Crossings Coffee Corner: October

A Day In The Life Of A (Specific) Coffee Roaster

Oct 11, 2023

Topic: A Day In The Life Of A Coffee Roaster
Coffee Smarter Expert: Alden Hozouri, Crossings Coffee Roasters
Connect: www.crossings.coffee • @crossingscoffee

LISTEN!

Don’t want to read all the words? Listen to the conversation featuring Alden Hozouri. Transcript below.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Where you are at will depend on where your business is at and what your role there is. Are you the owner and roaster? Are you thinking about the future or focused on the production needs today? A big part of the day is prioritizing what needs need to be met immediately versus the future.
For Alden, a lot of his focus is on scalability. How can he grow his current business in an effective manner? He spends time taking a 10,000-foot view of his business.

He focuses on his accounts and his clients. This is the daily legwork of communication, checking on processes, and making sure the coffee is not only what they want but is being represented in the best way possible to the end customers.
It is a lot of project management. Alden says, “CRM’s are my favorite.” CRM is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management. It is a tool to help keep all the details about a customer, including their needs and your engagement with them, in order.
Loving something as a hobby doesn’t always mean it will be an excellent long-term business! You might find that the demands of a company take away from your ability to do the thing you love.
The roasting still needs to happen! Either by you, the owner/roaster, or by a team member.
Alden recommends using a coffee journal. You could easily carry a pocket notepad, or we’ve sourced some great coffee journals that enable you to make sure you’re tracking the same details page after page.

From left: A yellow pocketsized notepad that says "Another Coffee In The Books" on the cover in gold foil. Inside page with breakdown of coffee traits. Blank page for notes or sketches.

BUY COFFEE JOURNAL

INTERVIEW*

R!WC: Well, let's get started. Hello everyone. Welcome to the Crossings Coffee Corner Chat hosted by me, Ryan Woldt of Roast! West Coast. I'm joined by Alden Hozouri.

He looks fantastic. His voice sounds fantastic today. He's a longtime friend of Roast! West Coast and a longtime industry veteran. He's the owner of Crossings Coffee, which anyone listening can find online at crossingscoffee.com and in a brick-and-mortar someday in the future—hopefully in the near future.

Alden, hello.

Alden: Good morning.

R!WC: I say so much, and he just says one thing so much easier.

Alden: You said it all.

R!WC: Alden, this is our little corner of the internet that we're living in today where we try—not we—you try to teach me and everyone a little bit about coffee and the coffee industry at large. What are we learning about today?

Alden: Today, I'd love to talk about a day in the life, specifically a day in the life of a coffee roaster.

R!WC: And I would like to just clarify that one: I just slurped some coffee. Sorry, everyone. Two, when you say a day in the life of a coffee roaster, do you mean the person who owns the company and is roasting coffee beans? Or do you just mean the person who's physically putting beans into the machine or kind of a hybrid of the two?

Alden: Hmm, that's a great distinction. I can try and do both. A little bit of what I wanted to share with everyone is what a day in my life might look like, you know, where I'm at, and you kind of hinted at it—having a brick and mortar in the near future.

I think every shop owner is going to have a slightly different experience based on how they built their business, where they're at, and what that might look like.

And that requires putting on and wearing a lot of different hats that you're constantly throwing around all day long. So, my day in the life might not look the same as someone else anywhere else in the country.

At the end of the day, it's trying to learn and understand your business, where it's at, what its needs are, what fires you have to put out, what the industry or your local community is doing, and how that might impact your operations, how to look ahead and forecast what your needs might be, what your goals and objectives are setting plans and revisiting. You know, there's all these different ways to approach how you want to reach your next destination on your journey.

I'd love to share a little bit about what that thought process looks like from both the perspective of the person whose [role is] I just operate in the business. And then from the person who's literally sitting behind the roaster, that machine and smashing buttons. Yeah.

R!WC: And I would like to just, just from having talked to enough people in coffee, a lot of times that's the same person. So, it makes sense that you would be sharing both.

A lot of times, the person who owns the company and has this big vision or bigger vision of where it's going to go, whether it's online sales or brick and mortar or whatever, is also the person responsible for taking the orders, putting the beans in the machine and going from there.

So, what is a day in the life of Alden Hozouri on a roasting workday?

Alden: Well, on this particular day, it starts out by waking up and hopping on a podcast with my buddy Ryan.

R!WC: Okay, okay. A normal day where you don't have that annoyance.

Alden: This is, I mean, oh, wow. Already, I want to like, defend...or not defend but offer perspectives from different people than mine, but I'll try to stick to my lane here.

Where I'm at in the business as the owner of Crossings Coffee is scalability. My company—I started it in 2015, 2016, a little bit as a pet project.

You know, I had been working in the industry in other shops, working my way up as a roaster for other shops, and this idea and what I wanted my brand to be was an evolving concept.

So I didn't really get my feet on the ground in building and scaling the business until about three years ago, two years ago, when finally, I had enough experience under my belt. I had a vision for what I wanted it to look like that, you know, I could finally get the ball rolling.

Right now today, on the roasting side, it's about scaling. It's about marketability. It's about exposure. It's about fine-tuning our vision and the impact that we want to have on our community.

And okay, cool. We have these abstract concepts. How do we actually bring that to life? So [at the] 10,000-foot level, what we're looking at right now is Crossings Coffee Roasters supplies coffee to a number of cafes, bakeries, and restaurants across San Diego. That's awesome. That's great.

In an industry that's relatively competitive and has razor-thin margins, that volume, that exposure, and that growth are critical for the continued development of your brand.

You know, we are...I mean, I pride myself on sourcing coffee that I can stand behind, that I'm stoked to see my name on. A big part of our brand ethos is the pursuit of excellence. It's taking what we know today and studying it and looking at the impact that it's having and what can we do tomorrow. How do we slowly shape our vision to reach that next step?

R!WC: You just mentioned coffee sourcing briefly, and I just wanted to ask a quick question that I thought of right away, which is: You said it's a competitive market. I happen to know that there was just an article proclaiming that there are almost 30 coffee shops within a three-mile stretch of one street near my home, which is crazy.

Have you found it to be—you started several years ago already in sourcing for this company specifically and for other companies that I'm aware of—is it getting more competitive to source excellent coffee for a small independent business?

And when I say small, I don't mean that in a negative way.

I just mean not your Starbucks, not your Dunkin' Donuts type of quantities.

Alden: Yes and no.

I'd say it's getting easier in the sense that as more roasters come to the table and there's more awareness being brought to coffee and people want access, and there are people trying to reinvent the wheel with new marketplaces...

And what does decent mean? And, you know, then you can get into the politics of, okay, who actually graded this coffee and who certified this? And how do we know it's actually fair trade? What does transparency mean?

And I know there's so much more stuff in the way of really understanding what you're buying, who you're buying it from, and what it's going to be like. And all that new information, if you're up to date with, and you have a clear vision of who you are as a company,

There's so much [so many coffee sources] to choose from. As someone new to the table, it might be overwhelming. It might be really hard to identify what it is that you're looking for and, you know, trying to find your way.

So it's definitely a yes and kind of kind of question.

R!WC: Sure. That just makes me think that if somebody is listening who is considering starting or getting into roasting as a business, not just roasting for [themselves] as a hobby, having a clear or a strong, well-thought-out mission would be really valuable.

You know, if you know that it's important to you that your coffee is sourced a certain way or with a certain say bird-friendly or fair trade or any of those really digging in and learning what those mean and helping that narrow your focus to some extent.

That's just me on the other side who doesn't actually do that [sourcing]. You're nodding. So, I think I'm on the right track.

Alden: Yeah, you're spot on.

R!WC: Okay, so we've solved the problem of starting a company and sourcing and all that. What are you doing next in your day as a coffee roaster?

Alden: So, next in my day as a roaster is taking a look at our steps ahead.

You hinted at it earlier, but you know, we are working on a brick and mortar, the very first crossings brick and mortar.

I'm so thrilled to even be having this conversation because this has been a dream in the making. In the time that I've been in the industry, one thing I've learned is to really spend time and invest in setup, in setting your brand up for success with whatever that next step is.

That's why a big part of our push right now is scaling, is reach. The more people that we can reach, the more mouths that will know what we're capable of and what we're doing just to set the brand up for a warm welcome once we finally do open our doors.

So that has a lot of different considerations and strings to tug along as well. At the very start, it's maintaining our current accounts and sourcing coffee that meets the criteria of what our accounts are looking for.

We do things a little differently. I do have a menu list. So if a new shop or restaurant were to come and they're like, I don't know, what can I just source from you? We consider just the unique oddities about their specific brand and find coffees that match that.

We're sourcing from all around the world to either pair tasting notes with the rest of their menu or find a coffee that has certifications that are in line with the ethos of that particular brand.

So it's being a little bit more customized with each of our accounts, and that is something I'm really stoked to stand behind. That adds several layers of complexity because we have to really maintain inventory for each of these different accounts and make sure that they're up to date and that coffees are being used in an appropriate manner—that nothing's sitting for too long.

So there's a little bit more legwork in the day-to-day to operate in this particular way. How I like to operate is kind of under the idea that if I have the capacity to do things in a way that I find is a little bit more responsible, or maybe in line with that vision of quote unquote, excellence, yeah, I'm gonna stretch myself to do it.

You know, what else am I doing this for? Why else am I here if not to do the best that I can?

I like to have good contact and communication with each of my accounts. I'm [connecting] on a regular basis. You know, whether it's a phone call, just to check-in, or talking about the machines—I like to go in and adjust equipment on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

I like to have a little bit more of a hands-on not only so that that shop feels that they're being properly supported but also I can make sure my coffee's being properly represented.

So there's a day-to-day kind of conversation, dialogue with each of these shops, checking in on how the coffee's tasting, what they're liking, what they're not, looking at, you know, the calendar down the road, any big holidays or events on the horizon.

R!WC: It sounds like a lot of project management.

Alden: Absolutely. CRMs are my favorite.

R!WC: At some point, I assume you roast coffee, or someone roasts coffee if it's not you. Is that part of the day, or is that a theoretical thing that we're just imagining in this simulation?

This is a great question. I actually want to go off on a really quick tangent. I was talking to a friend of mine about this, and we actually talk about this a lot. When people first get into coffee, it is all about the pour-over. It's like they've discovered it for the first time, you know, seeing how their eyes light up and how it just makes the best cup.

And you know, they feel like they're a part of the process. And, it's...it's addictive. I remember when I first woke up to coffee. I was making pour-overs all day long.

If we had a family dinner, I was sitting there for like 25 minutes, making sure everyone had a pour-over, and they'd be like, What are you doing? Aren't you tired? And I'm like, No, I love this is the best. I'm, I'm a part of it.

You're riding this high, and you try to go even deeper and find new ways to almost enmesh yourself with this new industry, with this new thing.

And then it scales, and then you buy the sample roaster, and then you buy the more expensive grinder, and then you buy this, and you buy that, and the next thing you know, you've bought a commercial roaster.

You're looking at starting a business, and it snowballs. Then you have to look at scaling and sourcing and storage and, you know, business operations, permits. Before you know it, you're caught up in the day-to-day of keeping the business on a trajectory that you have to kind of pull away from the thing that you started out loving in the first place.

It ebbs and flows just like in any relationship. But, on this particular day, I actually will be roasting. I've hired a team of people who I'm, so I've actually been, you know, sending them my gratitudes mentally all week because one of my employees is actually out of town right now and is in Japan getting their Q-grader certification.

Absolutely thrilled. I am so stoked for them in their journey into coffee. But it really opened my eyes to how reliant I have been on that extra support. So, on the one hand, I'm super thrilled.

I do still roast on a very regular basis, but I've had a bulk majority of that production roasting handed off my plate to my all-star employee. So, I'm really excited to have a little bit more to chew on, but... it's a lot.

You know, when you are focused on volume, and you're focused on growth, if you're lucky, you get it. And with that comes a lot more work, a lot more volume.

It's something to consider, I'd say, if this is something you love, there's a conscious, almost decoupling from the thing that you started out doing to support doing all the things that allow that thing to happen.

With roasting, I fell in love with roasting the first time I ever did it, actually, nearly eight years ago to the day. And it's something that I want to do, at least from what I see for the rest of my life.

And to make a living that I can support myself on and to pay others so that they can be paid a wage, a living that they can live on. There's so much more work that goes into it behind the scenes, administrative and otherwise, that does take up time and bandwidth.

So, if it's still an important part of what you want to do, you can factor that in, but it does take that much more mindfulness to keep a piece of that pie in your corner.

R!WC: This is just from my reflection of what you're saying is that there's, there's production roasting, and then there is going back to the sourcing and small batch at seeing, is this the coffee that's right for this brand? From the outside, it sounds like you could really keep your finger in that, in that passion part, by working on that.

[Like you're] going to make sure these coffees are excellent before [you] turn them over to the team that [you've] hired to help [you] facilitate. I think that could probably be one way to either keep that passion or, if you're a hobbyist thinking about taking the next step, maybe think about how big of a step you really want to take.

Is this something you want to do just for you and, you know, sell to family and friends, or is this something where you're thinking bigger? And if it is bigger, there's going to be a lot more paperwork and a lot more administrative and a lot more project management that comes with that.

Alden: Absolutely.

R!WC:Okay. Well, I think we covered it all in 19 minutes.

Alden: That sounds about right.

R!WC: Right.

It's a good day. I'm ready to go back and have another cup of coffee. Alden, I'm glad you were here today. I just really enjoy listening to your story and what you're doing at Crossings Coffee. We'll chat again soon, a little bit about what it's like to run a cafe, I believe.

Alden: I can't wait.

*This transcription has been edited for length and clarity. We use an automated audio transcriber. Then go through each line to make sure it makes sense and stays true to the voice of the speaker. It is a real pain in the behind.