ColinO

Male

Portland, OR

United States

Profile Information:

What is your position in the coffee industry?
barista, barista trainer, coffee enthusiast, service tech/repair
Where are you located? ( City and Country )
Portland, OR USA
How many years have you been in the industry?
10
If you are a barista or shop, are you interested in a barista exchange with another coffee shop/barista?
maybe
Tell us more about your coffee shop or barista skills.
I am always looking to improve on my skills. That is what I like about coffee no matter what I learn it just opens the door to something else new that I have never heard of.
What cities or countries are you interested in traveling to?
Any and all!
About Me:
I started as an engineer for a roaster manufacturer but decided I wanted to learn more about the coffee so I could become a better coffee engineer so I quite that job and moved up to Portland and got a barista job, I love being a barista!
About My Company:
I started a small company designing and building coffee roasters. As part of that I am to also trying to help connect roasters with farmers by offering trips to source. The source trip part of the business won't be up and running for at least six months. For the time being I repair and update fluid bed roasters, until I finish the rest of my technical drawings.
What is your favorite thing about the coffee industry?
My favorite thing about the coffee industry is the people; the only thing that ever keeps an industry going is the people who make it up. I find people in the coffee industry to be so creative, hard working, progressive and passionate about what they do, they seem to be people who are so genuinely happy doing what they do. I also think that fair and direct trade is super awesome and something that I want to know so much more about. All right, I also just love good coffee! But come on without the people in this industry who know where coffee would be now.
Website:
http://N/A

Comment Wall:

  • Balaram Neupane

    hey how u doing? I am in Kuwait since last year. I am working as a Barista here. What about you? Please write me .Thanks.

    Jul 27, 2008

  • Matt Milletto

    Welcome to bX Colin! Good to see another fellow Portlander.

    Jul 28, 2008

  • Dan Welch

    Nice to see a portlander on the bX. Stop by when you get the time so we can share a cuppa.

    Jul 30, 2008

  • Alun Evans

    Hi Colin, I am a roaster working in many cases directly with farmers. Obviously I am lucky as I live and roast at origin...so its easier to do than if you are in Portland! Anyway, thought I would say Hi. If u end up wanting to do anything with Indonesian growers, give me a yell.

    Jul 30, 2008

  • Alun Evans

    Gidday Colin...yeah I would just abot say you have hit the nail on its proverbial head. I love what I do and the chance to be able to directly witness the changes in communities we work with. West Java, where I am based is beautiful- not a hard place at all to be roasting coffee. Would love to have you visit- anytime! This is still a very much under achiever in terms of relationship coffee being implemented here. We do not have the proximity to the USA that producer countries in Central America have. Things are fortunatley changing, albeit slowly.

    Jul 31, 2008

  • Alun Evans

    Yes Colin, there is tonnes of potential here. Essentially there are a few of us working on relatonship and sustainable coffee models here, its a handul. There are some bigger concerns- such as PPKGO...but no where near the numbers there should be. The problems are that while most communities are very keen to work towards direct trade, the traditional models where brokers pay very little, but forward a lot of credit in advance to keep farmers obligated to working for them (not with them) persist. Remoteness, lack of access to microcredit, lack of ability to reach the markets directly etc all handicap communities looking to break out of the traditional constraints put on the coffee businesss here. Willing yes, able yes...ale to deliver yes. Need a lot of guidance, most certainly

    Aug 1, 2008

  • Trevor

    Colin, best of luck to you in your endeavor. I'm in the midst of something similar right now. I've actually connected with some guys in my area that have already made a connection with some farmers and we are partnering with them to better work with coffee farmers. Please keep me updated on your progress.

    Aug 5, 2008

  • bri

    Things are good, thanks. :)
    I work at Blue Gardenia. You?
    I'm fairly new to the game (8 months in), but I really love it so It's always cool to meet others in the Portland coffee scene!

    Cheers!

    Aug 12, 2008

  • bri

    We roast our own, and it's real good stuff. Come check it out sometime! If our roaster is around, I'm sure he'd love to talk about our different varietals and whatnot.

    Oct 3, 2008

  • Chasse

    Hi there! Nice to meet you, cheers!

    Nov 12, 2008

  • Chasse

    Unfortunately it's expensive to live where I am currently and working so much is an inevitable necessity, especially when you're trying to save. I would love to be able to afford some hefty traveling within the next few years, I hope..

    So far I've only used one type of machine, in a small cafe. I think it was a 1lb coffee kinetics "Syd and Jerry's". It was simple to operate, it stopped the roast cycle at the defined temperature and not on a timer. The owner who trained me didn't really thoroughly explain what was going on. I used it for a few months and that was about two years ago.

    In fact, I'm sorry to say that I still consider myself a complete newbie to this coffee world even though I'm working a full time and a part time job in it. i guess that's why i'm here on this website, just trying to learn something new every day..

    Nov 12, 2008

  • Rick LeSuisse

    Hi Colin!
    nice web page, and big success in your business!!!
    I am going to open my coffee lounge here in germany and the next step will be a coffee roaster. but for the moment keep beans moving ;)
    Greetings
    Rick

    Nov 13, 2008