Hello virtual friends! I have been slacking so badly at keeping up with this blog so I have decided today to put something together. I have always loved listening to stories of how people have found their way into working in the coffee industry. Especially here in Utah, where the culture is still fairly new, but that is all about to change here in the next few years. Anyhow, I wanted to just give some insight for anyone who may be interested. Let's start with the first times I had consumed coffee. As a kid, I grew up with parents who only drank instant coffee at home. Anything from Folgers or Taster's Choice was usually what my parents would brew in the morning. I absolutely loved the aroma of coffee, so I was always curious. My parents would always have friends come over and share traditional hispanic pastries with a cup of coffee, that's just always how it went. I remember I would always hang out with them in the living room because I liked the feeling of being part of this adult activity of catching up over coffee and pastries. My mother and father always took their coffee with a fair amount of cream and sugar. They would always let me sip some if I ever asked, but never let me drink too much. Other than at home, there was a time where my mother tried converting us into Christians for some reason. We at one point would somewhat regularly attend Christian church services in Spanish. My uncle had been a devout Christian since he had come into the country from Guatemala so he had convinced my mother that we should follow suit and try to attend church more often. I was never raised in a very religious manner, and had only sparingly attended church as a kid. I ended up enjoying the Christian services more so because of the high energy (as compared to LDS services, which my Grandmother from Guatemala, on my fathers side would take us to when she visited) and the fact that coffee was served every morning along with cheap muffins from Costco. Every Sunday I attended I looked forward to starting my day off with coffee (mind you, I was about 15 years old). Beyond that point, I continued drinking coffee into my late teenage years with my parents or when ever my mother would come home with a cup of crummy Mcdonald's coffee. I would sometimes go to Beans and Brews or Starbucks, but was never paying too much attention to what was the deeper story behind coffee. When I had started attending college, I had also taken a phone center job. In the lobby we had a Mr. Coffee and you were allowed to bring your own ground coffee. For a while, I would go to grocery stores and buy ground coffee as it made sense to me that I may be able to find something different. At the time I was still adding cream to my coffee because I really desired that roasty taste I would get from coffee but I was so used to the sweetness that my mother had taught me to prepare. I first started consuming black coffee right before I turned 21. The reason being was that my friends and I enjoyed hanging out downtown but at that age there really was no where else to hang out late other than Coffee Break, a coffee shop downtown that was open till 2 or 3 am. For some reason, the americano on the menu sounded interesting and I figured in my head this was the purest way to start drinking black coffee. I felt "cool" ordering if even though I had no idea what it was when I did. When I first tried an americano, it was obviously very dark and bitter, but I thought to myself: "this is how coffee tastes, yes?" I figured I was heading in the right direction. I started taking classes at the South City Campus during my second year of college and was working at a phone center that was quite near the airport. I usually had about 2 hours to kill after I had gotten off work and had class, so I started going to coffee shops downtown to do homework while I waited. It was then that I found Nobrow Coffee Werks (which is now Blue Copper Coffee). I had found an article online highlighting the aesthetic of this shop. I decided instantly that I needed to find this shop. So, I did. I still remember walking in the first time and being so intrigued at the interior. I had never been into a coffee shop with such a unique design. Safe to say, I instantly became a regular. I would stop in 2-3 times a week to have a 12 ounce latte and do homework. During that time, I found out about Caffe D' Bolla, a local roaster who had been around for quite some time (about 7 or 8 years at that point). If you have never been, I highly recommend it but I will save that for another post. Caffe D' Bolla was the first shop to introduce Syphon brewed coffee to Utah, and has been a pioneer for coffee in SLC. It was here that I did try a cup of coffee unlike anything I had ever tasted in my life. Since I had been drinking mostly espresso/milk drinks at Nobrow, I had no idea yet of how amazing a properly brewed cup of coffee could taste. The rest is history.. after that point I became obsessed with coffee. Everything about it: brewing, the beans, the equipment, the journey from farm to cup, and the coffee culture that I had suddenly peeked into. I continued to visit Nobrow regularly and slowly started purchasing every tool I would need to eventually start brewing pour-overs at home. I would buy coffee beans from Nobrow every 2 weeks and take them home to tinker with. I became very close with the baristas there and it quickly became a respite from college and work, both of which I was not happy with at the time. But finally, I had found something so captivating and beautiful, something I wanted to dedicate all of my energy into. A few months later I decided to stop going to school (sadly, I only needed a few more credits to finish my associates) and that I was going to pursue a future in the coffee industry. I knew it was a big risk, but it felt so right. I was sick of sitting on a desk all day and attending school when I still didn't know what in the hell I wanted to do with my life. I felt it was too soon to be doing that anyway. And now, here I am.. coming up on 5 years in coffee and I am so happy that I have been able to work with a handful of coffee roasters and meet so many amazing people along the way. I look forward to many more years of working with coffee and continuing to learn more and more while also being part of the community we have growing here in SLC that is passionate about coffee. To the future of coffee in Utah!
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