Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions

Many of us have had a coffee enlightenment at some point in our lives. That moment you taste your first natural process Ethiopian, and you realize the bitter, instant coffee you grew up on was falling short of an amazing coffee experience. The complex flavor of coffee is why we're so meticulous about farming, processing, roasting, and brewing. On the other hand, we've realized that it has become s...

Owning a small business is challenging, rewarding, fun, and a huge learning experience. Over the last two and a half years of running a coffee roasting business, we've had to grow in ways we didn't expect to grow. Although many people start business to make more money, there is so much more benefits that come with it. In this episode of the Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions, we talk about the skills...

Coffee roasting is much more complex than just turning coffee brown. Dialing in the best roast for each coffee is both an art and skill, but maintaining peak quality is just as important. How does a roaster maintain quality as the green coffee changes over time? How do we make sure each roast tastes up to the standard of our initial dial in? In this episode of the Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions p...

We took last week off to head out of town for Sergei's birthday. It was a much needed vacation. We drove to Portland, OR with plans to enjoy the city's coffee scene and enjoy all the delicious food it. What caught us by surprise was a Cup of Excellence coffee tasting that our friends Onyx Coffee were hosting with a couple world class coffee producers. In this coffee podcast episode of the Coffee R...

Recently, we were recording some video content about our business model, vision and mission, and the goals for the near future. We were left asking ourselves, what would happen if we failed as a coffee roasting business? What is at stake in the grand scheme of things? This led to a much needed conversation that hopefully will leave you inspired to look towards your goals in your personal and profe...

Coffee processing plays a huge role in flavor, and may be one of the most important steps in the entire coffee supply chain. Although we may have seen washed, honey, and natural processed coffees on the shelf at the local coffee shop, we may not know what those words mean and what is happening at the farm level. Now with the rise of many experimental processing, words and labels are getting even m...

Starting any business from scratch is intimidating. There are so many rules to follow and things that need to be done right especially when it comes to taxes, city permits, laws, and so much more is in involved. Several folks from our audience has reached out with questions about launching a start up as a coffee roasting business or a coffee brand. Although we can't answer all the questions since...

Change is inevitable, and in today's modern time, the world is constantly changing ever so quickly. Owning and running a coffee roasting company is no different. From keeping up with new coffee brewers, green coffee buying, and roasting to constantly learning about business, scaling, and more social media platforms, everything is asking for attention. In todays episode, we talk about some of the c...

The Hario V60 coffee brewer has become one of the most popular brewers in the coffee industry. Whether you use it every day for your pour overs or you keep seeing it appear in cafes, movies, and Instagram posts, it's a far from anything new, and that's for some very good reasons. For us it's become our daily driver, and we thought it might be worth doing a dive into all things Hario V60. Tune in t...

Coffee is one of the most popular commodities in the world and runs on a complex supply chain. If we're being honest, it's far from perfect. From low wages to climate change, there are real issues at hand that we should seek to solve, but we're not the only industry with problems. Kenna Warren joins the podcast as she talks about her studies in social entrepreneurship and what she has found in the...

Transitioning from being a multi-roaster cafe to a coffee roasting company is not easy. Roasting itself has a lot of technical skills that need to be learned, mastered, and executed on. On the other hand, there are some unforeseen challenges that don't get talked about often. We have our good friend and fellow roaster, Tim Shenkin, on this week's episode. Tim is the manager of Makeworth Market in...

NFTs took the internet by storm in 2019 - 2022. Many people, including ourselves, were confused why jpeg images were selling for thousands of images. The NFT space started to look like a scam and virtual fade that sounded ridiculous to the everyday web user. As much as wanted to shake it off as unimportant, we were intrigued by the phenomena and started looking into it. After hours of podcasts, Yo...

Few things compare to the satisfying feeling of buying coffee gear that check all your boxes, preferences, stylistic choices, and ultimately empower you to brew a tasty cup. That being said, more coffee gear is being released than ever before. New gear is fun, but is it all worth it. In this episode of the Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions, we break down some of our experiences with roasting equipme...

Baristas do a lot more than just make coffee at a coffee shop. They're the ones cleaning up spills, washing floors during closing, and communicating with customers from all backgrounds. In addition to serving an excellent cup of coffee that is dialed and brewed with precision, there's so much more that's happening in the background that isn't talked about. In this episode of the Coffee Roaster War...

Koji Process. You may have heard of it, and we wouldn't be surprised if you haven't. it's a fairly new experimental coffee processing method, and it's innovative. Over the last decade, we've seen experimental processing become more and more popular yielding some very interesting flavor profiles in coffee that previously were not possible. Koji takes it up a notch, but have these processing methods...

Home baristas are changing the coffee industry. From gear becoming more and more affordable with the access to information and education only increasing over time, it's given room for this niche crowd to grow exponentially. If you could pull an incredible shot of espresso from any roaster in the world at home, then why would you go to a cafe? In this episode, we talk about the ever growing popular...

From the beginning, starting a coffee roasting company was never just about coffee. There's always been an underlying purpose and vision beyond the coffee bean, and layering that on top of our passions and interests outside of the coffee industry has given roasting coffee fresh life. In this episode, we talk about the community that has helped us reach 10,000 streams on podcast platforms and the o...

Being a small business let alone a coffee roasting business is not easy. On the other hand, it is not much easier running a larger coffee roasting operation. There are trade offs and difficulties in both, however, we're all facing some very unique challenges as global tensions rise, c-market is reaching new highs, and coffee yields are fluctuating around the world.

Sergei just got back from competing in Coffee Fest New York in their latte art competition. He placed in the top 16! We cover a wide range of topics from travel, his preparation for competition, and what made competing for him such a great experience.

Buying and roasting new coffee is always such an exciting process. From tasting the samples to packaging and selling it for folks to enjoy at home, it comes with its fair share of discovery, nuance, and of course challenges. These challenges can come from green coffee quality, logistical issues, and so much more. One of the tasks we need to maneuver is roasting a coffee for the first time. In this...

In this industry of craftsmanship, we're always looking for ways to boost our understanding of coffee. Over the years, we've seen huge advancements in great resources for learning more about coffee, however, this tried and true method will take your understanding to the next level.   In this episode, we talk about the one thing that will take your coffee knowledge to the next level!

We launched Mirror Coffee Roasters in Bellingham, WA in December of 2019, and since then we've had the opportunity to source, roast, and serve really incredible coffees. Our job as a coffee roasting company is to source, roast, and share these delicious coffees, but what does a podcast have anything to do with it? As we hit our 50th podcast episode, we want to reflect back on how this has become o...

Maxwell Mooney has been in the coffee industry for nearly a decade now, and in the next few weeks he will be opening up the second location of Narrative Coffee here in Bellingham, WA. His expertise in the industry and experience starting two coffee shops made for a powerful conversation. We were so excited to chat with him, and listen to what he had to say about the coffee industry. In this episod...

Competing in specialty coffee is exciting for many of us in the industry. For us, coffee competitions go beyond just receiving a shiny award. Whether you're competing in the barista championships, coffee roasting competitions, or any of the many other categories, there's something more about these events that resonates with us. In today's episode on the Coffee Roaster Warm Up Sessions, we break do...

Our small town, Bellingham, WA, has become quite the coffee hub over the years with several big plans of expansion in the near future. If we're being honest, we did not see this huge explosion of specialty coffee in Bellingham coming. To see it unravel before our eyes with popularity in the last five years has been extraordinary. In this episode, we talk about the history and journey of our small...