Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions

Mark just got back from San Francisco and of course he had to hit the best coffee shops in the area. San Francisco has a rich coffee culture that is such a pleasure to discover as someone visiting the city. We also talk about Sergei's trip to Florida and what we think is the most important part of the coffee shop experience.

Buying coffee can either be very simple or unnecessarily overwhelming with the amount of options there are. There are new roasting companies popping up all the time yet there are so many well established ones we've grown familiar with. In this episode of the Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions Podcast, we dive into some of the nuances we face when purchasing coffee from roasting companies.

Running a coffee roasting business alone has many moving parts, but grasping coffee roasting itself is just as difficult if not more intricate. There's still so much to learn and explore in this craft, but we wanted to give some guidance to beginner coffee roasters. Here we break down a couple coffee roasting basics, and a couple resources we recommend for starting your journey!

Working in coffee as a barista or roaster is sometimes over romanticized. If you're looking from the outside in, things appear to be much different than they really are. That being said, some people are thriving working in those positions. With the current labor shortage going on in the country, in this episode wanted to talk about why that may be happening, what we can learn from the past year, a...

Fishing season started a couple weeks ago here in the Pacific Northwest. It's been years since we've enjoyed a good fishing season. As small business owners and running a coffee roasting company, it is far too easy to get in the nonstop cycle of working, getting things done, and keeping up with new trends in the industry. Over the last few weeks, we've jumped back into fishing. In this episode we...

If we haven't said this enough, roasting coffee is a very complex process. Taking a coffee from a green color to a brown color is fairly easy, but there's so much more happening there. Each roaster has their unique approach to roasting and style which results in a huge variety of unique options for us to enjoy. In this episode, we break down just one of the parts of roasting which is color. From l...

Is pour over coffee really better than french press coffee? Although that's been an industry standard for the last decade, we argue why french press coffee ( immersion brewing ) is in some ways a better way to make coffee at home than pour overs ( percolation brewing ). We also venture into talking about the aeropress and the newest brewer on the market, the Tricolate brewer. Based out of Bellingh...

It was Fall of 2019 that things got really serious about starting a coffee roasting company, however, it was in the talks long before that. For years before our launch, we have been discussing how we can impact the coffee industry, especially at origin, and our dream of starting a coffee company. It finally fell into place. In this episode of Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions, we talk about the orig...

Specialty coffee is growing rapidly and taking over the coffee industry slowly but surely. Delicious coffee is accessible now more than it ever has. We're not just talking about the light roast trend because there's so much more that is happening, and we couldn't be more excited about it! Based in Bellingham, WA Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mirrorcoffeeroasters/

This last week, we were setup for an incredible opportunity that almost felt like a dream. It was everything we talked about when we entertained the idea of starting a coffee bar. As tough conversations went on and on, at the last minute we realized this wasn't the right decision to make. Sometimes saying no is the right thing to do even when it's hard. Based in Bellingham, WA Find us on Instagram...

Over the past year, we have dove into the world of social media and even more specifically, the coffee content of social media. It's been such a pleasure to be able to find other coffee enthusiast, get to know them, and be inspired creatively by the art they've made. The coffee community on these social media platforms are absolutely incredible! That being said, it's not always perfect, and we cov...

Years ago, coffee wasn’t a thing for us. At least not the way it is right now, however, through several travel and cultural experiences, that has changed significantly. In this coffee podcast episode, we dive into some of the most memorable experiences we’ve had in foreign countries that has transformed how we see coffee. Based out of Bellingham, Washington Find us on Instagram: https://www.instag...

The other week, we were asked on Instagram, "How do you get into specialty coffee as a beginner?" In addition to that, we found ourselves discussing what is specialty coffee to start with! We absolutely loved this question because at one point we were exposed to specialty coffee, got into it, and then eventually it changed our lives completely. In this coffee roaster warm up session, we discuss ou...

Buying green coffee is arguably one of the most important aspects of a coffee roasting company. With an endless amount of possibilities and options out there, how does one decide which coffee to buy? In this episode, we discuss one of the several key aspects we look for in coffee which is the flavor profile. Based out of Bellingham, WA Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mirrorcoffeero...

Cold brew is a beverage we're all too familiar with yet we don't think it gets talked about enough especially in specialty coffee. After our recent collaboration with Stemma Brewing out of Bellingham, WA, it has come to our attention that cold brew coffee can be sweet, complex, and not your average brew.  In this episode of Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions, we talk about some of the biggest as...

As a coffee roasting company, we're always pursuing excellence in all we do. This is great until it starts to hurt us and stunt our growth. Both of us are perfectionist, and we've also noticed how much it has suppressed us from living out our full potential and growing.  In this Coffee Roaster Warm Up Session, we talk about what that's like dealing with perfectionism while still going after e...

We just passed our first year since starting our coffee roasting company, and it's been a wild ride. So many unexpected events happened and we learned a lot as a business. In this Coffee Roaster Warm-Up Session, we talk about some of the things we have learned as a new coffee company in its first year. Thank you so much for the support! We are looking forward to this upcoming year.

This was such an enjoyable conversation to have as we looked back over the many years of experiencing the holiday season. From the scent of the holidays to iconic Christmas movies, and even experiencing world record snowfall, the holidays are always such a unique and memorable part of the year for us. Reminisce with us on these classic holiday season memories.

We live in a world of one-click orders, quick shipping times, endless sign ups to subscriptions, and impulse purchases that can be made far too easily. Although not all of these things are bad, we think being a bit more intentional will dramatically improve our quality of life. Intentional living could be in your spending, time management, decision making, and more. In this Coffee Roaster Warm Up...

Today we talk about the recent natural disaster that hit Central America. A coffee importer we work with in Guatemala shared the news on social media, and it felt so personal for us. We have bought coffee from these countries that were hit by Hurricane Eta, and to know their families and communities were heavily impacted moved us deeply. These moments have significant future impacts for these comm...

The coffee industry is an industry that is undergoing a lot of change. The specialty coffee subcategory is fairly small yet growing quite rapidly, but like all things, there are a lot of difficulties we have to wrestle with when things are developing through their younger stages. We talk about what the year 2020 has done to the coffee industry and the incredible support we felt from people support...