Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Coffee People Podcast at SCA ft. Charley Phung, Chloé Cà Phê'

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Coffee People Podcast at SCA ft. Charley Phung, Chloé Cà Phê' · Coffee People Podcast

• 0:00
  Sliding into your screen is not just any coffee bag, it's a
• 0:03
  Rostar coffee bag. No mean thousands personalized,
• 0:07
  just 25 in Rostar's design lab. No design experience needed.
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  Choose a pattern, add your logo and text, or create something
• 0:17
  memorable. With AI being made in the
• 0:20
  Midwest, you can expect it on your doorstep in no time.
• 0:24
  Now that was smooth. Hey everyone, good morning and
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  welcome to the Coffee People podcast.
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  I'm your host, Ryan Walt. I recently spent a long weekend
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  in Houston, TX at the Specialty Coffee Association Expo.
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  I had lots of coffee there. It's an annual convention that
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  draws guests from all over the world, and our presenting
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  sponsors at Rostar invited me to join them in their convention
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  floor booth. My collaborator on Nick and Ryan
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  Drink Coffee, Nick Schmidt, curated some excellent
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  interviewees to help us launch Season 14.
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  Yes, you heard that right, Season 14.
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  I honestly don't believe it either.
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  If you're watching this show on Apple, Spotify, or one of the
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  other big podcasting sites, thank you.
• 1:14
  And know that you can see all of our SCA interviews on our
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  YouTube channel at Roast West Coast Podcasts.
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  That link is in the bio, and we dropped all of those shows at
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  once. If you're watching there on
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  YouTube already, thank you so much.
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  We are trying to grow that Channel.
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  The link to our newsletter, Roast westcoast.com and to
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  rostar.com and to the websites of our special show guests at
• 1:38
  SCA can be found in the notes. Wherever you're watching or
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  listening to this episode, it's probably right there below.
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  Thanks for clicking through those.
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  It actually helps us know if people are listening and paying
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  attention. And now I hope that you, like
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  me, have a Dang good cup of coffee at the ready, because
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  it's time for another Coffee People podcast.
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  What we are live. Good morning.
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  Welcome to the Coffee People podcast.
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  I'm here with a guest. What's your name and the name of
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  your coffee? Company.
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  Hi, I'm Charlie from Chloe Cafe out of Sacramento, CA.
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  Very cool. Pleasure to meet you.
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  Thanks for having me shake hands.
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  This is our first live interview, so we're figuring it
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  out as we go. The name of your company?
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  Chloe Cafe, named after your daughter, based in Sacramento.
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  What is the coffee scene like in Sacramento?
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  So the coffee scene in Sacramento is, I wouldn't say
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  for lack of better. We're exploding right now.
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  A lot of shops opening up ourselves as well.
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  We signed a lease in November and turning key by February.
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  So very quick turn around. But we've been very welcomed by
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  the local community because there's so many of us trying to
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  present such a different story between amongst each other.
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  Very cool. You focus kind of specifically
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  on Vietnamese coffees. What's the role of coffee in
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  Vietnamese culture? So in Vietnamese culture, coffee
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  is not just a drink, it's a place for us to find time to sit
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  down with a friend, chill, have a conversation like we're having
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  right now. Maybe it's on a busy St., maybe
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  it's in a secluded area, but it's the time to kind of just
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  stop and really share the one thing we can't buy as humans,
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  which is Tom. So coffee culture is very
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  important to us. It's more than just getting out
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  there, getting the drink and going.
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  It's really about stopping. One of the things that's been in
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  the news for the last couple of years, especially the climate
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  change robusta coffee. I know you guys have robusta.
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  What's it been like working with that and getting people to
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  understand what it is when they come in the shop?
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  So excellent question wanted to. The hardest challenge is about
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  what we're bringing to the market as far as robusta and
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  what Vietnamese people as far as what I would like to try to do
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  is represent Vietnamese farmers and producers doing something
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  different. They would actually like to use
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  the word fine Roe. So fine robusta, it's very
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  different from just your traditional commodity level
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  robusta. It's a totally different
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  varietal. It's grown different, harvested
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  differently, and what they want as far as bringing to the table
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  is it doesn't have to be cheap. It could taste great.
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  It doesn't need to be a blend. You know, as far as bringing it
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  to the market in America and Western culture, I believe that
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  it's slowly catching on, but it's how do we get past that
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  whole, for a lack of better word, jittery feeling when you
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  drink Vietnamese coffee. But a lot of like what
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  Vietnamese has, Vietnamese coffee culture in the past have
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  grown to sell is to Italy, Germany and Russia, because
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  those are the countries that we could trade with during
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  Vietnamese embargo, man. So our coffee is groomed to be
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  punchful. If you go to Italy and you get a
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  powerful shot of espresso, it's robusta and people are okay with
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  it. But Vietnamese coffee in America
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  is kind of associated with jitteriness.
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  You get the shakes. So we're having a little bit of
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  a hard time. But for those who like the
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  stronger coffee, it's actually we run out of coffee a lot of
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  times because people want so much of that fine robusta creamy
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  coconut taste with some milk in there.
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  I feel like it's almost a more traditional like older
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  generation that would like it would appeal to because they're
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  used to that like oomph in their coffee or they're trying to get
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  there. And then it's just a matter of
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  like teaching people, hey, we got this thing that we're
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  working with. We're not just treating it like
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  the old, big, big companies were.
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  We're treating it like specialty and creating an experience for
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  you. You hope it's all right to say
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  this, but you have a daughter, I believe the namesake of your
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  business. Yeah.
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  I grew up in a family business. What does it mean to you to have
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  your daughter grow up in a small business and see what you what
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  you and your partner are doing? You know, it means the world to
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  me because one of the biggest reasons why we wanted to get
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  into coffee was the fact that I'm, I, I lost my father in
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  December 2023 and I was looking around and like, man, I've
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  always wanted to be a father because I grew up without a
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  father, but I'm traveling a lot for our other business.
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  I'm never home. And then Chloe's growing up.
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  By that time, she was like 14 months and she was starting to
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  remember and not remember. So it was very important for me
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  to show her that I'm around, that she can Remember Me and
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  having her in the shop as we're like experiencing things.
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  We have cars in our shop. So she's in the car, she's
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  playing around with the Porsche cars or she's running around
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  chasing after the dogs because we were very dog friendly.
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  It's very much the childhood that I didn't get to have, but
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  it's something that we want be with her through this journey
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  because we have the two entities kind of separate, like the
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  daughter and the shop. We named it after her, but we
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  want to be as proud of the shop as we are of her because we are
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  representing Vietnamese coffee at a very different level than
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  what most people are associated with Vietnamese coffee in
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  America. That's very cool.
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  I remember thinking, like my parents, they were always
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  around, but they were always working.
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  And so looking back as an adult, I have a different perspective,
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  like how much I learned. There's a reason I have two
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  brothers. And we all run our own
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  businesses now. You know, we take those
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  experiences with us whether we realize it or not.
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  What is the future hold? What is the future hold for
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  Chloe Cafe? You know, what do you want
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  people to know about what you guys are doing up in Sacramento?
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  What is the future hold for us? You know, it's kind of turbulent
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  times right now, but we're very much focused on staying true to
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  the course of bringing Vietnamese specialty coffee
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  through with 5th wave to Sacramento and all of America.
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  We ship direct to consumer and we also sell B to B.
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  So other shops like we have a couple shops we're supplying out
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  here in Texas and some in Colorado that are looking to
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  bring Labirica THA one and a lot of fine robusta to America or
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  served in their shop. So for us, we want to stay true
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  to the course of selling that direct to consumer and B to B,
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  we have to shop mainly because we want to stay home with our
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  daughter and hang out with her. But if we get to sidetrack on
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  trying to do the retail side alone, it's not really what
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  we're looking for. We love our customers.
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  We just want to find a way to share all of our coffee to the
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  rest of the America because we're a coffee brand coffee
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  business, not just a coffee shop, you know, and that's,
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  that's one of the biggest things that we want to try to stick
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  forward to, to make sure that our future grows the way we want
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  to so that we can help the farmers and producers.
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  Because we do buy direct and we source, we go back to Vietnam
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  twice a year. So we do source direct.
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  We go as far as buying the coffee, bringing it to America,
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  roasting in here, and also shipping to or a couple of 12
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  ounce bags back to Vietnam. So the farmers and producers can
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  see the coffee, see their name on a bag, be proud of it, and
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  also give us feedback. Because we know Sacramento, we
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  know America better than they do, but they know the product a
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  lot better than we do. And for a lot of these smaller
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  farmers and producers, this is the first time their brand gets
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  to be next to, you know, a Porsche car a la Mazzocco, you
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  know, doing a podcast like this and get to present that.
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  They also too can serve great coffee, just like a lot of the
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  coffee, we'll say, legacy brands in South America and Africa.
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  That's very cool. How can people find you?
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  How can they support you? And also, just before you can
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  disagree, let me know when you're going to Vietnam and I'll
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  tag along next time. Online, in person.
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  How can people find Chloe Cafe? So Chloe Dash Cafe, that's CAP
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  he.com. So that's where you can find a
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  lot of our product right now as you know of tariffs there.
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  We're going through a little bit of a turbulent times.
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  We had to pause our shipment, but we should be fully restocked
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  by NMA. All of our coffee sales out
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  within a week. It's, it's very much like we'll
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  bring in a couple tons and it'll be gone mainly because we're so
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  different. Everybody sources from a couple
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  of different people in South America or Africa, but we source
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  from the whole country of Vietnam.
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  So we're able to kind of give you Arabicas, give you Liberica
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  and fine Row from so many different producers and offer
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  such a different taste. And, well, if you're in
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  Sacramento, you can come to our shop and see a cool car or some
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  dogs to hang inside. I'm stoked.
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  I'm going to be in Sacramento in June.
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  I'm going to stop by and swing in.
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  Charlie, thank you so much for joining the podcast.
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  I'm really excited that you were here.
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  Thank you so much for having us, man.
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  I really appreciate it. It's our our first time Expo, so
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  we're trying to just take it all in right now.
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  Welcome. So we can just jump right in.
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  So this is your coffee bag. How did you come up with this
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  design? Like what's unique about this to
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  you guys? Yeah.
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  So we, we, we have two lines. We have, we have our traditional
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  retail bag and we also have our reserve bag.
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  So we took a picture of Chloe, literally a photo of her, and we
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  had a artist draw it and then a tattoo artist, a fine line
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  tattoo artist, kind of refined things, put a little bit more
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  feminine touch to it. But for this, it's mainly her
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  big old head. We work really hard to make sure
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  it's a proportion. And then on the retail bag, we
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  wanted to keep it simple. We wanted to keep it where it's
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  like if you walk up to this in a, in a store, like let's say
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  your, your local Co-op or your local grocery stores, you're
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  probably this is not probably going to stick out to you
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  because it's just a simple color.
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  But the whole premise behind this was the fact that like,
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  it's very like if you know, you know, like if you see the word
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  Chloe or you see the brand, you know, you know, you like, we're
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  the only ones that can carry certain particular things from
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  Vietnam. So if you see the word Chloe,
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  it's that's all you need to see, right?
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  What we really wanted to highlight on the bag was the
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  story. So one of the things we really
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  worked hard on with Rostar is making sure that all the sizing
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  is correct. So Vietnamese 5th wave coffee
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  fits perfectly between the degassing valve and the zip,
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  right? You're going to see that every
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  time you're in the zip. We're very mindful that first
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  catch part of our story, which is Crystal's family started the
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  first Vietnamese coffee shop in Sacramento.
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  We come from a heritage or legacy of like making sure that
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  the coffee shop is not just a place to grab drinks.
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  It's a place for our community to come and hang out.
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  A lot of Vietnamese immigrants in 1980s and 80s and 90s of, you
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  know, Sacramento did not have a place to hang out or a place
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  that they could call their own. So our shop looks to preserve
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  that legacy of having a place for people to come in, chill,
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  have a conversation, and kind of like have a pairing of like your
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  older parents and your younger generation of Vietnamese
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  Americans and Vietnamese immigrants.
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  And it's also a place for Americans in general to come in
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  and experience our culture. Our bag also has on the side a
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  very unique thing of like the map of Vietnam, but it's also
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  letting you know that we work with the farmers directly.
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  We don't have a broker, we don't have an importer.
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  It's us buying directly from the farm and we work with the
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  logistics teams to get our coffee here.
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  Every bag that we roast or every varietal or species that we
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  roast, we send a couple of these 12 ounce bags back to Vietnam so
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  the farmers and producers can get to see their name on the bag
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  and to kind of have something to present to other, yeah, I guess
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  coffee companies to say, hey, like we have a great product.
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  Here's a company in America that's using our product and
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  it's in a really nice bag. It's not just a throwaway Amazon
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  bag. We are willing to really put our
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  money where our mouth is to spend and go further on quality
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  products. And then lastly, the biggest
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  part is we do all this for Chloe.
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  So little bit of this on our side, our mission statement for
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  our daughter. Oh, that's super cool.
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  Yeah, I appreciate. That you know, Charlie, you've
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  already made this like the easiest interview that I've done
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  today. It's also the first one, but I
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  think you've set the standard. Oh no, everybody.
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  Coming in, I really appreciate you and we're stoked about this
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  bag. Also stoked about Rostar because
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  they sponsor the show and we appreciate that.
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  Yeah, it's, they are a great company to work with.
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  I implore anyone to do their research very, very solidly and
• 15:00
  check them out because the online platform as far as
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  designing and redesigning and then getting your first sample
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  or proof and then redesigning again has been very smooth for
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  us. The team has been super
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  wonderful. You know when you call, you
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  speak to someone, you're not speaking to your robot.
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  So that's the touch points that I really like that we can't find
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  anywhere else. I appreciate that.
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  Thanks, Charlie. All right.
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  Very cool. I'm going to double check.
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  Hang on one second. This one is flashing.
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  Oh, that's yours. That's why I'm confused.
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  I was like, what's going on, man?
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  There we go. Yeah, we want to make sure we
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  got the green one up ready to rock'n'roll.
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  This will be some fun editing. Thank you.
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  Too many, too many people have too much technology.
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  Hopefully we got all that. I'm sure we did.