What is your position in the coffee industry?

barista, coffee roaster, home barista, coffee enthusiast

Where are you located? ( City and Country )

Petaluma, CA, USA

How many years have you been in the industry?

Since March 2004

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'm a retail-level barista at one of the larger companies with background in botany and ecology (I'm a lab assistant and naturalist on the side) and I fool around as a home-roaster.

What cities or countries are you interested in traveling to?

Interested in traveling to countries of origin, particularly Guatemala, Sulawesi, India, Sumatra, and Panama, but have no travel experience related to coffee.
I also just really want to hike in Patagonia, New Zealand, British Colombia, Norway, Iceland, and Yunnan.

About Me:

I've only been a certifiable coffee geek since 2004 but I actually have a certificate for it! I'm a home roaster who has gone back to using open flame to roast in a modified drum or hand crank popcorn popper in favor of the iRoast and other fluid bed machines.
I'm a biology student, a city naturalist, a natural resource specialist for my county, a life sciences tutor, and I try to sell tea and home-roasted coffee to people around town to try to raise money for local nonprofits that foster education and act as stewards for the environment or arts.

About My Company:

I just moved to Flying Goat Coffee early November after working for Peet's for five and a half years. One of the co-owners regularly travels to origin for COE judging, they have sponsored the Western Regional Barista Competition a couple times, all drip coffee is french pressed and strained into thermoses (still only held for half an hour though), and not long ago moved to using all bottomless portafilters with 21g baskets for 1-1.5oz shots. The way things are done is on a continuous trek to make everything more coffee focused rather than expanding the company and there is an evident movement to feature smaller lot coffees on rotation.

I'm much happier finally working at a third wave company. Peet's has the whole rhetoric about offering the best and having flavorful coffee, yadda, yadda - much of what they offer is considered to be overroasted, elliminating much origin character. However, it's a biggish company that introduces a lot of people to coffee fresher than most are used to and some of the special offerings are darned tasty. The bigger issue is the majority of staff is largely ambivalent towards quality coffee drinks and the Swift grinder not only reduces the artisanship and ability of the baristas, but also distributes unevenly every time. There are a few very passionate employees, though, and Peet's acts like a stepping stone for a lot of people stepping into the world of specialty coffee and it certainly helped drag me into it.

I sell homeroasted beans under the name "Green Raven Tea & Coffee" to try to showcase some causes I like, donating the some of the retuns to local nonprofits, and introduce more people in my hometown to better coffee and tea.

What is your favorite thing about the coffee industry?

Delicousness. Helping customers find a coffee or tea they really enjoy and opening them up to exploring new and different offerings.

Website:

http://www.myspace.com/greenraventeaandcoffee