So, you forgot about your delicious bag of Ullr Coffee Co beans in the back of your cupboard and now they’ve lost all their flavor and aroma, as coffee does over time. What can you do with these beans if you don’t want to drink them? Well, the first thing you should do is give us a holler and we’ll send you some replacement beans…

There is quite a bit you can do with coffee beans that you might not want to drink though. I have a huge bin of beans that come from messed up roasts or that have sat too long and lost their flavor and aroma.

• Use it as a medium for art or dishware/mugs, etc. - grind it up, mix with epoxy and shape it into whatever you like. There are many companies and cafes that have mugs and dishware made from coffee grounds.

• Compost it! - Coffee is an organic material, throw it in your compost bin and let it break down. Composting coffee grounds helps to add nitrogen to your compost pile and improves your gardening. Another good option is to use them as fertilizer as they do attract earthworms. Notice two things though, you usually garden with used coffee beans so either run some water through them, or go to my next advice, and practice making coffee with them before gardening. Also, you can use organic used coffee filters for your compost. So, if you have some filters, throw them to your compost as well!

• Experiment with creative brewing techniques - What a great time to practice new brewing methods. Not familiar with cold-brew, percolator, Chemex or whatnot? Why not use your old beans first to see how the process goes and everything works before using your new expensive coffee beans for the real deal?

• Use it for videos and content creation - If you are into filming or making sick YouTube or Instagram videos, coffee beans can come in handy all the time. Do you want to film a slow-motion shot of beans falling all over you? Compost it after of course.

• Use it as an air freshener - Coffee has amazing odor absorption qualities, put a plate or bowl out and get rid of those nasty smells.

As a business student and someone with an entrepreneurial spirit, I always hated the idea of working for someone, not because I was lazy or had a poor work ethic, but because I had always wanted to contribute to my own goals and dreams, not someone else’s. I frequently hear the phrase “I wish I could do that” from too many people and my response is always the same: “why can’t you?” and the average response might have been not enough time, not enough money, or I don’t know how. Yes, these might be some valid reasons for some people, but these aren’t huge walls or barriers, they’re obstacles and if you want to do something you find a way to get over them. Ullr Coffee was founded while I was a full-time student, full-time employee of another business, and a part-time procrastinator.

I hear so many other roasters and business owners say you need a huge amount of start-up capital to create a successful business and brand and this is just completely false. You don’t need 300k to start your business, and I certainly didn’t when I started doing this while in school. Sure, if you plan on roasting large volumes and selling over 100 bags a week and having huge wholesale accounts, you will need a lot of money upfront. But there has to be the demand for your product first. Many successful roasteries started on home roasting systems like a Behmor or a rotisserie basket on a grill. There is only so much you can do differently in coffee, which is why branding is so imperative to your success. Developing a brand that people will recognize and support takes time and effort but can be very affordable and even free.

Let’s talk about roasters: I slowly worked my way up to buying a 4kg sample roaster, starting with a rotisserie basket on my dad’s grill. Many people in the industry will say the smallest roaster you should buy is 10kg when starting, which will run you well over 25k used. This is just not feasible for most people especially college students. The great thing about coffee roasters is that they hold their value very well, meaning that you can start small and if you see growth and find that you enjoy the trade, you can sell it and work your way up. Now I may not be incredibly successful or making a lot of money, but I see steady growth and when the time comes, I can expand how I like and still manage other aspects of my life very well. If you want to get into the business, start small, if you enjoy it, keep working your way up and find the path that best suits you.

One of the biggest points that I see baristas and other coffee professionals make that I always enjoy arguing is that “taste is not subjective”. This is a difficult topic to talk about because it brings up a seemingly never-ending and very philosophical debate. But in most cases, even if there was a definitive answer to whether or not taste is subjective, it shouldn’t matter, because anyone should be able to drink whatever they like without being made fun of or looked down upon.

We as baristas, roasters, and coffee professionals ride a fine line of trying to be informative and helpful while not seeming elitist, demeaning, or egotistical to customers. As a barista, one of my favorite parts of the job is sharing knowledge with people and sharing my passion. Unfortunately, this is very difficult to do without sounding like a dick. I already have the tortoiseshell glasses, stereotypical tattoos, and coffee addiction, so most people already assume that I am pissed off that they are even in my shop. If a customer comes into your shop and asks for an iced caramel macchiato and you correct them and tell them what a “traditional macchiato” is, chances are is that they won’t be back in your shop, and truthfully, most people just don’t care and it makes you sound stuck up and elitist. What you can and should do is talk to your regulars or frequenting customers and offer to make them a drink you think they might like and if they don’t like it offer them something else. Doing this gives them a chance to expand their horizons in coffee and taste and allows you as a barista or coffee professional to share your wealth of coffee knowledge when it’s well-received. Even if you don’t want to share your coffee knowledge, and you find that many of your customers don’t care either, why should you care?

1. You work in the service industry

2. Your wages rely heavily on tips – being nicer to customers = better tips

3. You work in the service industry

4. Your job will only be as enjoyable as the interactions you create between you and your customers.

Be careful not to confuse my explanation of taste for quality, as I do believe there are some subjective measures for quality. If this were not true, instant coffee would be the same price as the shade-grown, freshly roasted, micro-lot of Geisha. But taste is a very personal thing; it’s a personal preference and our palates are similar to our personality. So next time the middle-aged woman in a fur coat from Aspen (no-offense if you’re reading this) orders her iced caramel macchiato with skim milk, don’t get annoyed or frustrated, just live and let live.

The next time you are at the grocery store or need to buy coffee at your local coffee shop, or wherever you purchase your coffee, take a step back and look at how many options you are presented with. There are entire aisles and shelves dedicated to showcasing different coffee brands in all different sizes and prices. Your coffee can range from a $5 container of Folgers, or the $40 12oz bag of specialty coffee with a 94 SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) rating. If you’re reading this, you might not know why you should spend a little more on your daily ritual, but there are more than a few reasons why doing so can benefit both you and the great community of coffee people throughout the whole supply chain. Let’s look at some of the huge benefits that come from buying better coffee:

• It tastes better – cheaper, commercial-grade coffee tends to be lower quality beans that are harvested before they are ripe, creating undesirable flavors. These flavors tend to be masked by a very dark roasting process bringing out bitter and burnt characteristics that almost always need cream or sugar. However, taste is subjective and if your favorite cup comes from a can of Folgers, we are by no means saying you shouldn’t drink that. Drink what you like, what you enjoy, and let no one tell you otherwise. 

• It is much more environmentally friendly – Lower quality coffee tends to be grown with many unsustainable and unfriendly practices. Large farms often contribute to immense deforestation because it is easier to grow coffee in full sun. This destroys habitats for much of the local inhabitants and especially birds. Buying shade-grown coffee is a huge plus when purchasing your beans.

• You’re supporting an entire supply chain of awesome people that all enjoy coffee – This includes farmers, roasters, baristas and the numerous people and processes that make up these interactions. Farmers often do not make enough to support themselves or their families as social sustainability is a huge issue in the coffee supply chain. Buying coffee that ensures that its growers are being paid a living wage is imperative to the sustainability of the industry as a whole. 

An even better part of buying your coffee beans is going directly to the coffee shop or roaster that makes it. And no, we don’t mean Starbucks or any other chain, we mean your local independent coffee roaster. By buying from them, you’re putting money back into your local economy making numerous people's lives better; Not to mention how much baristas and roasters love teaching people about the coffee they buy and their passion, and encouraging them to make it their own passion. 

Working as a barista for a few years now, the biggest thing I notice about customers and regulars is their consistency in ordering the same drink every time they come in. The coffee shop and their daily caffeine fix has become a routine, day in and day out ordering the same vanilla latte or the same cup of black dark roast. This is due to neglect from both the barista, in their lack of interest to give new suggestions to their customers, and from the customer in their lack of desire or lack of knowledge to experience the new and interesting coffee drinks and varieties that they might be presented.

Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with that vanilla latte you keep ordering, but a vanilla latte at one coffee shop is going to be the same at all of them.

The best way to befriend your barista:

When you go into a coffee shop and order, the best way to make friends with your barista, is to ask them:

“what do you recommend?”

“what’s your favorite drink?”

”do you have any special drinks?”

Ask a barista any one of these questions and their face will light up with enthusiasm and you might have to listen to them rant about really cool coffees for the next 10-15 minutes. Chances are, your barista will offer to make you a pour-over, as it is the best way to showcase the interesting and amazing depth and flavors of a coffee.

Coffee Varietals, what are they?

Coffee is very similar to wine; just as there are grape varietals, there are coffee varietals. Coffee varietals are the hybrids or natural mutations of the two major species of coffee: Arabica and Robusta. There are a few thousand varietals of coffee around the world, all with different growing traits and amazing flavor characteristics. The list of coffee varietals is vast but see the list below for a few examples:

• Typica

• Bourbon

• Gesha

• Pacamara

When tasting new coffees, coffee professionals use what is called a flavor wheel, used to describe different tastes and aromas to coffee. It won’t tell you whether or not a particular coffee is good or bad, but it will allow you to more accurately pinpoint certain characteristics that you might not be able to describe without colors and words for reference.

The flavors that coffee can encompass are vast and incredibly fascinating. In my own personal experience, I have tasted coffees that gave flavors of soy sauce and almost reminiscent of orange chicken, to coffees that tasted of rose with floral aromas. It is amazing that one plant can have so much distinction and variety in flavor and smell, and I implore you to pursue the awesome experience of tasting these interesting coffees.

One of the biggest things I have noticed after being a barista for some time now is the amount of myths constantly circling and spreading around the coffee community. These myths are often changing, spreading, and are usually never cleared up or corrected either due to a lack of wanting to learn on the barista and/or the customers part, or because correcting myths does not go hand-in-hand with a positive service in the eyes of most, or it can at least be tricky to do so while keeping ones ego at bay. Let’s face it, no one wants to be corrected or judged while getting their morning cup of joe; it can be embarrassing, seem as unprofessional or hostile, and can leave a bad taste in a customer’s mouth. My goal with these first few blog posts is to clear up some of these myths, offer some positive insight, and hopefully motivate more coffee lovers to educate themselves and find a deeper interest in coffee culture.

Why your light roast doesn’t have more caffeine:

One of the most frequent questions I get asked when at work is: “What roast has more caffeine?” or “Give me a light roast, I hear it has more caffeine.” We even hear the opposite with people swearing to only drink dark roasts because of a higher caffeine content. So, which is it? What is your best option at maximizing the amount of caffeine you get from your daily brew? Many people assume caffeine is burned off in the process of roasting coffee. However, the amount of caffeine in the beans remains fairly stable during the roasting process and any variance in caffeine content from the roasting process is marginal. What DOES change drastically during roasting is mass and volume of coffee. Coffee loses around 30 percent of its mass and expands greatly in volume when roasted. This means a darker roasted coffee will weigh less and take up more volume, which is why you might find a bag of dark roasted coffee to be much fuller than a lightly roasted one.

Volumetric Vs. Weight measurements

Above you can see the difference in volume when looking at light and dark roasts

So, does this change in density and volume affect your caffeine intake? The answer is yes.. but it depends. If you measure your coffee by scoops or a volumetric measurement, you will get more caffeine out of a light roast because the beans are more dense. However, if you weigh your coffee, (this is what the vast majority of coffee shops do), you will find more caffeine in a dark roast because there is less mass.

My last point, which will negate this entire blog post, is that this difference in caffeine is extremely marginal and near impossible to notice a difference. If you’re trying to maximize the amount of caffeine you get out of your brew, I recommend choosing whatever you like drinking the most or throwing an extra shot in your drink. Thank you for taking the time to read this article, we hope you enjoyed it, and if you didn’t enjoy it we hope you at least learned something. The next post will address more myths that we’d like to clear up.