there and maybe your
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favorite movie ever, Yeah, my name is Nick Schmidt.
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I work here at Rose star in Wausau Wisconsin.
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I'm an inside sales and service. Representative my favorite movie
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of all time. That is tricky.
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You know as far as history goes, I'm going to say it The Princess
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Bride. So what I was what I was raised
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on. Wow, that's a that's a
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throwback. That's my wife's favorite movie.
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Okay we actually got a chance to see it was really cool.
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They brought back the entire ER, cast living cast of The Princess
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Bride to do a reading of the script two years ago, during it
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was like a covid thing and we watch that it was actually on
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behalf of the state of Wisconsin.
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That's how they did it. You are based.
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I think we should just get it out there in Wausau, which is my
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hometown as well. Although we have never
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interacted outside of Wisconsin, only in Los Angeles.
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Where we met. I love Wisconsin.
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I think it's one of the most beautiful places.
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I haven't lived there in like 12 years.
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So I'm probably going to hit you up for I'm good coffee
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recommendations after this, but I wanted to ask our view.
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Always lived in Wisconsin. Or did you move there for this
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job with real star? I have lived in Wisconsin.
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Yeah, I am born and raised here. Haven't lived anywhere else yet.
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That is, I thoroughly, enjoy it. I really do yet.
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That means you're thinking about somewhere else in the world.
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Is that a, the, they know that it roasts are they do?
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Yeah, I don't know how soon, you know, I like coffee, I like the
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atmosphere and people that are bringing Things.
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And I not that there's necessarily a lack of it in
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Wasa, but yeah, I would like to see a little bit more of the
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world. Well, let's get started with a
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little bit about you. And your experience in coffee.
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You just mentioned, you enjoy coffee and that wasn't
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necessarily something. I presumed based on your job
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title, which I'm going to get you in a minute because I don't
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have any idea what it means, but did you have kind of a first
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experience with coffee that made you think?
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Yeah, this is interesting or that when you look back, you
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remember it as like, oh, this was kind of the Of this thing
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that I'm interested in. Yeah.
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I mean coffee definitely isn't a requirement to work at rho Star,
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but it's something I care. He's so I would say, my first
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kind of, wow, this is cool. Moment was my first job as a
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barista. I did a coffee tasting with just
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a shot of espresso and it was really kind of my first time,
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drinking coffee intentionally and thinking about what it
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actually tastes like to drink this coffee.
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Aside from You know the caramel macchiatos I had had prior and
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it was really cool to like actually think and talk about
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coffee with other people and kind of what we liked what we
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didn't like. So I was kind of eye-opening.
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Do you remember where that was? So I have to say it but my first
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job was as a Starbucks barista in coffee, so it was really
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cool. I I do think I was blessed with
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a good crew, that genuinely cared about coffee.
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So those regular coffee tastings It helps to kind of instill that
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passion a little bit from the start.
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You know, Starbucks has their issues.
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They're certainly in the news a lot lately but without
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Starbucks, there's an entire generation of people who
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wouldn't have gotten into coffee.
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And I say that knowing where you're from.
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I'm from the same place. When I was a kid when Starbucks
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opened, I was a big deal. The only other place to get
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coffee was Denny's, so we didn't have a lot of options, so they
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brought coffee of a certain level, to a large swath of
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America that hadn't seen. It before.
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And so if nothing else, we can be thankful for that because you
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may not be. You know, where you are now
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without it. Exactly.
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Tell me a little bit about roast our what it is that you you guys
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do and how you are integrated into the coffee Community.
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Yeah, so we are packaging company.
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We make bags. We also make tin cans and the
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biggest kind of nice about us is that we do it digitally printed.
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So pretty much all of our products are going to be You
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know, custom-made we really do present ourselves, majorly in
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the coffee industry. We we kind of got our start
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actually at the San Diego coffee Fest.
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We presented a digitally printed coffee bag, it won best new
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product was back in, think 2011, and it was kind of interesting
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because we weren't really ready to make a coffee bag yet and we
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didn't have any customers. Good idea that I've kind of got
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it started. Well, since then you've you have
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focused quite a bit on coffee. When I go to your website or
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when I met you at Coffee Festival, a you have a nice, you
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do packaging and other Industries, but coffee seems to
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be what people know you for even your name.
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Roast roast, ours is is coffee related.
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There you've come a long way since then, who are some of like
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the clients that maybe people would know, I mean, are you
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doing a large coffee industry? I mean, is this, are you doing
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packaging for like pizza or a Starbucks or is it more on a
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smaller scale, small. As medium-sized business,
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totally. I mean our big thing is small
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business, big story. So majority of our customers are
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really going to be pretty small often start up shops, a couple
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that. I mean, I've started really
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small. We worked with Death Wish is
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probably a name that you would know.
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So we, you know, have made their bags and then they got that
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Super Bowl commercial deal. I don't know if you recall that
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they really blew up big time which was really cool.
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If grown a lot I have some really interesting branding and
9:11
marketing. So that's kind of one of the
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ones that, you know, exploded and got their name out there,
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pretty widespread. And I think one of your other
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tell me if I'm wrong, but you guys worked with black and bold.
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Yeah, yeah. We have done some extra black
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and v as well. So black and bold was just in
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the news yesterday they're going to be taking one of their their
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pre pre made crafts. Instant coffee.
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Packaging Nationwide. So that's kind of cool.
9:40
Yeah, that's very cool. One thing I like about coffee is
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that it connects people across across the country across the
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world, really? It's a product that we're all
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that is so integrated into the daily life of most people that
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you don't even realize, how many other businesses you're working
9:56
with her, you're touching base with, when you drink your coffee
9:58
in the morning. One of the reasons that I
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enjoyed learning more about rho star and about, and now about
10:04
you and, of course, Danielle and the team there because I never
10:07
would have thought. Thought about as much as I
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think, packaging is cool. And the designs are cool and the
10:12
artwork is cool. I wouldn't have thought about it
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when I was drinking my coffee. So I'm hoping you can explain a
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little bit about how that process works from.
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I'm a coffee roaster and I want to package my beans and I call
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up Nick. How does that work?
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What happens next? Our process really starts with
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selecting what bag is, right? We have different options,
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different styles bag. All kind of present you know
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some are more of a classic style like the gusseted style bag.
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The flat bottom is a little bit more forward and modern I would
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say you got a line on what bag represents what you want to show
10:50
with your brand and then starting out with digital
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printing and, you know, fully printed coffee Vegas, really
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cool. So It's maybe not where every
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roaster starts. Commonly people will be coming
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to us and they're currently using a blank bag with a label.
11:07
Put on it, that's a very easy. You know, most Roasters start in
11:11
their garage and have a blank bag that they write write
11:14
handwritten with a sharpie. So we're kind of that next step,
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ideally starting with pretty low runs is what we specialize in so
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we can start as low as 500 bags and you can split that up with
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up to five different designs. Signs.
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You can really go as low as 100 bags per design, which is pretty
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crazy to be able to differentiate your your light
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roast, and your medium roast and whatever may be single Origins.
11:40
You have. So that's a very cool way that
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people start out with us, artwork is a really big piece of
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it to a cooling bag. Doesn't just happen.
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Hiring a designer is a pretty big factor.
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I do have a lot of customers that like to take on the design
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themselves. It's just kind of fun to work
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through. But achieving that brand look is
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really best done through designers so we don't offer
12:05
Design Services in-house but we do have quite a few designers
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that we've kind of come across over the years and we kind of
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put those together into a list. So obviously entered any
12:15
designer can work with our our templates to create the artwork
12:18
for those bags but it's kind of convenient to have that resource
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and people that you know I know some of them by name and be able
12:27
to email with the designer and those bags lined up just right
12:32
what I was going to refer to when you're talking about
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working with designers is I was actually a packaging designer at
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one point and so there's a very specific skill set that comes
12:41
with knowing how to design around the limitations of a
12:45
product. So knowing where your design is
12:48
going to get folded underneath like say the edge of the bag or
12:52
underneath the valve, or knowing all those things.
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It's not as easy as just saying. Here's a really cool thing.
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I did put it on, Right. You know there's all these
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little details that come with it and not even that how the colors
13:04
will look on the bag itself. Whether they're going to print
13:08
the way they look on your screen versus on a map bag or a glossy
13:12
bag or, you know, whatever the I don't even know.
13:14
But whatever, the whiner of the bag is, ya know, you're exactly
13:19
right there and I mean that is that's a huge thing.
13:21
Is they translation from a computer screen to income
13:25
material, we do actually have free printed flat proof.
13:29
Us of all of our products. So that's a pretty important
13:33
thing that we really do. Try and urge people towards is
13:36
if time allows getting it printed out first.
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It's yes, one way to double-check last-minute,
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spelling errors and stuff that hasn't been caught.
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But really the the colors and, you know, getting that approved
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to make sure Color Spot on as a still part-time, graphic
13:53
designer. There is always a last-minute
13:55
spelling issue. I'm working on a book cover
13:58
right now and That at least 10 different people.
14:00
Go over this book cover, and we still found a spelling issue
14:03
after that. So if you just your brain, your
14:06
brain puts things in the right place, even if they're not
14:09
there. So you really need to look at it
14:10
from a different angle. So having a designer who's
14:12
worked with that is great. And on that note I noticed on
14:16
your Instagram maybe last week you posted about or the company
14:19
posted about. You're going to be sponsoring
14:21
The Design Awards at the specialty coffee Association.
14:24
Festival in Portland. Yeah yeah.
14:27
The the product Design Awards which is Is pretty cool.
14:30
So we should just establish now that if the winner doesn't work
14:35
with rho star is that possible or are you like, are you
14:38
stacking the deck for row starts?
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I don't know that we're quite stacking the deck.
14:45
I actually don't have any insight on who is registered for
14:48
that. So, I am excited to see the
14:50
results that the NSA. Will you be at the, at the event
14:55
in April, I will. Yeah, I will.
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I will see you there. I hear.
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We're going to be partnering up with a pretty cool up-and-coming
15:02
coffee podcaster. So I mean if you still let me
15:07
and you know, a lot can happen in three weeks.
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We'll see what happens. People listening to this, this
15:12
is going to be coming out right before SCA.
15:14
So this is probably happening as you're listening to this, but
15:17
hopefully I'll be showing up at the roast.
15:19
Our booth that specialty coffee Association in Portland and
15:22
doing some like live podcasting right there on site in the
15:25
afternoon. So if you're there, come check
15:27
them out. I wanted to To to go back to
15:30
something from your past, not roast our coffee related.
15:33
But I think I saw that you worked at East Bay for a while
15:37
which I think is a a seminal job for every young person growing
15:42
up in the town of Wausau East Bay was a massive catalog
15:46
sporting. Good store that in the 90s was
15:49
bought by well worse. I worked in the warehouse when I
15:54
was 15 and I worked in the store when I was 17 and I worked in
15:58
the phone bank at one point. Uh-huh, they recently announced
16:01
that they're shutting down their iconic kind of sports catalog.
16:05
What was your experience, like with East Bay and indeed, you do
16:09
you even realize, like how pervasive they were the job
16:12
economy in Wausau? Yeah, I guess I didn't really
16:16
realize how how much how widespread they were, but it
16:20
definitely was a, a pretty key thing.
16:23
I have a lot of friends that also worked at East Bay.
16:26
I did work in the call center there.
16:28
So, I Yeah, I took calls in from East Bay and then, like,
16:32
Footlocker is another Branch. There are quite a few, actually,
16:36
but they all started with East Bay and there was the only the
16:39
one he's faced or which is kind of cool.
16:42
I did actually for one summer volunteer to do an overnight
16:47
shift on Sundays with a friend. So that was kind of an
16:50
interesting summer of Sunday overnight call center
16:55
Shenanigans. A lot of phone calls from
16:58
prisons. I always found Sound.
17:00
Yes, yes, that's really catalogs.
17:03
Made it. And I and you can tell me if
17:05
this happened to you. But for me, I would get a phone
17:07
call, especially around the holidays, from somebody in a
17:10
prison wanting to buy gifts for their kids, you know, the newest
17:14
shoes, or Jersey or whatever. But then once we did the order,
17:18
which took all of a minute, this was their only phone call of the
17:21
week. And so they would want to talk
17:24
to me for like 10 minutes about sports or about what was
17:29
happening in the news, anything, because they wouldn't get
17:31
another call for another week. So I don't know if you Ever had
17:34
any experiences like that. But it was something that like
17:37
really made me appreciate one not being in prison, but to
17:41
learning how to talk to people from all over the world.
17:44
That is really cool. I don't think that I was
17:47
anyone's comfort from prison. However, that is that's a good
17:51
story. I did definitely have quite a
17:54
few sneaker orders that I placed from people behind bars.
17:57
Getting either either some shoes to them to know, show off a
18:02
little bitter. But yeah, for the In France.
18:04
No I don't even think of that you could break get shoes inside
18:08
back to Specialty coffee Association.
18:11
What is what is it that you guys are planning on doing there?
18:14
And how does an event like that? Help represent your brand or
18:17
help. Push what you guys are doing as
18:19
a packaging company forward? I think, when I say specialty,
18:22
coffee Association people, just immediately go to like the
18:27
Barista competitions, The Roasting competitions.
18:29
That's what they think of, they're not thinking of like a
18:32
manufacturing Packaging. Company.
18:35
Yeah, I mean it's where we got our start.
18:38
I suppose. L sure I said that earlier, the
18:41
San Diego coffee Fest is really where we kind of found our
18:44
Roots. So we've always found ourselves
18:48
at those different coffee shows. SCA being the biggest of all of
18:51
them this year we've got a pretty sweet new Booth which
18:55
were really excited for partnering with you is going to
18:58
be exciting. It's always cool as well to
19:02
strengthen some of those Ships with existing customers.
19:05
We have. I'm on the front lines.
19:08
I work with all of our customers that are in Portland, so to be
19:11
able to randomly bump into people, I email with on a daily
19:14
basis is going to be pretty sweet.
19:17
Why don't you if you can just tell us what it is that your job
19:21
title you had this long job title at the beginning of our
19:23
conversation and I can't say I really knew what it meant.
19:27
Yeah. Understood was sales.
19:28
So what is what is it that you do on a daily basis?
19:33
Yeah, it's pretty heavy on customer service account
19:37
management. So I mean, I pretty much handle
19:41
our customers projects customers on the west coast that is all
19:45
the way through from start to finish.
19:47
So, you know, the stage, like I mentioned of artwork setup.
19:52
If you, you know, need to get another round of proofs because
19:55
your color was wrong. On the first one, I'll help get
19:58
that process and get those on their way.
20:00
You know, I can wash your orders and make sure They go through.
20:03
If you give me a call and say hey we screwed up, we need these
20:08
bags. You know, next week Friday I can
20:11
probably maybe pull a few strings to figure out how to
20:15
make it happen. It's tough to answer straight
20:18
forward. What exactly I do but I kind of
20:21
manage projects. I'm the guy that people call.
20:24
Yeah you're the facilitator your the you're not Jason Bourne,
20:27
you're the guy that makes sure there's money and guns in his
20:29
account. I want to ask you about that
20:35
Wasa area in the midwest. In general you just mentioned
20:38
that you work a lot with West Coast clients and I that's
20:40
something that I have learned recently that you guys work with
20:42
clients kind of all over the place but I would have had just
20:46
assumed. I think that you would have
20:48
started with a lot of clients in the midwest.
20:50
What is that coffee culture like there?
20:53
And I asked that knowing that when I moved from Wasa 12 years
20:57
ago, there were no coffee roasters in town.
21:01
I think now there's probably several if I'm not mistaken, but
21:05
how do you see coffee growing in the Midwest?
21:08
And as a company based there, how does that affect?
21:12
What you guys do? Yeah, we definitely have a few,
21:16
pretty good sized Coffee Roasters in the area.
21:19
Now, we did start off. I know, one of our earlier,
21:22
customers was Condor Coffee Company.
21:25
There are roaster, literally about three minutes down the
21:28
road, and they started. I think around 10 years ago as
21:32
well, and we've done pretty much all their bags.
21:35
Since they started, it's always been a good relationship.
21:39
Another, another local roaster is red with Street Roasters,
21:44
they Rock. They Supply us with all of our
21:48
coffee in the office, so we usually have a cold beer keg,
21:51
that's always refilled. The I think, really, spread the
21:54
Coffee Culture, the best in the area, because at farmer's
21:58
markets, they do strictly pour overs and they have a huge line
22:03
of people watching these pour overs be made, and I really
22:06
don't think that a lot of people are even familiar with that is a
22:09
bru A method. So, they really kind of instill,
22:12
some coffee passion. And the area, which is so cool
22:15
to see goody bags for definitely people in our hometown as well.
22:19
I mean, a little bit further outside, but still in the
22:22
midwest, Dark Matter, coffee is a really cool brand.
22:27
That was my very first cup of craft coffee.
22:29
Ever was a dark matter coffee. No kidding, yeah, they are.
22:32
I mean, so cool with the art and music and just real real
22:38
nitty-gritty of Coffee. So that's a very cool kind of
22:42
further outside relationship. How do people find you?
22:47
I mean, is it mostly from like festivals or events Association
22:51
events like that? Or I mean Googling, what is the
22:55
best way for say, a young, burgeoning coffee roaster, who
22:59
wants to get to that next level? Where they finding rho star and
23:03
finding information about you, or how did they first connect
23:05
with you? Yeah, yeah we are definitely.
23:09
We pretty prevalent online, we're an e-commerce company.
23:12
That's usually the easiest place to find us conveniently.
23:15
People do find us at, you know, SCA and coffee Fest were at all
23:20
those shows. So in person, that's a good way
23:22
to connect, we also have been in, I believe it's roast
23:26
magazine a few times. So we sneak our way our way into
23:30
a different different areas to get spread out, but online is
23:33
really where we thrive. That actually brings me to
23:37
something that I didn't have in my notes.
23:39
How long have you been with rho star?
23:42
Yeah, I've been with with roast are just under a year and a
23:45
half, so I started there. So you would have come in about
23:49
halfway through the coronavirus pandemic, which hit different
23:52
parts of the country differently.
23:54
Was there any discussion when you arrive just about how about
23:59
the growth of young Roasters of new Roasters?
24:02
I think I noticed a lot of people who had time during the
24:07
pandemic to say, I want to take on a new hobby or I have this
24:09
new professional goal. Those Roasters would be kind of
24:13
graduating to the level of needing bags.
24:15
At this point, are you interacting with people whose
24:18
story starts there or is that? Not something that you've seen
24:21
as much? Wow, that's a cool question.
24:24
I can't say that formally in the office, we've had any major
24:28
discussions on it. But I mean, I talk to customers
24:31
on a daily basis looking to come to this kind of packaging.
24:35
And yeah, I mean, I've definitely heard of people that
24:38
have started during a pandemic. I myself started roasting some
24:42
During the pandemic. So, yeah, I would say you're
24:45
probably spot-on with, I can't quite speak to how many new
24:49
Roasters we had, you know, a few years ago.
24:51
But I would imagine that probably started a bit of a
24:54
trend with random home. Hobbies, you started roasting
24:59
yourself. Well, why do that?
25:01
And then what, what is it that you're roasting is anything come
25:04
out that you're particularly proud of?
25:06
Oh, nothing. Nothing that I'm proud of that
25:08
all know a couple of good times. What was the motivation for even
25:14
trying in the first place? Just to see what your customers
25:16
are going through? Or because you have a passion
25:18
for coffee or what was that the impetus it had started because I
25:23
thought it would be a more efficient way to feel my coffee
25:27
needs, that is not the case. It takes about about 20 minutes
25:34
to make what I can drink in about 2 cups, and it smells not
25:39
at all. Like I thought it would when
25:41
you're roasting. It took me about about four
25:45
years of working in coffee before actually, Smelling
25:47
Coffee, while it's being roasted.
25:49
And I imagine by my whole spouse would smell like I'm baking a
25:52
fresh batch of brownies and know you're burning cherry pits if
25:57
you think about it. So the end product is great.
26:01
The process was not as glamorous.
26:03
Well that's the next step is building your own coffee.
26:05
Roasting shed with ventilation. Yes with ventilation in wall so
26:10
you could probably get away with that.
26:11
If I Recall. We didn't get a lot of
26:13
Permitting for things, the back of the day, maybe not so much
26:15
anymore. I wanted to just ask you, you
26:19
know, besides your own experience here roasting and the
26:22
challenge of that, what is something that you've kind of
26:25
learned about the coffee industry since taking on this
26:28
job and having your Starbucks experience.
26:32
What is something you've learned about the industry?
26:33
That may be a surprised you a little bit or that you've just
26:36
been like oh that's really interesting.
26:38
You know, in the last year and a half of working with clients
26:40
from all over the place, I would say that probably the biggest
26:44
thing was kind of a take away from coffee Fest that I have.
26:48
Is that how deep the industry goes?
26:51
Like you said, you probably wouldn't really have thought
26:53
twice about their packaging side of things.
26:57
I also until coffee Fest would never have thought about the
27:00
sleeves that goes on your coffee, you know, all those
27:03
different products in the supply chain.
27:06
That really go into that Final Cup, you know, coffee sourcing
27:10
and farming. And how many?
27:12
Different elements are our has been really cool to see.
27:16
And I mean working with mostly small companies, majority of the
27:20
people that I talked to own the grocery that they are sourcing
27:25
the bags for and these are entrepreneurs that are very
27:28
passionate about what they do and very willing to share.
27:31
So that's kind of one of my favorite Parts is is hearing
27:35
from the, you know, the source themselves on how they got there
27:38
and kind of what hurdles they've come over.
27:41
That's something that I love as well.
27:42
I mean, just yesterday, I did a coffee cupping at most or coffee
27:46
here in San Diego, and mostra doesn't owe me anything.
27:51
There's no reason for them to invite me into their private
27:54
production facility to do it, but it was just a standing.
27:57
Hey, you like coffee, you're going to Coffee your part of
28:00
this industry. We'd love to show you what we
28:02
do. And I just, I think that's such
28:05
a great thing about the coffee Community is the willingness to
28:08
engage and also to share knowledge.
28:11
Us. I'm excited about this.
28:13
I think you're excited about this.
28:15
Why aren't you as excited about this as I am?
28:16
Let me show you how cool it is. And I get that a lot.
28:19
I have to point out that we went to different high schools which
28:22
makes us natural Rivals. I saw a photo recently that row
28:28
started a job fair at my old high school, Wasa, West, High
28:32
School. So if anyone's listening that's
28:34
the better of the two high schools in town.
28:37
Yeah. So I'm assuming that when we see
28:39
each other in And that there will be some sort of like
28:43
physical battle that we have to get through before we can move
28:45
forward with a professional relationship.
28:47
Oh, and maybe some sort of like coffee arm wrestling which
28:51
should be a thing. Anyways, I'm not sure how that
28:53
would work. I'm gonna ask you a two-part
28:56
question, normally. It's just a one part question to
28:58
end the show. The first part is, is when you
29:01
go out into the world to get a cup of coffee, what is it that
29:04
you order for yourself? It depends on where I'm going.
29:08
If it's a a shop that I have high hopes for and I haven't
29:12
been to before, I will order what I, what I call a
29:16
hit-and-run, I didn't coin that, I got it from a different coffee
29:20
shop. That's a, you know, a single or
29:22
double espresso, little ceramic mug for there.
29:25
And I said that, well, I'm in the shop and take a 12 or 16 oz
29:29
coffee to go. I think that it is just perfect.
29:32
It gives me a pretty well-rounded view on their
29:35
coffee and that is definitely my go-to.
29:38
Otherwise if I had been there before, usually I'm going to
29:41
casually get a cold brew. And that's kind of my go-to
29:44
drink when I am back home, and I will be in Wasa and late summer,
29:51
where should I go to get a cup of coffee?
29:53
If not one of your clients. It's if knock on door, coffee or
29:57
not Redwood, you should go to tuck any coffee company that is,
30:00
that is where I worked for a little while.
30:03
It's under new ownership, they are hip and cool and they have
30:07
gorgeous plants. Well, you had me at plants, I'll
30:11
take. Bad coffee if there's good
30:12
plants. It's like one of the few things
30:14
that I'm excited about is much coffee.
30:17
Nick, I really appreciate you spending some time on the show
30:20
with me. I'm looking forward to getting
30:22
to know you more and getting to know.
30:23
Roast are more if you Some to the show, you know, that rho
30:26
star is coming on as a sponsor of the show and a presenting
30:29
sponsor of the coffee people podcast.
30:32
And I just couldn't be more thrilled to be representing
30:35
both, you and my hometown by extension and I'm glad you're
30:38
here. Thank you, right.
30:39
I hope everybody at didn't get too frustrated by to Midwest,
30:43
guys, talking about bags. Oh, don't do that.
30:46
Don't point it out. It makes it worse.
30:48
It's like one of the only things people say to me, when I go, if
30:51
I say the word bags like, oh, where are you from?
30:57
Well, thank you for having me. Okay, here are some key
31:13
takeaways from that conversation with Nick Schmidt.
31:16
First off The Princess Bride, a very solid favorite movie choice
31:20
and a great excuse to cut to this scene, which is a reminder
31:24
to always Ways ask the right questions for context, Inigo,
31:28
Montoya is sword, fighting with our hero Wesley.
31:35
You are wonderful. Thank you.
31:38
Come soon. I admit it.
31:40
You are better than I am, the more you smiling because I know
31:43
something, you don't know. And what is that?
31:46
I am not left-handed to be after 20 years.
32:03
It's something I want to tell you that I'm not left-handed
32:07
either. So yeah, if you haven't seen it,
32:15
definitely check out The Princess.
32:16
Bride back to those key. Takeaways rho, star is a
32:19
printing company, which specialises in digitally printed
32:22
packaging. Nick is there inside sales and
32:25
service representative, which is a very professional way of
32:28
saying, he is the guy you call when you're trying to figure out
32:31
what needs to be done, he's the customer liaison.
32:35
Nick, I manage projects, I'm the guy that people call he
32:40
mentioned that an ethos, he and roast our work by his small
32:44
business, big story. And I really love that thought
32:47
entrepreneurs are often storytellers, they're telling a
32:50
story with their brand, their product.
32:53
And with the communities, they build even a small business has
32:57
something to say small business, big story.
33:01
I'm going to put that on a Post-It note and Tack it up in
33:04
this podcast and Closet if you have a coffee industry story to
33:08
share and you happen to be at the sca Expo in Portland's
33:11
weekend. You know where to find me?
33:13
I'll be the guy with the microphone at the roast.
33:15
Our booth number 95 for in the early afternoons, look for the
33:20
beard, the bald head and probably the fanny pack, finally
33:25
exploring. The world is a great way to
33:27
discover who you are and what you value.
33:30
I encourage you to get out in the world if and when you can,
33:33
there is a lot of great coffee out here.
33:35
Not to mention more than a few people who might just change
33:38
your life. You never know when you're going
33:40
to read a name to egg and think, holy moly, this guy's from my
33:44
hometown. So thanks to Nick for talking to
33:47
me that day. And today, and thanks to you for
33:50
joining me on this bonus episode of coffee people, featuring Nick
33:53
Schmidt of rho star. You can follow a trail star on
33:57
Instagram, to see some of the cool coffee bags.
33:59
They've collaborated on with your favorite coffee roasters.
34:02
And if you are a coffee roaster either, Store, burgeoning head
34:07
to roast. Are.com to see all of the
34:08
services. They can offer your business to
34:11
help. Tell your big story.
34:13
I'll include those links in this shows podcast notes and in the
34:16
roast West Coast coffee newsletter, which you can find
34:20
in subscribe to at roast westcoast.com.
34:24
You can sign up for free, but if you've been digging in this
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34:47
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That's all for today. I hope to see you in Portland
35:52
this episode of the coffee people podcast, which is part of
35:55
the roast. West Coast coffee network is was
35:58
has been written produced and recorded by me Ryan woulld.
36:02
I hope this episode is found you happy healthy.
36:05
And with at least a thread of sanity left enabling you to make
36:09
it through the day, always tip your Baristas and be sure to
36:13
drink good coffee. Hey out there.
36:48
Thanks for listening. Did you know this podcast is a
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37:23
Thanks for subscribing. And thanks for drinking.
37:26
Good coffee.