I used to be a teacher, and I explain things in analogies a lot. Like, a lot. It’s a helpful tool to bring someone with you along the way—it helps connect people to complex ideas, topics, and is just a really effective educational tool. 

Throughout this interview, Candice Madison uses a lot of analogies. She’s the featured roaster her at Matchbook for the month of February, and Candice’s career in coffee shows a lot of things. One, she’s incredibly tenacious, two, she cares a lot about education and connecting with coffee drinkers, and three, she’s not afraid to try a lot of things, and she’s not afraid to fail. 

Candice’s coffee career—and subsequently, her approach to coffee—reflect all these values, and show that roasting is really just a fantastic game of trial and error. Now, she’s the Director of Roasting for Royal Coffee in Oakland, California, and she’s spent a long time trying to figure out just what she wants out of coffee—and that approach has changed a lot, which is reflected in her theme, Coffee Pig, which is about not looking past things we’ve been told are ugly or unworthy, and finding wonder and beauty in every corner. And in a way, that perfectly reflects the journey Candice took through coffee. It’s not about being right or knowing your exact path on the first try, but it’s about being brave enough to keep going, no matter what. Here’s Candice. 

I think it's safe to say that this might be one of the most special interviews we've ever done. 

Izzy Fraire is the founder of Matchbook. He's the person doing all the behind-the-scenes work, getting green samples, paying invoices, even driving to the post office to make sure you all get your coffee on time. 

But Izzy is probably the person you've heard from the least. He's always hiding in the shadows—but this month, he's front and center. Learn about the person that makes Matchbook possible. 

This feels sort of cheesy to say, but it’s true—this is a very special edition of the Matchbook podcast. Instead of one episode, we’re making three, highlighting the different members of the Matchbook project. 

The Matchbook Coffee Project is a collective of four folks who work with a new roaster every month. I’m one of the members, and this month we’re taking over—we’re roasting the coffee, creating the art, finding special merch for you, and sharing more about our journey through Matchbook. 

Today, I’m with Katie Miller. Katie is the reason you can order your Matchbook coffee—she maintains the website and keeps it looking shiny. Katie is the type of person who likes to look outside the box for answers, and enjoys a challenge. Katie has been so seamlessly ingrained in the group that, when she told me she wasn’t always a member, I was completely flabbergasted. 

Katie is so wildly fascinating, passionate, and ready to take on the world. I’m glad you’re getting the chance to know her. 

This feels sort of cheesy to say, but it’s true—this is a very special edition of the Matchbook podcast. Instead of one episode, we’re making three, highlighting the different members of the Matchbook Project. 

The Matchbook Coffee Project is a collective of four folks who work with a new roaster every month. I’m one of the members, and this month we’re taking over—we’re roasting the coffee, creating the art, finding special merch for you, and sharing more about our journey through Matchbook. 

First, we’re chatting with Lindsey Shea, our resident photographer and group organizer. She’s the one who makes many of our roasters look good, and she holds us accountable, calling us to make sure we’re getting all our tasks done—if you can believe it it’s actually a lot to produce a Matchbook box every month. Lindsey’s journey into coffee is typical, but her journey into photography is unique, and she provides a perspective on how to create your own magic and follow through on your ideas and passions. 

I’m so lucky to have gotten to work with Lindsey over the last few years, and I hope you enjoy this interview. 

Who is Cameron Heath and why is he so unusual? 

In this episode, we bring back one of our favorite roasters, Cameron Heath of Counter Culture Coffee in Durham, North Carolina. Cam was one of our earliest Matchbook roasters—and we brought him back to roast a holiday treat for you! 

We made a big realization when we interviewed Robert Rodriguez, the Matchbook roaster for the month of November. Roasters are all in. 

What we mean by that is that every roaster we've talked to is so passionate about what they do. They wouldn't choose to do anything else in the coffee industry. Sure, there are days that are hard, there are days that suck, but talking to Rob reminded us how passionate the folks we work with are. 

Go all in on roasting with us—and learn much more about Rob's background and how he went from roasting for George Howell to heading a totally new department for Night Shift Coffee in Boston on the latest episode of the Matchbook Coffee Podcast. 

There’s a world of information when it comes to roasting. Some of it is quantifiable and organized—you can pick up books about roasting, there are hundreds of classes you can take. And some of it is…just around. It’s the stories passed from roaster to roaster, the techniques picked up from mentors and bosses that aren’t written down anywhere, but still contribute to the collective information about roasting.

In a way, this podcast—and the Matchbook Coffee Project in general—are ways to capture those stories, and find ways to share a person’s perspective on coffee with a new audience. Amaris Gutierrez-Ray is the featured roaster for the month of October, and she thinks a lot about how information, particularly the stories of women from coffee-producing countries, are shared. She started the Women in Coffee Project, and through this project she collects anecdotes and creates platforms for women in producing countries to share their narratives.

Amaris is the director of roasting and part of the green buying team for Joe Coffee—they’re based in New York and have cafes in NYC and Philadelphia. With a background in Museum Science, Amaris thinks about the way we consume and keep track of information. This is a problem she deals with daily—she works with four roasters to supply all of Joe’s 19 retail shops and their wholesale accounts—and getting folks on the same page isn’t easy. But she puts a lot of emphasis on mutual trust and following the data. Those are just some of the things that make her an excellent roaster, leader, and coffee professional making meaningful change. Here’s Amaris.

Rainbow hair, don’t care. Alexandra Egan is the featured roaster for the month of September over here at Matchbook. On the heels of just being promoted to HEAD F**KING ROASTER for Chromatic Coffee in San Jose, Calif., Alex talks to us about why she lets her stylist make all her hair decisions—and how that speaks to her good-natured and upbeat vibe. Alex hasn’t been roasting long (just shy of a year) and get an insider’s glimpse into what it’s like to be in the middle of your career journey and what it looks like to carve your own path. Listen up, y’all!

Welcome to the Matchbook Coffee Project Podcast, the show were we learn more about the folks roasting your monthly coffees. I’m Ashley Rodriguez.

So, we’ve been interviewing people for Matchbook since the beginning. The very first interview I did was with Jamie Smith, then of Sightglass Coffee and now of Coffee Manufactory, was done over beers at a shitty dive bar on Valencia Street in San Francisco, and they’re always a delight for me to write because I get to learn the cool, the weird, and the personal stories behind the folks who roast coffee for this project.

However, we’ve wondered recently—who is actually reading these interviews? We kind of have no idea. But, as Shelby Williamson, who is the featured roaster for the month of August, pointed out, roasters have headphones in ALL THE TIME. Many of you folks listen to something, anything, for hours on end, and we thought, maybe this is a better way for you to get to know the people you’re ordering coffee from.

There’s a lot of directions that this could go in. We’re hoping for this to both be a personal insight into the folks we feature, but also a living record of roasters. We want to chronicle your stories around roasting coffee, and hopefully others who are thinking about or do currently roast can use this as a reference point, and discover what folks across the country are doing when they turn coffee from green to brown.

Our very first interview is with Shelby, who I mentioned earlier. Shelby is the current 2019 United States Roasting Champion and is the head roaster for Huckleberry Coffee in Denver, Colorado. Shelby is easily one of the most affable and friendly people I’ve ever chatted with, and we learn how a childhood with fuzzy cable connections lead her to a life of roasting coffee.

We're making a podcast!