Coffee Project NY

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Hello and welcome to No Bad Reviews colon a coffee podcast. 7 00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:09,520 This is a podcast where three friends, co-workers, and coffee industry professionals 8 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,800 get together every other week and tell you something about coffee. 9 00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:16,400 I'm Jenny and I run the operations at a coffee company. 10 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:26,560 Hey, this is Marcus. You talking to me? Talking to you. Did I just do? Sorry, 11 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:32,240 can we do that again? I feel like I just like. No. I'm just fucking totally. I'm not doing it again. 12 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:36,720 You're going to do that, weren't you? No, no, I thought that was great. Oh, good. Yeah. OK. 13 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:42,160 Ready? I'm Stephanie. Hi, I'm the employee of the month at modest coffee. Did anyone else mention 14 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:46,560 the coffee company? No, I was trying to be mysterious today. We're huge right now. 15 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:51,760 We're going to be huge in New York. Yeah. Oh, that's true. Actually. Yeah. Available in Brooklyn. 16 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:56,400 You're your phone just went off, Marcus. In case anyone in Brooklyn can't get a cup of coffee. 17 00:01:56,400 --> 00:02:02,960 Yeah, we are. Yeah, we're in the process of getting into our East Coast expansion. 18 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:08,400 We've expanded in the Midwest and now we are expanding to the East Coast. We're coming for you 19 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:16,000 by way of Ohio and Brooklyn. Ohio and Brooklyn. Yeah, nothing in between. 20 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:21,440 Straight from the heart. Right in. Uh huh. Uh huh. Right in. 21 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:29,120 So if you are listener, dear listener, how local grocery store that you love actually send us in. 22 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:33,600 Tell us where you want us to be because we're going to go. We'll go there. We're working on it. 23 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:38,320 So Steph went to Brooklyn and we went to Brooklyn. You didn't actually go to Brooklyn, right? You 24 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:43,520 stay in Manhattan and Queens and Queens. Yeah. Oh, we're going to be one store in Queens too. 25 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,520 Yeah, that's true. We're already there. What's the name of that store? We're in 26 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:53,120 Met Fresh. Oh yeah. Hey, if you live in New York, go to Met Fresh. Yeah, what's up? Find us. 27 00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:57,920 And if you don't find us, ask the store manager why they don't have us and then they'll carry us 28 00:02:57,920 --> 00:03:03,840 because we started out with just a few of them. Yeah. Yeah. Brooklyn is a real coffee hub. I kind 29 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:11,200 of, I really wanted like a roaster in the neighborhood that we stayed in and it was like, 30 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:16,320 no, nobody's roasting anywhere but Brooklyn. Oh really? Yeah. That's interesting. Really? 31 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:21,280 I don't know why. I don't know why Brooklyn's super cool with the coffee roasters. Yeah, 32 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:24,880 maybe it's a little more industrial. That's kind of like the West Loop in Chicago too. 33 00:03:26,640 --> 00:03:31,360 Everybody in Chicago roasts in the same neighborhood for the most part. That's true. 34 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:35,600 Like yeah, the little industrial parts of town. Yeah. Yeah. Well, because you can't have coffee 35 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:39,600 roasting just anywhere. I mean, you could, but like then you'd have to invest in a lot more 36 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:44,720 equipment and stuff like that. So they don't really prefer that manufacturing in residential 37 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:51,040 neighborhoods and I don't actually know what Manhattan or Queens are like versus Brooklyn. 38 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:57,040 I don't understand how anyone gets anything delivered in Manhattan. Like I'm trying to 39 00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:03,200 imagine like unloading a few pallets of green coffee. Oh yeah. That's a good point. I don't 40 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:11,280 know how like, oh God, it's so crazy there. The Amazon delivery guys are on bikes or on carts, 41 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:16,000 they like unload the truck for like the whole block and like a bunch of people get out of the 42 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,840 truck with their little carts and they're like running up and down the block doing all the 43 00:04:19,840 --> 00:04:25,280 deliveries. That's so funny. But I just, every time I saw a bike, they use like the same big 44 00:04:25,280 --> 00:04:31,760 Rubbermaid type containers that we use for coffee, like the big ones. And so every time I saw like a 45 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:36,640 guy on a bike loaded up with a bunch of those bins, I just couldn't help but picture Jenny. 46 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:42,480 Like if we were in New York, this is how you'd have to deliver all your coffee. Like on a bike 47 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:49,040 with a giant trailer loaded with bins. Imagine the fucking calf muscles you'd have. You know what, 48 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:57,120 one, I would have an electric bike. Two, I would just ship UPS. Why are we talking about New York? 49 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:03,440 Because Steph just went to New York and just brought a coffee. We had a super fun family 50 00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:10,000 vacation. And obviously I was in search of a coffee to bring back and a coffee flavored 51 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:15,040 chocolate to bring back too. So stay tuned for the Love It or Leave It bonus episode for that one. 52 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:20,960 I'm excited about that too. I think let's just like jump into the company. Let's just jump into 53 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:27,600 the coffee company. The owners are from Malaysia. So I'm going to talk about Malaysia a tiny bit, 54 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:32,880 because I think there are reasons why they're here. So I just feel so fortunate that we got 55 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:37,680 to take this trip. It was very cool. It was like our first big family vacation to someplace besides 56 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:43,520 like Wisconsin or whatever. So it was very cool. I hadn't been to New York in like a couple of 57 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:52,000 decades. And you know, the old neighborhoods that I liked are different now. Fancy. But we stayed in 58 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:57,840 the East Village, which is, I don't want to say it's not gentrified because we went for like a, 59 00:05:57,840 --> 00:06:03,440 we went for like a happy hour bar crawl to all the oyster bars. So like it's obviously somewhat 60 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:12,640 gentrified. But it's not like, it's still a little like, I don't know, grungy or whatever. It's not, 61 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:19,200 it's not all fancy. It's not fancy. Like a little rough around the edges stuff. Yeah. So you can 62 00:06:19,200 --> 00:06:24,960 still find like some squatters and some anarchists and some punks and all that kind of stuff. It's a 63 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:31,760 really great neighborhood. So I was given a list of coffee places to check out by that guy. What's 64 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:38,800 his name? Kevin? Yes. Yeah. Okay. But none of them, I never ended up anywhere near any of them. 65 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:45,440 Okay. And I was not taking like a special trip to Brooklyn to go to a coffee shop. So that's like 66 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:49,920 another trip. I'd love to do a trip. Is it hard to get to Brooklyn though? Isn't it like five minutes 67 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:56,160 away? Like right across a body of water? It is hard. A small body of water, like a river. It is 68 00:06:56,160 --> 00:07:03,280 hard to convince the group to travel to Brooklyn so that you can get a cappuccino basically. Oh, 69 00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:08,560 I see. It wasn't just a minute. Like I would love to do a trip to New York where we just like 70 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:14,560 travel around and try coffee, but that was not, you know, you have to keep everyone's interest in 71 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:21,120 mind. I would say like what we, for example, when we went to New Orleans, our goal every day was to 72 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:26,880 try a different beignet place. Oh, awesome. So we just kind of researched and found good beignet 73 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:32,320 places in different parts of the city. And like we went out to like the garden district and we went 74 00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:38,320 over here and we went over there. Okay. But you see why kids would be more interested in finding 75 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:43,520 beignets. Yeah, I guess. Than they might be in finding coffee beans. Yeah, I guess. I mean, 76 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:48,720 yeah, I guess our kids would be interested in the coffee adventure, but I guess your kids are not 77 00:07:48,720 --> 00:07:55,120 the same. No, no. Yeah. You know, and it's not like you have to travel very far for good coffee. 78 00:07:55,680 --> 00:08:02,400 So yeah, I mean, I did walk right past that one place that we did an episode on. Colombo. 79 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:08,240 I want to say Colombo. La Colombe. La Colombe. That's what it is. But they're like a chain. They 80 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:12,720 got locations everywhere. Everywhere. That's why we walked by one. They were in a Pennsylvania-based 81 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:18,000 white company originally, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So we ended up loving the East Village so much 82 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:25,920 that I was determined to find a coffee in the East Village roasted by the company that was there. 83 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:31,200 So technically this was roasted in Queens because they have a few different locations and their 84 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:35,840 roastery is in Queens, but their original location is in the East Village. I bought this coffee in 85 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:40,960 the East Village. Okay. It's Coffee Project New York. And I chose this particular coffee 86 00:08:40,960 --> 00:08:44,720 because it seemed like something Marcus would like. Yeah, I think I've heard of them actually. 87 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:53,680 It's a Dynamic Cherry 39 Reserved from Panama. I tried to look up the farm. Amazing. It's called 88 00:08:53,680 --> 00:09:00,400 like Star Farm in Spanish. Do you know how many farms have that same name? Yeah. What's Star in 89 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:07,520 Spanish? Estrella. Estrella. Okay. So Finca Estrella or something like that. Yes. Finca. I 90 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:14,400 couldn't remember that. Yes. This is an anaerobic 98-hour process. Oh, amazing. So I thought you'd 91 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:19,920 like that. Yeah. Yeah. So that's why I chose this one. So for those of you that don't know about 92 00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:27,440 anaerobic process, that's where they harvest the beans and then they ferment them for 96 hours. 93 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:32,320 And then they break them out, usually through mechanical separation. Break it out of the cherry. 94 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:37,920 Yeah. Out of the fruit. Right. And coffee is like a really hard, you know, kind of dense fruit too. 95 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:45,120 So it's got to be extracted out. You look a little bit excited. I'm excited to try this coffee too. 96 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:48,800 I'm pretty excited. Before we get started on the coffee, can you talk about your outfit today? 97 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:59,040 I'd love to know more about your mermaid pants and what your shirt means, R-B-N-Y. So my mermaid pants 98 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:03,680 came from the Buffalo Exchange, which my teenager discovered while we were in New York. 99 00:10:03,680 --> 00:10:09,280 I just need to say that you're wearing these pants. They have mermaid scallops, but they're also shiny 100 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:17,440 leggings, bell bottoms. Very Cher-esque. Thank you. I know. Are they comfortable? 101 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:23,280 They're extremely comfortable. That makes it a W. And they make her butt look really cute. 102 00:10:23,280 --> 00:10:28,480 Aw, thanks Jenny. Not trying to objectify you, but your butt looks nice as a mermaid. Aw, 103 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:34,960 thank you. Nice mermaid butt. We were supposed to go to the mermaid parade in Coney Island 104 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:39,920 while we were there. It would have been perfect. And I bought the pants. I was like, should I buy 105 00:10:39,920 --> 00:10:45,280 a pair of, where am I going to wear these? But I had the perfect place to wear them. Yes. And then 106 00:10:45,280 --> 00:10:50,560 we didn't go to the mermaid parade because Jason looked it up and was like, this review says it's 107 00:10:50,560 --> 00:10:55,280 as crowded as Times Square on New Year's. Are we sure this is something we want to do? It's amazing. 108 00:10:55,280 --> 00:11:02,400 All right. We didn't. Avoid the crowds. That's good. Yes, but I am wearing the pants. I saw 109 00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:09,600 some pictures. It was a pretty racy parade. It's like an art parade. It was like, yeah, 110 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:13,120 not safe for work parade pictures. I was like, man, this would have been really cool. You should 111 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:20,480 have gone. Yeah. The pictures made me sad. What about your shirt? And yeah, so this I bought in 112 00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:29,120 Rockaway Beach, RBNY Rockaway Beach, New York, and it is in the CBGB's font. It's a whole punk rock 113 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:36,000 Ramones. Apparently Rockaway has a tight connection to the punk rock scene. Through CBGB? Was that 114 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:41,920 in Rockaway Beach? No, that's actually on the Lower East Side. Oh, okay. So it was. Yeah. That still 115 00:11:41,920 --> 00:11:46,880 existed the last time I was in New York. Yeah. It does not now. It's like a fancy men's clothing 116 00:11:46,880 --> 00:11:53,440 store now. Wow. Yeah. Sad. That is sad. I mean, yes, it's sad, but on the other hand, there's 117 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:59,040 people who can support it financially, right? That's true. Yeah. You think back to the 1900s, 118 00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:04,960 everything was probably very grungy and dirty. I disagree. And now things get nicer, maybe. 119 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:10,000 New York's losing its edge. I'm just trying to think of a, I'm trying to put a positive spin on it. 120 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:15,040 I'm sad about it losing its edge. Although I'm glad that it's not the total 121 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:20,000 shithole that it was 15 years ago. Do you know where the cutting edge is? Right here, Aurora, 122 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:28,240 Illinois. It's the epicenter of everything. We're so lucky to be here. In corn. Yeah. In 123 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:32,960 corn-related products. And we still have to try some corn. We got a lot. Yeah, there's a lot in 124 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:38,320 Aurora, as I've learned just yesterday. While we're talking about Rockaway Beach briefly, 125 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:43,360 which is the other place we stayed in New York, there was a place called the Rockaway Roastery, 126 00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:51,280 and I was really excited to get, because Rockaway is pretty small and kind of strange, 127 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:55,760 but in a good way. And I was surprised that there was a roastery right in the middle of the little 128 00:12:55,760 --> 00:13:01,920 downtown. But then it turned out that they were selling Stumptown Coffee. Wow. How do you get away 129 00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:06,800 with that? Well, you go to the East Coast and you want to get West Coast Coffee. That's... 130 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:12,960 They do have a Stumptown Roastery in Brooklyn. That coffee was roasted in Brooklyn. 131 00:13:12,960 --> 00:13:17,920 Oh, that's a local company then. Yeah, I was just going to say just a little local company owned by 132 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:27,520 Jeb Holdings. Just a little local roastery owned by a global conglomerate of ex-Nazis. 133 00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:34,640 Yeah, reformer. Reformer. Reformed. Reformed Nazis. Reformed Nazis. Yeah. 134 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:41,680 That Stumptown Coffee Roastery has a direct lineage straight to... 135 00:13:41,680 --> 00:13:45,360 Let's not, because I'd love to get bought out by them one day. That would be great. 136 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:50,720 This would be a little more nice. Do I have to be the only... Like, no bad reviews in the room, 137 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:57,440 please? No bad reviews. Please. Thank you. No bad reviews of Jeb Holding. We'll take your money. 138 00:13:57,440 --> 00:14:05,200 Come on. I would not. I would not. Okay. Well, no bad reviews. Let's bring it back to Coffee 139 00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:12,960 Project New York. Okay, yay. On the bottom of the bag, it says roasted on June 5th. Yes. Best after 140 00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:19,520 two weeks. Have you ever seen that on a bag before? All right. Yeah. So I have. And I've had... 141 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:27,840 There's a lot of debate amongst the coffee brewing intellectuals, if you want to call them that, 142 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:36,800 right? Because everybody has an opinion on extraction, right? And so the idea behind 143 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:42,320 giving it two weeks, some people say 10 days, some people say eight days, some people say three days, 144 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:49,120 right? The idea is to give it a chance to off gas any of the carbon dioxide left in the beans 145 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:58,000 so that the water, when it starts to extract the solids, the TDS, or the total dissolvable solids 146 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:05,120 from the beans, there's no gas to interfere with that process. Okay. That's the idea behind it. 147 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:11,360 So we're about a month out as of this recording. So is it going to be acceptable? 148 00:15:11,360 --> 00:15:17,440 Well, I'm going to give you my hot take on this is that I love coffee at every stage. 149 00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:26,400 Like right out of the roaster, like a day after, I love how it develops. So yes, this is great. 150 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:31,360 Okay. We're good. We're good. Okay. I mean, I think like it's a matter of preference, 151 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:39,280 you know? It's like coffee's not going to be bad the day of roasting or whatever. Yeah. I mean, 152 00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:42,880 I've noticed that like... It gets better. Like there is that flavor development, but you know what? 153 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:46,800 It's like, don't tell people how to drink their coffee. I guess that's like my... I'm not going 154 00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:49,200 to tell you how to drink your coffee. Drink it however you want. I've noticed on my brewer, 155 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:55,360 if I brew a gallon of it, right? If it's like right after it's been roasted, it'll like foam 156 00:15:55,360 --> 00:16:02,000 and make a huge mess. Right? And so there's some like benefit to letting it off gas completely. 157 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:11,040 Gotcha. Yeah. But you know, I just like... I like the way coffee tastes. So just try it. Break some rules. 158 00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:22,160 All right. Let's really dive in. Coffee Project New York started in 2015 with this little coffee 159 00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:28,720 shop in the East Village, 400 square feet. Wow. Tiny, tiny, tiny. Probably got hot as fuck in there. 160 00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:34,400 They weren't roasting there. They started out as just a coffee shop, but still hot as fuck. You're 161 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:42,800 right. So it's a lesbian couple that owns the coffee shop and they are from Malaysia. They're 162 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:48,560 pretty young. I couldn't find dates. They look young, but they still... Were they there? Did you see them? No. 163 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:56,000 No. They hang out in the Long Island location mostly because that is where they have a lot of shit 164 00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:03,280 going on. Okay. But they look like they're maybe in their 30s or 40s. They're not older than 40s. 165 00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:10,480 When was it founded? 2015. Okay. Wow. That's very recent. Okay. Yeah. So the owners are... Oh gosh. 166 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:19,040 I wanted to look up how to pronounce everything. Chi Sam Negai and Kalina Teo. Gosh. Sorry if I 167 00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:27,680 totally mispronounced those. Sam is... She started out in IT and Kalina started out... She was like a 168 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:34,320 speech pathologist working for a not-for-profit. They both were just really burnt out and decided 169 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:40,960 they wanted to work together and do something fun. I'm like, wouldn't it be fun to open a coffee shop? 170 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:48,240 One of those ideas. Of course. Because that is the solution to burnout is to work 100 hours a week. 171 00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:53,600 Yes. And make no money. That's exactly what ended up happening. I don't. Yes. People need to be a 172 00:17:53,600 --> 00:18:00,880 little more real about entrepreneurship. Like, no, fucking keep your good job. You're going to get 173 00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:08,560 burned out way faster, man. No. Yeah. Some people call it, I'm all for quiet quitting. Just slow down 174 00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:14,080 a little bit. Just slow down a little bit. You fucking millennial. Fuck. If you have an 175 00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:18,720 opportunity to make as much money as you want, get into sales. This is not it. You don't have to be 176 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:25,120 the best. You just have to be better than the worst. Not much better. I'm glad they didn't 177 00:18:25,120 --> 00:18:32,000 follow your advice because they're doing okay. They're doing okay. So they actually... They did 178 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:38,480 not come to the US together. Salman and Kalina, they did meet in Malaysia when they were, I think, 179 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:45,040 teenagers. Wow. And they were with this UNICEF program where they were mentoring younger kids 180 00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:50,560 from bad neighborhoods or bad school districts or whatever. In Malaysia. In Malaysia. Oh shit. 181 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:55,680 And so they described it as sort of like a big brother, big sister type program. And they were 182 00:18:55,680 --> 00:19:00,720 both volunteering for that. And I guess we're just kind of acquaintances when they knew each 183 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:06,160 other in Malaysia. And then they both ended up moving to New York City separately in their 20s. 184 00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:11,440 Please tell me they bumped into each other on the street and found each other again. 185 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:16,400 It was one of those things that they sort of reconnected. They were not still in touch. Maybe 186 00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:21,280 it was like, I saw on Facebook that you moved to New York. We should get coffee. I don't know what 187 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:25,280 it was. I don't know how they started hanging out. But then they ended up just being friends. 188 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:32,160 And then they were roommates. And then they... How long does it take you guys to finally hook up? 189 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:38,720 But now they're married. About 14 days. Me and Marcus? No, I mean, these two. Like you're 190 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:44,560 roommates? Yeah. Yeah. Right. One thing leads to the next pretty quickly. When you're living together. 191 00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:55,200 So, I don't know. I looked up Malaysia because I can't avoid a rabbit hole. And I was curious 192 00:19:55,200 --> 00:20:00,160 about coffee culture in Malaysia. And I was... I mean, Malaysia is pretty much surrounded by 193 00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:06,880 Indonesia. I mean, there should be coffee there. And there is a lot of coffee there, but none of 194 00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:12,240 it is Arabica. Yeah. I was just about to ask if it was Robusta. Very little of it is Robusta. Like 195 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:19,600 five to 10%. 90 to 95% of it is Liberica. Yeah. Oh, what's the third one? Weren't we talking about 196 00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:24,320 that when we did the dollar store episode? Yeah. I would love it or leave it for the dollar store 197 00:20:24,320 --> 00:20:29,520 coffee. Although I... Go ahead. There's a fourth kind. There's a fourth variety that's called 198 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:35,600 Excelsior or something like that. Okay. Maybe that's the one. So, yeah. One of them you said 199 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:40,880 is like more like a tree. I don't think that's the Liberica. Okay. I think the Liberica is very 200 00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:48,400 close to the Robusta in... I've heard it's like sweeter. Okay. So, I think you're... 201 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:54,960 Teach us something today, Steph, because I am becoming fascinated. And they have like a tail on 202 00:20:54,960 --> 00:21:00,640 them? The bean? The bean has a tail? I feel like, you know what? I'm just going to have to Google 203 00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:11,040 this. Here is how the flavor of the beans has been described. Unusual flavor, unique, controversial, 204 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:20,400 polarizing, woody, burnt garbage. Those are the words I read. So, not everyone loves this coffee. 205 00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:25,680 Safe to say. That sounds like the dollar store coffee that we had. Potentially. But I heard 206 00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:32,000 somebody say it was slightly sweet. So, that was not described on your list. Okay. So, can you 207 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:40,160 explain this? In Malaysia, these coffee beans are roasted with butter and sugar. Have you ever heard 208 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:47,600 of this? I have. How... Like in the roaster, in a pan, what... Yeah. And then it becomes this solid 209 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:55,040 mass of coffee and butter and sugar, and then they break it up. Really? Yeah. And then they pour water 210 00:21:55,040 --> 00:22:02,640 and it melts. And it's a really cheap way of doing processing and roasting coffee. How is that cheaper 211 00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:07,760 than just putting it into a drum roaster? You're adding sugar and butter, which are both expensive. 212 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:14,640 I'm imagining a Whirly Pop style. Yeah. But you just add water and you have a drink. You don't 213 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:22,480 need any equipment afterwards to have a tasty beverage. Because it's salty and it's sweet, 214 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:25,920 I guess. I don't know. I don't know the whole science behind it. My understanding is that it's 215 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:31,760 a really cheap way to consume coffee. So, are they cooking... So, wait, after it's been roasted, 216 00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:35,520 you're saying they add the sugar and the butter. They're not roasting it? No, together. And it 217 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:40,480 becomes this brittle, really black. So, they take the green. Yeah. They take the green. No. Oh, 218 00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:44,080 I don't know. That's what I'm saying. I thought it was roasted first, and then... But they roasted 219 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:49,440 altogether? Maybe they roasted altogether. Roasted with butter and sugar is what I read. Yeah. I'm 220 00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:54,320 gonna imagine it's probably something like a Whirly Pop. So, you can be kind of agitating it, 221 00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:59,040 but it has a large opening to come out. And maybe at the end... I can't imagine that going in a drum 222 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:02,080 roaster. Maybe at the end of the roast. At the end of a roast. Oh, no. Yeah. It's definitely like a... 223 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:07,600 It can't be a drum roaster. It's a big Whirly thing, almost like a... Cotton candy. Cotton candy. 224 00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:12,000 That's what it looks like. Because you got to be able to clean it. That's going to be sticky and 225 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:15,120 messy. Right. Right. Yeah. Can't really... That's what I couldn't figure out. Oh, no, no, no. The 226 00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:21,920 video I saw was a pan. Okay. Yeah. It was all cooked in a pan together over a fire. Wow. Yeah. 227 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:28,640 That makes sense. So, it seems like Malaysian coffee is served similarly to a robust Vietnamese 228 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:34,320 coffee with just a shit ton of sweetened condensed milk because it's very dark and bitter. 229 00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:39,200 It's candied coffee. That's what it is. Basically. Yes. Interesting. And it sounds 230 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:45,520 interesting. No bad reviews. I would try it. Did you bring us some true Malaysian coffee? 231 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:51,920 I didn't. And what I... They don't really export it. There's not really enough of Liberica coffee 232 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:57,120 to export. I don't know if I mentioned this. The reason they're not growing the Arabica is just the... 233 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:02,320 Elevation? Elevation. Like height. I know. I see stuff like... 234 00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:11,280 Like taller. So, yeah, I guess it's not like an export business at all. But the Philippines 235 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:16,400 is very close to Malaysia. And what I read was like, go to a Philippine grocery store, 236 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:22,400 find the Filipino expat neighborhood near you and go to their grocery store and get some... So, 237 00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:26,640 another episode. Let's definitely see if we can get our hands on some of this. 238 00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:29,600 Okay. I'm just going to Google Filipino grocery store. 239 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:39,120 Sure. Be ready. So, yeah, that's what coffee is like in Malaysia. And apparently, I think it was 240 00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:44,320 some who was saying she started drinking coffee when she was five years old. It's just like a... 241 00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:48,480 I mean, of course you do because it's full of sweetened condensed milk. Of course that tastes 242 00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:52,640 good to a little kid and little kids are drinking it. It's like a local product. It's like wine in 243 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:56,800 Italy, right? You just grow up drinking wine and water or whatever. Yeah. 244 00:24:56,800 --> 00:25:00,000 Right. Yeah. I'll interject for one moment. There's a 245 00:25:01,360 --> 00:25:04,960 Filipino grocery store like five minutes from here. Oh, great. 246 00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:06,320 Shit. Let's go. Stay tuned. 247 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,360 I guess 15 minutes in traffic. Fantastic. 248 00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:18,560 We'll have to do this. Yeah. So, the other thing I was curious about in Malaysia was gay rights, 249 00:25:19,120 --> 00:25:23,760 because these are two lesbian women who both independently made the decision to come here. 250 00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:28,480 And I wondered if that was related to the situation in Malaysia. And I would suspect 251 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:34,480 that it was in fact related. It is a shit show over there if you're LGBTQ. 252 00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:40,480 They were both from Malaysia? Wow. I hope that they don't regret that 253 00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:46,880 decision here in the near future. I don't think we're moving to Sharia law, 254 00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:48,400 so we'll be fine. Are you sure? 255 00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:56,880 Oh, okay. It's like an Islamic predominantly? Yes. Yes. It is the official state religion 256 00:25:56,880 --> 00:26:01,680 is Islam. I believe that there's some people in this country who believe some 257 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:09,440 Sharia style law would be perfectly fine. But mostly in the state of Florida. 258 00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:12,240 Oh, Tennessee. Tennessee too? 259 00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:14,800 I don't know. Should we just throw out states? 260 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:18,880 We could probably hit at least 26. I don't know if that's true. 261 00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:26,000 Because there's a lot of people in the middle. It's good Christian values though. 262 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:32,320 We just got to do what the Bible tells us to. Here's the difference between fucked up places 263 00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:37,680 in the US and Malaysia. It's just like what the state has to say about it. 264 00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:41,360 Nobody is going to prison for being gay here, even in Tennessee. 265 00:26:41,360 --> 00:26:44,640 There's no separation between church and state over there, right? 266 00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:46,720 There is certainly not. There is especially not. 267 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:54,400 But what about like, say like the drag show laws and things like that? 268 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:56,160 Can you go to jail or is it just fines? 269 00:26:56,800 --> 00:26:58,960 I just read an article that was being contested right now. 270 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:01,840 I mean, it's got to be. Yeah. 271 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:03,360 I mean, that may take a while. 272 00:27:03,360 --> 00:27:08,640 The Florida Supreme Court struck it down. I just read something happened or it's like, 273 00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:11,760 eh, not so fast. I mean, you just can't make a law saying 274 00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:16,080 what people are allowed to wear in the US. Like what the fuck? 275 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:17,760 Yeah. I mean, that's like some basic first 276 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:21,120 amendment shit, right? I think it's working its way through something. 277 00:27:21,120 --> 00:27:24,640 I'm not sure, but we're kind of veering off. I mean, I don't know. 278 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:26,640 Should we look it up? I thought we were supposed to veer off. 279 00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:29,120 You know? I thought this is the veer off episode. 280 00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:30,800 We're really veering off a lot. Okay. 281 00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:38,800 Okay. All right. In Malaysia, sodomy is illegal, 282 00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:42,400 including like any form of oral sex. Whoa. 283 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,120 Like even between like a hetero married couple. 284 00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:46,720 Really? Unacceptable. 285 00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:47,680 Well. Yes. 286 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:49,600 Punishable by? Death. 287 00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:52,400 No. Custodial. 288 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:55,520 Fines. Caning. They still do public caning. 289 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:58,800 And then up to 20 years in prison. Wow. 290 00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:03,840 Yeah. So they're actually trying to get rid of their death penalty there. 291 00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:06,640 So in some ways, much more advanced than the US. 292 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:08,640 Yeah. There are nine different political 293 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:14,000 parties in Malaysia and all of them have an anti-LGBTQ stance. 294 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:19,360 They've all agreed. And then also like depending on your 295 00:28:19,360 --> 00:28:28,400 religion. So 65% of the population is Islamic and all of the government there is kind of weird. 296 00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:33,680 It's like a bunch of different kingdoms that like came together to form a country in like the 50s. 297 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:35,200 Oh. So that's when, 298 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:39,120 that's literally the 50s like after World War II is when the whole world went to shit. 299 00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:43,360 Cause that's when colonialism, everybody was like, oh, we're going to start minding our own business. 300 00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:45,440 We just figure it out now that we fucked you up. 301 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:53,360 Malaysia had been through like a whole series of colonizing. Like first Portugal, then the Dutch, 302 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:56,800 then of course the British. During World War II, Japan came in. 303 00:28:56,800 --> 00:29:02,720 They were there for a few years. So there's a lot of different, 304 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:09,440 there's a lot of like ethnic Chinese, ethnic Indians. Like it's a real, it's a mixed bag. 305 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:14,880 It's a big mixed bag. And you'd think that cultural diversity would lead to more acceptance. 306 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:17,200 No, cause you get the ruling elite. 307 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:22,560 Yeah. So it's weird. It's like they have like a prime minister and a Congress, 308 00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:29,520 but they also have a king who's the head of state and there's like 13 different states 309 00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:34,720 and they each have a governor and they each have a king. And when it's time to elect someone, 310 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:43,440 the prime minister and the king are elected from this group of 13 governors and kings. 311 00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:48,160 Like you're not voting for like just anyone. You're voting for one of these guys. It's really, 312 00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:53,120 I've never heard of like an elected king though. That's really interesting. But when their term is 313 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:59,440 over, they just go back to ruling their state. Does that make sense? So it's complicated and 314 00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:01,680 fascinating. Game of Thrones over there. 315 00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:03,040 Any further. Yeah. 316 00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:11,760 But so if you're, if you're Muslim and you get arrested for like a homosexual act, 317 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:16,560 then you go through this whole process of like going to court and getting caned and getting a 318 00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:23,280 prison sentence. But then like if you're like Christian or whatever, then you're like, that's 319 00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:29,040 the end. Then you serve your prison term and you're done. But if you're Muslim, then it's like, 320 00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:35,040 oh wait, let's, we also have your Sharia punishment line. And then you have to go through a whole 321 00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:39,120 other thing. It's fucking crazy, man. That's pretty wild. 322 00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:40,080 Yeah. Yeah. 323 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:46,080 Women's rights over there also, you know, I would take issue with some of what's going on there. 324 00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:53,520 Obviously, you know, right. If you've got like a religious, religious laws, you're going to end up 325 00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:58,640 with some, they're allowed to say what you wear over there. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That's the law. 326 00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:06,480 Also Malaysia, where are you hiding your plane? Oh, I did not look into that at all. 327 00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:12,240 Where is it? I don't know. I heard that they found UFOs though recently. 328 00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:14,720 In Malaysia? Possibly everywhere. 329 00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:16,000 Oh. In the universe. 330 00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:21,600 Well, they're just unidentified objects. Bringing it back to New York. 331 00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:25,680 Yeah, that's Malaysia. So I don't know. I was just curious. Maybe you would be too. Plus I don't have 332 00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:31,120 a ton to say about this company, but it's a great company. It's great. Okay. So, um, 333 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:35,040 yeah, Malaysia. Yeah. Crazy. 334 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:40,080 Right. All right. So we'll get a Malaysia 40 years old and they're still figuring it out. 335 00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:43,520 There you go. All right. There you go. Still working on it. 336 00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:51,680 Okay. So Kalina and some decide they're going to open this coffee company in 2015. It's just a 337 00:31:51,680 --> 00:32:00,240 cafe. And their whole deal is like, um, you know, I wandered the East Village looking for these coffee 338 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:05,040 beans. Like it's not that there aren't other coffee shops there, but like specialty coffee 339 00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:12,320 in the East Village in 2015, like they probably were like the first ones. Um, because the East 340 00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:19,200 Village is still, you know. It's got some edge. Yeah. That's the edge. Yes. So, um, they really 341 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:26,240 wanted like a warm, like gathering place. It's funny that they ended up in 400 square feet when 342 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:30,880 what they really wanted was like a community space. Sure. And they have rules about when and 343 00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:36,320 where you can use your laptop in their coffee shops because they don't want a bunch of people 344 00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:43,360 not talking to each other on their laptops. They really want like a, you know, sense of community 345 00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:48,800 there. They don't want it to be like a library meeting room. Right. Where people just like go 346 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:53,680 and occupy a room or whatever. She said she wanted it to be like a bar. Yeah. She wanted people to be 347 00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:59,120 like hanging out, chit chatting, having fun. Probably like blasting some music would help keep 348 00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:05,760 people like from working. If it was like loud music, like a bar, you know. Maybe. Then the 349 00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:09,600 lights quite a bit. But then you can't talk to each other. They're not going for a nightclub. 350 00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:15,120 Yeah. And if you're a computer programmer, like you just got headphones in and you're working on 351 00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:22,480 your computer all day. Make it dark in there. Gloomy. Like board up the windows. I mean, you 352 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:28,320 know, take it. Yeah. Don't give anybody power outlets. Uh, that's going to get no wifi. No 353 00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:37,440 wifi. Kill the wifi. That's probably what they have to do. That would be funny. I mean, that's. It's the dark hour. I'm sorry. 354 00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:44,880 We have no wifi. So they opened in 2015 and they, it was like their own money. They like 355 00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:51,520 had whatever savings they had and put it all into this tiny little cafe. And it was successful, 356 00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:57,040 but it was successful because they were there seven days a week. Right. It was like three months 357 00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:02,400 before they could hire their first employee. Um, and they talk about, I listen to a podcast. I'll 358 00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:08,720 have to find it so I can share the name. Um, they talk about how devastated they were when their first 359 00:34:08,720 --> 00:34:15,920 employee quit because the, it was like a barista who was quitting to like go work somewhere where 360 00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:22,560 there were, was room for advancement. You know, like if all we have is a 400 square foot coffee shop, 361 00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:28,720 then we're never going to be able to offer anyone anything more. You know what I mean? Like you can 362 00:34:28,720 --> 00:34:32,960 work here for two or three years while you're going to school and make a little money, but you can't 363 00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:39,840 have a career here unless we give you our job. Right. So that was part of what made them want to 364 00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:46,000 grow and open up new locations. They wanted to create an environment where they could, um, 365 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:52,160 you know, have like a whole, a whole list of things that people could do. They saw that like 366 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:57,280 the baristas they were hiring wanted to do competitions and they wanted to learn more and 367 00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:02,240 they wanted to teach more. And so this is how they ended up, first of all, opening up like three or 368 00:35:02,240 --> 00:35:10,240 four more cafes over the next three or four years. Wow. And, um, I think they had four by 2019. 369 00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:16,400 They get funding? How did they do all this? 2020. This is really interesting. They, they, 370 00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:21,520 because the first location was successful, they could afford to open a second location in Brooklyn. 371 00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:26,880 And then for their third location, which I think is also in Brooklyn, they had a lot of friends and 372 00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:34,960 family investing in it. And then for their fourth location, which is in Chelsea, which is 2020, so I 373 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:42,880 guess five years to get to the fourth location. Um, they had a customer who wanted them to open 374 00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:48,880 a location. Amazing. More convenient than their house. That's so funny. So they had this customer 375 00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:54,640 who was like a huge investor, like basically a partner. So they got the lease on the Chelsea 376 00:35:54,640 --> 00:36:01,600 space, which that's a fancy neighborhood and that's an expensive lease. And then that was. COVID? 377 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:09,680 Yeah. They couldn't get out of the lease. So they ended up like doing a, some kind of to go situation 378 00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:14,640 and making it work. But that person who wanted them to open, that was their responsibility. 379 00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:20,080 That was their idea. They're the ones who got to make that place work financially. 380 00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:25,280 Oh, they talk a lot about how incredibly difficult it was during COVID because then suddenly they had 381 00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:32,320 all these different locations and what are they going to do? I am not sure. I think that in 2019 382 00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:39,600 also they got this Long Island location, which is, which is Queens. And this is where they have their 383 00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:46,960 roastery. And this is where they have their teaching facility because Coffee Project New York 384 00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:58,160 is the only SCA certified training center in New York City. Oh, that's cool. Good for them. Yeah. 385 00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:08,000 So that was a big deal. They said that they had to go to Florida to get trains SCA certified. 386 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:13,920 Oh shit. And they were like, what the fuck? How come I have to go to the West coast or Florida 387 00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:20,320 when I live in New York City? Why is there not a fucking training program here? They were saying 388 00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:27,600 that the coffee on the West coast is so good because everyone who's roasting it and brewing it 389 00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:34,480 is so well-trained. Whereas in New York, you just learned how to do this at whatever shop you were 390 00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:41,520 working in. So there was like a big discrepancy in how good or bad or what, like you just kind 391 00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:47,760 of didn't know what you were going to get. So they really wanted to have a space where they could 392 00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:56,640 train New Yorkers to do this. Wow. So that's the Long Island location. So this gave them a way to 393 00:37:56,640 --> 00:38:01,360 provide some growth. You know what I mean? Now people could roast coffee. Now people can teach. 394 00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:07,200 Now people can learn how to do different things. So that was like really important and exciting to 395 00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:14,320 them. They said their profits are like 40% of their profits and I could not find their profits. I 396 00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:19,200 really wanted to know how much money these people are like their yearly revenue, but I couldn't find 397 00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:26,240 it. They said like 40% of profit comes from cafes. 30% is roasting and wholesale, but they're in like 398 00:38:26,240 --> 00:38:34,480 other cafes. They're not in grocery stores. Is this pretty Kellan? 20% education, 10% consulting 399 00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:42,880 and events. Consulting and events. You should get into that. I'm into consulting. I'll do that. Sure. 400 00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:51,360 Some really wanted to do like espresso flights. I watched this video of the two of them. 401 00:38:52,720 --> 00:38:58,800 Like here's how to make every kind of espresso based drink was the idea. Like here's how you do it. 402 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:03,920 And they're like this kind of espresso shot you pull for 20 seconds and this kind of espresso shot 403 00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:08,480 you pull for 35 seconds and they taste totally different. They're so different. Here's how they're 404 00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:15,920 different. So I mean they're just like really into this like deeply, especially Sam is like deeply 405 00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:21,440 into this and she was saying that she really wanted to have like an espresso flight where you 406 00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:27,520 could get like three different kinds of espresso to sample and she was like, you know, you try to do 407 00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:32,720 that in New York and everybody's just like annoyed. Like give me my fucking caffeine and get me out the 408 00:39:32,720 --> 00:39:39,680 door. It's not just New York. It's everywhere. So they're trying to like bring some of that also 409 00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:46,000 and they're trying to like have events and educational opportunities where you know they can really 410 00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:51,600 get people interested in like a long pull espresso or whatever the fuck it's called. You know what I 411 00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:56,480 love? I love that they're, you know, that they're trying to do that and they're, you know, you can't 412 00:39:56,480 --> 00:40:01,600 do it unless you're educating, unless you're out there actively pushing it. So, you know, I feel 413 00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:06,240 like there's got to be some neighborhoods though in New York that are into that. I feel like if you go 414 00:40:06,240 --> 00:40:10,480 into Chicago, there's plenty of people who are super into coffee, I think. Yeah, and I think it's 415 00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:16,080 part of being SCA certified, right? Like you've got to, you know, if you love your craft and want to 416 00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:20,240 put it out there, I mean I think it makes sense to to have like the educational, that's probably what 417 00:40:20,240 --> 00:40:26,080 builds the scene somewhere, right? You've got all this talent and everybody's out there making cafes 418 00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:31,440 and baristas and you know then that whole group is competing with Starbucks, you know, and that's how 419 00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:35,680 probably the West Coast did. Maybe not compete, you know what I'm saying? But it's like that's how the 420 00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:48,880 coffee scene gets better. Plus my perception of New Yorkers is like go go go. Just got to go go go, 421 00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:53,680 got to keep going. Yeah. Got to get here, got to get there. So it sounds like they're more into the 422 00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:59,200 barista side of things, yes? More into like the, because it seems like coffee people are either 423 00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:05,680 into roasting or they're into brewing. There's not a ton of crossover. Some people might be like oh I 424 00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:13,840 care some about the beans but my passion is drinks and then some people are like my passion is roasting 425 00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:20,240 and obviously a drink is important too. Right. But I think their passion certainly began with the drinks, 426 00:41:20,240 --> 00:41:28,160 yes. And at some point everything else had to kind of be added in. I wanted to, I meant to right at 427 00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:34,240 the beginning read their mission statement because it's extremely short and of course you know just 428 00:41:34,240 --> 00:41:40,560 like any other specialty coffee company they say all the right things about the farms and the 429 00:41:40,560 --> 00:41:46,400 fair trade and all that kind of stuff. Their very short mission, one sentence, our mission as a coffee 430 00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:51,360 business is to improve the quality of life for every person in the coffee supply chain from 431 00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:58,080 producers to consumers. Love it. That's it. Yeah. Like just make coffee better for everyone. Yeah. 432 00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:06,000 They pay well. I couldn't quite get a handle on like how many employees and their exact salaries 433 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:12,400 but it seems like their average salary is pretty high for a barista compared to you know around 434 00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:16,960 here but I don't know how that factors into just like salaries in New York generally. Yeah. 435 00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:25,440 Compared to here. Do you remember what it's something like they're a big range like 35 to 80 grand 436 00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:31,920 a year so and that was not just baristas but also like training and you know. Yeah. So 437 00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:37,120 hard to say. Yeah I mean like somebody who's maybe running a barista training program is probably 438 00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:42,800 getting paid like the 80k whereas somebody who's like brand new starting out maybe a lower end. 439 00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:48,480 But that's a great you know that's a great salary and you have to be a good size company in order to 440 00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:54,480 even be able to afford to offer that as a job. Right. Well I think the minimum wage in New York 441 00:42:54,480 --> 00:42:59,040 is like what 1750 or something like that. I'm talking you probably saw it on like Line right 442 00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:03,200 of some glass door or something like that. Yeah. So it's like they have somebody on staff that 443 00:43:03,200 --> 00:43:08,720 they're able to pay 80 thousand dollars a year. Right. Who's not like running the fucking thing. 444 00:43:08,720 --> 00:43:14,000 Right. You know what I'm saying. Like yeah. Your job is just to go train other people and we're 445 00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:19,280 gonna pay 80 thousand dollars a year. So that's yeah. So they're probably doing okay. Oh yeah. 446 00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:25,920 New York City it's 15 dollars an hour. And if you think about it too like as Roaster like we're just 447 00:43:25,920 --> 00:43:32,160 a wholesale operation right. And I was just thinking about this like one cafe can do 448 00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:37,600 like maybe this is making him but but can like one or two cafes can do what we do in an entire year 449 00:43:38,080 --> 00:43:45,680 and one or two cafes and employ four times as many people. There's a way huge markup on coffee 450 00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:52,800 drinks too. You figure the retail margins are so much higher. Let's say like one cup of drip coffee 451 00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:58,400 is going to use about one ounce of coffee to brew that. So you can charge what like maybe four bucks 452 00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:05,680 let's say in New York for a cup of coffee that's going to cost you two dollars. No no no. Like 453 00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:12,640 say you're say the cost of your bean just this three dollars. So three divided by 12. Whenever 454 00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:19,360 that comes out to cost you like 20 cents just in coffee alone. Huge markup. Yeah. And if there if 455 00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:24,560 our wholesale was 30 percent of our overall business we would probably have a couple hundred 456 00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:33,920 employees too. So if we had if we had a 75 percent markup on our wholesale man right now we would be 457 00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:42,320 Scrooge McFuckin Duck swimming in it. We should significantly raise our prices. We need to quadruple. 458 00:44:42,320 --> 00:44:46,320 But that's also cafe you know that's so it's a difference between retail and wholesale. Yeah. 459 00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:52,080 Right. So we what we should really do is get some of that retail. Start pulling some espresso shots. 460 00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:58,560 Yeah baby. No thanks. Let's go take a class. I don't know how to. In Brooklyn. Too much work. 461 00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:04,560 In Queens. In Queens. So here are some of the classes offered. It's a wide range like some of 462 00:45:04,560 --> 00:45:13,120 them are like SCA certification classes. Sure. And they're longer like 36 hour classes and they're 463 00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:18,320 expensive. What are you getting certified in by the SCA though? So and some of them are just like 464 00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:22,960 for people who are interested in coffee like short hour and a half classes. So you can get certified 465 00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:28,160 in a lot of things. They have an SCA barista skills class. That's a three day class. It's 1800 466 00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:33,440 and it's three different levels of it too. Foundation, intermediate and pro. So I don't 467 00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:37,360 know if that means you have to take it three times. All for this coffee. Oh I'm sure you got to take 468 00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:45,280 it three times. So three days. 1800 times three. Yeah. They have a barista intensive that's three 469 00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:51,120 hours it's 150 dollars. That's not an SCA class. Ton of options. They have latte art workshops. 470 00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:56,560 Those are their most popular classes. They have a couple different levels of that and those prices 471 00:45:56,560 --> 00:46:05,680 range from like 350 to 650. SCA brewing skills. Eight hours. 550 dollars. SCA roasting skills. 472 00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:09,760 That's another three days eight hours a day. 1600 dollars. I wonder what they're teaching 473 00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:15,840 you to roasting skills. I mean I learned how to roast in like seven minutes so I don't know what 474 00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:20,480 they're spending three days on. You know what they're... Marcus you're such a good teacher. 475 00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:26,640 You know but they're probably talking about like conceptually like what does what when where how 476 00:46:26,640 --> 00:46:34,400 and what how to profile. How to create. Right. You know how to create a profile. Right. Yeah there's 477 00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:40,080 a lot of variables and factors and density and what levers to pull you know. And that's probably 478 00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:46,320 fine for somebody who like is not an intuitive roaster which is what I would consider you to be 479 00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:53,760 a little bit more like intuitive. But see that's now right. Like I used to hand chart every single 480 00:46:53,760 --> 00:47:00,080 like profile by hand back before I had artisan which is now you know that's what I used to 481 00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:05,840 chart it all. So I do I do both but kind of knowing when and where to stop that's very much intuitive 482 00:47:05,840 --> 00:47:15,600 but the the like the the science of roasting I you know that I don't heat in heat out. I don't 483 00:47:16,080 --> 00:47:20,720 I don't I don't manipulate that. I mean I think that like rules. There's rules god damn it. I mean 484 00:47:20,720 --> 00:47:24,720 there's some rules but I mean intuitive in the sense that like you know a chef has an intuition 485 00:47:24,720 --> 00:47:30,880 when he's cooking or she when they are cooking a meal they're like oh they taste it and they're 486 00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:36,400 like this needs a little more saffron. Like that's like that's where I mean like into intuition. Like 487 00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:42,400 you can roast taste it and you're like oh it's a little more acidity. You know what I mean. Doesn't 488 00:47:42,400 --> 00:47:50,320 everybody do that? That's where like some of that intuition comes from. Like you got to be able to 489 00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:54,880 kind of go in and be like all right if I tweak these little levers it's going to produce this 490 00:47:54,880 --> 00:47:59,840 end flavor result. Like I would never drink a coffee and be like it needs more chocolate. I'd be 491 00:47:59,840 --> 00:48:05,440 the worst teacher. I'd be like yeah just go in and fucking roast the coffee. Yeah. Roast. You know. 492 00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:10,160 That's how you taught me but I will say you've got me following a recipe. You're not saying here's 493 00:48:10,160 --> 00:48:15,360 some beans and here's a roaster figure it out. You're saying here's the recipe and at two minutes 494 00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:20,960 turn this to four. You know like that's different than presumably what they're learning in this 495 00:48:20,960 --> 00:48:25,920 class. Yeah. Yeah they're definitely going to be learning like the science behind it. The things 496 00:48:25,920 --> 00:48:31,600 that you've learned on your own. But I can't tell you what tastes good to you right. So it's like 497 00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:36,880 that's that's where it's that's the intuition part of it. It's like you have to roast to your own 498 00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:44,800 style. Right. You know your palate's the ultimate judge. That's my roasting teaching for all you 499 00:48:44,800 --> 00:48:50,000 listeners. I'm sure they're teaching about the flavor wheel too. Oh there's a flavor wheel. 500 00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:56,880 I didn't even know. That's more tasting. So that's tasting. But that's like how do you want but it's like okay I want coffees with these like 501 00:48:56,880 --> 00:49:02,800 characteristics. You can like look on the list. I'm sure there's a sensory development. Yes sensory 502 00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:08,320 skills. That's what they do. FCA sensory skills. Six hundred dollars seven hour class. Taste, smell, 503 00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:15,440 cup and grading. So that's a different skill entirely. Yeah but if you want a coffee you've 504 00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:20,160 been like oh I want this coffee more chocolatey. It's all related. It is all related. Yeah. Yeah. 505 00:49:20,640 --> 00:49:28,160 So lovely. Love coffee. This is like you know but this is what's so great about coffee right. 506 00:49:28,160 --> 00:49:35,040 Is that it's like there is a ton of just stuff you can dive into and and personal sort of touches 507 00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:39,360 that that everybody likes to make it special for them and they share and that's what's that's what's 508 00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:44,080 great about the community in general. Do you think the SCA style is like this the Scott Rowe style? 509 00:49:44,720 --> 00:49:52,240 You know I don't know. I have no clue. What is that Scott Rowe? He's got a book called what is it like 510 00:49:52,240 --> 00:49:58,720 the coffee roasters. Every single coffee roasters Bible. The only book on roasting coffee. Ninety 511 00:49:58,720 --> 00:50:04,320 five percent of coffee roasters have read Scott Rowe's book and follow his methods of how to roast. 512 00:50:04,320 --> 00:50:10,720 Interesting. And his principles. It's very popular. Like you can almost cannot find a coffee roaster 513 00:50:10,720 --> 00:50:17,280 who's like I didn't read Scott Rowe's book. Well like newer one right like yeah. Except for this 514 00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:21,360 guy's that what you just said Marcus is like I don't even read it. He's never read the book. He's never read it. 515 00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:28,960 He doesn't want to taint his intuition with that guy's with that guy's style. It's true. Award-winning 516 00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:35,520 coffee roaster. Self-taught. A hundred percent. Yeah well I you know in the other place I have to 517 00:50:35,520 --> 00:50:41,280 give credit where credit's due is Sweet Maria's. They had a forum that I was somewhat active in 518 00:50:42,640 --> 00:50:47,360 really early 13 years ago you know and people were talking about this kind of stuff back then 519 00:50:48,080 --> 00:50:55,120 online. Home roasters. So home roasting community is pretty open. Can we talk about how awesome 520 00:50:55,120 --> 00:51:01,120 Marcus is for a moment. We don't talk enough about how awesome he is. Pretty awesome. I know. Thanks guys. 521 00:51:01,760 --> 00:51:08,880 He's self-taught. He's like a self-taught phenom. That's pretty amazing. Yeah yeah and I mean you're 522 00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:19,040 obviously like you have an innate skill here. It's uh it's it's also um really passion too. I just I 523 00:51:19,040 --> 00:51:29,680 really love like I don't know coffee. I love the the the the variety and and every kind of everything 524 00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:35,680 about it you know. It's like roasting and figuring it out and you know tweaking it and taste and 525 00:51:35,680 --> 00:51:40,480 experience. My goal every all the time is to give people something that's like new right that they've 526 00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:47,200 never had before. Um yeah I just try and make it as good as I can. Marcus is a really good cook too 527 00:51:47,200 --> 00:51:52,800 and his dad is a professional chef and I think there's like some of this right like those kind 528 00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:57,600 of go together a little bit. It's a similar I mean it's a very different thing that you're doing but 529 00:51:57,600 --> 00:52:03,040 it's a similar like how do I get this taste. Yeah that's right yeah and cooking for me too is like 530 00:52:03,040 --> 00:52:07,680 it's it's all intuition. It's all just like you know you're trying it you're tasting it and it's 531 00:52:07,680 --> 00:52:11,920 like what does it need a little salt a little vinegar a little this you know whatever to to get 532 00:52:11,920 --> 00:52:17,680 it perfect. I love cooking looking especially cooking for people in my you know immediate circle 533 00:52:17,680 --> 00:52:23,520 and family and stuff like that. It's like it's an expression of love really for me. I just you know 534 00:52:23,520 --> 00:52:28,800 I tap into that and so I do the same thing with coffee. It's a it's a creative expression of 535 00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:36,160 of you know trying to delight people. Also a tinkerer who likes to like fix things and I think 536 00:52:36,160 --> 00:52:44,000 coffee brings together. It's kind of like it's the intersection. Yeah flavor and fixing. Yep 537 00:52:45,440 --> 00:52:52,000 flavor and tinkering that is Marcus right here became coffee. Right. That's funny. 538 00:52:53,520 --> 00:53:00,480 Look at Marcus. He's so cute. Anyways this this is not an ad for Marcus. 539 00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:06,560 Yes. Get back to these women. They sound awesome. You know they're really cool. They're like they 540 00:53:06,560 --> 00:53:13,200 remind me of people all the great all the great the the good in the coffee community. They're 541 00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:18,640 they're serious about their coffee and they're serious about the community and they're also like 542 00:53:18,640 --> 00:53:23,840 funny you know. I listened to a podcast and watched a video and they're like um incredibly 543 00:53:23,840 --> 00:53:31,120 pleasant to listen to. Like they're just like fun and interesting and joking around a little bit 544 00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:37,440 and they're really great. Um they do a tasting intensive and a pour-over intensive that are both 545 00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:42,320 meant for just like average folks. They're not SCA classes but don't those sound fun? I want to 546 00:53:42,320 --> 00:53:47,120 do a tasting intensive. I know. I love it. I love the idea of having like a really solid coffee like 547 00:53:47,120 --> 00:53:53,840 like centric community. I love it. Yeah. I love everything about this. I really we need to go. I 548 00:53:53,840 --> 00:53:58,080 was so close I can't believe I didn't even try to go take a class. I didn't know about the classes 549 00:53:58,080 --> 00:54:02,560 until I came home. There are coffees on their website. In addition to coffees they sell a lot 550 00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:09,600 of very fancy things both for at home and for if you're opening a coffee shop. Um. Oh no doubt. 551 00:54:09,600 --> 00:54:13,280 Those espresso machines were like six or seven thousand dollars. Is that a normal price? 552 00:54:13,280 --> 00:54:19,280 Mm-hmm. That's probably that's like that's. No no no no no no no. Well I mean I assume not for the 553 00:54:19,280 --> 00:54:25,280 home. Is that a normal price for a New Yorker's espresso machine in their apartment is seven 554 00:54:25,280 --> 00:54:29,280 thousand dollars. Maybe not seven thousand. If you want a high-end one. Yeah like a rocket. You could 555 00:54:29,280 --> 00:54:33,920 probably get like a high-end home. But the Linea home is like six or seven thousand. I thought 556 00:54:33,920 --> 00:54:40,000 that was four thousand. Cost. Oh. What? Are you kidding me? Go look online and they've raised the 557 00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:44,960 price since then too. What? Dang. I wanted one of those. Maybe not anymore. No like seven thousand 558 00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:50,720 dollars now. Holy shit. Um they've got your t-shirts and your mugs and your tote bags and um then 559 00:54:50,720 --> 00:54:56,000 they've got their coffees. They have we didn't talk about this it says right on the bag enthusiast 560 00:54:56,000 --> 00:55:01,920 series. How much? 5900 for a Linea. Six thousand dollars with shipping. Linea. Tax seven thousand dollars. 561 00:55:03,920 --> 00:55:09,840 I'm gonna have to get myself this. So yeah tell me about the name of this coffee because I 562 00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:15,040 saw. Oh wait wait wait. You texted that. Yeah okay you said they have an enthusiast. This is part of 563 00:55:15,040 --> 00:55:19,120 their enthusiast line. They have four different coffees currently and they're enthusiast. It says 564 00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:24,080 enthusiast series micro lot. It's basically the same way that you use the term enthusiast. Right. 565 00:55:24,640 --> 00:55:30,640 It's like small batch small lot coffee. Yeah should we should we sue them because they definitely 566 00:55:30,640 --> 00:55:37,920 started after we did. Yeah we for sure we've got that shit on lock down. They can afford to settle a 567 00:55:37,920 --> 00:55:42,960 lawsuit. They could fucking kick my ass in court I'm sure. I mean we would win but they would they 568 00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:52,800 would they'd have all the money. You know that I am willing to dig myself so deeply in debt 569 00:55:54,560 --> 00:56:01,200 on fucking principal in court fees. I will do it. It's funny we never trademarked it though so. 570 00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:06,720 No I'm just saying if anybody ever tried to get me. Tried to trademark that and then fucking sue 571 00:56:06,720 --> 00:56:12,640 us. I'd be like fuck you. Yeah I mean we're calling we're calling Billy. Don't even think about it 572 00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:19,840 you guys. No we gotta. We're calling Billy Mills. So they have these four enthusiast series. Wait is that his name? 573 00:56:19,840 --> 00:56:25,120 Just cut that out. I don't know what it's for. Sorry sorry stuff. They have four enthusiast series 574 00:56:25,120 --> 00:56:30,480 and one of them is a gesha that I didn't buy because it was fifty dollars and I was afraid that 575 00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:35,040 um. Hot damn. Modest Coffee would yell at me for spending all that money. No Papa Modest would 576 00:56:35,040 --> 00:56:41,120 have supported that for sure. This one was 30. I already felt like I was spending plenty. 30 dollars? 577 00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:47,840 I still haven't reimbursed you. For 10 ounces by the way. Nice. Yeah. We could be charging way more. 578 00:56:47,840 --> 00:56:52,320 They have several other single origin coffees three to four different blends. I bought a blend 579 00:56:52,320 --> 00:56:56,400 for us to drink there. I mean I was having it ground at the coffee shop. I didn't want to spend 580 00:56:56,400 --> 00:57:01,040 a ton of money on something fancy. It was very good. It was like woke up in New York or something 581 00:57:01,040 --> 00:57:06,720 was the name of it. I was like that sounds right. Yeah. Beautiful. And then they have a decaf also 582 00:57:08,080 --> 00:57:12,960 which would be I feel like have we tried any other high-end decafs? Maybe that would be a fun thing 583 00:57:12,960 --> 00:57:17,520 to do. There's not a ton of them out there. I mean I was kind of surprised they had one on it because 584 00:57:17,520 --> 00:57:23,280 this is it. You know they've got 10 different coffees and that's it and they're all special. 585 00:57:23,280 --> 00:57:29,280 Yeah. And they're all pricey. Yeah. I think I paid 20 for like the blend that I bought. You know the 586 00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:33,840 like medium roast blend. That's probably just being in New York. I know those are New York prices. 587 00:57:35,040 --> 00:57:40,400 Because I'm for sure that they're not putting in a $28 coffee. Wait till my Illinois prices 588 00:57:40,400 --> 00:57:47,680 hit those store shelves. Man they're gonna love it. Oh shit. You're right. All right. We're coming 589 00:57:47,680 --> 00:57:56,480 for you in New York City. Yeah. Midwest prices baby. Yeah baby. Well I'm excited. Shall we brew 590 00:57:56,480 --> 00:58:00,720 some coffee? Yeah I can't wait to try it. Modest Coffee Roasts the highest quality single origin 591 00:58:00,720 --> 00:58:06,160 coffees without the snobbery. They take the guesswork out of buying specialty coffee by 592 00:58:06,160 --> 00:58:12,400 carefully curating green coffees and sorting them to one of their tiers based on cupping score, 593 00:58:12,400 --> 00:58:21,760 price, flavor notes, and roast level. Go to www.modest.coffee forward slash no bad reviews 594 00:58:21,760 --> 00:58:30,560 to see what they're roasting today. Pip pip cheerio! And we're back. Hey. How was the old 595 00:58:30,560 --> 00:58:34,880 factory reveal when it was grinding? Well we already have the bag right here. We should sniff it. 596 00:58:34,880 --> 00:58:41,520 Want to. Sorry I stole that right out from under you. They smelled really good when I was grinding it. 597 00:58:41,520 --> 00:58:49,920 Yeah nice. I'm gonna go ahead and call it's probably not gonna be bad black. Oh my god I'm 598 00:58:49,920 --> 00:58:56,080 so excited to have a good coffee. It smells like cherry without tasting like cherry. 599 00:58:57,920 --> 00:59:02,000 Well I can smell from here. I do get a fruity scent. I just felt like I had to say something 600 00:59:02,000 --> 00:59:08,400 about cherry. Cherry Almond just like every week. This does it's it's funny this is like the natural 601 00:59:08,400 --> 00:59:17,200 version of like. Yeah it smells really good. A little raisiny too. We can use the big cups for this one. 602 00:59:17,200 --> 00:59:21,760 Yeah right I was just thinking that to myself. Although one of the big cups seems to have 603 00:59:21,760 --> 00:59:26,720 disappeared. Are there three on the table? I'll drink one little one but I'll refill it. 604 00:59:28,560 --> 00:59:32,240 I have a clarification that I want to talk about because I'm super embarrassed 605 00:59:32,240 --> 00:59:41,680 for our um Snoop Dogg episode. Uh oh. Because I re-listened to the episode and um I confused 606 00:59:41,680 --> 00:59:47,760 MK Ultra with Co-Intel Pro and I'm really embarrassed about it. Oh you know what Steph 607 00:59:47,760 --> 00:59:53,280 you should be. I would consider you to be an expert on anything CIA related. I confuse all of 608 00:59:53,280 --> 00:59:57,920 those with Operation Paperclip so. Oh which one is that? I don't know about that one. I don't actually 609 00:59:57,920 --> 01:00:06,800 know. You know what I like to just mind my own business. I'm here for like the the space of time 610 01:00:06,800 --> 01:00:16,960 that I inhabit this world is a blink not even it is like it is like infinitismally small on the 611 01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:25,200 spectrum of the universe so what am I gonna worry about shit for? But you conspiracy theory buffs 612 01:00:25,200 --> 01:00:31,680 out there though sorry for the gaff. I feel like there are two I I know for sure that two listeners 613 01:00:31,680 --> 01:00:37,600 caught that. They haven't said anything to me because they're polite about it. I'm sorry I let 614 01:00:37,600 --> 01:00:45,600 you guys down. I can think um I think I'm guessing one of them. I'm sure you could guess them. Um I 615 01:00:45,600 --> 01:00:50,800 was talking about the all the crazy fucking shit going on this time so this episode too all the 616 01:00:50,800 --> 01:00:56,160 crazy fucking shit going on in New York in the 70s and one of them was the congressional hearings 617 01:00:56,160 --> 01:01:01,840 for MK Ultra and I said that that had to do with the Black Panther party. Oh yeah I remember this. 618 01:01:01,840 --> 01:01:11,760 But no. Oh. MK Ultra was actually um. It's not a beer. No but we should make a beer and call it 619 01:01:11,760 --> 01:01:18,240 MK Ultra that would be hilarious. Was it a Marvel movie? It was um it was actually CIA and it was 620 01:01:18,240 --> 01:01:24,480 the um they were like giving LSD to people without telling them to see what would happen to like 621 01:01:24,480 --> 01:01:32,880 experiment with torture and LSD. Oh. So they'd give different doses of LSD and then like fuck 622 01:01:32,880 --> 01:01:39,680 with them either like psychological torture or like actual torture. Oh. And they were doing this to 623 01:01:39,680 --> 01:01:46,160 like soldiers. This was during Vietnam so these were not in these were not people who like chose 624 01:01:46,160 --> 01:01:52,480 to serve. These were people who were drafted and then they were like hey are you tired of fighting 625 01:01:52,480 --> 01:01:58,240 in Vietnam why don't you come hang out here in this CIA building where it's nice and safe drink 626 01:01:58,240 --> 01:02:04,400 this. Air-conditioned. Oh my god and then they were also experimenting on prisoners in the US 627 01:02:04,960 --> 01:02:10,640 and also prisoners of war overseas. At the beginning of this story I was going to ask how I signed up 628 01:02:12,240 --> 01:02:17,120 but by the end I found I don't think I want to. Yeah you had us there in the first half for sure. 629 01:02:17,120 --> 01:02:24,400 Yeah I mean like for sure you had a great opening. LSD free. LSD free for everyone from the CIA. 630 01:02:24,400 --> 01:02:28,160 They just want to see what happens to you. So was there a different what was the name that you were 631 01:02:28,160 --> 01:02:36,080 trying to reference? Um Co-Intel Pro is the FBI on that one and that's where they were trying to 632 01:02:36,080 --> 01:02:41,600 bring down the Black Panthers by any means necessary basically and that's how they ended 633 01:02:41,600 --> 01:02:47,760 up with like a bunch of like um FBI agents pretending to be Black Panthers and that's how 634 01:02:47,760 --> 01:02:52,800 that Fred Hampton guy got killed. Oh don't you think the FBI could maybe apply some of those 635 01:02:52,800 --> 01:02:58,160 tactics to whatever the fuck is happening in the country right now or do you think they are? No 636 01:02:58,160 --> 01:03:05,920 when it's armed white people they're like totally cool with it. Um it's really yeah yeah we don't 637 01:03:05,920 --> 01:03:10,720 need to go into this. Yeah. But I mean we can if you want to spend the rest of the episode talking 638 01:03:10,720 --> 01:03:15,760 about MK Ultra and or Co-Intel Pro I'm down. Yeah and then it well because MK Ultra sounds like 639 01:03:15,760 --> 01:03:21,120 that other one where they gave the soldiers LSD like in pre-World War II or some sort of hallucinogen 640 01:03:21,120 --> 01:03:25,680 and made them like look at goats and shit. There's a movie called The Men Who Stare at Goats. Oh yeah 641 01:03:25,680 --> 01:03:31,360 yeah. It was like trying to like psyops some shit too. Interesting. Oh see I could do that one. Yeah 642 01:03:31,360 --> 01:03:36,880 that one would be way more fun. That one. I'll take LSD and I'm gonna have a goat. That sounds great. 643 01:03:36,880 --> 01:03:41,040 Let's try this coffee because it smells so good. I'm really excited. I am really excited about it 644 01:03:41,040 --> 01:03:48,880 too. I'm gonna dive in. Perfect time too. Yeah I'm ready to pass out too. It is a little warm in here. 645 01:03:49,920 --> 01:03:55,280 You guys we have to turn off the air conditioning so you don't hear it while we're recording and so 646 01:03:55,280 --> 01:04:03,280 we suffer so much for our art. I just started wearing like less and less. This is why. These 647 01:04:03,280 --> 01:04:09,120 mermaid pants don't breathe you guys. This is comfortable. I have a tech shirt on. Take them off. Get naked like Marcus. 648 01:04:09,120 --> 01:04:16,400 I know. I'm so comfortable. He's talking about how naked he is. I just want to I just really find this 649 01:04:16,400 --> 01:04:22,720 um Melita mug that this vintage one that I'm drinking out of. I just find it so delightful. I love it. 650 01:04:23,280 --> 01:04:30,960 This like cross stitch pattern on it. Yeah that one's the cutest one of all of them. I gotta wait for this to cool. 651 01:04:30,960 --> 01:04:37,120 Is it terrible? That's the worst coffee we've had yet. It's like bananas and peanut butter. 652 01:04:37,760 --> 01:04:44,240 Honestly like this one is this one really does it for me. Yeah yeah this is this is delightful. 653 01:04:44,240 --> 01:04:50,640 I chose it for you. Holy shit. I'm super happy that you like it. That's great. I for myself I would not have 654 01:04:50,640 --> 01:04:55,920 chosen one of those anaerobic ones because they can be a little funky. This one didn't smell funky 655 01:04:55,920 --> 01:05:01,760 at all though. Yeah it's like juicy but it's clean. It's got a ton of fruitiness to it but like 656 01:05:02,960 --> 01:05:11,920 tart, peach, mango. I wonder if they have won any awards. What are the tasting notes on that? 657 01:05:11,920 --> 01:05:19,280 Because they were interesting. It was like kiwi or something. Kiwi, mango, blood orange, spice cocoa, 658 01:05:19,280 --> 01:05:26,160 I definitely tasted the chocolateyness and then medium acidity juicy body. It's so juicy. 659 01:05:27,120 --> 01:05:35,360 It's like yeah it's like you take a sip and it just like coats everywhere. It's great. Great body. 660 01:05:40,240 --> 01:05:44,400 Yeah do you know if they've won any awards? I don't know if they've won any awards. It certainly 661 01:05:44,400 --> 01:05:50,720 wasn't something predominant on their website. So yeah they probably would have had it up if they did. 662 01:05:52,080 --> 01:05:56,480 They do talk about how they have a lot of baristas who like to enter competitions and stuff like that. 663 01:05:57,440 --> 01:06:01,600 You would think yeah maybe there's a page for that or maybe I didn't go far back enough on the press 664 01:06:01,600 --> 01:06:06,400 page. It could also be to like New York is so competitive. Remember it's like five from every 665 01:06:06,400 --> 01:06:14,800 region so it's like the top. No not the top five it's top three from every region. Yeah so there's 666 01:06:14,800 --> 01:06:20,320 a lot of lot it's hard to get in there. Wow well that's just a good good awards. There's also SCA 667 01:06:20,320 --> 01:06:25,600 awards. Oh yeah there's like Brewers Cup and that kind of stuff and and um but that same thing like 668 01:06:25,600 --> 01:06:30,640 those are regional competitions so I mean you know I wouldn't be surprised if they were trying. 669 01:06:30,640 --> 01:06:36,160 Hmm it's really hard in that region. All right it's hard in all the regions. 670 01:06:38,160 --> 01:06:43,520 Hmm this is a very very tasty coffee. I think it especially would be more more um over there 671 01:06:43,520 --> 01:06:51,920 just sheer volume right. Well surprise surprise this coffee's great. You love it too? God damn 672 01:06:51,920 --> 01:06:57,600 it's good. It's hard to get the full flavor because it's so hot though. I am not burning my tongue and 673 01:06:57,600 --> 01:07:02,160 then going to be unable to taste this coffee so everyone will have to be patient while I wait for 674 01:07:02,160 --> 01:07:08,880 mine to cool. Remember when Jenny used to offer us ice? I thought about oh thank you for reminding 675 01:07:08,880 --> 01:07:14,560 me I have one right here in my water. Oh sweet I was thinking to myself I'm like oh man I could 676 01:07:14,560 --> 01:07:19,280 totally go for an ice cube but I don't want to get up. Yeah. But now I forgot. Thanks Marcus. 677 01:07:19,280 --> 01:07:24,480 You're thanks. Yeah really saved the day for me. Just look it up. Oh that is so funny because my 678 01:07:24,480 --> 01:07:31,120 thought was I'm gonna yell at Jenny if she offers ice for this excellent coffee. It's just to cool 679 01:07:31,120 --> 01:07:37,440 it down one ice cube's not gonna water it down that much. See this is why Jenny's not going and 680 01:07:37,440 --> 01:07:44,960 winning barista competitions. Oh geez. Yeah. Look I brewed it at a 16 to 1 ratio and the SEA recommends 681 01:07:44,960 --> 01:07:50,320 an 18 to 1 ratio so there's some you know wiggle room there for ice cubes. Good. There you go. 682 01:07:50,320 --> 01:08:00,400 Yeah. That counts. Booyah. Yeah yeah there's a there's a wide path of acceptable coffees as 683 01:08:00,400 --> 01:08:06,560 we've determined on this podcast. SEA I believe their recommendation is anywhere from 15 to 18 684 01:08:06,560 --> 01:08:12,560 to 1. Their main is 18 to 1 or maybe 15 to 1 to somebody else but anyways all I'm saying 685 01:08:13,680 --> 01:08:18,000 is that ours is slightly more concentrated to begin with. Yeah but it's fine that's how we drink 686 01:08:18,000 --> 01:08:26,240 our coffee. It's so good. It's so fruity. Yeah there's some sort of bitterness that I don't care for. 687 01:08:26,240 --> 01:08:31,520 It might be that cocoa you're tasting. I'm tasting a little bit of like chocolatiness in it. Yeah 688 01:08:31,520 --> 01:08:35,200 there's something. It might also be the minerals in the ice that you just put into it. No it was there 689 01:08:35,200 --> 01:08:40,720 before. I was hoping that yeah I'm cooling it down. I would also like to say I to make sure that we 690 01:08:40,720 --> 01:08:49,040 had the ultimate flavor of this. I used filtered water. Oh. Going back to our our our third wave 691 01:08:49,040 --> 01:08:57,440 water test. Yeah amazing. I mean if you smell it in the bag you can smell that little bit of 692 01:08:57,440 --> 01:09:01,760 chocolatiness in it. That's the only thing I can think of. There's a little bit of maybe as it's 693 01:09:01,760 --> 01:09:07,200 cooling off I'm detecting a little bit of astringency on the finish. Maybe that's 694 01:09:07,200 --> 01:09:12,880 what you like literally just threw that bag directly for my coffee cup. That would have been 695 01:09:12,880 --> 01:09:18,160 a huge mess. Oh my goodness I'm so glad you stopped it. That was definitely staying in this episode. 696 01:09:18,160 --> 01:09:26,400 That was awesome. That was some good defense. Yeah did you play volleyball? Holy shit. That was impressive. 697 01:09:26,400 --> 01:09:33,440 That's really funny. Very funny. Did they also have a modest and collector series? 698 01:09:33,440 --> 01:09:42,640 I would really start questioning it then. What are their other series? I think that's their only. I think they only have one series. 699 01:09:42,640 --> 01:09:46,240 Oh so they have like their normal coffees and then their high end is their enthusiast series. 700 01:09:46,240 --> 01:09:53,040 Oh that's awesome. I always do wonder if like our names are stupid. The tears. Evidently not. 701 01:09:54,240 --> 01:10:01,200 Just the specific names. The fact that they're calling it an enthusiast. Yeah right. Are the 702 01:10:01,200 --> 01:10:05,200 tears stupid? I don't know. What else do you call them? What do you call it right? It's like essentially 703 01:10:05,200 --> 01:10:12,160 it's market driven pricing. Good, better, best. Sure. Yeah I don't know. I mean like I feel like we 704 01:10:12,160 --> 01:10:15,920 get really creative in the first three products that we created which is like the modest, the 705 01:10:15,920 --> 01:10:20,960 enthusiast, the collector and then we just phoned it in for the second two. We go the dark and the 706 01:10:20,960 --> 01:10:25,040 decaf. Well they're pretty straightforward. It's like people are like do you have a dark growth? 707 01:10:25,040 --> 01:10:31,040 We're like yeah sure. Yeah should I call that like the rugged? You know you called it the espresso 708 01:10:31,040 --> 01:10:36,480 at the beginning and that makes sense. It makes sense that your darker roast was like almost 709 01:10:36,480 --> 01:10:41,920 intended specifically for. Yeah but that's actually but that's the thing espresso can be 710 01:10:41,920 --> 01:10:48,880 espresso is not based on the roast level. It's based on the the flavor characteristics that taste 711 01:10:48,880 --> 01:10:54,080 best concentrated. But the reason actually reason why we named it the espresso is our first wholesale 712 01:10:54,080 --> 01:10:57,920 partner was like oh just put the name espresso on there because people will buy anything with the name 713 01:10:57,920 --> 01:11:05,840 espresso roast on it. And he wanted a dark roast. Yeah that's funny. So we were like okay so called 714 01:11:05,840 --> 01:11:11,680 the espresso dark and then we just shortened it to the dark. Oh you know we were talking about 715 01:11:11,680 --> 01:11:17,360 espresso machines and I wanted to mention that in this video of these two women will I remember 716 01:11:17,360 --> 01:11:23,520 their names without my notes in front of me? Some and something that began with like a C sound. I 717 01:11:23,520 --> 01:11:29,040 want to say Kalia but it's not that's not it. Kalina? Kalita? No Kalita is the coffee brewer. 718 01:11:29,760 --> 01:11:36,800 Damn it Kalina. Kalina. That video which I will share on our social media. They're so cute I love 719 01:11:36,800 --> 01:11:45,280 them. But they had they started with like a hand espresso maker like it's just like a handle and 720 01:11:45,280 --> 01:11:50,080 you push it down and you it seemed she said she was putting her entire body weight into it and it 721 01:11:50,080 --> 01:11:55,760 looked like she was. Wow. Trying to press water through the like that's fun we could get one of 722 01:11:55,760 --> 01:12:01,520 those. We have one in the basement. We do? Our first cafe we had one of those and then we had 723 01:12:01,520 --> 01:12:07,120 pour over all we did was was manual everything. Holy shit Jenny. And people fucking hated it 724 01:12:07,920 --> 01:12:13,600 in Sugar Grove. It wasn't like it was it wasn't like I don't think it was like a true espresso 725 01:12:13,600 --> 01:12:20,000 pressure it was probably more similar to like a higher powered aeropress. It claimed it could get 726 01:12:20,000 --> 01:12:25,360 to nine bars but I do feel like it was kind of yeah I don't know yeah I don't feel like it had 727 01:12:25,360 --> 01:12:31,360 enough pressure anyways whatever. Maybe you just need to like buff up a little more right maybe 728 01:12:31,360 --> 01:12:36,160 you just need to gain a couple hundred more pounds and put all that into it. All right 200 pounds 729 01:12:36,160 --> 01:12:48,960 right in my arms. So you know I'll be like um murder coffee guy. Oh hi Fred. I'm coming for 730 01:12:48,960 --> 01:12:55,680 you in that arm competition arm wrestling. So one of the things I think about like good coffee right 731 01:12:55,680 --> 01:13:01,920 is it just you just want to settle in and enjoy it and right hang out right um and so like normally 732 01:13:01,920 --> 01:13:04,880 at this part in the episode we'd be like well who's this coffee for and then we'd like make 733 01:13:04,880 --> 01:13:12,960 jokes about it but I'm honestly I think this is a coffee for friends. Oh I think this is a coffee 734 01:13:12,960 --> 01:13:23,680 for yeah gathering without your computers. Would you say community? Yeah. Oh mission accomplished 735 01:13:23,680 --> 01:13:29,440 coffee project. Good job good job coffee project. I'm finally able to drink this it is very juicy 736 01:13:29,440 --> 01:13:35,440 very juicy much better cooled by the way I think so too yeah yeah there was some sort of bitterness 737 01:13:35,440 --> 01:13:40,240 that I did not enjoy when it was hot. That's good and now that it's cooling even more more that 738 01:13:40,240 --> 01:13:47,920 citrus is coming through it's really like but it's a deep you know kind of sweet molasses citrus 739 01:13:47,920 --> 01:13:53,600 it's so good. There's a nice sweetness there yes this is you know the super juicy coffees are not 740 01:13:53,600 --> 01:14:01,280 um generally the ones I go for I can recognize this as an extremely delicious coffee it's very 741 01:14:01,280 --> 01:14:09,360 good. Cool well um you know what I just realized this podcast is the only time I ever get to try 742 01:14:09,360 --> 01:14:15,920 somebody else's coffee. Same yeah me too. I'm so glad that we're doing this so that we can like 743 01:14:15,920 --> 01:14:22,080 explore other coffees and hang out and try coffee we wouldn't be doing this otherwise. I would just 744 01:14:22,080 --> 01:14:28,320 be drinking my coffee this is great. Stupid modest again. Yeah I hope that uh you dear listener are 745 01:14:28,960 --> 01:14:34,320 drinking some coffee and enjoying it too yeah. And yeah definitely check out this coffee project. 746 01:14:35,040 --> 01:14:40,720 You know definitely do check out even if you're from the midwest and the prices seem high 747 01:14:42,240 --> 01:14:47,600 treat yourself to a bag because this is really good and the one the like basic blend that I drink 748 01:14:47,600 --> 01:14:53,760 every morning in New York was really good too. It was tasty it was just like a medium roast blend 749 01:14:53,760 --> 01:15:02,800 and it was delicious. It's crazy to me the the living cost differences. Yeah. Right? 30 bucks 750 01:15:02,800 --> 01:15:07,840 for 10 ounces. Yeah I mean I feel like. Well this is a Panama coffee it's probably an expensive one 751 01:15:07,840 --> 01:15:13,840 to begin with too so. The cheap blend that I bought was $20 for 10 ounces. Yeah oh you're talking 752 01:15:13,840 --> 01:15:19,920 about. It's pretty pricey compared to what we charge. That's also expensive. Yeah right that's true. That's not. 753 01:15:19,920 --> 01:15:27,360 So we we could afford to raise our prices probably. Look we had a we had a mission to like make coffee 754 01:15:27,360 --> 01:15:32,720 accessible. I don't want to like price ourselves out of accessibility it's more about sharing good 755 01:15:32,720 --> 01:15:37,520 coffee with people than it is about you know like charging gobs of money. We don't have a cafe we 756 01:15:37,520 --> 01:15:43,280 don't have overhead you know we just share our savings right with the customer. That's true. 757 01:15:43,280 --> 01:15:47,920 That's it. We do. Yeah it's about getting good coffee to people and supporting the farmers and 758 01:15:47,920 --> 01:15:53,600 along the way and ourselves. There you go. You know. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. Well you're never 759 01:15:53,600 --> 01:15:56,320 going to be able to afford an apartment in Chelsea with that attitude. 760 01:15:58,720 --> 01:16:04,000 Okay. Well thank you Steph for bringing this back with you this is such a delight. I keep 761 01:16:04,000 --> 01:16:08,800 forgetting to put this reimbursement on your paycheck. Yeah put this reimbursement on my paycheck. 762 01:16:08,800 --> 01:16:14,560 I know. Maybe consider including all that Patreon too. Oh I do need to cash that out. 763 01:16:15,920 --> 01:16:19,920 Yeah. Marcus cannot wait to get his hands on this money. Oh I'm gonna spend it right on art. I'm 764 01:16:19,920 --> 01:16:25,040 gonna put it right towards my art fund. The whole like couple hundred bucks. All of it. 100. All 200 765 01:16:25,040 --> 01:16:31,840 dollars. Yeah I've already claimed it. Well I'm really happy that I got to share a tiny cup of 766 01:16:31,840 --> 01:16:36,480 New York with you guys. Yeah thanks Steph. I really missed you. So glad you did. For three weeks. Man 767 01:16:36,480 --> 01:16:42,240 we missed you so much too. Not just your work but just you. Yeah. We missed you. Yeah. Thanks Jenny. 768 01:16:42,240 --> 01:16:48,480 Yeah. The whole pendulum of the universe was off. That's true. I don't know it felt pretty good to me. 769 01:16:48,480 --> 01:17:04,320 Okay. Welcome back. Thank you. Thank you everyone. 770 01:17:18,560 --> 01:17:32,400 Thank you for listening to this podcast generously sponsored by Modest Coffee. 771 01:17:32,400 --> 01:17:40,240 Purveyors of single origin coffee without the snobbery. Visit www.modest.coffee 772 01:17:40,240 --> 01:17:49,040 forward slash no bad reviews to see what they're roasting today. Enjoy.