This is the second time we’ve worked with Jen Apodaca. Jen is the featured roaster for the month of December over here at Matchbook, and when we first partnered on a release back in July of 2018, Jen did this ambitious release: not only did she roast three different coffees, she also did the artwork for the bags. 

Not much has changed in terms of ambition—Jen is now at the helm of her own coffee company called Mother Tongue, and her goal is to roast excellent coffee while paying coffee farmers well. That sounds simplistic, but Jen breaks down how she’s designed her roasting program around excellent coffees that might go unnoticed or unremarked by others. In a sea of experimental processes and high-scoring coffee varieties, Jen is looking for the coffees that are absolutely solid, but sometimes remain overlooked. 

At this point, I’ve interviewed Jen four times: once for Barista Magazine, once for the first Matchbook release we did, and once for my podcast, Boss Barista (which, as Jen mentions, she does change a diaper on air during our recording). When I go into interviews with people I’ve talked to a lot, I’m sometimes nervous I won’t have anything to chat with them about. What else could be said at this point? With Jen, it’s clear she’s always learning, either something about herself or her philosophy on roasting or even how the first Matchbook release might have inspired the pathway she’s on now. This episode is jam-packed with those small nuggets of information, those moments of reflection and transformation.

We’ve come full circle this month.

Matchbook was started by a group of coffee folks who wanted to highlight the incredible work of roasters—folks who don’t often get the limelight. This group was brought together by one person: Cheyenne Xochitl Love.

Cheyenne is a person with vision. She’s the featured roaster for the month of November, and in a way, this is a homecoming. Cheyenne started the damn thing, but then stepped back from coffee about a year and a half ago to reassess her relationship to coffee.

In this episode, we explore the ebbs and flows not just of coffee, but of life. Cheyenne’s coffee career spans over two decades, and not all of that time has been linear—which, as you’ll hear her talk about, is a good thing. Stepping away gave her time to reconnect with what she loves about coffee, and how much she loves roasting.

This conversation reminded me of why I joined Matchbook. I remember Cheyenne pitching me this seemingly silly idea—treating a coffee release like a record EP and finding rad roasters to work with. But over the last four years, Matchbook has transformed, evolved, become more than just a bunch of kids clanging their heads together trying to get coffee shipped to people across the nation. And it’s because Cheyenne believed in us, believes in roasters, and empowered us to run with it, to explore our unique skills as individuals and as a collective and make this into something special. And I can’t describe how special it is to be right here, at this point, sharing her coffee.

A quick note: Cheyenne’s coffee history is expansive, and she’s been quoted and featured in hundreds of articles over the years. Cheyenne encourages you to search for articles under her current name, Cheyenne Xochitl Love, and her former name, Dani (spelled D-A-N-I or D-A-N-Y) Goot, to find some of the earlier articles. And seriously, reach out to Cheyenne if you want to talk more about roasting or anything coffee-related because she wants to talk to you! Here’s Cheyenne.

In the last few months, we’ve gotten a good number of roaster suggestions. Folks send us emails about people we should work with, or roasters to keep an eye on. 

Early this year, we got an email from former Matchbook roaster Steve Cuevas. He told us about a roaster he knew, and thought we should know as well—Luz Amaya. 

Luz is the roaster for the month of October over at Matchbook, but that’s not where we started with Luz. We initially chatted with her about doing a release in early summer, but then COVID-19 hit and made securing a roasting space a difficult task. It’s funny, though—we talked to Luz about that, and she mentioned that she preferred to roast in October because her birthday is on Halloween. 

Folks, this is going to be a spooky release! Skulls, spiderwebs, haunted places all come up in Luz’s Matchbook box. In this episode, however, we take a step back, and chronicle how Luz got into roasting. Luz works for Devoción in New York, and roasts primarily coffees from Colombia. And honestly, that’s what we thought she’d roast for this release. 

But Luz pushed us. Luz’s family is from El Salvador, and she really wanted to find a coffee from El Salvador to roast for you. After a few sourcing and importing hiccups, we were finally able to get coffee into her hands, and she’s roasting an El Salvadorian coffee for you for the very first time. Learn more about Luz—you won’t be disappointed. Here she is now.

It’s impossible not to smile when you’re talking to Carlos Sims. He’s the featured roaster for the month of September here at Matchbook, and we’ve been lucky enough to feel his cheerfulness and positivity throughout our time working together. 

However, positivity doesn’t imply ease, and in this episode, we detail how Carlos got to where he is. Carlos candidly details how he went from watching his mom brew coffee in Jacksonville, Florida as a kid, to starting his own roasting company called Happy Home—and all the struggles in between. Sometimes, it’s easy to take things at face value, like a cheery demeanor or an encouraging phrase, but Carlos pushes beyond niceties and gets at the root of things. We talk about toxic work environments and having the courage to know when it’s time to quit and prioritize your mental wellbeing.

Family is a central theme in Carlos’ life—and it’s the theme of his coffee release—and we talk through how difficult the word ‘family’ can be in the coffee world. We recorded this episode a few weeks after baristas at Augie’s Coffee were fired from their jobs for attempting to unionize, and how the word ‘family’ can be weaponized in these instances. So we push on that definition in this interview, and talk about how important it is to feel seen, to help others, and really define what community and family mean to you. And in the end, you’ll leave with a smile on your face. Here’s Carlos. 

Something I find fascinating is when people talk about their hometowns. That’s not necessarily the place they were born or grew up, but the place they call home. The place they identify as part of themselves and who they are. 

This month, we’re excited to be working with Riley Fields as our August featured roaster. Riley is a roaster and manages quality control for Velodrome Coffee in Marquette, Michigan. Marquette is in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan—the part that’s actually attached to the top part of Wisconsin...if that’s still not ringing a bell, it’s ok. Riley jokes that the Upper Peninsula is sometimes left off maps or drawings of the United States. It’s like a bonus, a secret place that only its inhabitants know how wonderful it is. 

Marquette sits on Lake Superior, and Riley’s release is a love letter to the lake, and a love letter to her hometown. Riley isn’t from Marquette, but as you learn about in this interview, it’s a city that’s defined who she is as a roaster and person. It’s helped shaped her tenacity, her creativity, and her love of coffee.

Ciera Young is the owner of Mama's Brew Coffee in Houston, Texas and the July featured roaster here at Matchbook. Ciera’s release is perfect for the season. She’s relaunching her brand in August and making big moves to realize the vision of her business: to roast excellent coffee and provide coffee professionals job opportunities that’ll get them mortgage-ready. 

In this episode, we talk about Ciera’s lifelong relationship with coffee. With Mama’s Brew, Ciera wants to take all the positive and negative interactions she’s had with coffee and provide people with a safe place to explore flavors and find something they love. We talk about how, as a Black woman who is a patron of coffeehouses and coffee culture, she was often talked down to and how specialty coffee has had a longstanding problem with gatekeeping—or closely guarding information.

As Ciera mentions, she HAD to start her own business to keep going in coffee. These experiences made Ciera challenge her relationship to the coffee industry, and she talks about how she had to carve a space for herself that was decidedly different than what we’re used to seeing within specialty coffee. 

Long, winding roads, Appalachia, and growing up in coffee: that's all here in this episode with May's featured roaster, Grace McCutchan of Red Rooster Coffee in Floyd, Virginia. 

Last month, I was having a conversation with Joe Marrocco at the United States Coffee Championships. We were walking, and a random person stopped him, and told him just how influential he was to their roasting career. 

There are not a lot of people as influential to the world of coffee roasting as Joe. He’s the featured roaster here at Matchbook this April, and as I’m writing—and now saying—this, it feels difficult to summarize the career of someone who is so embedded in our community. And now, during the time of the COVID-19 crisis, he’s someone I’m especially looking to for guidance and support. 

This is a heartbreaking time for coffee—and a time whose implications we don’t fully yet understand. Baristas across the nation have lost their jobs, and there’s a lot of uncertainty about what happens next. How will we get money to baristas? How will we help small businesses reopen so they can hire back the folks who have been laid off? 

For Joe’s release, we’ve teamed up with Glitter Cat Barista Bootcamp to set up a barista relief fund. We’ll be donating all the profits from this month’s box, and work to get this money directly in the hands of baristas. Depending on how much money we make, we hope to get cash payments between $100-$200 to folks who have been laid off—we’ll have more details for you soon on our Instagram. For now, please enjoy this candid episode with Joe—it’s a little all over the place, like our feelings are right now, but we hope you can glean a little from one of coffee’s shining stars. Here’s Joe:

Shit's about to get real spooky and chill over here. 

Baylee Engberg is our featured roaster for the month of March. Find out why this episode is equal parts laid back and fast-paced, what the fuck a ball roaster is, and how Baylee has progressed from working in a drive-thru coffee shop to roasting more coffee than most people ever have.