WEBVTT
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Hello and welcome to the Tower Coffee Hour.
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This is Preston or Ty Tyree, and I was able to sit down with John Mills and his son Quentin in their garage here in Miller this week.
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John has a coffee roaster in his garage and provides many different coffee options to friends and neighbors.
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We talked about John's early life.
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He's a Texas native, having been born in Midland, but has lived outside of Detroit, Michigan, in London, England, and in Cape Town, South Africa.
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And his family is from Australia, so it's interesting talking with him.
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John's moved to Austin and finally to Miller, gave him a chance to get a small commercial coffee roaster.
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John has created a coffee roastery in his garage and supplies many different varieties of beans roasted to order.
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I took advantage of his subscription plan to get one order of coffee each month for$15.
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I am looking forward to taste testing some of his specialty roasts.
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So please join John Quentin and me in John's garage to talk about coffee.
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John, it's awfully nice to meet you and Quentin.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Really nice to meet you as well.
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Thank you, Quentin.
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Tell me more about you.
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Where were you born?
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All right.
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So uh When were you born?
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When was I born?
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Where was I born?
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I was born in Texas.
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I was born out in West Texas in a little town called Midland.
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That alone is kind of an interesting story because you know, typically people from Midland are very involved in sort of oil and petroleum.
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Sort of, yes.
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Uh not everybody, but some of them.
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And my family wasn't.
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Uh in fact, my dad, he he's Australian.
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My mom, she's from New York, but she had been living in Australia with him for a number of years.
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And my two older siblings were actually born in in Adelaide, in Australia.
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And my dad, he uh would build, he was working for a race team where he would build performance race engines, uh, different cars.
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I forget the name of the league itself, but this was yeah, sort of back in uh back in the 60s and 70s.
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And they they had sort of an abrupt change in their in that team, and they they moved to uh this little town in in West Texas.
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And my dad, I don't think, had ever been to West Texas before.
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Neither my mom, I suppose.
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None of us had actually been to Texas before.
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And this is sort of funny because there's this sort of this racing culture, uh small pocket of racing uh out there.
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And so there's this team that was ended up building not Formula One, but uh indie car uh engines.
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Indy cars in Texas, yeah, in Texas.
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Okay, and in in Midland of Texas uh of all places.
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And uh anyway, so a few years after they moved to Texas, uh, I was born and and I lived there for 13 years or so before so moved out, I think it was like sixth or seventh grade, and we moved to Michigan, which is a what year was that that you were born?
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I was born in 1985.
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So I was born in 1985.
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So I moved when I was 13.
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So it was right around millennia.
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So it was nineteen, I think it was 1999.
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We moved.
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So we moved to Michigan.
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And so there was like a bit more of a natural fit for for racing.
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It was for for my dad's company.
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And so yeah, so that's so that's sort of when I when I think about like uh uh childhood or home, I think about probably not so much Midland, Texas, in spite of you know, I lived there for a good 13 years.
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I I think of more of Michigan.
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I think of just you were in Midland when you were at Quentin's age.
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Correct.
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Quentin is nine.
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Yes, all right.
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That's cool.
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I didn't know that.
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Yeah.
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We're here today with John and Quentin Mills.
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John is an older one sitting here in the chair.
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Quentin is our friend standing with us, and we're gonna talk about their lives and coffee.
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You're in Michigan, you go through school, you get out, you start working, I assume, doing something.
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What?
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Yeah.
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So this is another, right?
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Actually, as I sort of moved into Michigan, I got really interested in computers.
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Okay.
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So particularly like uh programming, just getting like really curious about like how computers work.
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And this is also the time that the web was becoming really alive.
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Like the internet was become very popular, and I was really fascinated with particularly the like the internet.
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Not not as much as like like writing code for like building a video game, but really like how services and products are connected.
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That was really fascinating to me.
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And so through uh from a very early age, I learned really how to write code and program computers.
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And in fact, I think that's probably an interesting segue into coffee, but I'll hold back on that story for a minute.
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So learned how to code, spent that was sort of my hobby.
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I even in high school, I went to one of the high schools where they had a computer science class.
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And it was one of the sort of like early computer science classes, and I just a fantastic teacher who really taught me more than just writing code, but just like how to how to work with it, how to understand it.
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Yeah.
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I would he he was my first period teacher, and I was always late.
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And then after high school, I had an opportunity to work professionally as like a software engineer.
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It was just a very small company, it was a startup with these two brothers, and we had, and they sort of invited me in and they sort of like showed me the ropes.
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And this was great.
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And I knew at the time, like I knew I wanted to go to college.
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I I wasn't sure what I wanted to do in college, though, because I hadn't I had enough of a foundation of computer science and sort of the the fundamentals there that I I wasn't uh it didn't really spark my joy or spark my curiosity of I want to go learn something.
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And so I delayed going to college for a few years and I ended up working for this company.
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This company ended up being fairly successful.
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Gwynn, have you heard this story before?
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No.
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No, good.
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I'm gonna quiz you on it later.
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This is this is good.
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Thanks, yeah.
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You're gonna come into the story very soon, actually.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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The company that I was working for, we we ended up getting acquired as as as as good good companies can.
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And then after that, we actually acquired a company in in London, in the UK.
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So at the time I was maybe 20, I forget exactly how old I was, maybe say 23, 24, 25.
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I remember very vividly I had this.
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I went into work sort of an average day, and I remember my boss, he comes into me, comes to me and he says, Hey, you know, I know like, you know, you don't have you don't have a house, you don't have a dog.
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Would you be interested in moving to London?
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Because you you sort of work on this project.
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We want to move this project out to the UK, where this company is.
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This would be a good opportunity to, you know, just like handle like an acquisition, like a good from a business side really well.
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But also like to build a culture, like an engineering, like a software engineering culture was basically jumped at the chance.
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So they were you know they were gonna fly me out there, put me up.
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And I was coming from a you know a little town outside of Detroit to moving into London.
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Um, I have a question.
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Did anyone go on the plane with you?
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Like anyone like nobody I knew.
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Okay.
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I went all on my own.
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Wow.
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Yeah.
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And so I got there and and the company was great.
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I and London is such a fun city.
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Oh, yeah.
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Really fun.
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Yeah.
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Okay, so you're in London, and uh I'm assuming that's where you met your South African wife.
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Yeah, so that's where you're you're gonna come to the story in a minute.
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So, yeah, so that's where I met Faye.
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She's so she's South South uh South African.
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She'd been living in London at the time for I think about 16 years.
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I shouldn't know that, but I think about 16 years.
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She had actually done a similar move.
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So when I moved from Texas to Michigan around 13, she had moved from uh Cape Town to London at a similar age.
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Okay.
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You know, as much as I I love love London, I still do.
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It sometimes can be confusing.
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You know, I I think for a big city, it's the one of the least confusing cities.
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Really?
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What I what really drove me away from London is the weather.
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And and I, you know it's like this.
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It's a lot like this.
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It's like every day.
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Every day.
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It's a little, it's just too cold.
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It is too wet.
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And it feels like you're walking to Alaska every day without like the actual fact of s factor of snow.
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No snow in London.
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Well, some snow in London.
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Yeah, but not.
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Not much.
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Yeah.
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Not a not like snowing at all.
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But that's why they talk about a foggy day in London.
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Foggy day in London.
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Yeah.
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Like that's their equivalent of snow and ice.
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Exactly.
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Yeah.
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I think uh maybe a small part of my story, my childhood story, is uh when I when we had moved from from Texas to Michigan, we had actually left one of my siblings behind because she is about seven years older than I am.
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And so she had actually was she was just going to college at the time.
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Okay.
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So she went to uh St.
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Edwards University back in, I don't know exactly that, 1998 or something.
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I don't know.
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So we we left her here.
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And so she had actually always she's a she's a longtime Austinite, and and she's still here.
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Uh she although recently had moved to to Bathstrop.
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And so I had this connection back here in Austin.
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And so when she and I got together and I said, Hey, not really enjoying this this London thing, would you be interested in coming back to Austin with me?
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And so one thing led to another.
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So she got here.
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Yeah.
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And we moved into a little bungalow in Cherrywood.
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Oh, sure.
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And we had lived in Cherrywood for about 10 years.
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During that time, Quentin, you you emerged.
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That was nine years ago.
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Nine years ago.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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We, you know, and when Mueller was coming, you saw the the beginning.
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Yeah, we did because we were so close and we knew a lot of friends here, and we would just constantly be on on the website saying, Oh, this house is really cool.
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You know, it took me a long time to come around to the idea.
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But I mean, but realistically, it was over the course of years that we would look.
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In fact, like where we are now, it didn't even exist when we started looking.
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It did not, yeah.
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One time I was using my metal detector in our backyard, and I pulled out like a small shard of an airplane.
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Wow.
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That's really cool.
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Hope it's not one that crashed.
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Anyway, so that was a bit of a fun to do.
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We're gonna get back into a discussion later at the end.
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Yeah, I think we need to talk more about it.
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We need to talk about coffee.
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All right, yeah, let's go for it.
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Because I feel like we've been talking about his life more than coffee.
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We've been talking about your dad, right?
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Yeah, yeah, okay.
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And then the next question is how did you go from being a software engineer?
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Are you still a software engineer?
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I am, yeah.
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Okay, yeah.
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How did you make that step into coffee?
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Yeah.
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You know, what was that first?
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You know, I might want to roast this stuff.
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That's not normal conversation.
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Yeah, it's like not your first idea.
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So it's a it's a really good story.
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Oh, I think it's a really good story.
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And so coffee, coffee for me has always been a a delight, for lack of a better word.
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A real delight for me.
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And so when I was sort of learning how to coat, I was the sort of typical, I think typical person where I would love to stay up extra late, working on a project, getting something done, and I would just drink coffee nonstop.
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It wasn't fancy coffee, it was probably Folgers in your cup coffee.
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Uh, I in fact, I don't even know the name of the coffee that my parents had when I was growing up.
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I do remember the Folgers tin, of course, but but it was typical to just drip coffee, and I would drink it black, and I loved it.
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I never really enjoyed milk, a little bit maybe, but mostly it was just black coffee.
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And from an early age, like probably that sort of 13, 14, age.
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You know, coffee is just what you like.
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You know, it doesn't you don't have to sol follow the trends, you don't you just drink what you like.
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And the yeah, so so my so my background.
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That's a really good lesson for most of life.
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Okay.
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You do what you like, make sure it's reasonable, but yeah, yeah, you don't have to follow the pack.
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I've always liked coffee, but but there was never this sort of like particular moment.
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But I was always I would always sort of identify as like a coffee person.
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Like I every time I would travel, I'd go somewhere going into great, thank you.
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Whenever I would travel to you travel, I'd grab a coffee.
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In college, though, there was this one particular coffee shop that uh I would I would frequent, and my my favorite drink would always be an iced Americano.
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I'd put a little bit of milk in there, and I I'd sort of I'd always grab that right before class.
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And I don't know if I actually finished that story.
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I did end up getting a degree.
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I actually have a degree in economics, uh, of all things.
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That's all again, it's to your point, a whole other story.
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But yes, I did get a I did get a degree.
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And so I'd always go to this coffee shop.
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It wasn't really until after Quinn was born that we we actually had moved temporarily to to Cape Town, just after he was born.
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Wow.
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So this is in South Africa.
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So basically, this I mean, the quick story is you know, after he was born, uh, we wanted to be a little bit closer to family.
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So we moved out there and we we stayed there for maybe a little under two years, but about two years.
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Okay.
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This was probably if I'm honest, this was probably the first time that I really understood what it meant to be a to have a coffee culture.
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You know, Cape Town is not a typical coffee place, or it doesn't even come up in a coffee culture.
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It didn't come to mind immediately.
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No, yeah, it's more of a wine place, but their coffee culture is really strong.
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And so every everywhere you go, really, like whether it's every restaurant, like farm stall, they're on different farms, on the road, on traveling, they would always have uh a barista and a really nice espresso machine.
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So their typical drinks are espresso drinks, so like a cappuccino, flatlight, lattes.
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We went over there, got really into the coffee culture there.
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So the company I was working for, uh it was a tech startup, but they had a it was a really cool office, sort of in the cent in the central business district of Cape Town.
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And you could see Table Mountain in the background.
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And everything was very nice.
00:13:51.759 --> 00:13:55.279
It was probably arguably one of the nicest offices I've ever worked worked in.
00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:59.039
And they had a barista, an on high on a step barista.
00:13:59.360 --> 00:13:59.679
Okay.
00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:01.279
And and he was fantastic.
00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.120
And every morning you'd go in, you'd wait in this very long line, and you would chat.
00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:11.759
And it was sort of, it became like a company culture almost of you know, people talking about sort of what they're gonna work on their day, but also meeting different people.
00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:14.879
Um, it wasn't a big company, but it was probably like three or four hundred people.
00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:15.759
Oh, yeah.
00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:22.960
And and that's when I started to really just sort of get really curious, really interested in like, okay, well, what am I actually drinking?
00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:29.519
So, yeah, that's kind of that was sort of my first part like big participation in like what it meant to be like a part of the coffee culture.
00:14:29.759 --> 00:14:32.639
There's so many fantastic coffee shops around Cape Town.
00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:43.039
So we'd always go for little like off-sites or like meetings off-site, walking distance from the office, grabbed coffee, and it was just this really enjoyable experience.
00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:47.759
And this was so this what's interesting now is it was around 2017, I believe.
00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:59.519
And I don't know, I always never never really know like how much this information got shared around the world news networks, but Cape Town as a city almost ran out of water, like drinking water.
00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:08.000
And basically, what it was is a result of cyclical uh dry seasons, and all of the dams where we collected water were dry.
00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:12.480
And this wasn't just sort of like a fear-mongering point.
00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:17.840
This was a very literal who could go down to the dam and see that there's no water.
00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:26.559
And so we went through this really interesting period where every day you kind of think, okay, it's gonna rain, it's gonna change, and and and and nothing really changed.
00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:31.200
And so we would progressively get closer and closer to this point of like real catastrophe.
00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:34.799
And the company I was working for, we we went through a couple of exercises.
00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:44.320
We went through these contingency planning, sort of, I don't know if you call them workshops or not, where how do we as a company continue operating if we run out of water?
00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:52.000
Now, in retrospect, maybe that sounds a little bit like the last thing you're worried about if your country runs out of water, but you know, there's some continuity question there.
00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:58.799
And so one of the continuity questions was we are going to where they sent this was before COVID.
00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:02.480
Uh, and so we didn't have nobody really had like a working from home culture.
00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:13.120
So we went through an experience where we sent everybody home and we said, you guys all need to go home, figure out how to work remotely, if it hits the fan and we run out of water.
00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:20.639
One of the first things I did, and I remember very vividly, it was a Friday, and I'm pretty sure it was right after like we had just gotten a bonus.
00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:24.960
And so I took my bonus and I went down to the store that was selling espresso machines.
00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:39.759
And I said, Well, I'm I'm so accustomed to drinking my daily espresso now that if I have to work at home where we run out of water, I need to have my the most important thing for me right now is to buy an espresso machine during this time of crisis.
00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:41.759
Yeah, of course.
00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:46.879
And so I went, I went down there, I grabbed this espresso machine, it was like this little Breville.
00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:48.559
It's a very common espresso machine nowadays.
00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:52.480
It had it was the Brevel, had a grinder built into it, brought it home.
00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:58.639
And it was the most fun, enjoyable experience because now I could finally get curious and tinker with this.
00:16:58.879 --> 00:17:04.480
So I had all the beans, I had all the water, I had all the, you know, the learning material, YouTube's books, etc.
00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:11.839
And I spent so much time just learning about how to brew and extract coffee using an espresso machine.
00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:18.640
So that for me was probably the moment at which it sort of like solidified like, okay, I'm I'm I'm more than an average coffee person.
00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:21.440
I'm like, this is more than more than just a hobby.
00:17:21.519 --> 00:17:24.720
This is actually like a thing that I really am passionate about.
00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:30.720
And so since then, you know, obviously we're back here in Austin and I've gone through a number of different espresso machines.
00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:32.480
I I unfortunately don't still have that one.
00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:33.680
I do have a part of it.
00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:34.400
It's up there actually.
00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:36.480
It's a uh it's one of the boilers that I've kept.
00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:37.519
So that was that.
00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:39.200
And so now I'm gonna fast forward a little bit.
00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:41.279
So it wasn't until about a year ago.
00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:54.160
I I forget exactly if I was on email or Instagram or something like this, but there was an ad that showed up about taking a learn, like a learning how to roast coffee course, like a roasting 101.
00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:56.079
And I was like, this sounds really interesting.
00:17:56.160 --> 00:18:01.519
And yeah, like this theme of me, I think, is yeah, you know, I get curious about things and I just want to learn more.
00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:04.799
And so I reached out to this, the food's ad.
00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:09.119
And what I actually learned is this this company, I think at the time it was maybe a relatively new company.
00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:11.519
I'm not sure exactly the timeline, but relatively new.
00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:16.480
The company is called Rising Tide Roastery, or so actually Rising Tide Collab, I think.
00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:18.480
And what it is, it's like this fascinating company.
00:18:18.559 --> 00:18:20.640
I never even thought about this idea before.
00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:28.400
But what it is is they they have a big warehouse down in South Austin, and they have these quite fancy uh coffee roasting machines.
00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:35.839
And and for people who don't know, coffee roasting machines are big, fairly hard to run, and expensive.
00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:39.440
So this is not one of what you were describing.
00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:40.880
This is definitely not.
00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:46.160
This is the smallest one, and I'm I'm gonna explain to here in a minute about my my coffee roaster.
00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:49.039
At rising tide, they actually have this exact same coffee roaster.
00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:49.359
Okay.
00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:58.079
And the the the pitch on it, the reason they have this roaster, and the reason you train on this roaster is that this is considered like a very manual roaster.
00:18:58.319 --> 00:18:58.640
Okay.
00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:07.039
Uh meaning you have you have to control the gas, the heat, the airflow, um, the timing, and all you really get is temperature sensors.
00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:07.599
And that's it.
00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:08.960
Everything else is very manual.
00:19:09.119 --> 00:19:11.359
A lot of the newer machines can be more automatic.
00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:18.559
So you plug in a roast profile and you say, okay, roast for this amount and this degree, and you etc.
00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:21.440
And so anyway, so it went down there and I was like, wow.
00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:23.119
And I knew nothing about coffee roasting.
00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:30.400
I mean, I I think I had a really good sensory development of like what good coffee tasted like, like low different local companies.
00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:34.000
But I would also get beans from all over all across the US, across the world.
00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:35.920
Like I loved experimenting with different beans.
00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:37.200
So we learned on this machine.
00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:38.799
It's called an ARC 800.
00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:41.119
It's a machine that's built out in in Taiwan.
00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:47.920
Probably the one of the simplest but most like interesting things is that I had no idea how long it takes to roast coffee.
00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:54.960
And in fact, it's kind of a fun, like trivia question for people because it takes anywhere from you know, maybe eight minutes to 10 minutes to like 12 minutes.
00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:56.720
It's a very fast process.
00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:00.319
And then I can get into some of the specifics there.
00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:08.480
And then, and but for me, it was, you know, I I I as much as I like getting into hobbies, there was something very special about roasting coffee.
00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:17.599
And I think the the particular thing that stood out to me was roasted coffee is a little bit of a scientific endeavor.
00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:21.279
So you you do have it's a very scientific approach.
00:20:21.359 --> 00:20:31.119
Like you want to like isolate variables like the the temperature that you drop the beans in from the hopper, goodness, the amount of time, the amount of temperature rise.
00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:40.160
It's a so in that part can be very scientific, but the the flip side of it is that it's also a very artistic and craftsman sort of endeavor.
00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:47.279
Because at the end of the day, you get these green beans that the green beans are the beans that have been picked off of the coffee tree.
00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:48.480
They're actually cherries.
00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:58.480
The hist the the processing of coffee is really cool because you have a coffee tree and uh it sort of looks like a it's a pretty like if I'm honest, a pretty uninteresting tree.
00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:04.720
So the leaves are sort of like sort of oval, like like they're sort of long, but they produce cherries.
00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:08.079
And they look, they call it coffee cherries, and they look a lot like cherries.
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:09.920
Well, when they get ripe, they turn red.
00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:10.720
They turn bright red.
00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:11.039
Okay.
00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:12.640
And so that's when you pick them.
00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:18.240
And in fact, some of the the farmers or they actually have like these color gratings they wear on their wrist.
00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:21.519
And so they say, Okay, this is red, just pick this, you know.
00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:25.440
Because I think uh over time you start to you know it start to get complicated.
00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:30.000
So then you pick this coffee cherry and you let it ferment.
00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:33.279
And almost all coffee, basically all coffee is fermented.
00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:36.319
What happens though from that point is very different.
00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:39.440
When I think of ferment, it's in a liquid.
00:21:39.599 --> 00:21:42.960
But are you not are we doing this in a liquid or are we just letting it age?
00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:44.000
It's both.
00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:46.000
And so it gets it gets very complex.
00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:49.599
So let's let's get up and go to your equipment.
00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:50.000
Okay.
00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:52.720
So this is the coffee roaster.
00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:55.359
Like I said earlier, this is called an ARC 800.
00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:59.599
But the 800 comes from a the amount or the volume of coffee.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:00.799
You can roast any time.
00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:02.319
So 800 grams of coffee.
00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:07.200
And so coffee roasters effectively have two main things that you can control.
00:22:07.359 --> 00:22:08.799
The first thing is airflow.
00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:11.440
That's one of the variables that you can control.
00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:12.400
The other is gas.
00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:15.519
This is a propane-powered coffee roaster.
00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:22.640
They do come in natural gas nowadays, more and more becoming electric, but it's overall a fairly efficient machine.
00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:28.480
So inside of here is basically a gas, uh sorry, a flame that's powered by the gas.
00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:31.359
And if you want to have more heat, you increase this.
00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:33.519
Those are the only two variables that you actually have.
00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:34.400
Things you can control.
00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:35.119
Air and heat.
00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:35.759
Air and heat.
00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:43.039
What makes the coffee roaster unique is the temperature sensors, the probes.
00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:47.680
So there another name for them are called RT RTDs, I believe, or thermocouples.
00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:50.079
But this is a this is a thermocouple.
00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:53.279
So this machine actually has four probes.
00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:58.079
There's a primary one, which is in here, called a bean probe.
00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:04.960
And this is a since it's the drum roaster, the there's a you can hear it kind of spinning, spinning like this uh at a given RPM.
00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:09.359
And there's little blades inside of there that like churn, make the beans tumble.
00:23:09.599 --> 00:23:15.039
And the bean temperature probe sits inside of the beans as it's as they're rumbling through.
00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:21.359
Then up here, a little bit higher, is something called an environment temperature probe, and it measures the environmental temperature.
00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:23.920
It shows you it's the temperature of going into the roaster.
00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:28.400
The rest of the sort of, we'll call it the anatomy of the machine is this is your hopper.
00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:34.559
When I open this little chute, the beans will flow from here into the drum, and you'll hear it.
00:23:34.640 --> 00:23:36.000
It's it's like a fairly pleasant sound.
00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:38.079
It sort of actually sounds a little bit like raindrops.
00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:44.000
Uh they sit in there, and then I start to control the heat and the temperature.
00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:51.359
And then after about, say 10 minutes, depending on what I'm my goals are, I will hit this little button here called cooling.
00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:58.079
And this is a really fun machine because there's a sort of an extractor fan over here, and that's the second hose.
00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:01.119
Show me a raw bean, show me a cooked bean.
00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:01.920
Yeah.
00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:08.799
And we're not going to go through the 10-minute process of cooking them, but you know, then we'll talk about grinding.
00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:11.839
So this is a coffee, a sample of coffee that I got just recently.
00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:14.000
I've actually not even roasted this yet.
00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:16.400
But it's the varietal is called a pacamara.
00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:21.359
And these pacamaras are quite a very big bean, like a very large bean.
00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:22.640
Let's show that.
00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:27.200
And what I I like to keep my batch size sort of like consistent.
00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:30.000
So what I usually try to do is keep that at about 400.
00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:32.799
And these beans are what you call green beans.
00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:33.200
All right.
00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:36.640
Now, these beans are actually a little bit bigger than than normal.
00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:38.720
They have a particularly interesting smell.
00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:39.599
It's unlike anything.
00:24:39.680 --> 00:24:40.880
You wanna like I can't.
00:24:41.519 --> 00:24:41.920
Oh, okay.
00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:43.119
There's a it's very earthy.
00:24:43.519 --> 00:24:44.000
Very earthy.
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:50.240
Yeah, it's a it's a raw, uncooked bean that the only thing that's happened to it is it's been fermented.
00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:53.599
Effectively, on my screen here is a roast profile.
00:24:55.119 --> 00:25:02.319
So depending on the amount of moisture, depending on the density of the bean, and also the size of the bean.
00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:09.119
And then you can also look at there's some more, you know, maybe tribal knowledge of, you know, where the bean came from, which farm, how it was processed.
00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:12.160
Those those things also do come into the come into play.
00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:19.359
But in terms of objective variables, bean size, the density of the bean, and the moisture of the bean are very important variables.
00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:24.319
I actually have a machine here that measures both the moisture and the density for you.
00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:26.880
At what point does the artisan take over?
00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:32.880
I think where the artisan comes in is there's no set formula for roasting coffee.
00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:37.759
When you're roasting coffee, you're thinking about what is your like what are you what are your goals?
00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:44.559
Are you trying to create a coffee that is maybe going to be more used for like a pour over?
00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:49.920
For me as a roaster, what I've really tried to do is create coffee that I personally like.
00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:51.759
It's a good start.
00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:58.960
And and because and I think that's what's really enjoyable for me is doing something that I like and then sharing that with the neighbors of Mueller.
00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:10.960
And I think different roasters can also do the sort of the inverse of that, where they're saying, actually, I want to go make a really nice, fruity, acidic coffee because that's what my customers like.
00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:15.119
And I'm sort of the other way around where I want to make something that I really enjoy and then share that with the neighbors.
00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:19.359
In roasting, there's roughly three phases of uh roasting coffee.
00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:24.960
The very first phase is you what you're doing is when the bean goes into the roasting drunk, you're drying the bean.
00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:28.000
You're taking off all the sort of moisture on the outer shell.
00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:35.359
The second phase, once the bean has dried, which is usually when the bean has changed enough color, it'll become a sort of a yellowy color.
00:26:35.519 --> 00:26:44.480
So this is where I usually like to spend a lot of my time in the roast profile, is trying to elongate, but not too long, the Maillard phase.
00:26:44.640 --> 00:26:47.519
And then the third phase is called the development phase.
00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:56.240
And so typically the number one characteristic that people talk about when they're buying coffee is do I want a light roast or a dark roast?
00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:58.240
And development is usually that.
00:26:58.400 --> 00:27:06.319
So when you have finished your Maillard phase, and you know you finished the Maillard phase when you start to hear the beans pop.
00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:14.079
So just like popcorn, because the moisture inside of the inner part of the bean has now basically reached a boiling point and it's cracked open the bean.
00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:15.839
So we actually call it first crack.
00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:20.079
And that's when you know that you've finished the Maillard phase, you're moving into this, what we call the development phase.
00:27:20.160 --> 00:27:26.000
And the development phase is you you tend to like keep the roast time to a minimum there.
00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:33.039
So maybe it's only, maybe it's a percentage of the total roast, or just say, maybe it's just say one minute after the mayored phase.
00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:36.079
And then you turn off and you can call it drop the beans.
00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:40.160
If you leave it, say two minutes, that's called maybe, let's just call it the medium roast.
00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:43.759
At that two minute mark, the beans have become a little bit darker.
00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:48.640
All the moisture will have been extracted through that first crack, most of the moisture at least.
00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:53.440
And then if you leave them in a little bit longer, that'll be more of a darker roast, maybe three or four minutes.
00:27:53.680 --> 00:27:59.440
Most of the beans that I make are somewhere between sort of a light to a medium, a little bit higher.
00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:02.319
Like I like a little bit stronger than a typical light roast.
00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:06.960
I like the darker, darker roast, but I want to make sure that that sweetness is really what's coming to life.
00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:14.960
Right at this moment, I'm capturing this note of these people think this one tastes a little bit like lime blossom.
00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:15.680
Okay.
00:28:16.799 --> 00:28:20.160
And so at that note, at that moment, you're thinking, I can do that.
00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:22.799
But if I go a little bit longer, that lime blossom might go away.
00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:25.119
And so these are all the variables that you get to take.
00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:29.440
And I think it's a lot like cooking, or I think sourdough is actually a pretty good parallel.
00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:32.319
Is everybody's sourdough is a little bit different.
00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:34.559
Everybody's baking style is a little bit different.
00:28:34.799 --> 00:28:40.160
And so it it attracts a certain person to that style that you have created.
00:28:40.319 --> 00:28:41.839
And so that's what I've been trying to do.
00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.640
These are a bean out of Bolivia.
00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:46.319
This is my Bolivian coffee.
00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:48.319
I have actually loved this coffee so far.
00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:50.880
I call it this, it's really interesting.
00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:56.640
I call it the abajita, which is in Spanish the the little bee.
00:28:56.720 --> 00:29:03.759
And the reason is, and I don't know what it is about this particular coffee, but as it's roasting, there's a little honeybee.
00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:06.960
And I don't know if it's the same one or just a family, or they're all interested in it.
00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:08.720
This little honeybee comes in.
00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:10.640
Doesn't bother me, just sort of smells around.
00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:12.880
He's like, what is this?
00:29:13.039 --> 00:29:13.920
Uh and then he goes away.
00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:15.599
And so I named it the little abejita.
00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:18.160
And so, yeah, then this is what shows up in your bag.
00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:20.240
So I will take a little coffee bag.
00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:23.200
So this morning, yeah, we we had a bit of the coffee there.
00:29:23.359 --> 00:29:25.279
Uh we we we we grounded.
00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:27.200
Well, actually, Quentin ground it.
00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:28.000
Sorry, you're right.
00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:32.559
Quentin, he he loves he is a is a major helper.
00:29:32.799 --> 00:29:35.359
And so, yeah, that is coffee roasting.
00:29:35.599 --> 00:29:38.400
What have you learned about life from roasting coffee?
00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:44.559
My genuine answer, and I think it's pervasive in a lot of my sort of life's endeavors, is it's curiosity.
00:29:44.799 --> 00:29:50.079
When I first saw that ad to learn how to roast coffee, it it it piqued curiosity.
00:29:50.319 --> 00:30:02.640
But what it what curiosity for me is, is sort of unearthing something that is that you that you're unsure of how it works.
00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:08.799
And I think learning how stuff works really broadens your world purview.
00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:13.839
And I think things start to make more sense the more things you understand.
00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:26.480
And so you you can I've, for example, before I started roasting coffee, I enjoyed specialty fancy coffee for I mean years, maybe a decade before I got and I knew anything about roasting.
00:30:26.559 --> 00:30:33.920
And like I said, I claimed I knew everything about, you know, specialty coffee and do all the processing and all of that, but I actually had no idea how long it takes to roast coffee.
00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:35.359
Like it's such a simple thing, right?
00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:51.599
And since I got curious and I learned how that works, it has sort of started to create more clarity for me of like just how the coffee coffee, the pipeline, I guess I'll call it, like the coffee pipeline works, whether it's importing the green coffee, which I've done, it's roasting.
00:30:51.680 --> 00:31:02.480
And then the next thing that I'm really curious about is to start going to origin and going to talk to the farmers who are running these farms and and sort of what their challenges are.
00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:09.599
What are their also what are their art are artistic versus uh mechanistic viewpoints on actually growing coffee?
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.559
Sustainability is such an interesting passion for me, but I'm actually moving into more of a glass jar.
00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:20.240
And because I'm only really selling to neighbors, what's also great is they actually prefer that too.
00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:20.880
They can return it.
00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:22.319
And you can get your glass jar back.
00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:24.480
I can get the glass jar back, I can give them a discount.
00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:25.759
Like it's a it's a really great system.
00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:26.160
Okay.
00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:34.400
And then, yeah, sustainability though on the farm, thinking about like what actually got me into this was the country I was living in ran out of water.
00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:34.960
Yeah.
00:31:35.200 --> 00:31:38.319
And that's a th, these are real things that are happening around the world.
00:31:38.480 --> 00:31:42.799
I I get so much kick out of talking to people like this because you begin to see those connections.
00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:43.200
Yeah.
00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:45.279
You know, why did you give me the coffee?
00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:47.279
Because the country ran out of water.
00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:48.880
What what was that?
00:31:49.039 --> 00:31:49.440
Yeah, right.
00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:50.000
What was that?
00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:50.400
Yeah.
00:31:50.640 --> 00:31:54.079
Now let's talk about a little bit about Miller.
00:31:54.559 --> 00:31:55.680
Two questions.
00:31:56.079 --> 00:31:58.960
What one thing you really love about Miller.
00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:02.799
And then the other one is if you could change anything, what would it be?
00:32:03.039 --> 00:32:06.720
You know, I was saying earlier in the interview how we moved from Cherrywood to Mueller.
00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:10.319
In spite of being so close, I was always so worried.
00:32:10.559 --> 00:32:13.839
You know, maybe I just it was not the place that we wanted to be.
00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:20.160
But literally, like, you know, those moments you have in life where you immediately know this is the right place.
00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:21.359
I had that with Mueller.
00:32:21.599 --> 00:32:21.759
Okay.
00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:24.480
Like that night we moved in, and you know, half of our stuff wasn't even.
00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:25.839
I was like, this is exactly it.
00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:28.799
Like the it was immediate friendship, immediate connections.
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:31.039
Quentin, he had immediate friends.
00:32:31.359 --> 00:32:33.519
He can go down the street, it's safe.
00:32:33.759 --> 00:32:37.599
It's just incredibly diverse, like groups of people that we meet.
00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:41.440
And that for me is like the most exciting thing.
00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:44.880
Just the the the the different types of people you're able to meet.
00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:57.440
In fact, I think the reason you and I had met was Kaz, he my when I first got this machine, this roaster, sorry, I had just come out of a back injury, and my wife actually put a message out on the WhatsApp group saying, Hey, can anybody help me move it in?
00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:00.240
Kaz came over, you know, no question.
00:33:00.319 --> 00:33:01.920
I I don't even know I had met him at the time.
00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:08.400
And then he, a few days later, he's like, Hey John, you know, just so you know, like I run the MA, would you like to donate your beans?
00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:14.720
And I was like, this is fantastic because now I get to learn as I'm roasting coffee and share with neighbors.
00:33:14.799 --> 00:33:19.759
And that was my first injection point into like, okay, let's go connect with neighbors.
00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:26.160
And what's been so nice is you know, 99% of my sales is just local neighbors.
00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:32.400
And for the most part, my my whole pitch was that me and my me and Quentin, we would like deliver the coffee on our bikes.
00:33:32.559 --> 00:33:42.559
And we still do that for a lot of people, but and it was a few days into the business that somebody had mentioned, hey, like you should do a pickup option because people enjoy coming to look at your roaster.
00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:46.000
And so so many people show up and they're like, Hey, nice to meet you.
00:33:46.079 --> 00:33:46.640
I've never met you.
00:33:46.720 --> 00:33:48.400
I live so-and-so over here, over there.
00:33:48.559 --> 00:33:49.759
Can I see your roaster?
00:33:49.839 --> 00:33:51.279
And I was like, absolutely.
00:33:51.519 --> 00:33:53.680
And as you can tell, I enjoy talking about it.
00:33:53.759 --> 00:33:55.440
So I come and I show them.
00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:02.880
And for them, I hope it's again sort of satiating their curiosity about something that is otherwise maybe a little bit opaque or foreign.
00:34:03.039 --> 00:34:05.680
And so getting just getting to know different neighbors like that.
00:34:05.839 --> 00:34:10.559
And then we've also started doing quite a lot of like really creative like pop-ups.
00:34:10.719 --> 00:34:13.679
So there's a group that does a pop-up in Tanaguchi Park.
00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:17.280
I I I'm able to give them some coffee beans uh for their thing.
00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:24.480
Another one of our neighbors, he has like a little Japanese truck that we're I'm I'm offering or giving him some beans for.
00:34:24.639 --> 00:34:34.719
Uh, I think this weekend there's a a new I don't know if they've if they just moved here or what their deal is exactly, but they they're selling or make they bake Japanese style bread.
00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:39.199
So we're gonna do like a little collab where I'm gonna provide the coffee and they're gonna provide the bread.
00:34:39.519 --> 00:34:40.079
Let me know.
00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:41.760
Uh yeah, well, uh definitely.
00:34:41.920 --> 00:34:44.960
And and so all these little fun connections that are just so unique.
00:34:45.199 --> 00:34:49.760
So the thing I would not I would change, I think it's the name, though.
00:34:49.920 --> 00:34:52.559
I I really want to be the person who calls it Miller.
00:34:53.039 --> 00:34:53.760
I just can't.
00:34:53.920 --> 00:34:56.480
I can't call it Miller, and I I I don't know why.
00:34:56.880 --> 00:34:57.360
Question.
00:34:57.519 --> 00:35:02.239
I want to buy a bottle of coffee, I love it.
00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:06.800
And I can specify the roast and the bean and all of that.
00:35:07.039 --> 00:35:16.400
That's one of the big my favorite things about this is that because I literally make individual batches, so this is like I said earlier, like this is my 400 gram batch.
00:35:16.639 --> 00:35:24.079
If you, when you sign up on the website, if you say I want light roast or dark roast, I can literally keep that in just a little bit longer for you.
00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:26.480
And it's no, I mean it's no different to me.
00:35:26.719 --> 00:35:32.000
And so I can make them hyper personalized, or you can just buy them as as you want on the website.
00:35:32.079 --> 00:35:34.320
Like just give me what you think is the very best.
00:35:34.559 --> 00:35:36.719
So this is the the tower coffee hour.
00:35:36.880 --> 00:35:40.320
It'll be interesting to see what we get up when we get all this put together.
00:35:40.639 --> 00:35:42.559
John, thank you so much.
00:35:42.880 --> 00:35:43.360
Thank you so much.
00:35:43.519 --> 00:35:47.039
I really appreciate your time, and it was so much fun getting to meet Quentin.
00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:48.079
That was fun.
00:35:48.239 --> 00:35:50.480
And the coffee John served was delicious.
00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:55.199
Quentin supplied the coffee mugs and was helpful in setting up the audio and video equipment.
00:35:55.360 --> 00:35:57.519
So it was went better than expected.
00:35:58.079 --> 00:36:09.360
John is a supplier of coffee to the Miller Neighborhood Association for our monthly meetings and donates part of his proceeds from one of his store brands to the Miller Swim Team, the Manatees.
00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:20.639
If you like good coffee and enjoy a special taste, you need to visit John's website, Gradient Coffee Roastery dot com, and check out your options.
00:36:21.039 --> 00:36:30.480
Until the next time we find an interesting in every interview, this is Preston or Ty Tyree signing off and wishing you all the best.
00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:14.640
Hello and welcome to the Tower Coffee Hour.
00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:24.559
This is Preston or Ty Tyree, and I was able to sit down with John Mills and his son Quentin in their garage here in Miller this week.
00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:31.280
John has a coffee roaster in his garage and provides many different coffee options to friends and neighbors.
00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:33.520
We talked about John's early life.
00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:42.399
He's a Texas native, having been born in Midland, but has lived outside of Detroit, Michigan, in London, England, and in Cape Town, South Africa.
00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:46.320
And his family is from Australia, so it's interesting talking with him.
00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:54.079
John's moved to Austin and finally to Miller, gave him a chance to get a small commercial coffee roaster.
00:00:54.320 --> 00:01:01.920
John has created a coffee roastery in his garage and supplies many different varieties of beans roasted to order.
00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:08.640
I took advantage of his subscription plan to get one order of coffee each month for$15.
00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.959
I am looking forward to taste testing some of his specialty roasts.
00:01:13.359 --> 00:01:19.120
So please join John Quentin and me in John's garage to talk about coffee.
00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:23.040
John, it's awfully nice to meet you and Quentin.
00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:23.439
Yeah.
00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:23.920
Yeah.
00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:25.439
Really nice to meet you as well.
00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:27.439
Thank you, Quentin.
00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:28.719
Tell me more about you.
00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:29.760
Where were you born?
00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:30.400
All right.
00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:31.680
So uh When were you born?
00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:32.400
When was I born?
00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:33.280
Where was I born?
00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:34.560
I was born in Texas.
00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:37.680
I was born out in West Texas in a little town called Midland.
00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:44.719
That alone is kind of an interesting story because you know, typically people from Midland are very involved in sort of oil and petroleum.
00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:45.840
Sort of, yes.
00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:47.920
Uh not everybody, but some of them.
00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:49.680
And my family wasn't.
00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:51.920
Uh in fact, my dad, he he's Australian.
00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:55.680
My mom, she's from New York, but she had been living in Australia with him for a number of years.
00:01:55.760 --> 00:01:59.680
And my two older siblings were actually born in in Adelaide, in Australia.
00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:06.319
And my dad, he uh would build, he was working for a race team where he would build performance race engines, uh, different cars.
00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:12.000
I forget the name of the league itself, but this was yeah, sort of back in uh back in the 60s and 70s.
00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:20.560
And they they had sort of an abrupt change in their in that team, and they they moved to uh this little town in in West Texas.
00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:23.280
And my dad, I don't think, had ever been to West Texas before.
00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:24.719
Neither my mom, I suppose.
00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:26.800
None of us had actually been to Texas before.
00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:32.960
And this is sort of funny because there's this sort of this racing culture, uh small pocket of racing uh out there.
00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:38.159
And so there's this team that was ended up building not Formula One, but uh indie car uh engines.
00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:40.719
Indy cars in Texas, yeah, in Texas.
00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:44.319
Okay, and in in Midland of Texas uh of all places.
00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:59.360
And uh anyway, so a few years after they moved to Texas, uh, I was born and and I lived there for 13 years or so before so moved out, I think it was like sixth or seventh grade, and we moved to Michigan, which is a what year was that that you were born?
00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:00.639
I was born in 1985.
00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:02.000
So I was born in 1985.
00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:03.280
So I moved when I was 13.
00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:05.120
So it was right around millennia.
00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:06.879
So it was nineteen, I think it was 1999.
00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:07.199
We moved.
00:03:07.439 --> 00:03:08.319
So we moved to Michigan.
00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:10.960
And so there was like a bit more of a natural fit for for racing.
00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:12.240
It was for for my dad's company.
00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:23.360
And so yeah, so that's so that's sort of when I when I think about like uh uh childhood or home, I think about probably not so much Midland, Texas, in spite of you know, I lived there for a good 13 years.
00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:24.639
I I think of more of Michigan.
00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:27.599
I think of just you were in Midland when you were at Quentin's age.
00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:28.000
Correct.
00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:29.280
Quentin is nine.
00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:30.479
Yes, all right.
00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:31.520
That's cool.
00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:32.560
I didn't know that.
00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:33.120
Yeah.
00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:36.479
We're here today with John and Quentin Mills.
00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:39.280
John is an older one sitting here in the chair.
00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:46.080
Quentin is our friend standing with us, and we're gonna talk about their lives and coffee.
00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:52.159
You're in Michigan, you go through school, you get out, you start working, I assume, doing something.
00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:52.400
What?
00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:52.800
Yeah.
00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:54.400
So this is another, right?
00:03:54.479 --> 00:03:57.840
Actually, as I sort of moved into Michigan, I got really interested in computers.
00:03:58.159 --> 00:03:58.400
Okay.
00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:03.680
So particularly like uh programming, just getting like really curious about like how computers work.
00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:08.000
And this is also the time that the web was becoming really alive.
00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:14.159
Like the internet was become very popular, and I was really fascinated with particularly the like the internet.
00:04:14.319 --> 00:04:22.240
Not not as much as like like writing code for like building a video game, but really like how services and products are connected.
00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:23.759
That was really fascinating to me.
00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:29.680
And so through uh from a very early age, I learned really how to write code and program computers.
00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:36.319
And in fact, I think that's probably an interesting segue into coffee, but I'll hold back on that story for a minute.
00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:39.360
So learned how to code, spent that was sort of my hobby.
00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:44.319
I even in high school, I went to one of the high schools where they had a computer science class.
00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:55.600
And it was one of the sort of like early computer science classes, and I just a fantastic teacher who really taught me more than just writing code, but just like how to how to work with it, how to understand it.
00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:56.160
Yeah.
00:04:56.399 --> 00:04:59.920
I would he he was my first period teacher, and I was always late.
00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:05.360
And then after high school, I had an opportunity to work professionally as like a software engineer.
00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:13.519
It was just a very small company, it was a startup with these two brothers, and we had, and they sort of invited me in and they sort of like showed me the ropes.
00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:15.199
And this was great.
00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:18.800
And I knew at the time, like I knew I wanted to go to college.
00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:33.680
I I wasn't sure what I wanted to do in college, though, because I hadn't I had enough of a foundation of computer science and sort of the the fundamentals there that I I wasn't uh it didn't really spark my joy or spark my curiosity of I want to go learn something.
00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:38.399
And so I delayed going to college for a few years and I ended up working for this company.
00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:40.240
This company ended up being fairly successful.
00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:42.160
Gwynn, have you heard this story before?
00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:42.720
No.
00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:43.680
No, good.
00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:45.120
I'm gonna quiz you on it later.
00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:47.519
This is this is good.
00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:48.800
Thanks, yeah.
00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:53.360
You're gonna come into the story very soon, actually.
00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:53.839
Yes.
00:05:54.079 --> 00:05:54.560
Yeah.
00:05:54.959 --> 00:06:01.120
The company that I was working for, we we ended up getting acquired as as as as good good companies can.
00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:04.959
And then after that, we actually acquired a company in in London, in the UK.
00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:10.399
So at the time I was maybe 20, I forget exactly how old I was, maybe say 23, 24, 25.
00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:12.319
I remember very vividly I had this.
00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:22.639
I went into work sort of an average day, and I remember my boss, he comes into me, comes to me and he says, Hey, you know, I know like, you know, you don't have you don't have a house, you don't have a dog.
00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:26.639
Would you be interested in moving to London?
00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:29.680
Because you you sort of work on this project.
00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:33.199
We want to move this project out to the UK, where this company is.
00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:40.319
This would be a good opportunity to, you know, just like handle like an acquisition, like a good from a business side really well.
00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:47.120
But also like to build a culture, like an engineering, like a software engineering culture was basically jumped at the chance.
00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:50.560
So they were you know they were gonna fly me out there, put me up.
00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:55.360
And I was coming from a you know a little town outside of Detroit to moving into London.
00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:56.560
Um, I have a question.
00:06:57.040 --> 00:06:58.720
Did anyone go on the plane with you?
00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:00.800
Like anyone like nobody I knew.
00:07:00.959 --> 00:07:01.199
Okay.
00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:02.399
I went all on my own.
00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:02.959
Wow.
00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:03.759
Yeah.
00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:08.000
And so I got there and and the company was great.
00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:09.839
I and London is such a fun city.
00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:10.800
Oh, yeah.
00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:11.680
Really fun.
00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:12.160
Yeah.
00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:17.680
Okay, so you're in London, and uh I'm assuming that's where you met your South African wife.
00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:21.360
Yeah, so that's where you're you're gonna come to the story in a minute.
00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:23.040
So, yeah, so that's where I met Faye.
00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:25.519
She's so she's South South uh South African.
00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:29.439
She'd been living in London at the time for I think about 16 years.
00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:31.519
I shouldn't know that, but I think about 16 years.
00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:33.439
She had actually done a similar move.
00:07:33.519 --> 00:07:41.199
So when I moved from Texas to Michigan around 13, she had moved from uh Cape Town to London at a similar age.
00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:41.600
Okay.
00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:44.800
You know, as much as I I love love London, I still do.
00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:47.199
It sometimes can be confusing.
00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:51.439
You know, I I think for a big city, it's the one of the least confusing cities.
00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:52.240
Really?
00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:57.040
What I what really drove me away from London is the weather.
00:07:57.360 --> 00:07:59.439
And and I, you know it's like this.
00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:00.560
It's a lot like this.
00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:01.920
It's like every day.
00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:02.639
Every day.
00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:04.639
It's a little, it's just too cold.
00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:06.480
It is too wet.
00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:17.279
And it feels like you're walking to Alaska every day without like the actual fact of s factor of snow.
00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:18.639
No snow in London.
00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:19.680
Well, some snow in London.
00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:20.240
Yeah, but not.
00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:20.800
Not much.
00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:21.040
Yeah.
00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:22.879
Not a not like snowing at all.
00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:25.199
But that's why they talk about a foggy day in London.
00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:26.240
Foggy day in London.
00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:26.879
Yeah.
00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:29.839
Like that's their equivalent of snow and ice.
00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:30.480
Exactly.
00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:30.800
Yeah.
00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:43.679
I think uh maybe a small part of my story, my childhood story, is uh when I when we had moved from from Texas to Michigan, we had actually left one of my siblings behind because she is about seven years older than I am.
00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:46.320
And so she had actually was she was just going to college at the time.
00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:46.879
Okay.
00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:48.240
So she went to uh St.
00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:51.759
Edwards University back in, I don't know exactly that, 1998 or something.
00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:52.320
I don't know.
00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:53.840
So we we left her here.
00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:58.799
And so she had actually always she's a she's a longtime Austinite, and and she's still here.
00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:01.279
Uh she although recently had moved to to Bathstrop.
00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:03.360
And so I had this connection back here in Austin.
00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:10.320
And so when she and I got together and I said, Hey, not really enjoying this this London thing, would you be interested in coming back to Austin with me?
00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:11.759
And so one thing led to another.
00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:13.279
So she got here.
00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:13.919
Yeah.
00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:17.519
And we moved into a little bungalow in Cherrywood.
00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:18.480
Oh, sure.
00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:22.000
And we had lived in Cherrywood for about 10 years.
00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:24.399
During that time, Quentin, you you emerged.
00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:26.240
That was nine years ago.
00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:27.360
Nine years ago.
00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:27.600
Yeah.
00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:28.080
Yeah.
00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:33.759
We, you know, and when Mueller was coming, you saw the the beginning.
00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:44.639
Yeah, we did because we were so close and we knew a lot of friends here, and we would just constantly be on on the website saying, Oh, this house is really cool.
00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:47.519
You know, it took me a long time to come around to the idea.
00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:51.120
But I mean, but realistically, it was over the course of years that we would look.
00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:54.720
In fact, like where we are now, it didn't even exist when we started looking.
00:09:55.039 --> 00:09:56.000
It did not, yeah.
00:09:56.320 --> 00:10:03.440
One time I was using my metal detector in our backyard, and I pulled out like a small shard of an airplane.
00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:04.399
Wow.
00:10:04.639 --> 00:10:05.600
That's really cool.
00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:07.519
Hope it's not one that crashed.
00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:11.440
Anyway, so that was a bit of a fun to do.
00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:13.840
We're gonna get back into a discussion later at the end.
00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:15.840
Yeah, I think we need to talk more about it.
00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:17.039
We need to talk about coffee.
00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:18.159
All right, yeah, let's go for it.
00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:21.120
Because I feel like we've been talking about his life more than coffee.
00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:23.039
We've been talking about your dad, right?
00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:24.080
Yeah, yeah, okay.
00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:29.440
And then the next question is how did you go from being a software engineer?
00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:30.639
Are you still a software engineer?
00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:31.039
I am, yeah.
00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:31.840
Okay, yeah.
00:10:32.159 --> 00:10:34.879
How did you make that step into coffee?
00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:36.159
Yeah.
00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:38.320
You know, what was that first?
00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:42.879
You know, I might want to roast this stuff.
00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:45.519
That's not normal conversation.
00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:49.519
Yeah, it's like not your first idea.
00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:51.440
So it's a it's a really good story.
00:10:51.600 --> 00:10:52.879
Oh, I think it's a really good story.
00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:58.159
And so coffee, coffee for me has always been a a delight, for lack of a better word.
00:10:58.399 --> 00:10:59.360
A real delight for me.
00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:12.159
And so when I was sort of learning how to coat, I was the sort of typical, I think typical person where I would love to stay up extra late, working on a project, getting something done, and I would just drink coffee nonstop.
00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:16.879
It wasn't fancy coffee, it was probably Folgers in your cup coffee.
00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:21.039
Uh, I in fact, I don't even know the name of the coffee that my parents had when I was growing up.
00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:28.399
I do remember the Folgers tin, of course, but but it was typical to just drip coffee, and I would drink it black, and I loved it.
00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:32.240
I never really enjoyed milk, a little bit maybe, but mostly it was just black coffee.
00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:36.240
And from an early age, like probably that sort of 13, 14, age.
00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:38.080
You know, coffee is just what you like.
00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:43.200
You know, it doesn't you don't have to sol follow the trends, you don't you just drink what you like.
00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:47.679
And the yeah, so so my so my background.
00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:50.000
That's a really good lesson for most of life.
00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:51.120
Okay.
00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:58.399
You do what you like, make sure it's reasonable, but yeah, yeah, you don't have to follow the pack.
00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:02.159
I've always liked coffee, but but there was never this sort of like particular moment.
00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:05.039
But I was always I would always sort of identify as like a coffee person.
00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:10.559
Like I every time I would travel, I'd go somewhere going into great, thank you.
00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:14.080
Whenever I would travel to you travel, I'd grab a coffee.
00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:22.399
In college, though, there was this one particular coffee shop that uh I would I would frequent, and my my favorite drink would always be an iced Americano.
00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:27.440
I'd put a little bit of milk in there, and I I'd sort of I'd always grab that right before class.
00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:28.960
And I don't know if I actually finished that story.
00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:30.240
I did end up getting a degree.
00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:32.879
I actually have a degree in economics, uh, of all things.
00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:35.440
That's all again, it's to your point, a whole other story.
00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:37.759
But yes, I did get a I did get a degree.
00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:39.279
And so I'd always go to this coffee shop.
00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:49.039
It wasn't really until after Quinn was born that we we actually had moved temporarily to to Cape Town, just after he was born.
00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:49.600
Wow.
00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:51.039
So this is in South Africa.
00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:56.080
So basically, this I mean, the quick story is you know, after he was born, uh, we wanted to be a little bit closer to family.
00:12:56.320 --> 00:13:00.799
So we moved out there and we we stayed there for maybe a little under two years, but about two years.
00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:01.120
Okay.
00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:08.320
This was probably if I'm honest, this was probably the first time that I really understood what it meant to be a to have a coffee culture.
00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:12.720
You know, Cape Town is not a typical coffee place, or it doesn't even come up in a coffee culture.
00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:14.639
It didn't come to mind immediately.
00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:18.799
No, yeah, it's more of a wine place, but their coffee culture is really strong.
00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:31.279
And so every everywhere you go, really, like whether it's every restaurant, like farm stall, they're on different farms, on the road, on traveling, they would always have uh a barista and a really nice espresso machine.
00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:37.200
So their typical drinks are espresso drinks, so like a cappuccino, flatlight, lattes.
00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:39.919
We went over there, got really into the coffee culture there.
00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:48.080
So the company I was working for, uh it was a tech startup, but they had a it was a really cool office, sort of in the cent in the central business district of Cape Town.
00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:50.080
And you could see Table Mountain in the background.
00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:51.600
And everything was very nice.
00:13:51.759 --> 00:13:55.279
It was probably arguably one of the nicest offices I've ever worked worked in.
00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:59.039
And they had a barista, an on high on a step barista.
00:13:59.360 --> 00:13:59.679
Okay.
00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:01.279
And and he was fantastic.
00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.120
And every morning you'd go in, you'd wait in this very long line, and you would chat.
00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:11.759
And it was sort of, it became like a company culture almost of you know, people talking about sort of what they're gonna work on their day, but also meeting different people.
00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:14.879
Um, it wasn't a big company, but it was probably like three or four hundred people.
00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:15.759
Oh, yeah.
00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:22.960
And and that's when I started to really just sort of get really curious, really interested in like, okay, well, what am I actually drinking?
00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:29.519
So, yeah, that's kind of that was sort of my first part like big participation in like what it meant to be like a part of the coffee culture.
00:14:29.759 --> 00:14:32.639
There's so many fantastic coffee shops around Cape Town.
00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:43.039
So we'd always go for little like off-sites or like meetings off-site, walking distance from the office, grabbed coffee, and it was just this really enjoyable experience.
00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:47.759
And this was so this what's interesting now is it was around 2017, I believe.
00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:59.519
And I don't know, I always never never really know like how much this information got shared around the world news networks, but Cape Town as a city almost ran out of water, like drinking water.
00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:08.000
And basically, what it was is a result of cyclical uh dry seasons, and all of the dams where we collected water were dry.
00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:12.480
And this wasn't just sort of like a fear-mongering point.
00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:17.840
This was a very literal who could go down to the dam and see that there's no water.
00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:26.559
And so we went through this really interesting period where every day you kind of think, okay, it's gonna rain, it's gonna change, and and and and nothing really changed.
00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:31.200
And so we would progressively get closer and closer to this point of like real catastrophe.
00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:34.799
And the company I was working for, we we went through a couple of exercises.
00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:44.320
We went through these contingency planning, sort of, I don't know if you call them workshops or not, where how do we as a company continue operating if we run out of water?
00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:52.000
Now, in retrospect, maybe that sounds a little bit like the last thing you're worried about if your country runs out of water, but you know, there's some continuity question there.
00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:58.799
And so one of the continuity questions was we are going to where they sent this was before COVID.
00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:02.480
Uh, and so we didn't have nobody really had like a working from home culture.
00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:13.120
So we went through an experience where we sent everybody home and we said, you guys all need to go home, figure out how to work remotely, if it hits the fan and we run out of water.
00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:20.639
One of the first things I did, and I remember very vividly, it was a Friday, and I'm pretty sure it was right after like we had just gotten a bonus.
00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:24.960
And so I took my bonus and I went down to the store that was selling espresso machines.
00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:39.759
And I said, Well, I'm I'm so accustomed to drinking my daily espresso now that if I have to work at home where we run out of water, I need to have my the most important thing for me right now is to buy an espresso machine during this time of crisis.
00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:41.759
Yeah, of course.
00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:46.879
And so I went, I went down there, I grabbed this espresso machine, it was like this little Breville.
00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:48.559
It's a very common espresso machine nowadays.
00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:52.480
It had it was the Brevel, had a grinder built into it, brought it home.
00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:58.639
And it was the most fun, enjoyable experience because now I could finally get curious and tinker with this.
00:16:58.879 --> 00:17:04.480
So I had all the beans, I had all the water, I had all the, you know, the learning material, YouTube's books, etc.
00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:11.839
And I spent so much time just learning about how to brew and extract coffee using an espresso machine.
00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:18.640
So that for me was probably the moment at which it sort of like solidified like, okay, I'm I'm I'm more than an average coffee person.
00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:21.440
I'm like, this is more than more than just a hobby.
00:17:21.519 --> 00:17:24.720
This is actually like a thing that I really am passionate about.
00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:30.720
And so since then, you know, obviously we're back here in Austin and I've gone through a number of different espresso machines.
00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:32.480
I I unfortunately don't still have that one.
00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:33.680
I do have a part of it.
00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:34.400
It's up there actually.
00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:36.480
It's a uh it's one of the boilers that I've kept.
00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:37.519
So that was that.
00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:39.200
And so now I'm gonna fast forward a little bit.
00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:41.279
So it wasn't until about a year ago.
00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:54.160
I I forget exactly if I was on email or Instagram or something like this, but there was an ad that showed up about taking a learn, like a learning how to roast coffee course, like a roasting 101.
00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:56.079
And I was like, this sounds really interesting.
00:17:56.160 --> 00:18:01.519
And yeah, like this theme of me, I think, is yeah, you know, I get curious about things and I just want to learn more.
00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:04.799
And so I reached out to this, the food's ad.
00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:09.119
And what I actually learned is this this company, I think at the time it was maybe a relatively new company.
00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:11.519
I'm not sure exactly the timeline, but relatively new.
00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:16.480
The company is called Rising Tide Roastery, or so actually Rising Tide Collab, I think.
00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:18.480
And what it is, it's like this fascinating company.
00:18:18.559 --> 00:18:20.640
I never even thought about this idea before.
00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:28.400
But what it is is they they have a big warehouse down in South Austin, and they have these quite fancy uh coffee roasting machines.
00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:35.839
And and for people who don't know, coffee roasting machines are big, fairly hard to run, and expensive.
00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:39.440
So this is not one of what you were describing.
00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:40.880
This is definitely not.
00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:46.160
This is the smallest one, and I'm I'm gonna explain to here in a minute about my my coffee roaster.
00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:49.039
At rising tide, they actually have this exact same coffee roaster.
00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:49.359
Okay.
00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:58.079
And the the the pitch on it, the reason they have this roaster, and the reason you train on this roaster is that this is considered like a very manual roaster.
00:18:58.319 --> 00:18:58.640
Okay.
00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:07.039
Uh meaning you have you have to control the gas, the heat, the airflow, um, the timing, and all you really get is temperature sensors.
00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:07.599
And that's it.
00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:08.960
Everything else is very manual.
00:19:09.119 --> 00:19:11.359
A lot of the newer machines can be more automatic.
00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:18.559
So you plug in a roast profile and you say, okay, roast for this amount and this degree, and you etc.
00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:21.440
And so anyway, so it went down there and I was like, wow.
00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:23.119
And I knew nothing about coffee roasting.
00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:30.400
I mean, I I think I had a really good sensory development of like what good coffee tasted like, like low different local companies.
00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:34.000
But I would also get beans from all over all across the US, across the world.
00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:35.920
Like I loved experimenting with different beans.
00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:37.200
So we learned on this machine.
00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:38.799
It's called an ARC 800.
00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:41.119
It's a machine that's built out in in Taiwan.
00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:47.920
Probably the one of the simplest but most like interesting things is that I had no idea how long it takes to roast coffee.
00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:54.960
And in fact, it's kind of a fun, like trivia question for people because it takes anywhere from you know, maybe eight minutes to 10 minutes to like 12 minutes.
00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:56.720
It's a very fast process.
00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:00.319
And then I can get into some of the specifics there.
00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:08.480
And then, and but for me, it was, you know, I I I as much as I like getting into hobbies, there was something very special about roasting coffee.
00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:17.599
And I think the the particular thing that stood out to me was roasted coffee is a little bit of a scientific endeavor.
00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:21.279
So you you do have it's a very scientific approach.
00:20:21.359 --> 00:20:31.119
Like you want to like isolate variables like the the temperature that you drop the beans in from the hopper, goodness, the amount of time, the amount of temperature rise.
00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:40.160
It's a so in that part can be very scientific, but the the flip side of it is that it's also a very artistic and craftsman sort of endeavor.
00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:47.279
Because at the end of the day, you get these green beans that the green beans are the beans that have been picked off of the coffee tree.
00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:48.480
They're actually cherries.
00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:58.480
The hist the the processing of coffee is really cool because you have a coffee tree and uh it sort of looks like a it's a pretty like if I'm honest, a pretty uninteresting tree.
00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:04.720
So the leaves are sort of like sort of oval, like like they're sort of long, but they produce cherries.
00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:08.079
And they look, they call it coffee cherries, and they look a lot like cherries.
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:09.920
Well, when they get ripe, they turn red.
00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:10.720
They turn bright red.
00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:11.039
Okay.
00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:12.640
And so that's when you pick them.
00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:18.240
And in fact, some of the the farmers or they actually have like these color gratings they wear on their wrist.
00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:21.519
And so they say, Okay, this is red, just pick this, you know.
00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:25.440
Because I think uh over time you start to you know it start to get complicated.
00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:30.000
So then you pick this coffee cherry and you let it ferment.
00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:33.279
And almost all coffee, basically all coffee is fermented.
00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:36.319
What happens though from that point is very different.
00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:39.440
When I think of ferment, it's in a liquid.
00:21:39.599 --> 00:21:42.960
But are you not are we doing this in a liquid or are we just letting it age?
00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:44.000
It's both.
00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:46.000
And so it gets it gets very complex.
00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:49.599
So let's let's get up and go to your equipment.
00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:50.000
Okay.
00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:52.720
So this is the coffee roaster.
00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:55.359
Like I said earlier, this is called an ARC 800.
00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:59.599
But the 800 comes from a the amount or the volume of coffee.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:00.799
You can roast any time.
00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:02.319
So 800 grams of coffee.
00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:07.200
And so coffee roasters effectively have two main things that you can control.
00:22:07.359 --> 00:22:08.799
The first thing is airflow.
00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:11.440
That's one of the variables that you can control.
00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:12.400
The other is gas.
00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:15.519
This is a propane-powered coffee roaster.
00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:22.640
They do come in natural gas nowadays, more and more becoming electric, but it's overall a fairly efficient machine.
00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:28.480
So inside of here is basically a gas, uh sorry, a flame that's powered by the gas.
00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:31.359
And if you want to have more heat, you increase this.
00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:33.519
Those are the only two variables that you actually have.
00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:34.400
Things you can control.
00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:35.119
Air and heat.
00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:35.759
Air and heat.
00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:43.039
What makes the coffee roaster unique is the temperature sensors, the probes.
00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:47.680
So there another name for them are called RT RTDs, I believe, or thermocouples.
00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:50.079
But this is a this is a thermocouple.
00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:53.279
So this machine actually has four probes.
00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:58.079
There's a primary one, which is in here, called a bean probe.
00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:04.960
And this is a since it's the drum roaster, the there's a you can hear it kind of spinning, spinning like this uh at a given RPM.
00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:09.359
And there's little blades inside of there that like churn, make the beans tumble.
00:23:09.599 --> 00:23:15.039
And the bean temperature probe sits inside of the beans as it's as they're rumbling through.
00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:21.359
Then up here, a little bit higher, is something called an environment temperature probe, and it measures the environmental temperature.
00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:23.920
It shows you it's the temperature of going into the roaster.
00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:28.400
The rest of the sort of, we'll call it the anatomy of the machine is this is your hopper.
00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:34.559
When I open this little chute, the beans will flow from here into the drum, and you'll hear it.
00:23:34.640 --> 00:23:36.000
It's it's like a fairly pleasant sound.
00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:38.079
It sort of actually sounds a little bit like raindrops.
00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:44.000
Uh they sit in there, and then I start to control the heat and the temperature.
00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:51.359
And then after about, say 10 minutes, depending on what I'm my goals are, I will hit this little button here called cooling.
00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:58.079
And this is a really fun machine because there's a sort of an extractor fan over here, and that's the second hose.
00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:01.119
Show me a raw bean, show me a cooked bean.
00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:01.920
Yeah.
00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:08.799
And we're not going to go through the 10-minute process of cooking them, but you know, then we'll talk about grinding.
00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:11.839
So this is a coffee, a sample of coffee that I got just recently.
00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:14.000
I've actually not even roasted this yet.
00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:16.400
But it's the varietal is called a pacamara.
00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:21.359
And these pacamaras are quite a very big bean, like a very large bean.
00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:22.640
Let's show that.
00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:27.200
And what I I like to keep my batch size sort of like consistent.
00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:30.000
So what I usually try to do is keep that at about 400.
00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:32.799
And these beans are what you call green beans.
00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:33.200
All right.
00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:36.640
Now, these beans are actually a little bit bigger than than normal.
00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:38.720
They have a particularly interesting smell.
00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:39.599
It's unlike anything.
00:24:39.680 --> 00:24:40.880
You wanna like I can't.
00:24:41.519 --> 00:24:41.920
Oh, okay.
00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:43.119
There's a it's very earthy.
00:24:43.519 --> 00:24:44.000
Very earthy.
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:50.240
Yeah, it's a it's a raw, uncooked bean that the only thing that's happened to it is it's been fermented.
00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:53.599
Effectively, on my screen here is a roast profile.
00:24:55.119 --> 00:25:02.319
So depending on the amount of moisture, depending on the density of the bean, and also the size of the bean.
00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:09.119
And then you can also look at there's some more, you know, maybe tribal knowledge of, you know, where the bean came from, which farm, how it was processed.
00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:12.160
Those those things also do come into the come into play.
00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:19.359
But in terms of objective variables, bean size, the density of the bean, and the moisture of the bean are very important variables.
00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:24.319
I actually have a machine here that measures both the moisture and the density for you.
00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:26.880
At what point does the artisan take over?
00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:32.880
I think where the artisan comes in is there's no set formula for roasting coffee.
00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:37.759
When you're roasting coffee, you're thinking about what is your like what are you what are your goals?
00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:44.559
Are you trying to create a coffee that is maybe going to be more used for like a pour over?
00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:49.920
For me as a roaster, what I've really tried to do is create coffee that I personally like.
00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:51.759
It's a good start.
00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:58.960
And and because and I think that's what's really enjoyable for me is doing something that I like and then sharing that with the neighbors of Mueller.
00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:10.960
And I think different roasters can also do the sort of the inverse of that, where they're saying, actually, I want to go make a really nice, fruity, acidic coffee because that's what my customers like.
00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:15.119
And I'm sort of the other way around where I want to make something that I really enjoy and then share that with the neighbors.
00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:19.359
In roasting, there's roughly three phases of uh roasting coffee.
00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:24.960
The very first phase is you what you're doing is when the bean goes into the roasting drunk, you're drying the bean.
00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:28.000
You're taking off all the sort of moisture on the outer shell.
00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:35.359
The second phase, once the bean has dried, which is usually when the bean has changed enough color, it'll become a sort of a yellowy color.
00:26:35.519 --> 00:26:44.480
So this is where I usually like to spend a lot of my time in the roast profile, is trying to elongate, but not too long, the Maillard phase.
00:26:44.640 --> 00:26:47.519
And then the third phase is called the development phase.
00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:56.240
And so typically the number one characteristic that people talk about when they're buying coffee is do I want a light roast or a dark roast?
00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:58.240
And development is usually that.
00:26:58.400 --> 00:27:06.319
So when you have finished your Maillard phase, and you know you finished the Maillard phase when you start to hear the beans pop.
00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:14.079
So just like popcorn, because the moisture inside of the inner part of the bean has now basically reached a boiling point and it's cracked open the bean.
00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:15.839
So we actually call it first crack.
00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:20.079
And that's when you know that you've finished the Maillard phase, you're moving into this, what we call the development phase.
00:27:20.160 --> 00:27:26.000
And the development phase is you you tend to like keep the roast time to a minimum there.
00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:33.039
So maybe it's only, maybe it's a percentage of the total roast, or just say, maybe it's just say one minute after the mayored phase.
00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:36.079
And then you turn off and you can call it drop the beans.
00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:40.160
If you leave it, say two minutes, that's called maybe, let's just call it the medium roast.
00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:43.759
At that two minute mark, the beans have become a little bit darker.
00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:48.640
All the moisture will have been extracted through that first crack, most of the moisture at least.
00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:53.440
And then if you leave them in a little bit longer, that'll be more of a darker roast, maybe three or four minutes.
00:27:53.680 --> 00:27:59.440
Most of the beans that I make are somewhere between sort of a light to a medium, a little bit higher.
00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:02.319
Like I like a little bit stronger than a typical light roast.
00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:06.960
I like the darker, darker roast, but I want to make sure that that sweetness is really what's coming to life.
00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:14.960
Right at this moment, I'm capturing this note of these people think this one tastes a little bit like lime blossom.
00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:15.680
Okay.
00:28:16.799 --> 00:28:20.160
And so at that note, at that moment, you're thinking, I can do that.
00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:22.799
But if I go a little bit longer, that lime blossom might go away.
00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:25.119
And so these are all the variables that you get to take.
00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:29.440
And I think it's a lot like cooking, or I think sourdough is actually a pretty good parallel.
00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:32.319
Is everybody's sourdough is a little bit different.
00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:34.559
Everybody's baking style is a little bit different.
00:28:34.799 --> 00:28:40.160
And so it it attracts a certain person to that style that you have created.
00:28:40.319 --> 00:28:41.839
And so that's what I've been trying to do.
00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.640
These are a bean out of Bolivia.
00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:46.319
This is my Bolivian coffee.
00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:48.319
I have actually loved this coffee so far.
00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:50.880
I call it this, it's really interesting.
00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:56.640
I call it the abajita, which is in Spanish the the little bee.
00:28:56.720 --> 00:29:03.759
And the reason is, and I don't know what it is about this particular coffee, but as it's roasting, there's a little honeybee.
00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:06.960
And I don't know if it's the same one or just a family, or they're all interested in it.
00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:08.720
This little honeybee comes in.
00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:10.640
Doesn't bother me, just sort of smells around.
00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:12.880
He's like, what is this?
00:29:13.039 --> 00:29:13.920
Uh and then he goes away.
00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:15.599
And so I named it the little abejita.
00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:18.160
And so, yeah, then this is what shows up in your bag.
00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:20.240
So I will take a little coffee bag.
00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:23.200
So this morning, yeah, we we had a bit of the coffee there.
00:29:23.359 --> 00:29:25.279
Uh we we we we grounded.
00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:27.200
Well, actually, Quentin ground it.
00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:28.000
Sorry, you're right.
00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:32.559
Quentin, he he loves he is a is a major helper.
00:29:32.799 --> 00:29:35.359
And so, yeah, that is coffee roasting.
00:29:35.599 --> 00:29:38.400
What have you learned about life from roasting coffee?
00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:44.559
My genuine answer, and I think it's pervasive in a lot of my sort of life's endeavors, is it's curiosity.
00:29:44.799 --> 00:29:50.079
When I first saw that ad to learn how to roast coffee, it it it piqued curiosity.
00:29:50.319 --> 00:30:02.640
But what it what curiosity for me is, is sort of unearthing something that is that you that you're unsure of how it works.
00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:08.799
And I think learning how stuff works really broadens your world purview.
00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:13.839
And I think things start to make more sense the more things you understand.
00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:26.480
And so you you can I've, for example, before I started roasting coffee, I enjoyed specialty fancy coffee for I mean years, maybe a decade before I got and I knew anything about roasting.
00:30:26.559 --> 00:30:33.920
And like I said, I claimed I knew everything about, you know, specialty coffee and do all the processing and all of that, but I actually had no idea how long it takes to roast coffee.
00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:35.359
Like it's such a simple thing, right?
00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:51.599
And since I got curious and I learned how that works, it has sort of started to create more clarity for me of like just how the coffee coffee, the pipeline, I guess I'll call it, like the coffee pipeline works, whether it's importing the green coffee, which I've done, it's roasting.
00:30:51.680 --> 00:31:02.480
And then the next thing that I'm really curious about is to start going to origin and going to talk to the farmers who are running these farms and and sort of what their challenges are.
00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:09.599
What are their also what are their art are artistic versus uh mechanistic viewpoints on actually growing coffee?
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.559
Sustainability is such an interesting passion for me, but I'm actually moving into more of a glass jar.
00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:20.240
And because I'm only really selling to neighbors, what's also great is they actually prefer that too.
00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:20.880
They can return it.
00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:22.319
And you can get your glass jar back.
00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:24.480
I can get the glass jar back, I can give them a discount.
00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:25.759
Like it's a it's a really great system.
00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:26.160
Okay.
00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:34.400
And then, yeah, sustainability though on the farm, thinking about like what actually got me into this was the country I was living in ran out of water.
00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:34.960
Yeah.
00:31:35.200 --> 00:31:38.319
And that's a th, these are real things that are happening around the world.
00:31:38.480 --> 00:31:42.799
I I get so much kick out of talking to people like this because you begin to see those connections.
00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:43.200
Yeah.
00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:45.279
You know, why did you give me the coffee?
00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:47.279
Because the country ran out of water.
00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:48.880
What what was that?
00:31:49.039 --> 00:31:49.440
Yeah, right.
00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:50.000
What was that?
00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:50.400
Yeah.
00:31:50.640 --> 00:31:54.079
Now let's talk about a little bit about Miller.
00:31:54.559 --> 00:31:55.680
Two questions.
00:31:56.079 --> 00:31:58.960
What one thing you really love about Miller.
00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:02.799
And then the other one is if you could change anything, what would it be?
00:32:03.039 --> 00:32:06.720
You know, I was saying earlier in the interview how we moved from Cherrywood to Mueller.
00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:10.319
In spite of being so close, I was always so worried.
00:32:10.559 --> 00:32:13.839
You know, maybe I just it was not the place that we wanted to be.
00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:20.160
But literally, like, you know, those moments you have in life where you immediately know this is the right place.
00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:21.359
I had that with Mueller.
00:32:21.599 --> 00:32:21.759
Okay.
00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:24.480
Like that night we moved in, and you know, half of our stuff wasn't even.
00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:25.839
I was like, this is exactly it.
00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:28.799
Like the it was immediate friendship, immediate connections.
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:31.039
Quentin, he had immediate friends.
00:32:31.359 --> 00:32:33.519
He can go down the street, it's safe.
00:32:33.759 --> 00:32:37.599
It's just incredibly diverse, like groups of people that we meet.
00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:41.440
And that for me is like the most exciting thing.
00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:44.880
Just the the the the different types of people you're able to meet.
00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:57.440
In fact, I think the reason you and I had met was Kaz, he my when I first got this machine, this roaster, sorry, I had just come out of a back injury, and my wife actually put a message out on the WhatsApp group saying, Hey, can anybody help me move it in?
00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:00.240
Kaz came over, you know, no question.
00:33:00.319 --> 00:33:01.920
I I don't even know I had met him at the time.
00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:08.400
And then he, a few days later, he's like, Hey John, you know, just so you know, like I run the MA, would you like to donate your beans?
00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:14.720
And I was like, this is fantastic because now I get to learn as I'm roasting coffee and share with neighbors.
00:33:14.799 --> 00:33:19.759
And that was my first injection point into like, okay, let's go connect with neighbors.
00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:26.160
And what's been so nice is you know, 99% of my sales is just local neighbors.
00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:32.400
And for the most part, my my whole pitch was that me and my me and Quentin, we would like deliver the coffee on our bikes.
00:33:32.559 --> 00:33:42.559
And we still do that for a lot of people, but and it was a few days into the business that somebody had mentioned, hey, like you should do a pickup option because people enjoy coming to look at your roaster.
00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:46.000
And so so many people show up and they're like, Hey, nice to meet you.
00:33:46.079 --> 00:33:46.640
I've never met you.
00:33:46.720 --> 00:33:48.400
I live so-and-so over here, over there.
00:33:48.559 --> 00:33:49.759
Can I see your roaster?
00:33:49.839 --> 00:33:51.279
And I was like, absolutely.
00:33:51.519 --> 00:33:53.680
And as you can tell, I enjoy talking about it.
00:33:53.759 --> 00:33:55.440
So I come and I show them.
00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:02.880
And for them, I hope it's again sort of satiating their curiosity about something that is otherwise maybe a little bit opaque or foreign.
00:34:03.039 --> 00:34:05.680
And so getting just getting to know different neighbors like that.
00:34:05.839 --> 00:34:10.559
And then we've also started doing quite a lot of like really creative like pop-ups.
00:34:10.719 --> 00:34:13.679
So there's a group that does a pop-up in Tanaguchi Park.
00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:17.280
I I I'm able to give them some coffee beans uh for their thing.
00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:24.480
Another one of our neighbors, he has like a little Japanese truck that we're I'm I'm offering or giving him some beans for.
00:34:24.639 --> 00:34:34.719
Uh, I think this weekend there's a a new I don't know if they've if they just moved here or what their deal is exactly, but they they're selling or make they bake Japanese style bread.
00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:39.199
So we're gonna do like a little collab where I'm gonna provide the coffee and they're gonna provide the bread.
00:34:39.519 --> 00:34:40.079
Let me know.
00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:41.760
Uh yeah, well, uh definitely.
00:34:41.920 --> 00:34:44.960
And and so all these little fun connections that are just so unique.
00:34:45.199 --> 00:34:49.760
So the thing I would not I would change, I think it's the name, though.
00:34:49.920 --> 00:34:52.559
I I really want to be the person who calls it Miller.
00:34:53.039 --> 00:34:53.760
I just can't.
00:34:53.920 --> 00:34:56.480
I can't call it Miller, and I I I don't know why.
00:34:56.880 --> 00:34:57.360
Question.
00:34:57.519 --> 00:35:02.239
I want to buy a bottle of coffee, I love it.
00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:06.800
And I can specify the roast and the bean and all of that.
00:35:07.039 --> 00:35:16.400
That's one of the big my favorite things about this is that because I literally make individual batches, so this is like I said earlier, like this is my 400 gram batch.
00:35:16.639 --> 00:35:24.079
If you, when you sign up on the website, if you say I want light roast or dark roast, I can literally keep that in just a little bit longer for you.
00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:26.480
And it's no, I mean it's no different to me.
00:35:26.719 --> 00:35:32.000
And so I can make them hyper personalized, or you can just buy them as as you want on the website.
00:35:32.079 --> 00:35:34.320
Like just give me what you think is the very best.
00:35:34.559 --> 00:35:36.719
So this is the the tower coffee hour.
00:35:36.880 --> 00:35:40.320
It'll be interesting to see what we get up when we get all this put together.
00:35:40.639 --> 00:35:42.559
John, thank you so much.
00:35:42.880 --> 00:35:43.360
Thank you so much.
00:35:43.519 --> 00:35:47.039
I really appreciate your time, and it was so much fun getting to meet Quentin.
00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:48.079
That was fun.
00:35:48.239 --> 00:35:50.480
And the coffee John served was delicious.
00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:55.199
Quentin supplied the coffee mugs and was helpful in setting up the audio and video equipment.
00:35:55.360 --> 00:35:57.519
So it was went better than expected.
00:35:58.079 --> 00:36:09.360
John is a supplier of coffee to the Miller Neighborhood Association for our monthly meetings and donates part of his proceeds from one of his store brands to the Miller Swim Team, the Manatees.
00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:20.639
If you like good coffee and enjoy a special taste, you need to visit John's website, Gradient Coffee Roastery dot com, and check out your options.
00:36:21.039 --> 00:36:30.480
Until the next time we find an interesting in every interview, this is Preston or Ty Tyree signing off and wishing you all the best.
