Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Coffee People Classics: Danny Iverson, Iverson Coffee Roasters
Transcript
- 0:00Hey everyone, the Coffee People Podcast is off this week as
- 0:04we're traveling through Wisconsin and visiting one of
- 0:06our favorite sponsors Roast Our coffee packaging.
- 0:09But we didn't want to leave you without a show, so we're re
- 0:12airing an interview we did way back on season 2 of this podcast
- 0:16with Danny Iverson of Iverson Coffee Roasters.
- 0:19I hope you enjoy it, but just as a reminder, not live.
- 0:24Something comes up or whatever, Just pause, no worries.
- 0:27Perfect. I'm gonna just silence
- 0:28everything here and I'm gonna put you on the big monitor so I
- 0:30can actually see you. Big monitor.
- 0:33I feel like that's too much pressure with a tiny little camp
- 0:38light, so I don't know how big you want to see me.
- 0:40Oh no, you're you're perfect right there.
- 0:43I'm just gonna just cuz like I have my my stupid little webcam
- 0:48over, like not in front of my computer so I can actually see
- 0:51you. So I.
- 0:53Appreciate it. Well, I appreciate you being
- 0:54here. And also I always tell everyone
- 0:57just a reminder, we see each other, but we're not recording
- 1:00the video. So that doesn't exist.
- 1:02Maybe someday in the future, but for now, my cause, it's my
- 1:06business and all of the people that I talked to on this video
- 1:09chat. Perfect.
- 1:11Perfect. Perfect.
- 1:21Hey everyone, welcome to the Roast West Coast Coffee Podcast.
- 1:24Today's interview is with North County San Diego roaster Danny
- 1:28Iverson. He is the founder and Head
- 1:30roaster at Iverson Coffee Roasters.
- 1:33Danny is the perfect guest to have on after Cheryl Gildner of
- 1:36Renegade Roaster Design Group last week because the way he
- 1:40talks about the relationship he has with his roasters perfectly
- 1:43encapsulates what she and I were talking about when it comes to
- 1:47the people who roast. And how much the machines they
- 1:49roast on are an extension of themselves.
- 1:53I learned about Iverson Coffee Roasters when a friend sent me a
- 1:56bag of his coffee as a gift. It was truly fantastic, and when
- 2:01I was planning the season, I asked her what she could tell me
- 2:04about the man behind the brand. She said.
- 2:07And I quote, well, he's probably the nicest guy ever, and his
- 2:12coffee is really, really good. She was right on both counts.
- 2:17So take a second to make sure your coffee mug is full, because
- 2:20it's time for this week's interview with Danny Iverson of
- 2:24Iverson Coffee Roasters. So, Danny Iverson, Iverson
- 2:37Coffee. Welcome to the Roast West Coast
- 2:39Podcast. I actually had to pause there
- 2:42and think about which show I was recording today, cuz I think I
- 2:44have too many titles floating around in my brain.
- 2:46Let's forget about coffee just to start out.
- 2:49Who are you for? Anyone listening that has never
- 2:51heard of Iverson Coffee. Who is Danny Iverson?
- 2:54That's a great question. Who am I?
- 2:58Well, I'm a father of two and I have two great kids.
- 3:02Brielle and Cameron Brielle just turned 3 and Cam is turning one
- 3:06this week. Wow, Congratulations.
- 3:08Thank you very much. Have an amazing wife and I
- 3:12actually am a producer of another podcast I produced, The
- 3:16Brian Buffini Show. Yeah, very intimidating.
- 3:19Come on, it's nothing like this, right?
- 3:21We can talk about coffee. Yeah, I get guests like you and
- 3:25you get guests like Matthew McConaughey.
- 3:27No. Offense.
- 3:27Hey, hey, you know, it's all right.
- 3:29That's not me. That's not me.
- 3:31So yeah. Anyways, So yeah, I love coffee.
- 3:35I love rock climbing. And and yeah, those are probably
- 3:39family. Rock climbing and coffee.
- 3:41Those are the three, man. Those are the three.
- 3:43And you have this company that you started, Iverson Coffee, I'm
- 3:45wondering. What was your first experience
- 3:48with coffee? What, what inspired you to say
- 3:51this is something more than just, you know, a cup of warm
- 3:54liquid I'm going to have in the morning or, you know, took you
- 3:57to that next level? That's a great question.
- 3:59So I started drinking coffee, as most people do, with mostly
- 4:04cream and sugar and a little bit of coffee, and I went away to a
- 4:07school for for one semester for college and the guy across the
- 4:12hall from me. He had a little popcorn popper
- 4:15in his dorm and was roasting coffee in the dorm on move in
- 4:19day. And I saw that and I was like,
- 4:21what are you doing that's so cool?
- 4:23It smelled amazing and he's like, here, let me let me make
- 4:26you a cup. And it was a Costa Rican Roja.
- 4:29It tasted like red cherries and bright and there was chocolate
- 4:33and it just changed my view of coffee.
- 4:36At that point. I knew it was something that
- 4:38didn't need. Anything else if it was prepared
- 4:41properly and we've come a long way since Popcorn Popper, but
- 4:44it's a great way to start. That's pretty incredible that on
- 4:47the first day of college, somebody was already doing that.
- 4:50I I didn't even start drinking coffee till I was I think 31,
- 4:55and I'm a little bit older than that.
- 4:57But my coffee journey has been very compact, very quick.
- 5:00But to think that somebody at that age was already thinking
- 5:02beyond, you know, diner coffee or hangover coffee is pretty
- 5:05impressive. Yeah, he was.
- 5:06He was a whiz kid, like. He was amazing.
- 5:09He was the one who basically started the dream of the coffee
- 5:13business with me. And what we did was we actually
- 5:16started selling coffee probably 2 weeks into the semester,
- 5:20right? And we would roast the coffee
- 5:23and then sell it to anyone who would who would want to come and
- 5:26drink a cup of coffee. Basically, great way to meet
- 5:28people and that was a big part of what coffee was for me was a
- 5:32community and we started getting connected with.
- 5:36Anyone and everyone on campus, they found out there were two
- 5:39guys making coffee in their room and it kind of.
- 5:43We got shut down after that, but it became a donation based,
- 5:48sure, but yeah, that's where the business started was in the
- 5:52dorm. I would think that selling
- 5:54coffee out of the room is a lot better than some of the other
- 5:56things being sold out of rooms, right?
- 5:59Most college campuses. So then, so you started doing
- 6:03that then at what point did you say screw this guy, I'm cutting
- 6:05him out, I'm going to start roasting my own.
- 6:08And what's the origin story of Iverson Coffee?
- 6:11Well, so it started there, and I actually dropped out of school
- 6:16after that semester. I didn't want to take on all the
- 6:19debt because I had a solid job coming back.
- 6:22So the same job I'm doing now is I've been working for the same
- 6:25company ever since then. So I've been with them nine
- 6:27years total. So I had a great job.
- 6:31Yeah, that doesn't happen very often to people you know, in in
- 6:35this new generation. I mean, I came out of College in
- 6:37the early, early mid 2005, 2004 sometime and they're just the
- 6:43idea that I would have stayed in one job this whole time is just
- 6:46it's it's crazy to me. Yeah it's it's it was a I didn't
- 6:49never stayed in the same position in the company, but it
- 6:52was it was always like I I directed events for a long time
- 6:55when when events were a thing, live events.
- 6:58Ran presentations and stuff like that.
- 7:00And then once I had kids I actually decided to get off the
- 7:02road because I didn't want to travel having two young kids.
- 7:06So anyways, but that I I digress from from Iverson.
- 7:10So yeah, then when I left school I was like, OK, I have to find a
- 7:13way to roast coffee. And I saw that there was, you
- 7:18know, other options other than a popcorn popper.
- 7:21And there was this little thing called the Be More 1600, a
- 7:25little tabletop roaster that looks like a toaster oven.
- 7:28And that's where I got started with roasting coffee on my own.
- 7:32It started as matte coffee roasters.
- 7:34MATTE thinking like the matte finish of a coffee, right?
- 7:39Because you look at a lot of coffees at the time, super dark,
- 7:42roasted, shiny, oily. And the idea was to keep the the
- 7:46oils inside the coffee, give it that matte finish and let the
- 7:48coffee shine in the cup and instead of on the surface of the
- 7:53bean. It's funny how it's reversed.
- 7:55That shiny oil makes her really nice, like photographs
- 7:58sometimes, but maybe not so much in the flavor of your coffee in
- 8:02the morning. Right, right.
- 8:04Yeah. So I started roasting on that be
- 8:06more 1600 and then through a couple connections, someone
- 8:11said, hey, like we're actually going to go and I'm going to
- 8:15help this company, Booze brothers.
- 8:17Brew their beer on Saturday morning.
- 8:19And I was like, oh, that's super cool.
- 8:21And he's like, what do you want to come?
- 8:22I was like, sure, why not? Like, I'll bring my coffee and
- 8:26we'll just make the guys some coffee when they're brewing.
- 8:28And little did I know that that was the start of the bulk of my
- 8:33business, which is doing collaborations with breweries.
- 8:37I made them coffee that morning and they're like, whoa, this is
- 8:39this is not bad. And they're they were saying,
- 8:42hey, we have a coffee stout that we're going to be brewing here,
- 8:44do you want to do coffee with that?
- 8:46And one thing led to another and there was a stout called the Sun
- 8:51Up Stout at Booze Brothers. That was one of their original
- 8:54core, core beers. That was back when they had five
- 8:56beers on tap, and now they have multiple locations and all this
- 8:59stuff. But it's pretty fun.
- 9:01That's, I wonder, going back, I'm it's likely that I would
- 9:06have tried some of your coffee if it was there at Booze
- 9:09Brothers or some of that beer, because I've actually brewed
- 9:11beer at Booze Brothers as well. No way.
- 9:14Yeah. So I used to be in the craft
- 9:16beer business and we made a custom beer for the business,
- 9:20the restaurant that I was running.
- 9:21And I brought my entire staff on multiple occasions at Booze
- 9:25Brothers and we brewed beer there and we'd have cold brew in
- 9:28the morning that they'd have on draft or we'd make coffee there
- 9:31while we were brewing. And so it just, it's very
- 9:32coincidental that in all of these phases of life, we might
- 9:36have been interacting without even realizing it, that is.
- 9:38So funny. That is so funny.
- 9:40Yeah, that's something I love about coffee and about beer.
- 9:43You mentioned like, on campus when you first got you started,
- 9:46that's how you started meeting people.
- 9:48And that's really how how I feel about coffee.
- 9:51You know, my first coffee experience, I just asked, you
- 9:54know, what should I try? This is the first time I'm
- 9:56drinking coffee, and the next thing I knew, there's a half a
- 9:59dozen people like shouting different directions at me about
- 10:01what to do. And then that kind of started me
- 10:04down a path. So the next step after you have
- 10:07this B More roaster and you start roasting on your own is
- 10:10and in your Brewing with Booze brothers and you start this
- 10:12brewery collab. Where does it go from there?
- 10:15Well, it started with the, you know, roasting on the B more
- 10:18like you said. And they were like, OK, cool,
- 10:21let's do a collab. We're going to need 60 pounds of
- 10:25coffee from you. And the B more roaster does how
- 10:29many pounds at a time? It's it's generous to call it a
- 10:32one pound roaster. OK.
- 10:35And for those familiar with roasting coffee, this will, you
- 10:41know, give you a hard time. But a single roast on a B more
- 10:45would take 25 minutes just because it was so underpowered.
- 10:48A standard roast, you're looking at anywhere between 7 minutes to
- 10:5211 minutes, 50 seconds. That's like a good wide range,
- 10:56but anywhere in there is a standard standard roast, and so
- 11:00you're looking at, you know, tripling that almost.
- 11:03And so it's just it was very time consuming and did 60 pounds
- 11:07in one weekend on that little B more.
- 11:10So that would have been over, let's see probably about 70
- 11:14batches. So you can do the math on that.
- 11:17I don't want to, but yes my. My wife was very, very, very
- 11:24gracious and letting me pursue that because that's a big chunk
- 11:27out of out of the weekends when those would happen.
- 11:29So I went from doing 1B more to saying okay, this is not enough.
- 11:34Then I purchased a second B more so I was dual wielding the B
- 11:37more roasters. And again that can only go so
- 11:41far. You can only do so much.
- 11:43You have very little control over the roast on those
- 11:46machines. And it got to the point where I
- 11:49was getting more and more. Friends and family wanting to
- 11:52buy coffee and I found on eBay I found a roaster and ambex YM2 so
- 12:01that is a 2K roaster made down in Florida.
- 12:04A shout out to Paul Ribitch he was the man.
- 12:07I bought it broken okay so wasn't working didn't have the
- 12:10parts and I called up Paul who is the.
- 12:15Guy from Roaster Dynamics, and he's the one who built the
- 12:18Ambex. And so he walked me through
- 12:20replacing all the valves, replacing all the wiring, adding
- 12:25a potentiometer so I can control the gas with a knob and doing
- 12:29all this stuff. And he helped me bring this
- 12:31thing to life. And so I I learned the ins and
- 12:35outs of that roaster and was my little Franken roaster and
- 12:39limped along for probably what I bought it in 2015, so.
- 12:44It'd be six years, six years with that thing.
- 12:48And yeah, so that was how we jumped there.
- 12:53And then actually, as of a month ago, I actually sold that
- 12:56roaster. Congratulations on eBay.
- 12:59No, no. In person.
- 13:01In person. A lot of stories I hear from
- 13:04roasters is how they got their first roaster off eBay and then
- 13:06they immediately had to learn a whole bunch of like repair work
- 13:09and and mechanicals. Yes, Typically they're not
- 13:12maintained very well and you're buying it sight unseen.
- 13:16And so I was very, very thankful to Paul for his help.
- 13:20I definitely wouldn't be even here if it wasn't for him.
- 13:24I wouldn't still be roasting probably because it would have
- 13:26frustrated me so much. But yeah, it's so that then
- 13:31ended up. And I'll tell you, I got a new
- 13:34roaster, right? So I got the San Franciscan 6.
- 13:37Now that's that's been my dream roaster to roast on.
- 13:41It all started. Let's see.
- 13:43It would have been 2015 about when I got my ambex.
- 13:46I started working with Bodie Coffee traders shout out to Tim
- 13:50de Paula. He's the best.
- 13:53Love that dude. And so I would go up and they
- 13:56would put on cuppings for me and in the corner of the showroom.
- 14:00Was this gorgeous SF6 like, just beautiful.
- 14:03It's got the hand shaped, you know, brass plating on the
- 14:07outside and you've seen San Franciscans.
- 14:10They're just gorgeous machines, just gorgeous.
- 14:12And I was like, someday I want to roast on an SF6, someday I
- 14:16want to roast on an SF6 and every time I'd go up there I'd
- 14:19look over at that roaster and be like someday I'm going to roast
- 14:21on an SF6. And I got a call in January this
- 14:24year from Tim saying. Hey, do you know of anyone who
- 14:28wants to buy a San Franciscan 6? So today I roast on the exact
- 14:34same roaster that I saw six years ago and have been.
- 14:39Why it gives me chills. Just like thinking about it's
- 14:41like the the dream is now here, you know?
- 14:44And that's just it's so exciting for me to have that now as a
- 14:47part of my my roastery. That's such a cool story.
- 14:51Was it just the opportunity or did it feel like it was also
- 14:54kind of serendipitous that it was time for you to grow into to
- 14:57this new machine? You know it I've been, I had I
- 15:01roast on Monday nights at 8:00, o'clock, just because my kids
- 15:04schedule right. I don't want to be away from
- 15:07them more than I have to. So as soon as I put them to bed,
- 15:10I go out to the shed and I start start roasting and I was.
- 15:14I've started doing more and more collaborations.
- 15:17As I dropped off a beer for you, we have a little daughter in the
- 15:21Grizzlies from Mason Hill Works. Huge shout out to them and James
- 15:25Owen, he is the man. Anyways, so I've started doing a
- 15:29lot more beer collaborations, especially with them where I
- 15:33would be roasting until 2:00 in the morning on a regular basis,
- 15:36whether it be orders for regular customers or whether it would be
- 15:41these brewery collabs. And it got to the point where I
- 15:44was like I just can't be roasting until 2:00 AM every
- 15:47Monday night and so I needed to scale up.
- 15:50And so the SF6 doubled my production in essentially, and
- 15:55so now I'm able to do those and only be roasting until 11:00
- 15:58o'clock. I That's impressive to me
- 16:02because I my eyes start to like, tilt around 9:30 or so.
- 16:06I might stay up, you know, just due to anxiety or whatever
- 16:09reason scrolling through whatever Instagram or something.
- 16:12But. But that's about when my brain
- 16:14starts shutting down from a functional standpoint.
- 16:17So good on you for manufacturing after after 10.
- 16:20It's been 7-8 years, if I'm following your story right, that
- 16:24you've been roasting since that first time.
- 16:27How is your coffee roasting style changed over the years?
- 16:30I mean, do you have a philosophy about what you're trying to do
- 16:32with those coffee beans? Yeah.
- 16:34So when I started on the B more, you have very little control,
- 16:38the only thing you could. Really measure your coffee by
- 16:42because the sensors are are fantastic on that would be your
- 16:47time after first crack. So your listeners are probably
- 16:50intimately familiar with with coffee and when you roast coffee
- 16:55what's happening is there's chemical reactions within the
- 16:57coffee create the byproduct of CO2 and basically what's
- 17:01happening is the the water and the CO2.
- 17:04What's happening is it actually heats up and then actually
- 17:07causes this popping noise like popcorn.
- 17:10And we call that the first crack and what we can do on the beam
- 17:14or so you can judge your time from first crack to when you
- 17:17pull the coffee out or when you drop the coffee.
- 17:21So that was my one, my one judgment in there.
- 17:24It's like for how how long because you can't really control
- 17:26temperature that well. And I know they just released a
- 17:28new one, so maybe they they fixed that, but that was my one
- 17:33thing. So I was like okay, I can
- 17:34control time or what they say is development time now.
- 17:37So it started with that and then.
- 17:39As I started roasting on the Ambex, I found out, oh, you can
- 17:43roast on something other than just high heat because you have
- 17:47enough to play with. And so then I learned a lot from
- 17:51reading Scott Reyo's books. I took one of his introduction
- 17:55to roasting classes and he is a wealth of knowledge for
- 18:00roasters. And I wouldn't say everything is
- 18:03gospel from him, but it's something that you can take and
- 18:07set as a reference point. Right.
- 18:09Because I think even if if anyone has, you know, if anyone
- 18:14roasts and you give them the same profile, everyone will do
- 18:17it slightly differently, right? Because we all are individuals,
- 18:20we all have our our own vision for the coffee.
- 18:23But one thing that he, he taught me and I've seen significant
- 18:26improvements in my coffee would be keeping the rate of rise
- 18:31steadily declining. And the rate of rise is the
- 18:35temperature over time. You can mark that the the amount
- 18:38of degrees that the temperature rises over a period.
- 18:43So it could be 30 seconds, it could be 15 seconds.
- 18:47It all depends on what you're roasting software uses.
- 18:49But by keeping that as a steady decline, I've I actually found
- 18:52that the coffee became juicier, became sweeter, it became more
- 18:57complex, you had more to the coffee.
- 19:00Right. Than than before, which was a
- 19:02very baked, flat, singular flavor, which at the time was
- 19:07still great, but you get better and you you increase your your
- 19:10production at that level. So the other, the other thing
- 19:14that I've learned is just by trying other amazing roasters
- 19:18and learning from them, trying their coffees side by side with
- 19:22mine. And I know they're not the same
- 19:25farm, they're not the same region maybe, but just kind of
- 19:27getting the essence of the sweetness or the clarity.
- 19:30And so great roaster, like steady state, like they are
- 19:33amazing. Love their stuff.
- 19:35Iron Smith. Lofty like Little Giant anyways.
- 19:41Or Tired Eyes. Just so many great roasters that
- 19:44you're able to try coffee. And as a I still almost consider
- 19:48myself an amateur. I'm always learning, even though
- 19:51I've been doing this for for 7-8 years.
- 19:54It's there's always something to learn.
- 19:56There's always a new challenge. There's always a new.
- 19:59The coffee presents a new side every time, right?
- 20:02Every time you get a new coffee, you have to create a specific
- 20:05profile to that coffee. And I think like that's the
- 20:09thing, it's just to bring out the flavor within the coffee
- 20:13that is inherent. Like, I'm not trying to mask any
- 20:15flavors. I don't know if that answers
- 20:18your question. Yeah, I think so.
- 20:21Just coincidentally, this morning I made a cup of Steady
- 20:24States, who you just mentioned Space Traveler.
- 20:26Yes, to wake up with. And now I'm drinking a cup of
- 20:29your Ethiopia Natural. And you had mentioned to me
- 20:34before the show that this is one of your favorite coffees that
- 20:37you're putting out right now. And I'm wondering why that is.
- 20:40What is it about this particular coffee that you know, gets you
- 20:42excited or that stands out to you?
- 20:44I am a sucker for Ethiopian naturals.
- 20:47Like, I love the Juicy Fruit forward Berry notes.
- 20:53It's when I serve this to people that, you know, they think the
- 20:57best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup.
- 21:00When I serve, when I serve this to them, they're like, did you
- 21:03give me coffee? Like, what is this?
- 21:06This tastes like fruit juice. Like, what is this?
- 21:11And it's just so different that it's fun.
- 21:12No, this is coffee. This is what coffee can taste
- 21:14like. And it's just a it's a complete
- 21:18left turn from what what most people are are seeing in coffee.
- 21:21And so I think it's just a fun thing to share that way, because
- 21:24coffee is to be shared, right? Coffee is to be shared.
- 21:27You know, my dad is, and I mentioned him on the show
- 21:29before, He's a Folgers kind of guy.
- 21:32Recently he just upgraded to like a new version of Folgers.
- 21:34He's really excited about. And when he visits, we make, you
- 21:38know, him a coffee, generally a French press style, and he loves
- 21:40that, but it's just not something he wants to do on his
- 21:44own. And so I've taken him to a few
- 21:47local coffee shops here and it's really entertaining for someone
- 21:50who, and I'm this is just a warning for anyone listening
- 21:53who's not a regular Kraft coffee drinker.
- 21:56Sometimes the strength of a Kraft coffee might be a little
- 21:59more intense than the Folgers that you make at home because
- 22:02usually after about the first cup of coffee he gets real
- 22:05jittery. And it's because at home he's
- 22:08not worried about ratios or you know how much what he's doing
- 22:11so. You were talking a little bit
- 22:13earlier about your beer collabs and how that kind of got you
- 22:15started. I did.
- 22:16Last night after dinner, my wife and I drank this little daughter
- 22:20in the Grizzlies pastry style coffee, which lists Maple syrup,
- 22:24chocolate and vanilla in it as well.
- 22:26And it really was dessert. I mean it was we we, but we
- 22:30split the one can and it was just lovely to to enjoy.
- 22:34How is it different roasting for roasting a bean that you know is
- 22:38going into a beer versus one that you know that someone's
- 22:40going to drink? Or is it different?
- 22:42Does it matter at all? Is there something that's, you
- 22:44know, something about that, that process, that of thinking about
- 22:48this is I know the end product of this.
- 22:50It's not just, you know, someone's taste buds.
- 22:52It's going to be going for this purpose.
- 22:54How does that change things? Definitely.
- 22:56So one thing that is I love about resting for breweries is.
- 23:02Well, often times it's a big crossover, right.
- 23:03So you have a big, big fan of beer.
- 23:06They can typically especially craft beer, they'll be a fan of
- 23:09craft coffee. And So what we'll do is like
- 23:13what we did for Mason specifically is we held a
- 23:15cupping where we where I brought out I think it was 12 coffees
- 23:20that we tried and we basically set up the cupping.
- 23:24And for those of you that maybe are newer to coffee, it's
- 23:27similar. I'd like to compare it to a wine
- 23:29tasting. For coffee, where everyone gets
- 23:32to try a small, small sample of every every coffee on the table.
- 23:37And then we looked at the ingredients for the beer.
- 23:40And so I brought the 12 coffees that I thought would be good for
- 23:45this particular style. And we looked at the ingredients
- 23:49for the beer, looked at the tasting notes for the coffee.
- 23:52And then when we're fortunate enough to have some of the base
- 23:55beer around, we'll actually do us like we did this for Battle
- 23:58Mage, right? For their beers, dark and full
- 24:00of terrors, we took their their base beer and then we add a
- 24:03splash of each of the coffee to them and it gives you kind of a
- 24:06little idea of of how it's going to blend together.
- 24:10But yeah, I mean, I think it's just trying to find flavor notes
- 24:13that complement each other. And when you can try it in the
- 24:16base beer, it makes it a lot easier.
- 24:17But yeah, it's just trying a bunch of different stuff
- 24:20together. I know a lot of the listeners of
- 24:22this show also listen to Beer Night in San Diego.
- 24:25And so yeah, as soon as I'm off with you, I'm gonna reach out to
- 24:27those guys and tell them to get some of this for their one of
- 24:30their upcoming shows, if they haven't already.
- 24:32Oh, that'd be awesome. So we've talked a lot about just
- 24:35kind of your roasting and about Iverson coffee.
- 24:38When you're just away from your own stuff, it sounds like you're
- 24:42passionate about about everyone's coffee, about the
- 24:44coffee community in general. What are you looking for in your
- 24:48outside of work life? Like when you pull up randomly
- 24:50to some coffee shop on the road as you're driving through the
- 24:52desert, what is it that you're going to order?
- 24:55What is it that you're looking for?
- 24:56So my my go to drink is an espresso with sparkling water.
- 25:00I just love the simplicity of that and it typically will give
- 25:05you a good feel. If they have a single origin,
- 25:08I'll go for that, but it'll give you a good feel of of the shop
- 25:10in general and kind of see their roasting style and get a get a
- 25:14see. I think just the essence of what
- 25:17they're doing there in that simple drink, because then you
- 25:19can add milk, you can do all that stuff, but then maybe some
- 25:22coffees work better with milk. But I I enjoy just having this
- 25:25straight, straight shot of espresso.
- 25:28Sure. And I've never asked this to any
- 25:29other guests, so you're a little bit of a Guinea pig if you you
- 25:35couldn't. You can't pick your own.
- 25:36But if you could only drink one other roasters coffee for the
- 25:39rest of your life, it's your desert island cot.
- 25:41Steady state. It was easy.
- 25:42You knew how to think about it. Yeah, not even.
- 25:46Close Elliott is a really impressive coffee roaster and
- 25:50and the pace at which he went from like roasting on a small
- 25:53little one pound roaster like you did to where he's at now has
- 25:56been really fun to to watch. Fun fact, Elliott and I both
- 26:00roasted on Ambex YM twos. Very fun fact.
- 26:03Yeah, yeah, both had the Ambex YM twos.
- 26:06What is 1 tip that you might give to a listener who is just
- 26:09getting into coffee for the first time?
- 26:11We talked a little bit about your first coffee and and I
- 26:13mentioned mine as well. Something that somebody who
- 26:16hasn't experienced craft coffee and all it has to offer.
- 26:19What would you suggest to them? I would give this advice and it
- 26:23was given to me about drinking whiskey.
- 26:26The best way to drink whiskey you know cuz everyone has
- 26:28opinions was to drop of water on on the rocks neat.
- 26:31The best way to drink whiskey is the way you like it.
- 26:34And the best way to drink coffee is the way you like it.
- 26:37Now, that doesn't mean you shouldn't try things, but I
- 26:40would say find something you like and that's okay.
- 26:44There's no wrong answers. There's no wrong way to drink
- 26:47specialty coffee. And so I would just say that,
- 26:50like, just drink it the way you like it, give it a shot and find
- 26:53what you like. And that's great.
- 26:55Go for it. And that mirrors truly the
- 26:58advice that Chris O'Brien of Coffee Cycle gave to us, gave to
- 27:02first time drinkers in season one of the show.
- 27:04So that's that's great to. Hear that's.
- 27:06Awesome. Anything else that I didn't ask
- 27:08you or that we didn't cover about Iverson Coffee that you
- 27:10want listeners to know about? I would say, I would say this,
- 27:15no, no one is an island, right? And especially with everything
- 27:21we've been going through with this pandemic and like, you
- 27:24don't have to go it alone. Coffee is a community, right?
- 27:30And if you're looking to get into coffee, if you're looking
- 27:32to start roasting, if you're looking, you know, just to
- 27:35upgrade your home brew setup, you don't have to do it by
- 27:38yourself. There are thousands of people
- 27:42that are so pumped on coffee that they would love to share
- 27:45that experience with you. And I mean just, you can shoot
- 27:48me. Shoot me a message on Instagram
- 27:51or anything and like anyone wants to talk, talk, roasting,
- 27:54like awesome. I'm happy to do it, but you
- 27:57don't. You can always get help.
- 27:58Like there's nothing wrong with with getting help to learn.
- 28:02Like I actually just recently had Tyler from Tire Dice come
- 28:07out and help me learn a little bit more about the SF6.
- 28:12He's he's great. He's doing a consulting company.
- 28:15I believe it's bright Black is the name of it and he's helping
- 28:19out. Helping out roasters, and I know
- 28:20Elliott does the same thing, and I'm going to be sitting down
- 28:23with him soon to learn how to get better at sample roasting.
- 28:27I would just say, like, reach out to other people.
- 28:29Like you don't have to, you don't have to go through this
- 28:31coffee journey alone and it's something to be shared.
- 28:35So in response to that, I would say that I don't know that
- 28:39anyone on this show has referenced John Dunn.
- 28:42No man is an island poetry, which is especially poignant
- 28:46because it's Poetry Month. As we were talking, I only have
- 28:50one last question for you. We mentioned it earlier.
- 28:53In your day job, you also work on a fairly successful podcast.
- 28:57Are you regretting agreeing to come on this show, which I am
- 29:00producing from my closet? Never, Never.
- 29:04The best thing starts small. The best thing starts small.
- 29:07I mean, you look at any coffee roaster starting on a popcorn
- 29:11popper, right? The good thing starts small and
- 29:14grow. And that's what we hope for you.
- 29:17Yeah, I I hope for that. For myself too.
- 29:19And I know that the people listening have been enjoying
- 29:23hearing from roasters like you. So thank you for coming on the
- 29:25Roast West Coast podcast, Annie. I really appreciate it.
- 29:28No, thank you for having me, Ryan.
- 29:30And I really appreciate this coffee you dropped off.
- 29:32I don't always. I don't expect that ever.
- 29:34But it's been really just enjoyable this morning.
- 29:36Oh, good. I'm glad.
- 29:37Thank you so much. You bet.
- 29:38Have a great day. You too.
- 29:56If you need some quality local news in your life, check out the
- 29:59Voice of San Diego podcast, made locally by Investigative
- 30:03Reporters and Editors. Voice of San Diego's hosts give
- 30:06a Spitfire roundup of the news every Friday afternoon.
- 30:10You can listen to the Voice of San Diego now wherever you get
- 30:13your podcasts, including wherever you're listening to
- 30:16this one. We are back to the Roast West
- 30:23Coast Coffee Podcast. What I learned from these
- 30:25interviews is that roasting coffee and drinking coffee is a
- 30:29continually evolving experience. Danny started in a dorm room
- 30:33with a small popcorn popping style roaster and overtime
- 30:37graduated to a better one and then a better one and yet again
- 30:41to his dream roasting machine. Yet by his own words he says
- 30:44that after eight years roasting coffee he still feels like an
- 30:48amateur. And he's still actively working
- 30:50to learn new skills and improve. That's probably why his coffee's
- 30:54so damn good. I'm going to link to the various
- 30:57roasters that Danny worked with on the column recapping this
- 31:00show on roastwestcoast.com, so be sure to check that out.
- 31:05I'm also going to reach out to Mason Aleworks to see if they
- 31:08can provide a sample can of Little Daughter and the
- 31:10Grizzlies, the imperial stout they made with Danny's Coffee.
- 31:14But if I'm being entirely truthful, I think it is a
- 31:17request unlikely to be filled. Danny reached out after our
- 31:20interview to say he wanted to reward the listeners of this
- 31:23show with an exclusive promo. If you want to try some Iverson
- 31:27coffee, head to Iverson Coffee roasters.com and use the promo
- 31:31code ROAST exclamation point to get 25% off the 1st order.
- 31:37That's roast with a capital R lowercase OAST exclamation
- 31:41point. The selection on Iverson Coffee
- 31:44roasters.com is always changing. I've had an Ethiopia, a Panama,
- 31:48and a Columbia. And all three would probably
- 31:50land in my top 10 coffees of 2021 so far.
- 31:53And I drink a lot of coffee. I do know that coffee flavor
- 31:57preferences can be subjective, so I sent some of the coffee to
- 32:00local Citizen Coffee correspondent Laura for a second
- 32:04opinion. Laura, what did you think?
- 32:06They were great, yeah. I could definitely see these as
- 32:10my go to every morning coffee. There you have it.
- 32:14You can also follow at Iverson Coffee Roasters on Instagram.
- 32:18To see what new coffees are coming in day-to-day and don't
- 32:21forget to use the promo code ROAST exclamation point on
- 32:24Iverson Coffee roasters.com to get 25% off your first order.
- 32:29We have one vocab term for today's show.
- 32:32ROR or rate of rise came up in our interview and Danny covered
- 32:37it, but I wanted to expand on the definition.
- 32:40Rate of Rise is the speed at which the temperature of the
- 32:42beans is increasing during the roasting process.
- 32:46It's measured over a specific period of time, usually between
- 32:4930 or 60 seconds. So if your ROR is 5 / 30
- 32:54seconds, that means your bean temperature is increasing by 5
- 32:58degrees every 30 seconds. A higher ROR means that your
- 33:02roast will be progressing faster and likely be shorter, but you
- 33:06also may not have as much control over the overall roasts
- 33:09flavor profile. A low ROR means risking not
- 33:13roasting fast enough. And over baking your beans.
- 33:16But when done right, we'll offer the roaster added precision,
- 33:20controlling the flavor coming out of the bean just to add to
- 33:23the difficulty of creating the perfect roast.
- 33:26The ROR could change during the roast itself.
- 33:29So fun. I'm going to leave it to the
- 33:32experts like Danny. That's my show for today on
- 33:35Friday. Serious simmering calls off from
- 33:37lofty coffee will be back to get us coffee smarter by discussing
- 33:41the various vessels. We brew coffee in or drink
- 33:45coffee out of and how their materials, be they plastic,
- 33:48glass, clay or steel, impact our experience tasting flavors.
- 33:53Thanks to everyone for listening to this episode.
- 33:56If the stats are to be believed, there are more of you every
- 33:58single week, which means that some of you have been telling
- 34:01your friends thank you. That is the best way to help
- 34:04grow this show. Thank you.
- 34:06And if you're listening out there enjoying this little show
- 34:09about coffee, please tell a friend.
- 34:11And follow at Roast West Coast on Instagram and tag me in the
- 34:15photos of your own coffee adventures.
- 34:17If you need some coffee, find a local coffee roaster or cafe to
- 34:21support. I just ordered coffees from some
- 34:23of this show's industry legacy partners Zumbar Coffee and Tea
- 34:27and Steady State to take out camping next week without them
- 34:31and the other roast industry legacy partners, Leap Coffee,
- 34:34Cafe, Laterre Coffee, Cycle First Light Whiskey, Cape Horn
- 34:38Coffee Brokers and Moster Coffee.
- 34:41It would be a lot harder to bring you all of this coffee
- 34:44content. You'll find links to their
- 34:46online shops in this podcast, episodes, notes, or right on the
- 34:50front of Roast westcoast.com. Check it out.
- 34:53This episode of the Roast West Coast Podcast has been written,
- 34:57produced and recorded by me, Ryan Woolt.
- 35:00I hope the show has found you happy, healthy, and with at
- 35:03least enough sanity to make it through the day.
- 35:05And please, always be sure to drink good coffee.
- 35:30That was literally the first time I tasted blueberries in a
- 35:35coffee, so. Did you really?
- 35:37I thought you were just messing with me a.
- 35:38Little bit, no, I wasn't messing with you.
- 35:40And that was, yeah, it was exciting to try really good
- 35:44coffee beans because I have gifted beans before and beans
- 35:50that I hadn't tried And my friends were like, Oh my gosh, I
- 35:54could taste the blueberries. And I was excited because no,
- 35:57literally no joke. It was the first time I tasted
- 36:00blueberries in a coffee. And they.
- 36:03Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you want to put any of this in
- 36:05there, but. I'll put it in at the end of the
- 36:09show. It'll be like the thing that
- 36:12plays after the the last. Ad That'll be hilarious.
- 36:20The Coffee People podcast is presented by Rostar Coffee
- 36:23Packaging. Rostar is the digital printing
- 36:26company that makes custom printed packaging for coffee
- 36:29products. They create packaging that make
- 36:32even small roasters look like a really big deal.
- 36:35At rostar.com you'll find out about their fast turnaround
- 36:38time, high quality product and low printing minimums.
- 36:42It's what separates them from the rest of the industry.
- 36:44Rostar will quickly become your favorite source for custom
- 36:48American made product packaging. They work with small, mid and
- 36:51large coffee roasters. So if you're ready to upgrade
- 36:54your coffee packaging, go to rostar.com to learn more and
- 36:58connect with the team. Link in this podcast show notes.