In April, some of our Roasting team travelled to San Diego to attend the United States' largest coffee expo!
World of Coffee is an annual event hosted by the Specialty Coffee Association that offers guests an opportunity to attend onsite lectures, meet importers & other roasters, cup coffees, and see the newest offerings in packaging and technology. We’re thrilled to continue to grow Cooperative with this inspiration!
Here are some of our team members' favorite moments & takeaways from our adventure to the west coast-
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Eli Masem
Director of Retail & Coffee Educator
Favorite Lecture:
Inbound logistics 101
Unpacking the Coffee Import Journey for Roasters
Favorite Coffee:
Gundikhan Natural - Chikmagalur India at Osito Cupping
Favorite Booth:
Altos de Chiapas
Most Exciting or Inspiring:
The ever more common interactions between smaller importers, roasters, and producers looking for a way to create a more equitable playing field for all involved in the supply chain.
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Hannah
Production Manager
Favorite Lecture:
Same Questions, Different Dialogues: Reframing Value by Centering Producers - Writer and anthropologist Alexa Romano and researcher and strategist Vera EspÍndola Rafael draw on two intentional dialogues, held at the Women-Powered Coffee Summit in 2024, to look at the value of dialogue to understand the needs and realities of coffee producers, particularly women.
Favorite Booth:
Mineragua :-) one of the best compliments to coffee is bubbly water!
Favorite Coffee:
Kebena Washed Lot from Jimma, Ethiopia, tasted at Osito's cupping
Most Exciting or Inspiring:
It was wonderful to have a sense of community with so many different kinds of people who are dedicated to creating coffee. I appreciated being surrounded by people who are rooted in science, care for the future of our planet, and who value their international communities. Coffee people are more often than not cool and kind humans that are generous with their knowledge sharing!
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Holden Taylor
Director of Sales
Favorite Lecture:
Building a Repeatable Sales Strategy for Your Roastery by Luke Waite from Pomelo Coffee Consulting
Favorite Booth:
Roaster Village as a whole. And anywhere with snacks after a day of only having coffee.
Favorite Coffee:
Miguel Angel Burbano - Washed Gesha from San Augustin, Colombia
Most Exciting or Inspiring:
Hitting the ground running with a new sales strategy and meeting so many cool new people.
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Matt McDaniel
Green Coffee Buyer & Lead Roaster
Favorite Lecture:
Founder to Future: Preserving Legacy Through Transitions to Worker Ownership by John Abrams.
My favorite lecture was about transitioning to employee ownership as a long-term strategy to support an organization's existence beyond the career of the founder. We have explored different ideas around this concept for the past few years, but this panel included real world examples from 3 coffee companies that have charted this course. They also shared particular information and resources that have helped me move past some of the complicated details of working through this potential process in the past.
Favorite Booth:
My favorite booth was the Roaster Village in its entirety. I love trying so many different coffees from various roasters around the world!
Favorite Coffee:
I loved the Osito cupping -- tasting fresh Mexico lots was my favorite!
Most Exciting or Inspiring:
I am most inspired by the specialty coffee community in its multifaceted entirety! The sheer number of folks working in this industry in different capacities, the international element of producers and exporters from various countries, and the ability to connect in-person with people that live far apart and we typically can only communicate with through email and phone calls. All of these add up to make WOC quite meaningful!
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We are grateful for these new experiences, new friends, and new inspiration!
