It’s been over a decade since I last made my way to Atlanta. I was impressed back then with the specialty coffee community, and in the years since being there it only appears to have gotten better.
On a totally different note, have you ever been in the same place as someone, but had no idea, and didn’t ever bump into each other? That’s what happened this past April while at SCA Expo in Portland. I had a few other friends mention having connected with Garrett (from the Roastery) but our paths never crossed.
Fast forward a few months later while searching for a distributor for a different coffee product I was e-introduced to Garrett and I was thrilled to finally connect. I began to learn about his work at Trade Winds Coffee & The Roastery and really enjoyed the chats we had.
So given the explosive growth in the Atlanta-metro area coffee community, and my growing connection with Garrett I knew it only would be right to share the TradeWind/Roastery store with you–my readers. So without further ado, let me introduce you to Garrett, Christian, and TradeWind / The Roastery as our Coffee Roaster of the Month for November!
Hey Christian & Garrett, so great to get the chance to connect with you! Introduce yourselves to our readers.
I’m Christian, I’m the founder and owner of TradeWind Coffee Co and The Roastery (our sister company). I’ve been working in coffee exclusively for over 7 years now. I’m your average dad-joke-loving family guy with a passion for people and coffee.
I’m Garrett, I’m the cafe manager for TradeWind and assistant roaster for The Roastery. I’ve been working alongside Christian for a little over a year and working in cafes now for 4 years.
Can you tell us a bit more about your backstory in specialty coffee? How did you end up making this your full-time pursuit & passion?
(Christian) I really wasn’t planning to work full time in coffee – I was aiming to build a cafe with some partners as a side gig to my day job. I worked in film/video production for 15 years, and when no one wanted to build a cafe with me I just went for it.
(Garrett) Growing up I’ve always been interested in coffee, but never had the chance to really dig into the industry until 2019 when I was offered a barista position at a local cafe in my college town. After that experience (and COVID) my life took a big right turn, and I started finding more resources and people to learn from and connect with to further my coffee journey.
So, your home-base is Dacula, GEORGIA, can you tell us a little bit more about what the specialty coffee community is like there and in the Atlanta-Metro area? What do you love? What would you love to see happen in the next 5 years?
(Christian) The specialty coffee community in Dacula? Well, it’s basically us! That was a big part of my interest in going into coffee, was to bring a true specialty experience to my town. We do have other towns nearby with great coffee culture. The city of Atlanta is also not everyone’s first thought when they think about cities with major coffee culture, but I can promise you’ll find plenty of opportunities to explore coffee all around Atlanta.
(Garrett) In the next 5 years, we expect to see the current momentum of new cafes slow down a bit, but I also think we’ll see more intentionally curated coffee experiences continuing to evolve around here.
So while you operate TradeWind Coffee, I see that next door is “The Roastery.” I know you mentioned that you’ve recently begun an initiative to help support home roasters, and those really just entering into roasting coffee. What will that look like?
(Christian) We really had a primary goal with The Roastery of opening the doors to the roasting world to our local town. It’s why we built it next door to our shop, in a retail shopping centre instead of buried in a warehouse or industrial park somewhere. And we’ve had pretty good success already when it comes to creating educational opportunities and access for people in specialty coffee roasting nearby.
(Garrett) I think for me, coming into roasting as a byproduct of my work in TradeWind, it’s been very organic. Christian really means it when he says we want to open the doors to specialty coffee to everyone – whether partners in wholesale, other cafes, or home roasters just creating a new hobby.
I know for those who are just looking to get setup with roasting at home, there can sometimes be some confusion around labels like “Organic”, “Fair Trade”, and “Rainforest Alliance”. What do those terms actually mean? How is what you do different than that?
(Christian) This is such a wide-open area deserving of its own “TED Talk” because honestly, there’s a lot of confusion because there’s a lot of deception in all these different terms. There, I said it. In reality, it’s like most things – you start with the goal of doing something mundane but doing it cleaner, more considerately, better, more humane. And what always happens? Human nature creeps in, makes it something less than optimal and leaves us all scrambling to figure out what we should do. Do we only source organic? Should we only aim for direct trade? Often, these things end up hurting while trying to help. But as I said, probably a good topic for its own time!
I noticed on your website your core mission is to “”Love Your Neighbor”.” How does that get reflected in what you do at TradeWind/The Roastery?
(Garrett) Garrett coming in for this one. What initially drew me to work with TradeWind and The Roastery was the mission, “Love Your Neighbour”. The atmosphere that we provide and the customer experience that is given is influential. I am a big community minded person and TradeWind/The Roastery not only give me an outlet to reach people, it also is an outlet to grow me and teach me how every moment and interaction matters. We want to reflect that in our coffee service every day. Coffee is such a community industry; I mean it is worldwide. Too many times you see other companies in this industry lose sight of the exact people they are serving, they go blind and become very closed off, they forget that the customer/client matters too. We want to try to rewrite that narrative and become a space where we can love you and fill your every coffee need.
Can you share with our readers what you’re drinking/enjoying these days when it comes to coffee?
(Christian) I just got back from Colombia, and I have been pretty excited about trying Pink Bourbon, it’s a unique coffee with a unique story. It is fruit forward without being heavy handed about it, really enjoyable.
(Garrett) I am enjoying different variations of Honey Processed Coffee as of recently. We are currently profiling a Costa Rica Yellow Honey Process, very excited to see where it goes.
Speaking of coffee, could you share a bit more with our readers about your
philosophy/approach to roasting coffee. What equipment do you roast on?
(Christian) I am pragmatic about how I run my business. I don’t spend a lot of time on unnecessary fluff. Coffee can be a magical product, but at the end of the day it is a lot of math and science. We try and control any variables as much as possible with our systems, but we also know part of the joy of coffee is experiencing new things. That often comes as a result of experimentation. We roast on a Mill City 2k and 10k machine, Mill City Roasters is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
It’s been great getting the chance to connect up and share your story. Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
(Garrett) I’d love to point out one of our passion projects here at The Roastery, which is our FUNDroasting project. If anyone has a non-profit organization or doing work for a cause, we’d love to talk about creating a campaign to raise funds and awareness through our private-label coffee bags.
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Contact Info:
web: www.roastery.coffee & www.tradewindcoffee.com
instagram: @the_roastery_ga & @tradewind_coffee
facebook: facebook.com/theroasteryga
email: theroastery@tradewindcoffee.com
Find their beans: If you’re looking to get your hands on some beans then definitely check out their web-store for what they’re currently roasting.
Visit their cafe: If you find yourself in the NE area of the metro-Atlanta area , make sure to swing by their shop at #202 – 2300 Liam Ave NE, Dacula, GA.
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I just want to say a huge thank you to both Christian & Garrett at The Roastery / Trade Wind Coffee for being such a huge contributor to the coffee culture in the Atlanta area. Check out their site, grab yourself some beans, and enjoy!
Stay Caffeinated,
Tyler
commonly coffee 