I'm 3rd generation in the coffee business, grandfather started in the early 70's, father did it most of his life and like every young adult I tried to break free but found myself carrying the torch. Fortunately, the industry is changing and ever-evolving so it stays fresh (pun intended) and interesting. I started doing coffee delivery at 17 when I moved out, then worked as a service tech, then in sales, management and started out on my own in 2008. Along the way I kind of embraced being a beverage nerd, I love craft cocktails (plus tiki drinks), collecting wines, playing Barista at home and as is expected, cupping coffees almost daily. Like all jobs there's a lot of mundane stuff to do but I do view all the above as part of my job (whether it is or isn't is immaterial) and so if one's days consist of enjoying a little bit of the above, how bad can it be. When I started Blue Tiger it was about bringing the local 3rd wave coffees to offices, that coffee drinkers were frequenting already. Now most all offices have local 3rd wave coffees in some form or fashion. The problem we ran in to at Blue Tiger was the coffee was fresh, fun and exciting for a while, but eventually it got old and people wanted to try something new, the novelty had worn off. Also, initially we'd come in, do a taste test and the coffee with the most votes became the new office coffee, that also meant if the coffee you voted for didn't win, there wasn't much chance you'd ever get it because you were stuck with that last winner for a long while. With crema.co, I basically set out to solve those two main problems. We needed the coffee fresh from the roaster but also needed more selection and the ability for offices to get seasonal single origin coffees, not just blends (also a previous issue). We moved to a drop-ship model, direct from the roaster, the day after roasting, to accomplish this. We also needed more variety, currently we work with over 65 (and counting) roasters around the country who are very specialty, meeting a rigorous evaluation process. And most importantly we needed coffee drinkers to buy in which meant they have to be in control. They can view the several hundred coffees that are within their companies budget. Then simply click the Request button and their vote is logged until that coffee has enough Requests & it's ordered. If your coffee didn't have the most votes this time, it will eventually come around. Everybody gets what they want.Used to be having 3rd wave specialty coffee was exciting, now everybody gets their coffee and gets to drink it too.
