As a wholesale roaster in the coffee industry it’s so important to know your capabilities and what coffees fit best for your customers. Here is an example of this. But in this case, the customers were Coffee Judges.
The Coffee Roasters Guild had their annual retreat in 2023 in Blaine Washington. It was my 20th time I had attended this event. I attended with my son Ben (his first RG Retreat) and another of our production employees.
We had three attendees from Thornton Family Coffee Roasters (TFCR). The RG had their usual team competition. 175 people broken down to 17 teams. All three of us ended up on separate teams.
The goal: to win the event and bring home the trophy by developing a blend that would be a first place winner. We had three people on different teams, so three chances out of 17 teams, for a first place win.
My son Ben is head roaster for TFCR. His brain is a sponge. What goes into it seems to stay there. He absorbed a decade of information from being an amazing listener in less than five years.
Ben mentored by my side for five years. We still roast together but he is now our head roaster and runs our production. He continues to learn the details of coffee roasting. All of the details. This includes matching roast profiles to specific events, clients and their demographics.
Work toward understanding what fits best for who.
The Roasters Guild competition: The rules required each team to spend two days developing one single blend and submit a 2lb sample into the tasting competition.
The judges in Blaine, the ones who were scoring the various teams blend submissions were the customer!
All three of our attendees spent the next 24 hours interviewing the judges. Although they likely didn’t know it. It was through casual conversation. We needed to learn what type of roast profiles the judges preferred.
The result, Ben’s team took first place, mine took third (yes, my sons first competition beat my 40+ years of coffee experience), and our other employee’s team took fourth. My heart was so full! Our head roaster, my son, knew the goal and took the trophy home.
Ben understood the goal. Made it not about him. Ben managed his team toward what the demographic liked. Not necessarily what the team liked. He reminded his team that it’s not about them. But what the judges like. And he did it with strong willed people who had more years of experience.
It goes to show you, it’s so important to know your capabilities and what fits best for your customers. Bravo Ben!
