Devin Chapman has an extraordinary resume. He started his career in coffee as the first employee at Coava, then moved to Verve, and then La Colombe. All three of those roasters have been featured by Angels' Cup and we love working with them. Perhaps even more impressive, however, is the fact that Devin began competing after only 6 months on the job at Coava. His list of accomplishments include: - 5th Place, United States Barista Championship Finals, 2015 - Northwest Regional Barista Champion, 2013 - 4th Place, United States Barista Championship Finals, 2012 - Northwest Regional Barista Champion, 2012 - Northwest Regional Brewers Cup Champion, 2012 - United States Barista Championship Semi-finalist, 2011 - Northwest Regional Brewers Cup Champion, 2011 Now Devin is working for Tartine Bakery, known for their exception breads, and launching a coffee roasting operation within Tartine called the Coffee Manufactory. In this interview we chat about all the things Devin has learned as his career has progressed, what coffee competitions like the Barista Championship mean to average coffee consumers, and what makes Tartine and the Coffee Manufactory special. Want to follow along after the podcast's over? Here's where you can find Devin on Instagram @devchap, Twitter @devchap, and the Manufactory on Instagram @coffeemanufactory.

Favorite Quotes:

I think coming in as the solo employee amongst the owners also meant that as they started to get pulled away to focus on other things, as roasting volumes went up, it opens up opportunities for me to step into more responsibility at an accelerate rate. Based on my personality, that was challenge for me to get as good, as knowledgable, as dialed in as possible, as quickly as I could. The first 6 months at Coava was this very intense incubation period for me to learn as much as I could with almost any resource at my fingertips.

One of the most brilliant things about the coffee industry at large is that for those of us that are obsessive learners, there's infinite opportunities to keep growing, to keep learning, keep discovering new things. And that's so exciting. It gets me out of bed in the morning to be quite honest. Competition definitely taps into that, but I would say that's one of the biggest things that I've learned is that there's an immense amount of growth opportunities. And the hard and humble work of thoroughly owning every thing you say and do really stimulates me.

The #1 word that I use to describe what it's like to taste Tartine bread is that it is "alive". There's tartness from the fermentation of the dough, this incredibly gooey texture, it's sweet and the way that the taste experience from start to finish, especially if you get it when it's hot. One of the best meal I had last year was a hot loaf of Tartine bread in Dolores park and just like ripping off hunks of it and just eating plain bread. Cause it's crispy and crunchy and soft and chewy.

As our customer base is informed and educated, and as they fall in love the same way that a lot of coffee professionals have, the value of coffee in their mind continues to go up and up and up. Maybe 2 years ago people would have been reluctant to spend $12 for 12oz of coffee, and now maybe they're excited to spend $18. All of this is funneling toward having more people think that coffee is more valuable than they think it is today. To me that's what everything connects to. If people look at coffee and see it as more valuable, it means there's willing to give more money and that goes back to farmers. And that improves the quality of life for people around the world that really need it. A lot of coffee professionals truly connect with that. But man, I think about how much we're learning now and how much we'll know in 20 years, while still pushing ourselves to learn and grow. It's going to be an amazing journey.

In Ep. 10 we chat with Ben Jones, Director of Education at Ristretto Roasters and 2016 US Aeropress Champion! After getting to know Ben a little bit, we dive right into his Aeropress recipe (see table below). We also get to learn a little bit about what Ben does as the Director of Education at Ristretto Roasters and he shares some tips to help us be better coffee tasters!

We all know good coffee grows near the equator. Ethiopia, Kenya, Colombia, Guatemala, Panama. Aside from a few outliers like Hawaii, it doesn't grow further north than southern Mexico. And for the most part it grows in poor countries. The cherries all ripen at a different time making picking by hand the preferred method, too expensive at $10 minimum wage. ... So why is one farmer trying to grow coffee in California?

Good Land Organics - California Grown Coffee

I first exchanged emails with Jay, owner of Good Land Organics, when he subscribed to Angels' Cup. His email address rang a bell because I had just watched this youtube video on the LA coffee scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYryKbPjm4s It's really a short documentary that first takes us on a tour of the Good Land Organics farm, and then to an Intelligentsia cupping table where it's on the table with Geishas. Here's their conclusion:

"Pretty damn good for a California coffee, that's exciting to see. It definitely surprised me, the coffee was more complex than I expected, it really surprised us all. Pretty awesome, that's a victory for California coffee."

That's a solid endorsement from a reputable company, that wasn't under any pressure to say nice things. I haven't actually tried the coffee yet, so I can't really weigh in on the conversation. But the 2016 harvest is starting now and those coffees should be hitting the market in a few month. I'll be first on line, super excited to give them a try!

Favorite Excerpts

I think variety is the biggest driver in quality. And then then whole post-harvest world, there's a lot to learn. There's a lot of things you can do to accentuate the varieties, either define a region or re-define a region. Jay was a little crazy to start growing coffee 13 years ago, but today it's not so crazy. That's because the specialty industry has really caught up and consumers are more educated on the origins of coffee and are willing to spend more money. I believed that we had a market, and then I pushed us to stick our heads out and send product to coppers to get some honest feedback. And that was very scary but we got some positive feedback which was very encouraging! The reason we have 13 varietals is because originally when I started I thought what plan would survive - they all survived. I said ok which one is going to produce - the all produce. And then we said which one is going to cup well enough - the call cupped between 82-89 in the first year. I'd say that we will constantly be developing the flavor profiles of our coffees. But we have reached a level where we're able to selling all of our product every year. And I've been able to ask a price point that lets us sustain coffee growing here. Diversity of farms is essential for our food system. Coffee has opened my eyes to say there are companion crops. Things like avocado and coffee and passion fruit have all grown in very diverse ecological climates, jungles. It's only modern agricultural systems mainly derived from crops like wheat and corm where we look at monoculture systems. Then we take fruit trees and put them in that monoculture system, and what I like to see is having a diverse system. Originally it was looking at an ecologically diverse system, and that's kinda cool. But what's really capturing the eye is can we have an ecologically diverse system that's also economically diverse. So that you have crops that cash flow differently. We're looking at farming a system that no longer just who can get the highest yield on avocados, but who can get the highest yield. Who can get the best profit and revenue with the least water resources and nutrition. Jay likes growing things that other people think he can't. That may be what inspired him originally to try it out. Eventually the excitement and the hugeness of the coffee industry and the impact we may be able to have it is what inspires us today.