Omar Herrera, of Cafe Imports, joins Bronwen and Kathie to teach us all about coffee in Colombia. Omar shares a lot of context around the history of Colombian coffee and helps us understand the uniqueness of coffee in Colombia, as well as where the industry is headed.
Bryan Choi, owner of Ondo Coffee in Los Angeles, CA tells us all about his journey to opening Ondo, and all the ups and downs that brought him here. If you've ever dreamed of opening a cafe, Bryan has some great advice for you in this episode!
Mokhtar joins Kathie and Bronwen to tell us all about coffee in Yemen. Mokhtar is a huge lover of history and coffee, and that really comes out in this episode. If you've ever wanted to dive deeper in to the origins of how coffee came to be, this is the episode for you. Come for the many book recommendations, and stay for Mokhtar's take on Kendrick vs. Drake.
Bronwen and Kathie join Chris and Doran of Coffee Lit. Rev. to discuss the flavor wheel, how it was made, and what we think about the papers written about the process. It was a lot of fun, and we hope you think so too!
In this episode we interview our favorite coffee designer (and lets be honest-- probably everyone's favorite), Liz Chai! If you've never considered the impact that design has on your product or customer, this is a great one for you. We cover the importance of brand identity, working with a designer whose style you love, and so much more!
Lauren Lathrop of Mill City Roasters joins us again-- this time to discussing roasting education, training approaches, roasting resources and more!
Matthew Torres tells us about his journey to drinking decaf, finding good decaf coffees to enjoy, and ultimately starting a decaf-exclusive roasting company. Matthew is here to spread the good work of decaf coffee, and to be honest, so are we!
Masha tells us everything she knows about Brewer's Cup and her Judging experience over the past few seasons. We discuss palate development, brewers, coffees, common competitor mistakes and more. Give it a listen to learn what everyone's go to brew method is ;).
Join us as Edwin tells us about his path to founding Onyx Coffee and how he has seen the landscape for the production and consumption of Guatemalan coffee change over the years.
Major Cohen tells us all about his long career in coffee, and how things have changed during his time in the industry. He has much experience as a consumer, barista, educator, and more and speaks on the ins and outs of how the industry has evolved during his time (for better and for worse) and how we can continue to evolve positively.
We're back and (finally) ready for a new season! Coming to you next week, season 5 begins and we've got another excellent lineup of guests. Can't wait for you to hear the upcoming episodes.
Community and coffee are synonymous. Coffee brings people together into shared spaces and through sharing stories and experiences. This week we chat with Double J on how he builds community through Black Rabbit and sharing coffee, culture, and stories through his new project Coffee Breath.
Join us as we ask 20 questions with our new Marketing Manager, Ashley Allen. We talk coffee, sparkling water, Nick Jonas, coffee tools, and generally keep it pretty silly to wrap up season 4. Thanks for joining us for another great season of Totally Dissolved, and we’ll catch you on the next one!
Trying to educate oneself about coffee can be daunting and confusing. This week we chat with Hailie Stevens from Fellow and gives us some great perspectives on educating consumers on Specialty Coffee.
Learning about Specialty Coffee can be daunting for anyone, regardless of being in coffee for 1 year or 10 years. Grant Gamble and Suneal Pabari created Leaderboard: The Coffee Game to help make learning about coffee fun for everyone, educational, and a unique way to think about how you learn about coffee. This week’s conversation gives us a peek into the thought process of creating educational experiences and how you can help develop a better palate. Grant is an ad school dropout turned coffee ...
We have a very fun, science focused episode this week for you all! We bring back Chris Hendon and welcome Robin Bumbaugh to discuss experiments they've done this past year with grind particles, electricity, and chemical reactions. Dr. Christopher H. Hendon is a Professor of Computational Materials Chemistry at the Univeristy of Oregon. His interests are in energy materials and coffee science. Prof. Hendon’s interest in coffee began during his PhD, and since then has published several peer-review...
Technology is ever evolving in Specialty Coffee and quickly developing in every facet from Roasting to Brewing. We chat this week with David Chou from Eversys to help us better understand how automatic espresso machines have changed and the possibilities this technology has in Specialty Coffee and Hospitality. David Chou (he/him) is the Customer Success Manager at Eversys USA, based in New York, NY. With a background in coffee education at Stumptown Coffee Roasters, he now creates resources for ...
We interview each other about Training, Education, and Barista-ing. We both love being in the Specialty Coffee Industry and sometimes you just need to chat it out to learn more and also appreciate how much has changed and evolved over time. Tell us what you think about being in the role you do in Specialty Coffee and bonus points for also sharing fun kid pics and stories and your ideal day. #coffee #coffeepeople #specialtycoffee
We continue our discussion on SE Asian Coffee with Will Frith. We get into the history and rise of Vietnamese Coffee and it's modernization. Will Frith is an American of Vietnamese descent who grew up in Texas. He first came to Vietnam in 2004 to meet his maternal grandparents, and has subsequently split his time between Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. He got his start in the coffee business as a barista at MOD Coffeehouse in Galveston, Texas. In 2007 he...
October is FilAm History Month and this week's episode we get to know what is special about Philippine Coffee. Paul Barreto is local to the LA area (Long Beach represent!) and is one of the burgeoning FilAm Specialty Coffee Roasters specifically working with Filipino Coffee and Filipino Coffee Farmers. We (especially Bronwen) are so excited to share this conversation with you all and share a little about Philippine Specialty Coffee. Paul Barreto is one of the co-founders of Out of Office Roaster...
We're baaaacccck!!! Happy Autumn and we've got another fun and educational season of caffeinated learning ahead. We begin our season's lesson with Roasting. We talk with the talented Kat Melheim, who isn't shy and loves sharing her knowledge. Kat Melheim (she/any) - aka: Roaster Kat - is a roaster, writer, content creator, artist, and all around coffee person. She started in the coffee industry 10 years ago as a barista, and learned to roast in 2017. In 2018 Kat started Coffee People Zine, a pri...
What a whirlwind of a season! It's our last episode for Season 3 and we recount the adventures we had at this year's Specialty Coffee Association Expo. What are some highlights you all had? We're also taking a short break to plan and rest before Season 4. Thanks for learning with us and will catch you on the next one!
As avid coffee drinkers and coffee professionals we all get wrapped up in perfecting the brewing of coffee, we often overlook the economics and complexities of how our coffee gets to us. Sure we're also curious about what happens on the farm and different processes, but what about the in-between? Today, we converse with Katie Cargulio about what happens after the harvest and before the roast of your green coffee. With over 20 years of experience, Katie has held the positions of barista, customer...
This week we are so honored to talk with Veronica Pearl about creating community and inclusivity. It is challenging to find sufficient words to fully capture the immense inspiration, unwavering drive, and iconic leadership of someone like Veronica. She shares not only her story, but how everyone can continue to push for change no matter your position or circumstance. Veronica Pearl is a fabulous, queer, trans woman who’s fierce as hell and cute to death. She is the founder and Chief Glitter Offi...
We discussed dairy on our previous episode and this time around we learn more about dairy alternatives. Lauren Lathrop has given her expertise to develop better versions of dairy alternatives that go wonderfully with coffee. Lauren Lathrop (she/her) works as the Director of Education at Mill City Roasters. She also serves as the Competitions Coordinator for the US Coffee Championship and has worked with Pacific Barista Series since 2012 as a Brand Ambassador and R&D Barista. During her caree...
We have an insightful and fun conversation all about dairy with Carl Hollifield. Carl has been in the Dairy Industry for a few decades and has lent his expertise to a few Barista Competitors and Champions. This is the beginning of a few conversations into Dairy Science. We hope your curiosity is peaked and we look forward to having Carl on again in future discussions to continue learning more! Carl Hollifield is the Director of the Dairy Enterprise System at NC State University. Carl has 20 year...
We go through many discussions with a variety of new and seasoned Specialty Coffee Pros about careers and owning your own shop. It's a path filled with many firsts, success, and loss. We get to chat with the very talented and phenomenal pro, Erica Escalante about owning a business and career going forward. We loved learning not only about her journey, but her insight into creating it, making it, and having to let it go is filled with valuable perspective and knowledge.
We wanted to continuing highlighting our discussion on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This week we talk with our good friend Mo and we get into it about Roasting, SE Asian Coffees, and being a Minority Business Owner. Mo Maravilla is the owner and founder of Kindness and Mischief Coffee Roasters. Born in Manila, Philippines, Mo and her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 3 years old. After working in art departments, as a stagehand all over the city, and as an audio and visual engineer f...
Specialty Coffee has so many opportunities for career growth, but often can feel overwhelming and confusing. This week we talk to Tarra Samuelson about how she took the path of being a consultant and what that can look like. Tarra has worked specialty coffee for the past 12 years with Klatch Coffee, Verve Coffee, Equator Coffees and Provision Coffee. Over the years she worked in both retail and wholesale, having roles such as barista, shift lead, account manager & trainer, national account m...
We start Season 3 (!!!) with everyone's favorite Friend to All and Enemy to (maybe) None, the adventure seeking and very knowledgable Josh Littlefield. We laugh lots, but also talk shop about being a Coffee Tech and Coffee Equipment. Josh Littlefield (He/Him) is currently “The other guy” at Technico Coffee Service out in Nashville, TN. With his buddy Jake they manage an equipment sales and repair business that covers a large portion of Tennessee. A chronic master of none, he’s worn many hats in ...
