commonly coffee

Can we all just agree on how absolutely incredible San Diego is for a minute?! This is a city that I have had the pleasure of visiting on multiple occasions. And besides the near perfect year-round temperatures, proximity to the ocean, and some of the best tacos on the planet, San Diego also has an absolutely next-level specialty coffee culture.

It was over a decade ago I first began to catch a glimpse into the burgeoning cafe scene, and more recently, having been down in SD for the 2026 World of Coffee, I knew upon my return that there was one specific coffee roaster that needed to be featured on my blog…that is none other than Bird Rock Coffee Roasters.

So I reached out to their team, and they were thrilled to get the chance to work together to share their story. So here it is, check it out below as the Coffee Roaster of the Month for June 2026!

So great to get the chance to connect with you Jeff & Roger! Help our audience get to know you a bit better… What’s your personal backstory in coffee? How did you get started? What keeps you going in coffee?

I moved from Topeka, KS., to San Diego 2017 to build Bird Rock Coffee Roasters and grow it as a brand using the experience I had gained in the coffee industry dating back to 1993. 

But, I didn’t move to Topeka in 1991 to start a coffee company; I moved there to tell stories.”

In 1991, I arrived in Topeka, Ks to join the Topeka Capital-Journal. I was coming from Lewiston, Idaho—where I’d recently been named the National Press Photographers Association  Region 9 – Photographer of the Year—and I was accustomed to the local espresso culture that fueled my long assignments in Idaho. To my surprise, Topeka didn’t have a single espresso cafe in 1991.

The disappointment was immediate, but so was the spark of an idea: if I couldn’t find a proper cup of coffee in town, I’d build the place that served it. On February 3, 1993, I teamed up with my roommate, Fred Polzin. Fred brought the operational “know-how” I lacked; we split the company 50/50 and opened the doors to PT’s Cafe Espresso, later changing the name to PT’s Coffee Roasting Co.. in 1997.

For the first few years, I lived a double life—balancing the fast-paced world of news photography with the steep learning curve of the coffee industry. By 1997 we were thriving. We had lines out the door and a growing footprint. On the surface, we had made it. Then, an honest customer changed everything.

He told me bluntly: ‘Your cafes are busy, but your coffees not good’ It hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized that a line out the door isn’t sustainable if the product isn’t memorable. I spent the next two years obsessed with roasting—tasting and experimenting—but by 1999, the coffee still wasn’t where it needed to be or where I wanted it to be. Seeking answers, I booked a trip to Guatemala with the SCAA to see coffees origin for myself. What I discovered changed my life and the trajectory of PT’s and now Bird Rock Coffee forever.

At the time, the “C-Market” price for coffee was a paltry $0.49/lb. Farmers weren’t just struggling; they were going bankrupt. Coffee was cheap in the U.S. because it was being harvested as “triage”—there was no room for quality when the goal was simply survival for coffee farmers. I realized then that I couldn’t just change my roasting profile; I had to change the system.

My mission in Guatemala was to be a part of a team of people with the same goal as mine, find great producers and encourage them to enter a brand-new competition called the Cup of Excellence (COE). There were many coffee legends on this trip, George Howell, of George Howell Coffee in Boston, Torrey Lee of Cafe Moto in San Diego to name a couple. We asked farmers to identify their best parcel of land, harvest only the ripest cherries, and process them with obsessive care. As one of the early COE judges, my goal was to identify these top lots and auction them to roasters worldwide using this still evolving medium called the “World Wide Web.”

In 2001, in the era of 14.4x dial-up internet, an online global coffee auction was a groundbreaking experiment. I was thrilled to be on the ground floor in Guatemala even as I was just learning the ropes. I was unavailable to be a judge in Guatemala, and my company at the time was too small to pay the high prices the coffee was selling for but I joined panels in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Colombia, and other auctions in Ecuador and Panama in the coming years, meeting the best farmers on earth with one goal: buy their coffee directly for a price that reflected a fair, if not exceptional, value. And buy it out of auction the following year.

I saw prices jump from $0.49/lb in 1999, to $2.50/lb, then $50.00/lb, and they haven’t stopped climbing since. By paying for quality, we gave farmers a reason to excel. Yes, the price of coffee grew for the farmer, but so did the quality of coffee I was able to buy and roast and share with our customers. By meeting these producers where they were and better understand their plight with coffee, we agreed with them to pay more for quality and we joined a small group of roasters who began using the phrase Direct Trade Coffee.

In 2008, I was still on the road judging competitions and looking for unique lots of coffee. I visited Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi and every coffee producing country in Latin America. Trying to unlock the secrets to great coffee and my own business. In November of that year I was invited to judge the Taza de Oro in Ecuador.

Another turning point in my life as PT’s Coffee was named Macro Roaster of the Year by ROAST Magazine for 2009. And it was announced while I was in Ecuador. On this same trip, I met another judge who was from Bogota, Colombia, Maritza Suarez Chaparro (Taylor). We shared a passion for coffee and traveling and two years later we were married. Now 16-years later with 2 beautiful boys of our own.

As Maritza immigrated to the United States in 2011, she took charge of our coffee buying program and I began focusing more on the growth of the company. We still traveled together buying coffee all over the world. Until 2014 when our first son was born, Phoenix Taylor. 

In 2016, I was approached by the founder of Bird Rock Coffee Roasters to buy his business as he assured me he wanted to sell, I initially tried to talk him out of it. But it just so happened I had leveraged PT’s Coffee and sold half of the company to  a local businessman so that I could grow. So with my new partners we purchased Bird Rock Coffee Roasters in 2017 and my family relocated to San Diego. Hoping to grow what had become a San Diego legendary cafe. My original business partner Fred still lives and runs PTs Coffee so I can live in San Diego and grow Bird Rock Coffee. 

The growth of Bird Rock Coffee Roasters: Chuck Patton opened Bird Rock Coffee in 2006 after working out of his garage for a few years roasting and selling coffee. I met Chuck when he reached out to me at PT’s Coffee to invite me on a trip to Bolivia in 2008. I had been traveling in coffee circles since 2001 and had a little more experience at that point but Chuck learned fast and we became friends, colleagues and traveling partners. Although we were both still learning and growing as coffee professionals.

Back then, most of the coffee buyers traveling were still learning, growing, sharing knowledge and exploring what was possible with coffee. It was an emerging industry and a very exciting and fun time. For most of us our goal was to identify the best producers and challenge them to improve quality. “Micro-Lots” had been created in the early 2000’s and the work was spreading like wildfire through coffee’s origin. Micro-Lot your coffee, improve quality, get a better price for your coffee. It worked and Specialty coffee took a giant step forward.

Before we go much further, share with our readers what you’re drinking/enjoying these days when it comes to coffee!

Today I am drinking a coffee from Finca Villa Loyola that is a Carbonic Maceration Process. This DT farm that Maritza and I discovered together in 2010 is run by Jesuit Preist. When we discovered the farm in 2010 it had just won 1st Place in the Cup of Excellence. So we went to visit with a friend in the Nariño region of Colombia. The Padre at the time was really more into cattle and the farm achieving the highest status that year may have been a bit of a surprise. But a short time after a new Padre was assigned to the farm and he had a passion for sustainable agriculture and coffee specifically. His name is Padre Jose Alejandro Aguilar Posada or as most call him, “Padre Joe.”

Maritza and I became close with Padre Joe and have worked exclusively with this farm for 16 years now. Padre Joe has a PHD in Sustainable Agriculture from the University of California Berkley. His touch is every where on the farm today, and is a model in the Nariño region of Colombia. His farm is 100% Organic however Padre Joe choses not to certify the farm. That’s what I’m drinking today.

San Diego really has been “on the map” as they say lately… especially having just played host to the World of Coffee. What’s so great about the SD coffee scene? What was that experience like for you as a company?

The San Diego coffee scene is blowing up with excitement. There are so many great small cafes serving excellent coffee. The culture here is amazing. You can find a great shop in every neighborhood. With the excitement of the World of Coffee here a few months back, the energy is off the chart.

For my wife and I it was overwhelming. Catching up with all of our friends from the past 30 years. Maritza hosting producers from all over the world – but specifically Colombia where she is very well known as one of the first women in Colombia to achieve the Q Grader Certification in 2005 – our time was booked from early morning until late at night. As for growing awareness of coffee culture in San Diego. I believe the word was already out about our community. And coffee professional visiting for the first time simply got to experience what those of us who live here already knew.

Let’s go back a few years. In 2012 Roast Magazine named you Micro-Roaster of the Year. This was the first time an SD roaster had received such a recognition. What did that award mean to Bird Rock being such a young company at that time?

Bird Rock Coffee Roasters achieved Micro Roaster of the Year in 2012. This is an award given out each year and you can only win one time. So the award is given to new roasters every year. It is truly an honor and I know Chuck and his crew were thrilled to achieve the award for Bird Rock Coffee Roasters. I’m honored to play a part in two Roasters of the Year, PT’s Coffee Roasting Co. in 2009 (the 5th time the award was given) and Bird Rock Coffee Roasters 2012. And also honored to share the market with a more recent award winner in Mostra Coffee Roasters. San Diego is a strong coffee market.

Bird Rock may have started with humble beginnings but has since expanded to 11 cafes across the greater San Diego area. What key factors do you attribute to this success and growth?   

Bird Rock Coffee Roasters started from humble beginnings and between 2006 and 2017 had grown to two cafes (Little Italy and Bird Rock locations) and a Roasting plant with a tasting bar inside. The business was growing. When I arrived in 2017, I tease Chuck that he got all my money and I got all of his stress. I simply leveraged every penny I had and reinvested every penny we made to grow it to the 11 cafes, a catering bus we call Baby Bird, and an equipment repair company called Espresso Medic of SD.

I promoted from within at every opportunity. To take the growth back to my beginnings, I started PT’s Coffee Roasting Co. with $6,000 all borrowed. My partner and I borrowed $2,000 each from our parents. And a close photography friend believed in my dream and loaned me an additional $2,000. All of this was repaid in 1-year with 20% interest.

Now our company, including PT’s Coffee Roasting Co. and Bird Rock Coffee Roasters has 14 coffee shops and 2 roasting companies. Thanks so much for letting us share our story!

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Contact Info:

web: www.birdrockcoffee.com
instagram: @birdrockcoffeeroasters
email: info@birdrockcoffee.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.  

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I just wanted to say a huge thanks again to the team at Bird Rock Coffee for being a huge contributor to the specialty coffee community in San Diego, SoCal, and beyond!

-Tyler