Rich does a deep dive on the Coffee Expo that he and his team attended in Portland Oregon. He also goes on a mini soapbox about the phrase “specialty coffee.” Maggie shares her opinions on the subject. At the end, Rich asks for her hot take on what her soapbox issue is. Visit housecoffeepodcast.com to submit a question or feedback!
Special thanks to TJ McMaster for mixing and editing our episode!
Transcript
Intro:
Hey, you’re drinking house coffee – unfiltered conversations brewed at the intersection of real estate life and coffee shop service. We’re Maggie and Rich – local business owners and friends sharing stories and welcoming you to pull up a chair with us. The door’s always open. Let us pour you a cup.
Rich:
Yeah, welcome back to House Coffee. Once again. How are you doing,
Maggie:
Maggie? Hey Rich.
Rich:
Good to see you again.
Maggie:
Okay, so I was thinking this morning as we were going to record today and to our audience this just another episode but to us we haven’t sat down to record in about a month. Really.
Rich:
Yeah,
Maggie:
Because our first four episodes were pre-recorded so that we could get to them. out into the world
Rich:
Exactly
Maggie:
At once and here we are.
Rich:
Yeah, I’m excited. I
Maggie:
Know on a recording schedule. Who are we
Rich:
True I’m excited to be back. And yeah, of course, this is the first episode since we’ve actually launched some episodes so You’re right. We did record four, but we actually only dropped the first three,
Maggie:
Right
Rich:
And the fourth one is coming out.
Maggie:
Yeah, but by the time our listeners,
Rich:
Yes
Maggie:
Hear this they would have had four episodes.
Rich:
Yeah, exactly exactly. But what I like about this and this was kind of the whole point what I like about this is we’re we’re catching up to real time.
Maggie:
Yeah. And which is our goal.
Rich:
Yeah. I mean if you listen to those First episodes you probably get the sense that you know, we thought we were recording an episode that might drop the next week and obviously that didn’t happen, but we wanted to Get this going sooner. It’s just kind of worked out that way. But what I realized was happening was we were banking these episodes and we wanted to be able to one of the exciting things for me was recording a podcast is to be processing life together. Yeah, you know and processing through things a little bit more in real time. And that’s what I enjoy about podcasts is some of my favorite ones are people processing things. Yeah and dealing with real life kind of as it’s happening. And so I prefer to realize I’d prefer the lag to be like, you know a week or so, so
Maggie:
Yeah, we’re on the same page with that and I think our audience is gonna like that too. Yeah, because it gives them more of a quote unquote real time update on our lives our businesses and it allows us as hosts to answer more relevant questions.
Rich:
Yes sooner exactly. That was that’s another Plus.
Maggie:
So also since sorry no since we quote unquote launched our first recorded, we have a actual website now, which our audience doesn’t know that but when we were recorded we had no shred of a website.
Rich:
Well, there was
Maggie:
Australia, but
Rich:
It wasn’t
Maggie:
What it is now and I want to give my nephew Levi a shout out because Levi schoonover. You’re the man. He helped me get it up and running and he’s gonna start his own web development company and I just want to really appreciate all the custom work that he did to help us out including some CSS that he wrote.
Rich:
Wow.
Maggie:
Yeah.
Rich:
That’s the real deal.
Maggie:
It is smart
Rich:
And you know what honestly like we kind of did just we got to a point where I was like, alright, we got to get these things out there. So we’d we’ve had the infrastructure kind of up-and-coming all along knowing that at any point time if we did decide okay, we’re ready to drop an episode. We could just put a little bow on whatever all the little things but you know, nothing was quite ready until we we said, all right. It’s got to be it’s got to be ready
Maggie:
Go time. So,
Rich:
Um, excuse me. Yeah. I’m that was a major help shout out to Levi and you know don’t look too closely at anything that’s out there because everything is still a little bit under construction, but that’s that’s how we do it here at House Coffee podcast. Yeah.
Maggie:
So
Rich:
It’s and I like to say it’s the story way. So that’s very yeah.
Maggie:
Well today, I think we are going to talk about the coffee Expo or coffee con as I just called it before we hit record.
Rich:
Yeah, and
Maggie:
I’ve been dying to know how this trip went. You just came back from Portland and I’ve been resisting all the questions to ask you over text because I just want to know and I think our audience wants to know firsthand. We’re all hearing this. The same time how is coffee con?
Rich:
Yeah coffee-con. All right. Well first of all, yes. So coffee con. You’ve heard me call it. That probably
Maggie:
I don’t know. There’s Comic Con
Rich:
Exactly. So I just called it Connie so I kind of I’m coining the phrase. I call it coffee con because it’s a big coffee nerds convention
Maggie:
Gotcha,
Rich:
But it is actually these specialty coffee Association SCA specialty coffee Expo. And it is a global trade show. So just a little bit about what a day even is. It’s a global trade show that happens. Around the country. So it’s it’s happens annually, but it bounces around some major cities. So it’s been in Boston twice 2019 and 20 and last year 2022 and so we are able to drive because we’re right here in the capital region is three hours. So the last two times Christina and I have gone to Boston and we’ve been able to drive and we volunteered to go for free. So if you volunteer there’s this cool program where you log like a number of different shifts during the conference and then you registration is paid for cool. And so that’s worked out for us being local. But this time we figured we’re gonna bring the baby and we’re going far away. So none of that. We’re just gonna go and enjoy about some of your staff with you the whole thing. Yeah, and it was a real street to be able to bring Abby who is partner owner with storied and Kristen who is a long time staff that we’ve had and so they both were experiencing. The whole thing for the first time and we were experiencing it with a larger group. And then funny enough like I actually have friends and if you’re following us online, you know, you’ve seen some of this probably or you will if you go check it out, but I have friends from here who now live on the west coast and and so one of there’s a couple in Bellingham Washington and so they drove down on Saturday to hang out with us and attend the conference and then another couple lives in Eugene, Oregon and we were in Portland. Of course,
Maggie:
One of my favorite musicians is from Eugene, Oregon so
Rich:
Fun one of my favorite musicians from Bellingham, Washington, who’s your favorite
Maggie:
That Carney?
Rich:
Oh Lord, I like him. I like him. I didn’t know where he was from but that makes sense because he references that in a song actually.
Maggie:
So
Rich:
And anyway, yeah, so they came to Portland my friend Amy. Got to Enjoy a day with us and then same day as my friends Jeremy and Crystal. So shout out to them.
Maggie:
Cool.
Rich:
That was fun. So
Maggie:
Why did you go?
Rich:
All right, well before
Maggie:
Objectively why why go back.
Rich:
Well, okay. This is so funny. I was thinking about this on the way over and I had this conversation with with somebody that I met at the conference to one of the staff from cat and Cloud, which is you know, you heard me talk about them last time. Maybe I’ll have more to say about them this time around I will always have something to say okay Cloud because they’re just highly
Maggie:
They seem rad
Rich:
And influential on me, but They were there and so it got the link up with them. But I was having a conversation with with this woman Gene that I met there and she’s what on the wholesale team at kind of cloud and we were just talking about. How conferences like this can be like now if you have an experienced this maybe it won’t make as much sense but like like church camp or something like that where you go and it’s just like this, you know,
Maggie:
I’m having
Rich:
Flashback exactly
Maggie:
The basically
Rich:
Yeah. Well, that’s the same thing. So I had done College. Yeah, we’re kind of similar. and as anyway, but honestly any kind of like Major experience like that you go. And it’s everything is so centered on one thing and it’s just such an intense and like was I don’t know. What what’s the word? It’s it’s all right there and it’s your whole Focus for several days. And then it’s it’sified. It gets the amps up. Yeah, and so I am coming back from SCA with a little bit of a renewed. I don’t know passion renewed like Zeal for why we ever got started with the stuff.
Maggie:
Yes
Rich:
Love and by the stuff, I mean coffee and I mean the kind of approach to coffee that we’re taking at storied or at least we want to take but I think have lost sight of over time or just been under resourced for for going for so So there’s a lot of reasons to go to a show like this. It’s a it’s a trade show. So tons of equipment manufacturers Coffee Roasters.
Maggie:
Yeah, you’ve got some coffee right here on the table.
Rich:
I’ll talk about that coffee professionals. There’s all kinds of like skills training that goes on. There’s just so many coffees to taste. And there’s a lot of cool. Ways to to get connected through something like this to I want to say the broader coffee industry the broader picture, but what’s funny about it is actually what we’re talking about when we talk about specialty coffee is it is a niche within the coffee industry because the coffee industry is pretty huge if you think about it. I mean, it incorporates incorporates, it encompasses like Your chain stores in your and gas stations that serve coffee. It’s like anywhere that coffee is a product. You’re you’re touching the coffee industry, but in most cases you’re not touching the specialty coffee industry. And that’s something that you know,
Maggie:
What makes something specialty coffee.
Rich:
Well, okay, thank you for asking. That was literally where I was gonna go.
Maggie:
I’m a journalist. amazing
Rich:
I expect no less from you. I Okay, how fired up do I want to get?
Maggie:
Get fired up rich.
Rich:
Okay. So here’s the deal. Technically speaking. Um, what makes something specialty coffee? Okay, actually, this is a little bit of an old definition because I think this year funny enough. The specialty coffee Association has been working on the definition of specialty coffee. They’ve been working on what exactly does that mean when we say that and I think they’re broadening it a little bit in a way to kind of Define that for people because it’s a word that really gets thrown around in a lot of unhelpful ways. Yeah. Funny enough even this even the sca’s was acknowledging in some of the the paperwork. I was I was I’ve seen lately like where this Global organization. Even if they have these National chapters where this organization called specialty coffee Association, and we’ve never really defined to find the term. So for a long time though, it was considered that coffee. Okay. Here’s something you may or may not know about coffee. Coffee at okay. Well, here’s something you may not know coffee a fruit. Okay. Okay a coffee bean is actually. a seed it’s the seed of what we call the coffee cherry and in most cases. There are two seeds within every coffee Cherry. So I mean just pause to reflect on that. Because that’s a lot of work to create
Maggie:
To harvest.
Rich:
Yeah to harvest cough to produce Harvest then. Carefully handle and roast and Brew Coffee. I mean every Coffee Bean that I drop on the ground. Is it is a tragedy? It’s it’s disrespectful when you really think about it. Yeah.
Maggie:
So never thought of it that way. Yeah,
Rich:
It’s and that’s all done by hand primarily on the on the farmer.
Maggie:
So someone picks
Rich:
Level
Maggie:
The coffee Cherry. Yes. and opens the fruit to harvest the bean
Rich:
Well Largely, yes, but you can get into and we won’t but you can get into different ways of processing that cherry so that those Seas will have different. Characteristics of flavor and so there’s what you call processing methods. There’s all these different kinds of ways like washed is probably the most typical and that’s where you would take all of the fruit part off of the seed and then you would wash it and then you would dry that and that’s where you get, you know, you’re most traditional type of coffee bean, but you can leave Any amount of that fruit on the seeds as you process it and that will impart more. Sweetness more flavor depending on on the variety of the coffee. And so there’s just so many different ways that you can approach it to get different flavors. So okay specialty coffee is so when when you’re processing coffee when you’re working with it on that farmer production level coffee is graded on a scale that I believe goes up to 100. And so anything that’s rated 80 and above. Was is termed specialty coffee? So technically specialty is not a style or Or really anything other than a specialty means quality. It’s a quality rating within
Maggie:
Conscious. I think wine. Is that way too.
Rich:
Yeah, I wouldn’t know but I’m sure there are a lot of parallels that’d be interesting to to look into that. Both are really complex products. So so coffee rated 80 and above so you might not know this I mean I I’m pretty sure this is true. At least I’ve heard this even Starbucks is using technically specialty grade coffee. I believe it’s on the lower end of that 80 to 100, you know and coffees that score really high anywhere like mid 90s or above those are tend to be like really interesting Coffees to drink they’re also usually more expensive and then most coffee in the world is not gonna score up to an 80 and it’s gonna be you know, what you might call commodity coffee coffee. That’s gonna be a lot easier to produce on a large scale story. Yes, of course. So we’re working with us. Yeah. I said that like a jerk we work with crew coffee in out of Saratoga kru crew coffee, and they would just Yes, they only work with specialty grade coffee. And so I mean I couldn’t tell you what the particular coffees that we serve. Are scoring or have scored but I know it’s
Maggie:
I was just I just want to clarify.
Rich:
Yeah most of the places. that you and I like are going to be dealing with that that more like 80 high 80s 90 it’s coffee now something that’s a little detail about coffee that oh, they’re probably very very few people know who are just whatever coffee drinkers this whole scoring process this idea of what specialty coffee truly is and with Part partly, that’s because it’s not built into the process. It’s not built into the way we think about coffee the way coffee is sold or put out there in the world. So and I mean that makes sense because that’s a that’s an interesting detail. It’s gonna be a huge, you know variable thing. I’m looking at this bag of coffee that I brought. He
Maggie:
Was gonna ask if you brought me back anything.
Rich:
Yeah, this is for you. So like even this I mean, let me just let me just talk about this this coffee right here this bag this coffee back. So this has Ruby. Colorful coffee on it Ruby is a coffee roaster out of Wisconsin. They had a couple. Representatives at the conference who were all too eager to get colorful coffees into people’s hands. So they were just giving these out that was pretty cool. So
Maggie:
The brand is colorful or the beans are colorful
Rich:
Colorful coffees is gonna that’s that’s like a catchy tagline for what this company is trying to do.
Maggie:
Okay. So
Rich:
Colorful coffee is a way of So, okay. Look when I talk about specialty coffee. This is what I’m talking about. Not anything you’re saying I’m saying this is an example of what I’m talking about when I talk about social coffee. It’s the way we think about coffee. It’s the way we approach it. It’s it’s the stuff we try to do. The stuff we need to do to elevate or just differentiate the way we’re thinking about it. So what these guys and and this is a great example what these guys are doing right here with this with this packaging with this coffee itself is a good example of like a specialty experience and coffee to me for my standpoint.
Maggie:
I wish we were drinking coffee right now
Rich:
Me too. We would not have time for that today, but So, okay. Let me just read you what we call the tasting notes. Okay?
Maggie:
Okay
Rich:
From this bag. First of all agriculte Colombia. So Colombia will be the region where this coffee is from ago Costa. I actually don’t know this is my ignorance because I’m not a coffee roaster and I have a pretty honestly limited experience with a lot of Coffee regions, so that is maybe a region. Probably a region. I’ve also geographically challenged. Okay, but this coffee I will cause a Colombian here are the tasty notes on this coffee. Let me know if you’ve ever let me know how. How this sits you? Okay vanilla lime zest. hmm green apple Okay Wildflower honey.
Maggie:
Yeah. Sounds good.
Rich:
All of those are suggestions of what you might think about this the way I like to describe flavor notes or tasty notes
Maggie:
Makes me want to have a key lime pie with a cup of coffee.
Rich:
Yeah. Well, this would be a good pairing right? So when you when you bring this coffee Hopefully if we do it, well, we will think about these things. These would be kind of this is the Zone. This
Maggie:
Is
Rich:
A lot of Labor profile. Yeah. Yeah for sure. There’s also now. This is cool. This is this to me actually is a little maybe a little rare for coffee. This is a little bit Progressive. Here’s some other details on the front of this bag. It says relationship 10 years partnered through exporter. So that is a note on the relationship between the coffee roaster. And the farmer that’s amazing. So we’ll know on what’s our relationship like with these guys Farm type collection of small farms. Processing and I mentioned this before washed comma sun-dried. Region, okay. Yeah, perfect region Noreen. Yo, so I don’t know what the agriculture means but because the region is an arena variety coutura elevation. Also a little known fact about coffee. Maybe if once I say this it’ll it’ll be intuitive it’ll sound intuitive enough but elevation 1700 to 2100 meters above sea level. So elevation is a factor when you’re growing coffee. Along with a lot of other things when you’re growing coffee because of where coffee grows can affect how the coffee develops as a in its
Maggie:
Fine. You mean how the Cherry develop
Rich:
The Cherry develops in his fruit form and and exactly and that can just be part of what produces sweetness or certain flavor characteristics in the coffee. This is probably it doesn’t say. Light roasted I’m going to guess that it’s light roasted. just because coffee’s that have this those more fruit forward or just like
Maggie:
Can I smell it?
Rich:
Yeah. I only opened it because it was all like vacuum sealed because it had been on the airplane.
Maggie:
Oh,
Rich:
The air has been sucked out of the bag. So I opened it to
Maggie:
Oh, it is kind of light in color. Yeah compared to like the dark roast coffee. I normally get
Rich:
Totally nothing about this is gonna smell dark.
Maggie:
No, it smells so good. Yeah.
Rich:
Yeah, so, okay. Look I just bring this. I just present this as an example of like what some about ways we might approach.
Maggie:
Specialty coffee
Rich:
Coffee. Yeah, and the specialty realm?
Maggie:
Okay.
Rich:
Here’s another example for me. This is cool cat and Cloud. We did run into those guys. They did a little cafe take over at a local cafe. That was not far from where we were staying so we walked over and got some that’s fun. She knows and then we happen to know. Mark who’s there wholesale guy and he hooked us up with a couple samples unexpectedly. So
Maggie:
What you have here in front of us is Specialty samples,
Rich:
These are yeah. Yeah again catcloud and other company only dealing with specialty coffee, but these are examples of copies that they would surf so two little bags we got this says I don’t even again, I don’t know how to pronounce this idea. as Ethiopian yoga chef Ethiopia your Chef that is a very popular very common light Rose specialty coffee when people are looking for like a major flavor experience and you can see on the back here. They got this little Spectrum for how they roast it light versus dark. This was a little more in the middle closer to light. We got notes of BlackBerry. purple now and later And nougat so you can just kind of like imagine what you might be trying to taste when you crack that thing open. Now. This one’s cool.
Maggie:
I mean, okay that I want to I don’t want to kill your joy. So keep going no. No. I just think like I have to play devil’s advocate for sure someone who’s listening. Yeah, like who cares like coffee is coffee it all tastes the same.
Rich:
Yeah. Well, I’m glad you don’t actually feel that way. But
Maggie:
I mean honestly like Maybe like if I were to smell all three of these bags, I probably would think smells like coffee beans.
Rich:
Is that how you felt about this one?
Maggie:
It smells good.
Rich:
Yeah,
Maggie:
Okay, I mean if I smelled that in comparison to like a Dunkin’ Donuts bag of coffee, I could definitely tell the difference because Dunkin Donuts has a very Specific smell that I do not care for but
Rich:
I’m gonna be opening all these.
Maggie:
All right well I just think like all these notes I could just picture someone listening being like that is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard
Rich:
And they might and that’s kind of like what that’s what that’s the problem. That’s where we’re at and in life. Not maybe not a problem. Smell that one. That’s the okay. I was gonna tell what that is sex though.
Maggie:
This is the Carmen cantrella.
Rich:
Yes. So that is if I had to guess I’m not
Maggie:
Smells like the story blend to be honest.
Rich:
So this I think is probably an example of If I’m not mistaken, I should know I should know this stuff. But this is a this is a good note for me on this
Maggie:
One. When I compare the tooth kind of smells like nail polish remover now,
Rich:
I wish people I hope people watch the video on this one. I
Maggie:
Know yes
Rich:
Smelling Coffee.
Maggie:
This one sells here. Yes, this one from Ken Cloud the Carmen Cantrell. I think smells better than the Ruby because you smell this one. No, no, that’s like
Rich:
Literally smells like fruit.
Maggie:
I can smell this one kind of has like a like a Like a fruity note I guess.
Rich:
Do you smell the purple thing?
Maggie:
No, I do not. I do not smell purple and smell that I smell fig.
Rich:
You’re probably not even gonna taste that.
Maggie:
But that’s supposed to be a joke.
Rich:
No, that’s what it says on there.
Maggie:
I know.
Rich:
Okay, look, I’m not trying to say that all coffee experiences should be this way or that all of these things are meaningful. I’m simply trying to highlight meaningful to everyone. I’m simply trying to highlight what the difference is between specialty coffee and and the approach that I You know that I characterize specialty coffee. With versus what you’re gonna get with more average coffee experience since we’ve been smelling all this coffee.
Maggie:
It reminded me of like quick side note. Do you know how they have? coffee beans and like perfumeries and you’re supposed to smell the coffee beans because you know, it’s supposed to clear your nose palette. Did you know that that’s a lie? You’re not supposed to smell coffee
Rich:
I have. Heard that I hear that from you.
Maggie:
Oh, did I tell you I think do you know what you’re supposed to smell if you’re trying to clean dang it. I told you this already dang it. You’re supposed to smell yourself. If you’re trying to clear your nose palette. So if your smell smelling things too much and all the smells are getting too confusing you smell yourself because you are the most neutral smell than anything. So if you if this coffee is is becoming too overwhelming for your nose just like Smell yourself and then then you’ll be able to smell the notes again. Anyway, that’s my little side tip. Wait. Can we go back to the conference? Because I want to I want to learn more about everything you saw there. Are are you still have
Rich:
Well more to say about all I’m trying to just highlight here and is I’m trying to highlight why someone would who cares
Maggie:
Right? And
Rich:
The people who care are the ones who realize that coffee can taste like Blackberry purple now and later and nougat. in sort of a whole profile that’s going to be characterized by by that Vibe or it might taste from another place in the world like orange juice dried cranberry or chocolate sorbet.
Maggie:
Hmm. That sounds good.
Rich:
Oh my gosh. Let me tell you about this coffee. I had at the conference literally blew my mind. It was called. Peach party, okay,
Maggie:
That sounds Peach party interesting
Rich:
Procedure Sidra, which just another type of another type of coffee
Maggie:
Did it taste like pizza
Rich:
Blew my mind. It was like I I mean it tastes like Peach and so I thought of it because of this coffee it bag just said orange juice dried cranberry. So that’s like Berry it’s like fruit Vibes right? But then you also get this chocolate sorbet, which is still a little bit sweet, but you’re getting that chocolate. No, and that’s why coffee is so interesting. It’s complex. There’s like layers of of flavor when it’s brewed. Well, okay, that’s crucial. So many people they might even use good coffee like this. But if you don’t follow the recipe, it’s not going to come out the way you hope it will or at least the way they suggest that is shit.
Maggie:
I do agree with you that they’re coffee can taste different in different places that I don’t think
Rich:
Yeah,
Maggie:
You know, I’m gonna sit here and like turn my nose up because I have had Probably the most amazing cup of coffee in my life when I was in Europe. but Cool, I mean in terms of like like now and later notes purple now and later that seems silly to me.
Rich:
Yeah, it is a little silly and that’s kind of what’s like that’s that’s part of the fun. I mean I was like that is gonna be like that’s how this coffee company. She has approaching the presentation of coffee. Okay. Um, but I also want to point out this Carmen control. I don’t actually know but I’m guessing this the name of the farmer. Okay coffee again. Another thing that tends the characterize specialty coffee is this farmer-centric approach something that’s that provides a little more transparency to the process and how that coffee got to us. Same thing that the Ruby bag is that
Maggie:
I respect. Yeah,
Rich:
So that is that’s that’s a little bit of a more modern way of handling coffee and Specialty coffee is really taking the whole picture into account and trying to bring all of the people in the process to the fourth So
Maggie:
What is your goal with with talking about specialty coffee? Are you trying to bring that message to your shop or are you trying to cater to people who are interested in specialty coffee like you are or is it just like a hobby that you want to continue to learn and no more about
Rich:
Pause for reflection. That’s a great question. And I think it’s a little of all of the above.
Maggie:
All right.
Rich:
So let me just put it this way. I primarily. Like I love coffee, but I don’t like do a lot of coffee at home. So I I enjoy okay too layers, two major layers one one. I enjoy giving people a great experience. All right Hospitality things like that learning that that craft alone having given people a meeting people’s expectations actually exceeding people’s expectations. Of that they bring into my business, okay. And I think that at the end of the day people expect coffee to taste good and as the United discussed on what was the last episode or at least one of our last episodes you were telling me about a crappy cup of coffee you had right?
Maggie:
Yeah,
Rich:
And your expectations were disappointed and you were disappointed and you left that and then you came and told me about it now. I’m a coffee guy. So maybe you told me versus telling somebody else but Like there’s your example. Nobody wants to walk in a coffee shop and get a crappy cup of coffee. Okay, I especially me. So I want to do the best I can by people now. I don’t expect people. So this is the second layer. I don’t expect people to care. What I’m trying to do necessarily because I don’t expect that they have any expectations about this style of coffee. I think this is a very new thing this approach to Coffee, you know, some people call it third way if some people call it I don’t know other other. Some people Specialties some people call the third life. I like to just use the word modern. I say modern coffee approach because it really is like 10 to 15 years old. So many of the more like modern newer specialty third wave kinds of coffee shops. They popped up in the last eight years five years. We’re only five years old and we’re on the tail end of all that kind of stuff. But the ones the shops that proceeded Us in the capital region. We’re only a few years older than us, you know. Yeah,
Maggie:
I never knew about specialty coffee until I met my brother-in-law Jeff who life two brothers in law named Jeff my sister Hannah’s husband Jeff and he was really into pour over coffee and Yeah, and I just never learned about coffee until he was like weighing his coffee and like making pour-overs with Chemex and I’m like, this is silly on scale. And to be honest when I first learned about it, however, many years ago five six years ago. I sort of turned my nose up at it because I’m like, oh this is so bougie. And now I now that I’ve gotten to know you more and I know it’s The and it’s more coming from a sustainable fair trade source, and it’s more about flavor and enjoyment. I’m not I don’t think it’s as bougie anymore, but I think When I first learned about it, I’m like this is so silly. They’re just being they’re just being uppity about their coffee. Yeah.
Rich:
Yeah, it’s it’s honestly hard to talk about this kind of stuff because it’s easy to naysay for different reasons. And so That’s a great example. Of think a lot how a lot of people react sometimes to this this kind of thing. Yeah,
Maggie:
And I sit here. Corrected
Rich:
Well. humbled Well, let me just let me just finish this last thought so hospitality is is maybe my number one concern. And through Hospitality. I want to just be able to present a different picture of coffee a different experience of coffee for people now. Yes, we do bubble tea as well and that’s actually half our business and I wish that I I’m not as passionate about that. So whenever we talk this stuff coffee really is the driving force. We love bubble tea and and that’s just just as much part of our business, but I’m really gonna talk about tea tea is not my world. I’m really gonna talk about tea and bubble tea the way that we talk about coffee, even though we do all we can to make our bubble tea. emphasize the specialtyness of tea and like we do a couple Different things to make that like a little bit
Maggie:
And whatever bubble tea one is, I don’t want to over a week.
Rich:
Yeah, I’m just like I’m just trying to say no. No. Lack of love for Bubble Shoot even though I’m always talking about coffee and letting that drive my
Maggie:
I’m so happy story. It’s gonna be back open tomorrow.
Rich:
It’s been way too long by the time anyone hears. This will happen.
Maggie:
You would have been open way back over
Rich:
So I don’t know so okay. I’m trying to answer your question. I hope that answers that it hospitality is the number one thing because I recognize look I’m not trying to sell coffee experience. I’m trying to sell like a good feeling and I’m gonna use coffee to the best of my ability to do that. And I’m going to hopefully honor what all that coffee is in the process and change some people’s minds about it, but not because of coffee but rather because my passion is going to come through those mediums to their hearts by way of the way they feel as a result. so yeah people who are Look, especially coffee can get a bad rap because people are snobby about it or bougie and they like get too lost for me that get too lost into the process. They get too like into It as like this whole thing, that’s inaccessible. And I think
Maggie:
Inaccessible. I think that is the key. Yeah, that is the keyword
Rich:
For sure for
Maggie:
Sure. Just it inaccessible.
Rich:
Yes,
Maggie:
And maybe this is just like a pride thing because I can be a pretty like prideful person. and like so and when when something seems like inaccessible to me, I’m like a I don’t know. I just feel very like I immediately don’t want to like it or be interested in it because If it’s not accessible to me then. I don’t want to yeah, I don’t want anything to do with it.
Rich:
Yeah,
Maggie:
So I’ll just write it off as bougie or snobby.
Rich:
So I think That’s super key. I think that’s really it and that’s what I’m trying to do the story. It is like Hospitality makes the experience accessible, you know education makes the experience accessible, but you have to educate in a way that’s not putting people down but rather like you’re leveling yourself to where they’re at and And it’s for me. It’s all about that because caught we’re talking a really beautiful coffees. There are extremely beautiful coffees on this table right now, and I’m excited to start brewing them this week and tasting them and whether we serve them or I just enjoy them or our staff enjoys them. Who knows what’s gonna happen? There’s not like
Maggie:
He’s doing taste test next time we record.
Rich:
Oh, man, I don’t know. That’s going to be that’s gonna be like a bonus like video.
Maggie:
Okay
Rich:
Feature or something.
Maggie:
All right, cool if we do a patreon,
Rich:
But you want to see if you can actually taste I do the purple
Maggie:
Like if we pre now like we could bring them into the kitchen here and just like maybe pour over like a little bit of each And then like do a blind taste test. to see which one
Rich:
Yeah, that’d be
Maggie:
Like the best we don’t have to but
Rich:
So, okay. All right. So we’re like going around about here was saying, you know specialty coffee is a special thing. I think it’s we’re it’s the goal is to Bring a little more transparency to the process of how coffee gets to us. If you think about the big chains like you have no idea where that coffee comes from. And if you try to look into it, you’re not gonna find it because they either have nothing to say about it or they don’t want you to know.
Maggie:
Yeah.
Rich:
There’s a reason why Cumberland Farms can sell 99 cent coffee any size. Well, it’s because they didn’t pay that much for that coffee. Despite the amount of work. They went into it. So whatever like everyone’s running their businesses, but specialty coffees really trying to bring the value of coffee up all across the board. So that Cafe owners can run sustainable business but farmers can feed their families, you know, it’s it’s a it’s like a rising tide. Let’s all boats kind of thing and caught and coffee producers like to produce specialty coffee is a lot more costly. There’s a lot more risk and it’s like the crops are smaller. So To get people to invest in that process on the farm level. You have to elevate the way everyone thinks about coffee. And so that’s just part of my ethos is how can we get people thinking differently about coffee and realizing that like ice cream flavored lattes are not specialty coffee just because you put whipped cream on it and some caramel drizzle. That’s not that’s not a specialty. It’s like a specialty nurse reach in your shop. But like that’s not what we mean by specialty coffee. You should lead with that. I hate the confusion that comes with that but it’s just as part of what I’m working too.
Maggie:
Yeah
Rich:
To undo
Maggie:
I can see your passion about this you are I’m glad you got fired up because this is something that’s important to you. And I think it should resonate with other people.
Rich:
Well, so, you know, this is what I’m coming back with it’s I’m excited to And here’s the thing like I don’t think that we like coffee like this will really fly at storied. I think largely because it’s a function of like we just don’t have enough people like The population density I think social is too small. Yeah, I’m not to say people wouldn’t enjoy these coffees but the the demand isn’t there, so I’m not trying to manufacture demand and waste a bunch of time and product and whatever but what we’re gonna do is just start. Talking like this a little bit more and maybe engaging guests on their thoughts about coffee and then just like, you know with the products. We already have the specialty coffees that are in our shop, even if we’re not doing pour-overs because that’s not the only way or even the best way to highlight quote unquote, especially coffee. That’s just like a cool way. We’re just gonna we’re trying to take the craft that we already have to like the next level. So we’re all working on professional skills around espresso preparation and just like our process and the whole thing gets to the hospitality can increase and that through that, you know people’s experience of our our products can Can help them love coffee a little bit more.
Maggie:
Awesome. Yeah, what is one? thing that you learned at this Expo that you from a business standpoint if any that you took away with
Rich:
From a business standpoint
Maggie:
Yeah, was there any was was this Expo? Did it were there like breakout sessions or like panels discussions things like that?
Rich:
Because we had the baby with us. We were very limited. Okay, and I at least we’re very limited in what we were able to break away and do she went to a really cool lecture that featured Five Coffee producing women farmers in Central America, I think which is a place. That’s very close to Christine’s heart.
Maggie:
Yeah,
Rich:
And they were like given cameras and kind of made their own films and stuff. I don’t know she cool. She had she had a good experience with that and I haven’t seen the film but she got the link to it. And then I so she went to one last year. I went to one lecture mine was called that Cafe feeling which was and this is a little bit of a takeaway for me. It’s about how to now these these were when you have a major company and you have several locations or you have a large staff team. How do you get a consistent? feeling Cohesive feeling across the board even though you personally as the owner or manager or whatever can’t be and all those places. At once you can’t be in all those places to equal degrees necessarily. So how do you train culture across a team or across a company and that’s you know, we only have one shop but even for Abby and I like how do we get on the same page? Not to say I mean Christine just is in the shop so little that I It would be the conversation. See now. We’re having but it’s really having me on the front. And then how do we talk to our our two staff about about that? And then how do we bring that? further if we go from there, so that’s definitely a question that that I’m always thinking about. Yeah, I don’t know I went in to this whole thing asking myself. How can we make our company stronger our business like more sustainable long term. and and I just got back this morning. So I guess I’m still processing. Yeah
Maggie:
Back today. Yeah.
Rich:
Yeah our flight was I’ll say more on that a sec. But let me just oh good. Yeah, so we just got back. We were supposed to go back yesterday.
Maggie:
Wow, so you are like fresh off the plane.
Rich:
Yeah. We’re right here. Here we are. Hours, we hours ago. So we yeah, so I
Maggie:
Thought you got in late last night.
Rich:
I was supposed to get in yesterday morning. But
Maggie:
Okay
Rich:
This morning got a whole yesterday in Portland just to bounce around so that was cool. That was cool. But yeah Christine got a lot asleep coming into today then we thought I was gonna be
Maggie:
Yeah.
Rich:
And but that was just to say that I haven’t even seen Abbey since you know, the thing ended so like we haven’t gotten a process all the she went to a lot more lectures Kristen went to a couple so there’s like probably like on the team. There’s a there’s a collective knowledge that we got a mind a little bit since it’s all coming back and everyone’s experience and just talking about it and then kind of like together deciding. Okay. What are we going to build into our Approach moving forward into our brand. Yeah.
Maggie:
Amazing
Rich:
So stay tuned.
Maggie:
All right. well
Rich:
That’s a good question.
Maggie:
Yeah. I also saw on your Facebook that you won something.
Rich:
Yes, Christine. Entered a giveaway about five minutes before being handed the price.
Maggie:
That’s awesome
Rich:
At the very
Maggie:
What did you win?
Rich:
I’ll hold it up for the camera, too. But this This is another cat Cloud item. the cats Chris he Is a Gearhead? In a lot of things but in coffee is especially and so he worked for a while with a company called Art presso. One word art presso and he developed this tamper. And for those who don’t know a tamper is what you use to compact ground espresso into the portal filter so that you have a Flat compact bed of coffee that will make espresso for you using a specialized machine called an espresso machine. Okay, you know all that and so the tamper is you know a tool that can just be like super on something you’d never think about. It just has the shape and makes coffee flat or it could be something super dialed the way Chris has approached.
Maggie:
Are you gonna use that in your shop or is that going to be your personal and
Rich:
You know what? It’s funny I actually so this is the dial 2.0.
Maggie:
I hold it you
Rich:
Can. Feel how perfectly balanced it is.
Maggie:
There’s so balanced. It’s I’m balancing it on my pinky finger right now. Just kidding. I’m
Rich:
Not it’s 11 for that. Chris likes beefy heavy tampers that do a great job. getting all the coffee into into your basket and he Just really knocked out of the park with this. So I was a funny enough. I actually have the dialed 1.0 tamper. So the original when he first came out with that, I snatched that up and then this one came out and I was like, I already have the one I can’t just forget another one and here it is. Yeah, super cool.
Maggie:
That’s cool. So
Rich:
I mean, you know, technically Christine won it but it’s like for the shop everything we ever get. Yeah.
Maggie:
I have to know did you sell your espresso machine that we talked about on a previous episode?
Rich:
No.
Maggie:
You said you had it listed?
Rich:
Yeah,
Maggie:
I’m just curious for if we could give a quick update.
Rich:
It’s not law. It’s no longer for sale.
Maggie:
It’s no longer for sale.
Rich:
I don’t have to I’ll have to say more about that in the future.
Maggie:
All right,
Rich:
I’m not sure. I might have other plans for that. All right. All right machine. Yeah.
Maggie:
Cool
Rich:
Exciting stuff.
Maggie:
I just thought it’d be cool to give an updates since yes, we know kind of went on a little mini tangent about it
Rich:
Anyone heard that episode and they were all oh, I’m gonna buy that espresso machine
Maggie:
Can’t too late
Rich:
Step back Mr. Chance, I
Maggie:
Think we’re getting close to our time.
Rich:
I don’t know.
Maggie:
It’s been like it’s been a
Rich:
Minute. Yeah, we’re just ran on this one.
Maggie:
Well,
Rich:
All right. So yes, thanks for asking me those questions. Something I’ve noticed is that we haven’t heard a lot from you. I know about like about your life now. Yeah, we talked about past lives we talked about
Maggie:
I have to save it for another episode. Yes. Yes, but
Rich:
We need to hear from you. The people the people are demanding. All right that we hear more from Maggie from so I don’t know exactly what they want to hear and I don’t know what you
Maggie:
Well now we have a form on our website
Rich:
You want to say but submit a question a little listener submission there that’s true. You could type that up or you can leave us a voicemail.
Maggie:
Oh,
Rich:
There’s a little link on the bottom.
Maggie:
That’s right
Rich:
Hit us on that speak pipe
Maggie:
House Coffee podcast.com is where all the forms are and where you can leave us a message. So
Rich:
True not too but what do you want to talk about? What do you want to tell us about?
Maggie:
I don’t know. I don’t know what I want to talk about. There’s been a lot of like personal life changes in my life recently. So I’ve just been sort of like focused on that. Maybe we could talk about that next time.
Rich:
It’s all life changes. I don’t even know if I yeah,
Maggie:
No, you know and We could talk about the housing market we could talk about staging. I’ve got a lot of like. a lot of stuff going on swirling around me and yeah, the real estate world is brutal brutal right now and Yeah, it’s a really tough time to be a buyer. So if you are buying a house right now, I feel you feel for you. And hang in there the right house will come along even if you’ve already made. 10 offers on houses like
Rich:
It’s been tough for five for a while. Sellers Market.
Maggie:
Yep. I know.
Rich:
Let me ask you this question.
Maggie:
Okay,
Rich:
Not that we’re gonna get into this but like what is the so what’s what is your soapbox? What’s the equivalent of specialty coffee for you? in
Maggie:
Oh
Rich:
Probably.
Maggie:
Big box stores that sell furniture that falls apart or like clothing stores that sell one season type clothing because it all just ends up in a big waste pile and collects on our oceans and just creates a lot of garbage also single-use plastic.
Rich:
Elastic. Wow Okay, I’m just I’m just making some notes. Yeah,
Maggie:
That’s why I do my very best in case you don’t know with my staging business 90% of my furniture is repurposed that I purchased either from Marketplace or from estate sales and I try really hard not to buy anything new if I don’t have to buy something new is the last resort for me because I don’t want to contribute to Waste,
Rich:
Yeah. nice big box stores stuff falls apart sounds like sounds like stuff I can relate to as far as like quality.
Maggie:
Yeah,
Rich:
Is that whole quality conversation?
Maggie:
And
Rich:
And obviously sustainability
Maggie:
Also this like Oh, man. Now you’re gonna get me going on a ramp. But no. No I just I this Need to have it right now mentality of our culture. it’s just that’s something that I I am trying to change personally with my brand is to have a more curated approach and to love your home slowly like live in it for a while before you just go out and purchase a ton of furniture. I really truly believe that like your house will tell you what it needs and you can just kind of get things as you go instead of accumulating a bunch of stuff at once just for the sake of buying things this like Hall mentality h a u l where like you just go out and buy a bunch of stuff and Show what you bought I just I’m strongly against that. I really think that we should buy. as we need things and not worry about like accumulating kitchen, like gadgety not gadgety, but like trinkets
Rich:
Okay. How it takes.
Maggie:
Yep. Cool, that would be my soapboxing
Rich:
Word. Well, maybe that’s what we’re gonna hear.
Maggie:
We can talk about that in detail if you want to hear more.
Rich:
Yeah, I guess. I guess that’s a good good little place to land it. Yeah, so thanks for tuning in. I’ve been getting good feedback just like this on the on the gram. Yeah messaging me, you know, it’s always
Maggie:
Love it. If people could leave us a review and rate US
Rich:
Five stars only
Maggie:
Five stars only but really we we’re not gonna bribe you we’re not gonna bribe you for that but we love it. If you could give us a five-star review as a small brand that’s trying to grow House Coffee. That’s a great way that you can show our support show your support to us. I interrupted you. Rich. What were you saying? No,
Rich:
That’s That’s good
Maggie:
And our socials are House Coffee podcast on Instagram and House Coffee podcast.com for our website and you can submit a question to us there as well.
Rich:
Yes. Yes. I was just saying that it’s cool to see you never know who’s gonna listen to a podcast or like your podcast, you know, so hearing from some old friends or whomever. That’s just like us love in the podcast like, okay sick didn’t know something like this, you know, and So it’s it’s been cool getting good feedback. If you have feedback we’re open to that audio issues. You can
Maggie:
Play
Rich:
DJ you
Maggie:
Love you. You are the best you TJ McMaster is our audio engineer
Rich:
Russian duties doing finals
Maggie:
Doing and awesome
Rich:
Podcast.
Maggie:
Yeah TJ. Thank you so much.
Rich:
Well,
Maggie:
So that’s it for today. Yeah.
Rich:
All right. Peace out
Maggie:
Later. you are