Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions

We're starting a podcast series on how to level up in coffee. This series is all about what we can do as those working in the coffee industry to get better at our craft. We're hoping this series is filled with practical steps that you can start making immediately in your coffee journey. This episode is an introduction and general overview of how we're approaching leveling up and coveri...

A little less than 50% of businesses fail in their first five years. As we approach 5 years as a business, we're reevaluating where we're at, whether or not we want to keep doing this, and what it will take to keep going for the next five years. In this episode, we give a few pointers for reevaluating your coffee businesses and how to decide when to quit.

Taboo coffee orders. The drinks you get on a rare occasion that you don't want to be caught secretly really enjoying. In all seriousness though, does it have to be that way? Do syrups in drinks have to be looked upon? In this episode we take about some of our taboo coffee orders and the role specialty beverages play in coffee shops!

There's been a lot of buzz around co-fermented coffees lately. With new regulations allowing these coffees to be used in competition, it's becoming increasingly controversial as the industry opens its doors to this processing method. Despite progress in this direction, it's not coming without a lot of push back. In this episode, we talk about what folks are saying as well as sharing ou...

It's SCA Expo season! Unfortunately, we weren't able to make it, but we did hear all the talk about the latest coffee gear released this year. We have thoughts. In this episode of the Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions, we cover some of the releases that stood out to us at SCA Expo 2024.

Most coffee shops offer pastries with their beverages, and it's becoming popular to have a breakfast food menu as well. Is having a food menu necessary? In this episode, we talk about some of the great experiences we've had at coffee shops as well as what are some of the businesses pros and cons of serving a food menu.

Narrative Coffee, here in WA, models excellence very well. Everything from their coffee program to their food menu is refined for a very pleasant experience. Alex Scariotta, the new owner of Narrative Coffee, shares more about what it they're doing at Narrative, his personal story of growth in coffee, and how important it is to build an exceptional team in coffee.

Starting a coffee shop or a coffee roastery are both challenging and a risk. After having started a roasting company and helped owners start cafes, we've noticed some of the differences between these two coffee businesses. In this episode, we take apart the pros and cons of starting both a coffee shop and a roasting company.

This past week, decaf coffee got the spotlight and it happened to be at the US Brewers Cup Championship. The 2024 USBrC winner, Weihong Zhang, wins first place competing with a decaf coffee. This is a huge turning point to see decaf crush at a competition and it wasn't even a Gesha! In this podcast episode, we talk about decaf, where we see this going, and some of our favorite decaf coffees we...

A special episode with Jimmy The Barista where we talk about what his journey has been like creating content around coffee, how he started in coffee, and his mindset in growing as a creator. Listen until the end because there are so many insightful pieces of information for creatives, coffee shop owners, and roasters. Subscribe to Jimmy: https://www.youtube.com/@jimmythebarista Jimmy's IG: htt...

As a coffee roaster, offering wholesale to coffee shops is core to our business model. For us, however, it's not just about getting more coffee out the door. Coffee roasters and coffee shops should be working together to help each other thrive and succeed. In this episode, we talk about how we set coffee shops up for success when they partner with us.

As coffee roasters, we understand that we can only roast a coffee to the potential of the green coffee itself. In many cases, we're doing our best to try to maximize the potential of each coffee and minimize the loss it may go through in the roasting process. That being said, starting with quality, fresh green is plays a vital role to roasting good coffee. In this episode, we specifically talk...

Coffee competition has always intrigued us, and these last few months have been very busy because of that. Sergei just came back from competing in both cup tasters and brewers cup, and in this episode we talk about his prep, routine, and what it takes to compete on the national level.

Something we hear and are asked often is how we brew coffee based on origin. The same goes for our roasting approach as well. In this episode we talk about how different origins impact the brewing and roasting process and if it's even as important as we think it is.

When brewing pour over coffee, for the most part you're left with either a flat bottom or cone shape brewer. Both of the major categories come with their own nuances, flavor profiles, and recipes. In this podcast episode, we dive into our experiences with brewers like the Orea, V60, and Stagg brewer as well as how we approach brewing with them.

Recently, we've heard of several well known coffee brands sell either a big chunk or all of their business to other big brands. Oftentimes people call this selling out and paint in negative light, but is that always the case? In this episode, we share our thoughts and look at past acquisition to get a better idea of what this could mean.

We've all been there. You order a coffee at a coffee shop and the barista asks you to answer a few simple questions on the screen. Tipping your barista is normal, and we believe it should happen, however, with the increase in tipping amounts and inflation, has it gone too far? What are tips in hospitality for? We answer these questions in episode 130 of the Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions podc...

We've been running our coffee roasting business for 4 years now, and we're still learning old and new things in the process. As 2023 comes to an end, we're reflecting back on two big things that we're walking away with that being owners of Mirror Coffee Roasters taught us.

This year flew by fast, and very quickly did we pocket another year as a coffee roasting company. It's been an incredible year of relationships, connection, incredible coffee, and competition. In this episode of the Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions podcast, we look back at the year and reminisce on our favorite moments of the year.

The holidays are always bringing people together and there's a good chance coffee will make its way amongst conversation and gatherings. This is a great opportunity to expose people to tasty coffee and hopefully give them the eye opening experience many of us have had about coffee. In this episode, we share a few tips on how to get your friends and family hooked on the world of coffee they may...

Filter roasts and espresso roasts have been around for a while in coffee, however, are they absolutely necessary? Can't you just have one roast for both brew methods? In this episode, we touch up on the pros and cons of different roasts for different brew methods and why for now we've chosen an omni roast approach.

Coffee roasting, water chemistry, and coffee flavor notes are all linked together and are a bit more complicated than we'd like. Both coffee roasting and water chemistry create a flavor experience unique to the combination, however, when one is off, things usually are thrown off.

Roasting coffee is similar to dialing in a cup of coffee or shot of espresso. Under and over extracting your coffee leaves you with an unpleasant taste in your mouth, and there's nothing better than a perfect extraction. The same goes for roasting, and in this episode, we dive into how we perceive dialing in our batches and what we're tasting for in our QC.

This is a Q&A episode where we got some questions from you and answered them on the podcast. We cover a few topics including today's coffee culture, what we did professionally before starting Mirror, and our greatest fears and dreams.

An eventful few weeks for the coffee industry with new gear rolling out at World of Coffee in Milan as well as recent coffee news that's worth highlighting. On this episode, we highlight the new Mahlkonig EK Omnia, the updated La Marzocco Strada X, and the recent news with Alaska Airlines.