December 19, 2025 • 49 mins
Kyle Layton is the cafe GM, Head Roaster, and Co-Owner of Prismatic Coffee in Salem, OR. He joined the podcast for a second time* to share a cup of fancy coffee with us, and talk more about hospitality.
*The first show had some technical difficulties. It is available on www.coffeepeoplepodcast.com and on our YouTube channel. We appreciate you being forgiving of the audio! We're releasing it solely because the conversation is really good even if the audio is not. Check that out next!
Find Prismatic Coffee online at: www.prismatic.coffee and @Prismatic.Coffee on Instagram.
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Coffee People is presented by Roastar, Inc., the premier coffee packaging company utilizing digital printing. Roastar enables small-to-gigantic coffee businesses tell a big story. Learn more at https://bit.ly/4gIsHff. Follow @roastar on Instagram.
Coffee Smarter shares the collected wisdom of the coffee industry, and is an offshoot of the Coffee People podcast. Coffee People is one of the premier coffee and entrepreneurship podcasts, featuring interviews with professionals in the coffee industry and coffee education. Host Ryan Woldt interviews roastery founders, head roasters, coffee shop owners, scientists, artists, baristas, farmers, green coffee brokers, and more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey there everyone. I'm Ryan Wolt, the host of the
Coffee People podcast. I also write books like these,
the Eli and Jane series. I'm very proud of them.
You can find the link in the show notes.
And if you're looking for a giftfor your favorite book reading
friend, please check them out. Cheers.
(00:22):
Hey there, everyone. Good morning.
I'm Ryan Wolt, the host of the Coffee People podcast, coming to
you from a very rainy morning inOregon.
This show is presented by RostarCoffee Packaging.
You'll find recaps, context, andall of the links that we refer
to in this episode in the show notes down below or of course on
coffeepeoplepodcast.com. Today I'm at, or should I say
(00:45):
back at Prismatic Coffee in Salem, OR I'm chatting with Head
Roaster Cafe GM and co-owner Kyle Layton.
He and I got together and recorded a great episode last
week, but we ran into some technical difficulties with the
audio, making for a challenging release.
Kyle was really just generous with his time and pleasant
enough to be willing to chat with us once again.
(01:08):
So this is the second conversation we've had with Kyle
Layton. You can still find that first
one out there in the world, but this is the one that we're
sending out in the newsletter. This morning.
I'm drinking a Brooks Winery Prismatic collaboration.
It's a Pinot noir barrel aged coffee, which I've been enjoying
all week. And I hope that you have a nice
cup at the ready too, because we're about to have a real life
(01:29):
conversation while listening to the Rain with Kyle Layton of
Prismatic Coffee. OK all.
Right. We're recording.
All right, cool. Jump across to you, Yeah.
(01:51):
Hopefully it's in a good spot. I think it's going to be in a
good spot. All right.
Don't mind right there. Perfect.
For now, and I'm going to you mind.
Yeah, yeah, let's dive in. This is definitely going to be
keeping me up way too late, but it's worth it.
It's worth it. Well, on that note, cheers.
(03:21):
Cheers, thanks for having me back.
Thank you for coming back. You know what, last time I told
you all about tapping on the table to get rid of all the
evil, but then it didn't work. And.
So maybe it was my bad. Maybe.
I didn't think of. It if you wouldn't mind for the
(03:44):
camera here, could you reintroduce yourself?
Some people who have already. Seen you and know who you are
from the last video. This might be the first time.
That I've seen you. My name is Kyle Leighton.
I wear many hats at Prismatic Coffee co-owner, roaster manager
(04:05):
and yeah, anything else that needs to be done, really.
That's right. Thank you.
For introducing yourself, Mr. Layton from Prismatic Coffee,
we've already gone through a lotof your back story.
I'm going to make sure that if people didn't see the other
video, they learn all that stuff.
(04:25):
But before we get too far, Prismatic is, is the 1st place
that you are not just managing and working in, but also a
co-owner in in the time that you've been here and involved in
this project about a year and a half, two years.
Yeah, about two years now. Two years.
How do you think you've changed as a coffee person going from
(04:48):
that role of working in coffee to being like owning?
In charge. Skin in the game.
Yeah, yeah. It's been a really stretching
process and gosh, yeah. It's seeing all sides and like
(05:13):
feeling, you know, the the pressure and the impact.
You know, if we're, you know, something that, you know, I
would do as a former barista is like practice latte art a lot.
And, you know, not necessarily think about the the waste
involved because, you know, doing like cool designs and it's
(05:35):
like fun pouring pennies down. Yeah, exactly.
And now I'm just behind all of those processes, you know, and
I, I see from, you know, buying the green coffee to how much
every, all the overhead costs, you know, how much of like the
(05:59):
cost of my own labor goes into it.
And like now I still encourage, you know, like growth and and
learning, but like, I would justhave a heart attack if somebody
made 10 drinks in a row and justtossed all of them.
(06:20):
So yeah, I would say like my eyes have changed so much in, in
that in that respect. So like when you when you say
your eyes have changed, I think I know what you mean, but I want
to clarify. When you walk in and you see
people doing their job or not doing their job, doing other
(06:40):
things, are you just looking around and seeing, oh, that's
costing us this, That's costing.Does that take away from the
coffee bar for you? Not, not too much like I, I
think, you know, all of this stuff should happen.
You know, like baristas are creative and social people.
And so I want to leave room for that, but it's more looking at
(07:05):
it in the way of like, OK, for this to like continue, We, we
have to tighten it, you know, a little bit.
So I'm not frantically like, ah,money's just going down the
drain. But like, why are we talking so
much at the same time, You know,like, what could we be doing
right now? And I, I see myself, you know,
(07:29):
some days more than others, likeactually feeling like a boss.
And it just like, but I get it. I get it from all sides.
Like I've been, I've been on allsides of it.
And now I'm just like. I feel like you didn't say that
like you're a boss, like Cardi Bis a boss.
Yeah, you're like a boss. Like you're like you're you know
your parents age boss when. You're a kid, Yeah.
(07:51):
So there's a bit more of that. But, you know, I like to joke
around and say that like, I'm inthe phase now.
Like, I don't know if you've ever experienced, you know,
you're working a busy bar and, like, boss walks in and hops on
bar to help and then everything goes to shit.
(08:13):
Yeah, I do that now. Yeah.
Yeah. I am the guy who comes in to try
to help and everything gets ruined.
And it's not necessarily becauseyou don't know everything, but
it's because you're not part of the rhythm.
No, exactly. I'm throwing off the rhythm and
I get that. Like I'm quite still qualified
(08:36):
to operate the machine to a highlevel of excellence.
I haven't quite lost that yet. But yeah, it's, it's the rhythm
piece. I feel like when I started being
in charge of bars and restaurants, it took a while for
me to acknowledge it, but it wasbetter for me to be more of the
(08:57):
clean up crew. Yeah, I wouldn't come in and
like, if we were shorthanded, I wouldn't jump behind the bar.
I'd become the food runner. Yeah, yeah, somewhat.
The person who's like in the, you know, helping do the things
that take away from the service part.
Yes, yeah. I could only screw up otherwise.
Yeah, I, I see myself doing thata lot and actually like wanting
(09:20):
to do that a lot. And especially when, you know,
we we first opened, I was behindbar a lot, you know, me and my
lead Caleb, creating our systems, you know, getting
getting it all ironed out. But then once the hype, you
know, kept building and buildingand we were getting really busy,
(09:44):
I would actually intentionally walk away and let the team,
like, mesh and figure it out andlet frustrations arise and let's
let them just navigate the rush.Yeah.
And that was, that was hard. No, it's hard for me.
Especially if you've been doing it a long time, There's like
(10:05):
this. It's not just it's not a pride
thing and it's definitely stepping out of your ego, right?
Like I know I can do this but. The smarter move?
Here is to let someone. Else exactly.
And then it got to a point where, and maybe it hasn't for
you yet, but where you've stepped out of it long enough
that you really can't do it as good as the people.
(10:26):
Teaching how to do it. I'm scared.
I'm scared of that moment. Because you really, you've been
in the office too long or you'vebeen dealing with other things.
And it's the guys at Cat and Claude talk about this on their
show a lot about how their role is different now.
You know, they, they started andthey were all hands on deck
doing all the things. But that's only a that only
(10:49):
causes problems. Now they're at this bigger
picture. Viewpoint.
Which is, I think, the goal. Even if the thing that you're
good at is what got you the start and then you like, give it
up, Yeah, to do something you'renot.
Yeah, Experienced, yes. And oh boy, I am not experienced
(11:11):
in a lot of it, but that's the the thing that I appreciate
about how I've like grown in thelearning process has been just
being OK at sucking and like also having the drive of like
not stopping until I figure it out.
(11:34):
How do your business partners feel about you sucking?
Are they OK? I think they would say that
like, I don't suck. Maybe it's, you know, I
definitely have like my lanes. What I do suck at is starting a
(11:56):
thing and finishing it, like in a organized matter.
That makes sense. I've got absolute ADHD and yeah,
starting a task and finishing it, that doesn't happen.
So, but I try, I put an effort to like you know you.
(12:20):
Must have figured out strategiesfor working around it because
obviously you're here and you know owner managing go owner
managing this place I want to talk to you about this coffee
we're. Drinking, but we're.
Going to take just a quick break.
Hey everyone, it's your host, Ryan Walt of Coffee People.
(12:40):
Which if you're watching the show, you probably know that
we're right in the middle of an episode.
This is less of an ad break and more of an opportunity for me to
make a formal apology directly to Michael Barthmess, the CEO at
Civets Roasting Machines. Civets is spelled SIVETZ, and
they have a website, SIVET z.com, civets.com.
(13:07):
And for the better part of threeyears, I mean 1/2 a dozen
seasons probably, I've been sporadically, mostly
misspelling. It's actually misspelled in the
closing notes of this show and has been all seasoned because
something in my brain is broken.So to you, Michael at Sivets
SIVETZI, vow that from this day forth, I will never misspell the
(13:30):
name of your iconic coffee roasting machine company again.
And to everyone else, check out sivets.com.
Tell them coffee people sent you.
I like that we're sitting next to this like full fireplace.
It's not in the shop, but. It's nice.
Yeah, yeah. What is this that we're
(13:52):
drinking? I know you.
Recently sold out. Yeah.
So this is the OU tapped. I got a tap too.
I can't not do it. Yeah.
You know, my whole life has beenpredicated on.
Yeah, yeah, karma coming from tapping my glass.
Yeah, yeah, OK. Hopefully the audio still works
I. Feel like that's a burn?
(14:12):
Yeah. No, no, no, no burns.
I just, you know, little superstitious.
Yeah. Anyway, before I derail my
entire self, this is Rodrigo Sanchez's Sangria Co Ferment.
(14:32):
Right, which I've had on espresso before, although not
has a. Wild one on espresso.
Yeah, we, I believe there were 530K bags of this produced last
year. And in fact actually about a
(14:54):
year ago we placed the OR order for it.
It was our first forward buy that we did and it showed up
many, many months later because there was a there was like an
(15:14):
export situation happening in Columbia that pushed it back.
When you say forward order, justso we all know because I
definitely know and I'm. Yeah, yeah, totally, just like
you do. Explain it maybe for those of us
that are, yeah, questioning. What do you mean by that?
Yeah. So forward buying is the process
(15:35):
of buying a coffee that is not finish being produced yet.
So in the case for this one, I believe the fruit was about
ready for harvest. And then, yeah, we purchased it
(15:57):
for like, yeah, ahead of time. And so it came almost directly
to us after it was done with harvest and processing.
We got it through LA Coffee. Love it.
So that's that kind of leads me to this question of obviously
(16:17):
when you're buying coffee to serve in your coffee shop, to
roast and serve, you're buying what you consider to be good
coffee. You're not just, you know,
you're a specialty coffee shop, specialty roaster.
So you're not just buying, going, OK, this is our price
point, this is our money making.This is how much we've got to
make necessarily. You also are serving a product
(16:39):
you want to be proud of. Yeah, absolutely.
How do you determine for you what a good coffee is?
Yeah, a lot of it. Well, one, I, I've had a lot of
coffees in the past that don't come in grain pro bags.
(17:00):
So the waterproof sealed, nice plastic bags.
So that's always a it's a very minimal mark, but I always look
for something in like an eco tech or a grain pro bag.
So it's just like a little bit extra comfort of being like, OK,
this coffee is worth enough to, you know, protect it from dirt
(17:25):
and moisture. Outside of that, looking at
cupping notes and scoring is a lot of, you know, how, you know,
determining the quality of thesecoffees.
And we have landed on buying only 85 and above.
(17:48):
So for viewers out there, and maybe you don't know, 70 out of
100 is considered specialty grade, anything below that
commodity grade. So we have agreed that 85 is
this really great starting pointof like pretty Dang good.
(18:12):
I would say too, like just, I mean just to acknowledge it like
an 85 coffee is great. It's a pretty solid everyday
coffee for most, most shops, butalso the availability of a 85
quality coffee has gone way up, even though we're like facing an
an era with coffee shortages. I think they just put out a
(18:35):
thing this week saying Brazil's expected to be down about 20% of
production next year, which is going to massively affect a lot
of kind of, I would say commodity lowering coffee, but
the availability of an 85 point coffee just to have everyday has
gone up. Quite a yeah.
I mean all over the place. Even on our last order we got a
(19:00):
AA grade from Zambia that was an88 and I've never had a coffee
from Zambia. This one was I believe processed
at Katashi Estate. And now I'm looking at I just
saw an upcoming shipment today. They have a pea Berry, a natural
(19:23):
and anaerobic natural, all from the same producers that like I'm
really looking forward to I might I might try to grab that
anaerobic natural because so. That that brings us back around
then because I kind of. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
But what is it that makes you go?
This is a good coffee that we want, that I want to work with.
(19:44):
I want to. Play with this.
For me processing comes into to play a lot.
I personally love bringing coffees that, you know, after
they've been profiled out, something that I can sit down
with a customer and be like, trythis.
(20:05):
And it can spark a curious conversation of like, why?
Why does it taste like this? Why have I never experienced
this in coffee before? And yeah, what we're sipping on
now, this Coferman I. Usually do not care for KO
(20:28):
ferments. In my brain I kind of classify
thank you kind of classify them similarly to what I would with
like a dark roast being more 1 dimensional in flavor.
Now the KO ferment, 1 dimensional, is, in my opinion
at least, way more interesting than just tasting roast.
(20:52):
But why I selected this one was for its many different notes
that come through on it. It's the least one-dimensional
Co ferment that I've had. I think every time I've walked
into this coffee shop and you were here, the first thing you
said was, oh, you have to try this.
(21:13):
Yeah. Even before like hello, it's
usually a wave. And we, we don't need
pleasantries like let's get to business.
Which I appreciate there's none of this particular coffee left.
So this thing I'm grabbing rightnow is not not that, not that
it's kind of goes into my next question packaging.
(21:34):
You guys do the tubes for some of your special.
Stuff. I have a collab with a winery
that came in a tube recently andthen you have the bags like this
from Rostar, the show sponsor. Coincidence.
What is it about the packaging that also stands out like?
(21:55):
We've talked about the graveyard.
Blend in the mix of different things.
We've talked about how you represent with a lot of color
and stuff. Yeah.
I mean, one from like just a practical business standpoint,
people are drawn to something that catches their eye.
Think like a lot of people buy wine based off of the label.
(22:21):
Honestly, I've been pretty successful with that.
Like a good artwork on a label has led me to a lot of really
good ones. But yeah, I think just
practically we wanted to stand out, you know, be different in,
you know, an industry that in some areas has become very clean
(22:44):
and minimal. We felt like big splash of color
was a way to to stand out. I would say warm too.
And warm, yeah. Even though there's some muted
color on there because of the the varnish on that bag, it has
a warm suit that I feel when I come in the shop.
Yeah, yeah, I. Mean that might be this giant
(23:04):
Christmas tree. It could be that, could be that.
Multi colored lights that are shining down on us right now.
But I think that's a do you think that that reflects the
coffee in it? And I think that I'm asking that
because you were talking about Co ferments or unique
processing. What Ruby Coffee out of
Wisconsin would call it colorfulcoffee.
(23:26):
Yeah, yeah. When you're thinking about
coffee and what makes it good, do you think in color in that
way or does that do you, do you associate it in any way?
And maybe I'm just like way off base here.
Yeah, I I don't like and. The music and.
Yeah, yeah. Stuff.
(23:46):
So I thought maybe there'd be a connection.
Something similar, not necessarily color so to speak,
but I do often compare coffees in a musical way.
I also this is gonna sound so dorky and weird, but like I
(24:07):
usually can taste like come up with a a shape for what I'm
tasting like Yeah, and I don't really apple.
Like a like this is a trapezoid or is it?
Yeah. So like usually I'll get
(24:29):
something with like how the acidity interacts with me, you
know, so that can look kind of like a roller coaster, you know,
or sometimes it can be like sharper and like kind of like a
zigzag. This is this is crazy, but it's.
(24:50):
It's interesting because you're you're coming at it from
multiple perspectives. Somebody who likes to drink
coffee, somebody who is trying to sell coffee, so they need
other people to like the coffeesthat they're selling and someone
who's actively roasting and playing with, you know, if I do
this to the coffee, it's going to change the flavor this way.
(25:11):
Does that mean I like it more but it's less appealing to
someone else? Those are all thing.
It's a calculus that owners or roasters have to make in, you
know, almost on the fly. I know there's a lot of
planning, but like at some point, like you have to say,
this isn't for me. Yeah.
(25:33):
Oh yeah, totally. 99% of the coffee we buy, I'm not drinking.
If you want to, yeah. So what is it that the people
are going to relate to? Yeah, right.
Yeah, I, I have found just a really solid, so, you know, us
(25:53):
being, you know, tucked under Portland, a specialty coffee
hasn't been a massive thing around here.
We've had some, you know, a couple of like hit shops and and
roasteries and shout out to archive 'cause they're former
(26:16):
roaster, I mean taught me how toroast done.
So I've got mad respect for them.
Rabbit trailing. Yeah, I would say I totally lost
my train of thought and you're seeing the ADHD come out right
now. No, it's AI.
(26:37):
Think of ADHD, which I have veryclose people in my life with
ADHD or ADD or some variant, andit's a it's a thing that like it
what just happened to you where you lose your train of thought
can happen, but it can also giveyou this great advantage in
other areas of your. Life.
Oh, totally. Yeah, yeah.
(26:57):
There's got to be ways that you use that or you, you realize,
like, oh, this actually helps mehere.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It can be a stumbling block, but
it's not only a. Stumbling block.
No no no, not only. I think I only got here by being
this way. I don't yeah, without my like
(27:21):
passionate hyper fixations that I get it wouldn't, you know,
wouldn't be here without them. And there's also so many things
I could have been really good atif it didn't get difficult, then
I quit because that's also part of it too, getting super stoked
on it and then being like, yeah,well, it's hard now, so.
(27:44):
Yeah, but that's, this is the thing that you didn't, which
makes it matter more. It's like, oh, this, this was
the thing. Coffee was the thing that made
me want to push through. Right.
And that was something you kind of expressed to me the last time
we chatted. I'm going to ask you in just a
second about the role of the coffee shop, but let's take
(28:05):
another break. Just OK, yeah.
Audio and technical doesn't work.
We got to check it. OK, and we're back.
I'm going to try to sit down in this deep chair that I'm not
tall enough for, trying to make sure I keep my boots out of the
shop. This is the second time we've
been sitting here. This time it's not.
(28:27):
We're not open. The store is not open.
Yeah. Correct.
I'm not part of the store is notopen, but every other time I've
been here it's been pretty much full and a lot of the people
here live in this neighborhood walkable.
So you're part of an agrahood, which is like this kind of
community with a shared garden and greenhouse and shared open
(28:50):
space, and there's a little rootcellar store next door, but
you're also kind of tucked away from the rest of the community
that maybe doesn't live here. People have to make it a
destination. I'm wondering what you've
learned in a year or so here, just under a year being open,
right? Yeah, January 15th will be one
(29:11):
year, OK. So coming up on a.
Year coming up, yeah. I'm wondering if you've learned
anything or what you've observedmaybe about the value of a
coffee shop in a community. I say that knowing you're also
opening a second location in kind of similar neighborhood.
Yeah. Out in Monmouth.
Yeah, yeah, it, it just becomes like a core place for the lives
(29:42):
of the people directly around here.
And I mean, many of the people in the community are like, have
become seriously like, like family.
And yeah, it's just, it's been so cool to see like the this
hub, you know, things like when I, you know, pop my attire last
(30:07):
week, I had people from this community, you know, call me, be
like, are you OK? Do you need me to pick you up?
It's, it's seriously been just an absolute, absolute treat to
to see that. Do you give your authentic self
to the customers here? Very, very much so There's.
(30:28):
Not like a a forward facing Kyle.
There. I mean, there is, because if I
know you really well, I mean, everyone gets greeted, but like
the ones I really love, I'm swearing at you.
And. Well, that a little bit, but
(30:49):
yeah, Well, we'll get there. I mean, come be where.
Yeah. I just.
Yeah, yeah. And it takes time, but you know,
everyone gets like AI think a very good part of myself.
And it's, it's fun to work through that and to begin to
(31:11):
like come out of my professionalshell a little bit.
And that's how I want to operate, you know, out of that,
just like very realness, something that I despise is like
corporate good customer service,you know, with like a, with like
(31:32):
a script or like the Chick-fil-Amy pleasure thing or going to
like a drive through coffee spot.
That's all just like hype and energy.
I think it's fun. You know, I think like going to
a Dutch Bros is probably a fun experience, but that vibe, hype
(31:59):
service just feels so inauthentic.
And that offends me because I like to do it really real.
And yeah, it's not bad. It's not bad for people to be
hyped. And you know, I've learned.
Ask you 30 questions. Transcripts in my time, some
(32:20):
more specific than others. I I find that like the older I
got, the more there was a distance between my my persona
behind the bar and and who I wasin real life.
And then the more in charge I got that started to fall away
because I felt comfortable just being OK.
(32:42):
This is who I am, and this is maybe you're not getting all of
me. But you're getting.
A real version. And those are always the roles
that I felt more successful in. I don't know if my boss has
thought that. But.
I felt that way, like customer service is such a weird thing
and and you know, we're talking around the holidays and
(33:03):
everybody is a little bit stressed, but also seemingly a
little bit more graceful. Everybody's kind of oh, it's
been a long. Year it's been, yeah.
How do you feel? I guess do you feel more
pressure this time of year or because the world has been the
way it's been to offer people analways positive experience?
(33:29):
Because I think that's the hard part is I never want someone.
I would never want someone to come in, spend their luxury
money, and then I'm a bummer. Yeah, right.
So. How do you find that balance
between your personal emotions and this thing you're giving to?
Yeah, yeah, I think it, it comesdown to the skill of just like
(33:53):
reading where the the customer may be at, you know, picking up
on things. And like I usually hit people
with kind of like the same, you know, energy each time that I
chat. And then I am intentional about
(34:15):
like listening to the response back and making a further
decision to respond differently based off of like what that
looks like and toning it down orstepping into a more caring vibe
(34:37):
or a more comforting vibe or whatever, you know is necessary
to like meet people where they're at in that in that
regard. So I think kind of in the
holiday season, you know, I think about like, I think about,
you know, people who may be similar to myself that have, you
know, a tough day or a tough time around holidays or, you
(35:02):
know, maybe they get stressed out about travel plans.
And and so taking all of that into consideration and being
extra mindful to meet people theway they want to be met kind of
if that makes sense, if that answers your question at all.
The other day my wife came home and she had pulled some names
(35:24):
off of a Christmas tree at theirworkplace to buy gifts for
foster kids and things. That's something we've been kind
of doing. It's just like a a fun tradition
here. I'm wondering, and I didn't ask
you to think about this before, so I thought, do you have any
sort of charitable efforts or things that causes that matter
(35:48):
to you that maybe don't get, youdon't get to talk about in your
day-to-day work? With causes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So now. We can just.
Go just clip it. No, no, no.
The so the big part of like the,you know, core of Prismatic is
(36:11):
giving back to the community. So in my like personal and most
recent one was just making sure that we had a food drive here
for when SNAP benefits were looking like they were going to
be removed. So you know, that was a recent
(36:34):
one as like a kid who often grewup getting food from the food
bank. That one definitely like shrug a
nerve. So I in the midst of, you know,
kind of all the operations was actually like a little bit late
to getting that started. And you know, I talked to John
(36:58):
from Epilogue kitchen because hehe did a a citywide Dr. at like
40 different restaurants that hewas all organizing.
And so I talked to him and he already had stuff in motion.
And then Justice, one of our baristas also just on his on
(37:21):
their own did brought in boxes and just started putting it out
on their social media. And yeah, so it was really cool
moment, you know, seeing that. Yeah, that one, that one was.
(37:42):
I know that food. Banks anywhere, whether it's
here in Salem OR any town in America, it's going to have a
food bank and a need for food atthat thing.
It's a little messed up that we have we're in that situation.
We don't see have enough food tofeed everyone.
But sometimes I think you mentioned mindful in your in
(38:03):
your comments about hospitality.But I think as we're going
through this time, yes, enjoyingand being grateful for all the
things we have, but also being mindful that there are people
who are just as excited about things from the food bank.
Yeah, yeah. One of the things we noticed
this year more than other years,most of the kids on the tree
were just asking for necessitiesthat you know they were giving
(38:25):
to their family. You know.
Very few were going I want toys,I want this, but most were like
gift card to Safeway. That's what I really like this
year and so I think as we are enjoying these fancy coffees,
which I'm incredibly grateful for, that I get to drink also
knowing that like hey, like there's a lot we can do.
(38:46):
You. Know platform and and also.
For you. With this, this business, yeah.
So Congrats. Thank you.
Thank you. It's yeah, it's a it's a work in
progress too and an ever growingthing and always looking at
ways, you know, to support the community when we can.
(39:12):
We so the the wine coffee that you have currently is our second
time doing it. And previously we did a collab
with St. Innocent Winery and a dollar for
each of those sales went to an organization who helps provide
(39:35):
wine workers and harvesters withhealth insurance.
So we were able to to do that and and give back.
And it was super awesome. It was super awesome to be able
to do that. And yeah, definitely want to do
so much more. Whatever that I want, I want
everyone to you. Have an idea?
(39:57):
Yeah. Let's let's get it out.
Yeah, send me a message. My last question for you in Part
2 of our Our Conversation for Coffee People podcast with Kyle
Layton of Prismatic, I'm introducing you at the end of
the show is probably not great with the full information.
But my last question for you is,any New Year's resolutions that
(40:18):
I should know about? For.
You or for prismatic. Yeah, I'm so bad at like setting
them because when I don't, then I have nothing to fail.
Fair question with ADHD. Yeah, I I would say for me just
(40:38):
to and you know, as as it is just like my baseline function,
but just to continue to learn, continue to grow, to continue to
raise the bar of coffee here in Salem.
Yeah. I mean, not that I want to, you
(41:00):
know, just pump out the best product that I think we can, but
but to do it in a way that brings in the community and
engages and shows those who are interested like, you know, how
far this specialty coffee thing goes.
(41:22):
And I hope to it was originally in the plan to do education
classes and we've done a few events like that.
But in this next year, I would really love to set that as a
focus and really dive deep into the community and teach, you
(41:44):
know, intro to roasting, do morecuppings, do latte art stuff.
That was all like my plan in in beginning all of this.
But then in doing everything, I didn't realize how much of A
vortex it was of like what you're actually able to do
(42:07):
versus what you thought you weregoing to be doing.
That feels like a really brilliant coffee.
Smarter advice to the segment, right?
Yeah. The vortex of what is possible
versus what you intend. Yeah, right.
Yeah. And just like the learning
process of like, Oh yeah, all these things I wanted to do
(42:28):
individually, they could take a year, 2 years, you know, to
reach that point of where you'd like, wanted it to be.
And, you know, for any of our education classes and courses,
you know, I wanted like a specific coffee to give away and
(42:48):
a brew kit that you could take home and a packet of information
to help you brew perfect coffee at home.
And gosh, just getting all of that together while operating.
Yeah, absolute vortex anyway. Well, bandwidth is a bandwidth
it, right? Not just for you though, but for
(43:09):
the people you work with. You know, I've worked with some
really incredible coffee people and, and hospitality people and
sometimes we didn't get things done and it was because we were
on different paces. Our bandwidth was different.
One of us could go further on any given day, but the other one
needed a little bit more processing time.
(43:31):
And so finding that that rhythm where everybody's on the same
path at the same time so you canget it done or they're taking
care of this over here so you can focus on the class.
Or whatever. Is always a challenge, but Kyle,
I appreciate you spending more time with me.
We both have empty glasses, so we.
(43:52):
Should get. Another coffee or maybe
something less caffeinated this late in the day.
Thank you for being on. Coffee of course, of course.
My pleasure. Thanks for dealing with my
sometimes rabbit brain with hopefully some good Nuggets in
between it. I hope I said good things.
I think you did OK. We'll we'll edit as best as we.
(44:14):
Can all right Beautiful. On that note, prismatic dot
coffee. Prismatic dot coffee.
Top as well. Yeah, Thank you for being here
and thank you to everyone for surviving 2025 and another
season of coffee. People.
Yeah. Cheers.
Cheers. Hello again everyone.
(44:40):
Thank you for listening or watching the Coffee People
podcast. Kyle Layton is still figuring
out his place in this new version of a coffee life.
Our original conversation that was held at Prismatic still
exists and I hope you check it out.
The content is really good, evenif the audio is not listener,
watch it wherever you're watching this podcast.
(45:01):
But please, you know, we appreciate you being a little
forgiving of that audio. It's something we're we're still
figuring out as we explore the video side of this podcast.
Coffee People is presented by Rostar coffee packaging found
online at rostar.com. It's because of them that we can
try new things, that we can learn how to do new things like
video. I love that these match that you
(46:57):
did the shirts with. Them.
Yeah, we have a full. There's actually still oh, that
is a strong magnet. You have any crap?
There's still a yet to be released a piece of this bundle.
What do you mean? Like a merch or something or?
(47:19):
Screen printed posters. Nice they.
I don't see one of those. Got I'll have to check in with
my buddy Drew, the artist who did all of this.
But originally we were planning the hoodie, the blend and a like
(47:40):
we were going to do 100 screen printed posters and then he he
had to move into a new house andthen a bunch of other life stuff
happened. But I believe that he's actually
working on them now, so. It's like a good example.
We were just talking about same same pace of bandwidth, right?
And yeah, so I'm I'm. These might be some of my
(48:03):
favorite packages of the year. Yeah, heck yeah.
I and another bandwidth thing, when Rostar did their bag
competition, I wanted to like get these submitted but also
drop the ball on that one 'causeI think, I think Rostar would
(48:24):
definitely also think that theseare some of the best ones
they've done. They haven't said that to me
specifically. I don't think they can like play
favorites. But yeah.
Yeah, these are. It's also just kind of my vibe.
I think I like skulls. I mean, and you know, if it's
not, there's like, it's OK to bewrong, but like.
(48:45):
But you guys did you guys have done some other cool ones too.
But I think what is there's so many great packages now.
I love packages. So yesterday I went to an adult
beverage store just to look at labels and they kind of because
they kind of especially whiskey labels now remind me a lot of
(49:06):
like playing cards used to be like like coil or is it oil or
Doyle? They used to do these intricate
designs. I think they still do, but I
just don't see it as often. But I always think that's just
such a great thing and I'm not agood enough designer to do that
stuff. And so I'm, I think it's cool,
(49:29):
Yeah. Anything else?
Anything you anything I can do for you man?
No. Awesome.
That's it. Yeah, that's.
The best kind of deal for me. Yeah, yeah.
Hey there everyone. I'm Ryan Wolt, the host of the
Coffee People podcast. I also write books like these,
the Eli and Jane series. I'm very proud of them.
You can find the link in the show notes.
And if you're looking for a giftfor your favorite book reading
friend, please check them out. Cheers.
(00:22):
Hey there, everyone. Good morning.
I'm Ryan Wolt, the host of the Coffee People podcast, coming to
you from a very rainy morning inOregon.
This show is presented by RostarCoffee Packaging.
You'll find recaps, context, andall of the links that we refer
to in this episode in the show notes down below or of course on
coffeepeoplepodcast.com. Today I'm at, or should I say
(00:45):
back at Prismatic Coffee in Salem, OR I'm chatting with Head
Roaster Cafe GM and co-owner Kyle Layton.
He and I got together and recorded a great episode last
week, but we ran into some technical difficulties with the
audio, making for a challenging release.
Kyle was really just generous with his time and pleasant
enough to be willing to chat with us once again.
(01:08):
So this is the second conversation we've had with Kyle
Layton. You can still find that first
one out there in the world, but this is the one that we're
sending out in the newsletter. This morning.
I'm drinking a Brooks Winery Prismatic collaboration.
It's a Pinot noir barrel aged coffee, which I've been enjoying
all week. And I hope that you have a nice
cup at the ready too, because we're about to have a real life
(01:29):
conversation while listening to the Rain with Kyle Layton of
Prismatic Coffee. OK all.
Right. We're recording.
All right, cool. Jump across to you, Yeah.
(01:51):
Hopefully it's in a good spot. I think it's going to be in a
good spot. All right.
Don't mind right there. Perfect.
For now, and I'm going to you mind.
Yeah, yeah, let's dive in. This is definitely going to be
keeping me up way too late, but it's worth it.
It's worth it. Well, on that note, cheers.
(03:21):
Cheers, thanks for having me back.
Thank you for coming back. You know what, last time I told
you all about tapping on the table to get rid of all the
evil, but then it didn't work. And.
So maybe it was my bad. Maybe.
I didn't think of. It if you wouldn't mind for the
(03:44):
camera here, could you reintroduce yourself?
Some people who have already. Seen you and know who you are
from the last video. This might be the first time.
That I've seen you. My name is Kyle Leighton.
I wear many hats at Prismatic Coffee co-owner, roaster manager
(04:05):
and yeah, anything else that needs to be done, really.
That's right. Thank you.
For introducing yourself, Mr. Layton from Prismatic Coffee,
we've already gone through a lotof your back story.
I'm going to make sure that if people didn't see the other
video, they learn all that stuff.
(04:25):
But before we get too far, Prismatic is, is the 1st place
that you are not just managing and working in, but also a
co-owner in in the time that you've been here and involved in
this project about a year and a half, two years.
Yeah, about two years now. Two years.
How do you think you've changed as a coffee person going from
(04:48):
that role of working in coffee to being like owning?
In charge. Skin in the game.
Yeah, yeah. It's been a really stretching
process and gosh, yeah. It's seeing all sides and like
(05:13):
feeling, you know, the the pressure and the impact.
You know, if we're, you know, something that, you know, I
would do as a former barista is like practice latte art a lot.
And, you know, not necessarily think about the the waste
involved because, you know, doing like cool designs and it's
(05:35):
like fun pouring pennies down. Yeah, exactly.
And now I'm just behind all of those processes, you know, and
I, I see from, you know, buying the green coffee to how much
every, all the overhead costs, you know, how much of like the
(05:59):
cost of my own labor goes into it.
And like now I still encourage, you know, like growth and and
learning, but like, I would justhave a heart attack if somebody
made 10 drinks in a row and justtossed all of them.
(06:20):
So yeah, I would say like my eyes have changed so much in, in
that in that respect. So like when you when you say
your eyes have changed, I think I know what you mean, but I want
to clarify. When you walk in and you see
people doing their job or not doing their job, doing other
(06:40):
things, are you just looking around and seeing, oh, that's
costing us this, That's costing.Does that take away from the
coffee bar for you? Not, not too much like I, I
think, you know, all of this stuff should happen.
You know, like baristas are creative and social people.
And so I want to leave room for that, but it's more looking at
(07:05):
it in the way of like, OK, for this to like continue, We, we
have to tighten it, you know, a little bit.
So I'm not frantically like, ah,money's just going down the
drain. But like, why are we talking so
much at the same time, You know,like, what could we be doing
right now? And I, I see myself, you know,
(07:29):
some days more than others, likeactually feeling like a boss.
And it just like, but I get it. I get it from all sides.
Like I've been, I've been on allsides of it.
And now I'm just like. I feel like you didn't say that
like you're a boss, like Cardi Bis a boss.
Yeah, you're like a boss. Like you're like you're you know
your parents age boss when. You're a kid, Yeah.
(07:51):
So there's a bit more of that. But, you know, I like to joke
around and say that like, I'm inthe phase now.
Like, I don't know if you've ever experienced, you know,
you're working a busy bar and, like, boss walks in and hops on
bar to help and then everything goes to shit.
(08:13):
Yeah, I do that now. Yeah.
Yeah. I am the guy who comes in to try
to help and everything gets ruined.
And it's not necessarily becauseyou don't know everything, but
it's because you're not part of the rhythm.
No, exactly. I'm throwing off the rhythm and
I get that. Like I'm quite still qualified
(08:36):
to operate the machine to a highlevel of excellence.
I haven't quite lost that yet. But yeah, it's, it's the rhythm
piece. I feel like when I started being
in charge of bars and restaurants, it took a while for
me to acknowledge it, but it wasbetter for me to be more of the
(08:57):
clean up crew. Yeah, I wouldn't come in and
like, if we were shorthanded, I wouldn't jump behind the bar.
I'd become the food runner. Yeah, yeah, somewhat.
The person who's like in the, you know, helping do the things
that take away from the service part.
Yes, yeah. I could only screw up otherwise.
Yeah, I, I see myself doing thata lot and actually like wanting
(09:20):
to do that a lot. And especially when, you know,
we we first opened, I was behindbar a lot, you know, me and my
lead Caleb, creating our systems, you know, getting
getting it all ironed out. But then once the hype, you
know, kept building and buildingand we were getting really busy,
(09:44):
I would actually intentionally walk away and let the team,
like, mesh and figure it out andlet frustrations arise and let's
let them just navigate the rush.Yeah.
And that was, that was hard. No, it's hard for me.
Especially if you've been doing it a long time, There's like
(10:05):
this. It's not just it's not a pride
thing and it's definitely stepping out of your ego, right?
Like I know I can do this but. The smarter move?
Here is to let someone. Else exactly.
And then it got to a point where, and maybe it hasn't for
you yet, but where you've stepped out of it long enough
that you really can't do it as good as the people.
(10:26):
Teaching how to do it. I'm scared.
I'm scared of that moment. Because you really, you've been
in the office too long or you'vebeen dealing with other things.
And it's the guys at Cat and Claude talk about this on their
show a lot about how their role is different now.
You know, they, they started andthey were all hands on deck
doing all the things. But that's only a that only
(10:49):
causes problems. Now they're at this bigger
picture. Viewpoint.
Which is, I think, the goal. Even if the thing that you're
good at is what got you the start and then you like, give it
up, Yeah, to do something you'renot.
Yeah, Experienced, yes. And oh boy, I am not experienced
(11:11):
in a lot of it, but that's the the thing that I appreciate
about how I've like grown in thelearning process has been just
being OK at sucking and like also having the drive of like
not stopping until I figure it out.
(11:34):
How do your business partners feel about you sucking?
Are they OK? I think they would say that
like, I don't suck. Maybe it's, you know, I
definitely have like my lanes. What I do suck at is starting a
(11:56):
thing and finishing it, like in a organized matter.
That makes sense. I've got absolute ADHD and yeah,
starting a task and finishing it, that doesn't happen.
So, but I try, I put an effort to like you know you.
(12:20):
Must have figured out strategiesfor working around it because
obviously you're here and you know owner managing go owner
managing this place I want to talk to you about this coffee
we're. Drinking, but we're.
Going to take just a quick break.
Hey everyone, it's your host, Ryan Walt of Coffee People.
(12:40):
Which if you're watching the show, you probably know that
we're right in the middle of an episode.
This is less of an ad break and more of an opportunity for me to
make a formal apology directly to Michael Barthmess, the CEO at
Civets Roasting Machines. Civets is spelled SIVETZ, and
they have a website, SIVET z.com, civets.com.
(13:07):
And for the better part of threeyears, I mean 1/2 a dozen
seasons probably, I've been sporadically, mostly
misspelling. It's actually misspelled in the
closing notes of this show and has been all seasoned because
something in my brain is broken.So to you, Michael at Sivets
SIVETZI, vow that from this day forth, I will never misspell the
(13:30):
name of your iconic coffee roasting machine company again.
And to everyone else, check out sivets.com.
Tell them coffee people sent you.
I like that we're sitting next to this like full fireplace.
It's not in the shop, but. It's nice.
Yeah, yeah. What is this that we're
(13:52):
drinking? I know you.
Recently sold out. Yeah.
So this is the OU tapped. I got a tap too.
I can't not do it. Yeah.
You know, my whole life has beenpredicated on.
Yeah, yeah, karma coming from tapping my glass.
Yeah, yeah, OK. Hopefully the audio still works
I. Feel like that's a burn?
(14:12):
Yeah. No, no, no, no burns.
I just, you know, little superstitious.
Yeah. Anyway, before I derail my
entire self, this is Rodrigo Sanchez's Sangria Co Ferment.
(14:32):
Right, which I've had on espresso before, although not
has a. Wild one on espresso.
Yeah, we, I believe there were 530K bags of this produced last
year. And in fact actually about a
(14:54):
year ago we placed the OR order for it.
It was our first forward buy that we did and it showed up
many, many months later because there was a there was like an
(15:14):
export situation happening in Columbia that pushed it back.
When you say forward order, justso we all know because I
definitely know and I'm. Yeah, yeah, totally, just like
you do. Explain it maybe for those of us
that are, yeah, questioning. What do you mean by that?
Yeah. So forward buying is the process
(15:35):
of buying a coffee that is not finish being produced yet.
So in the case for this one, I believe the fruit was about
ready for harvest. And then, yeah, we purchased it
(15:57):
for like, yeah, ahead of time. And so it came almost directly
to us after it was done with harvest and processing.
We got it through LA Coffee. Love it.
So that's that kind of leads me to this question of obviously
(16:17):
when you're buying coffee to serve in your coffee shop, to
roast and serve, you're buying what you consider to be good
coffee. You're not just, you know,
you're a specialty coffee shop, specialty roaster.
So you're not just buying, going, OK, this is our price
point, this is our money making.This is how much we've got to
make necessarily. You also are serving a product
(16:39):
you want to be proud of. Yeah, absolutely.
How do you determine for you what a good coffee is?
Yeah, a lot of it. Well, one, I, I've had a lot of
coffees in the past that don't come in grain pro bags.
(17:00):
So the waterproof sealed, nice plastic bags.
So that's always a it's a very minimal mark, but I always look
for something in like an eco tech or a grain pro bag.
So it's just like a little bit extra comfort of being like, OK,
this coffee is worth enough to, you know, protect it from dirt
(17:25):
and moisture. Outside of that, looking at
cupping notes and scoring is a lot of, you know, how, you know,
determining the quality of thesecoffees.
And we have landed on buying only 85 and above.
(17:48):
So for viewers out there, and maybe you don't know, 70 out of
100 is considered specialty grade, anything below that
commodity grade. So we have agreed that 85 is
this really great starting pointof like pretty Dang good.
(18:12):
I would say too, like just, I mean just to acknowledge it like
an 85 coffee is great. It's a pretty solid everyday
coffee for most, most shops, butalso the availability of a 85
quality coffee has gone way up, even though we're like facing an
an era with coffee shortages. I think they just put out a
(18:35):
thing this week saying Brazil's expected to be down about 20% of
production next year, which is going to massively affect a lot
of kind of, I would say commodity lowering coffee, but
the availability of an 85 point coffee just to have everyday has
gone up. Quite a yeah.
I mean all over the place. Even on our last order we got a
(19:00):
AA grade from Zambia that was an88 and I've never had a coffee
from Zambia. This one was I believe processed
at Katashi Estate. And now I'm looking at I just
saw an upcoming shipment today. They have a pea Berry, a natural
(19:23):
and anaerobic natural, all from the same producers that like I'm
really looking forward to I might I might try to grab that
anaerobic natural because so. That that brings us back around
then because I kind of. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
But what is it that makes you go?
This is a good coffee that we want, that I want to work with.
(19:44):
I want to. Play with this.
For me processing comes into to play a lot.
I personally love bringing coffees that, you know, after
they've been profiled out, something that I can sit down
with a customer and be like, trythis.
(20:05):
And it can spark a curious conversation of like, why?
Why does it taste like this? Why have I never experienced
this in coffee before? And yeah, what we're sipping on
now, this Coferman I. Usually do not care for KO
(20:28):
ferments. In my brain I kind of classify
thank you kind of classify them similarly to what I would with
like a dark roast being more 1 dimensional in flavor.
Now the KO ferment, 1 dimensional, is, in my opinion
at least, way more interesting than just tasting roast.
(20:52):
But why I selected this one was for its many different notes
that come through on it. It's the least one-dimensional
Co ferment that I've had. I think every time I've walked
into this coffee shop and you were here, the first thing you
said was, oh, you have to try this.
(21:13):
Yeah. Even before like hello, it's
usually a wave. And we, we don't need
pleasantries like let's get to business.
Which I appreciate there's none of this particular coffee left.
So this thing I'm grabbing rightnow is not not that, not that
it's kind of goes into my next question packaging.
(21:34):
You guys do the tubes for some of your special.
Stuff. I have a collab with a winery
that came in a tube recently andthen you have the bags like this
from Rostar, the show sponsor. Coincidence.
What is it about the packaging that also stands out like?
(21:55):
We've talked about the graveyard.
Blend in the mix of different things.
We've talked about how you represent with a lot of color
and stuff. Yeah.
I mean, one from like just a practical business standpoint,
people are drawn to something that catches their eye.
Think like a lot of people buy wine based off of the label.
(22:21):
Honestly, I've been pretty successful with that.
Like a good artwork on a label has led me to a lot of really
good ones. But yeah, I think just
practically we wanted to stand out, you know, be different in,
you know, an industry that in some areas has become very clean
(22:44):
and minimal. We felt like big splash of color
was a way to to stand out. I would say warm too.
And warm, yeah. Even though there's some muted
color on there because of the the varnish on that bag, it has
a warm suit that I feel when I come in the shop.
Yeah, yeah, I. Mean that might be this giant
(23:04):
Christmas tree. It could be that, could be that.
Multi colored lights that are shining down on us right now.
But I think that's a do you think that that reflects the
coffee in it? And I think that I'm asking that
because you were talking about Co ferments or unique
processing. What Ruby Coffee out of
Wisconsin would call it colorfulcoffee.
(23:26):
Yeah, yeah. When you're thinking about
coffee and what makes it good, do you think in color in that
way or does that do you, do you associate it in any way?
And maybe I'm just like way off base here.
Yeah, I I don't like and. The music and.
Yeah, yeah. Stuff.
(23:46):
So I thought maybe there'd be a connection.
Something similar, not necessarily color so to speak,
but I do often compare coffees in a musical way.
I also this is gonna sound so dorky and weird, but like I
(24:07):
usually can taste like come up with a a shape for what I'm
tasting like Yeah, and I don't really apple.
Like a like this is a trapezoid or is it?
Yeah. So like usually I'll get
(24:29):
something with like how the acidity interacts with me, you
know, so that can look kind of like a roller coaster, you know,
or sometimes it can be like sharper and like kind of like a
zigzag. This is this is crazy, but it's.
(24:50):
It's interesting because you're you're coming at it from
multiple perspectives. Somebody who likes to drink
coffee, somebody who is trying to sell coffee, so they need
other people to like the coffeesthat they're selling and someone
who's actively roasting and playing with, you know, if I do
this to the coffee, it's going to change the flavor this way.
(25:11):
Does that mean I like it more but it's less appealing to
someone else? Those are all thing.
It's a calculus that owners or roasters have to make in, you
know, almost on the fly. I know there's a lot of
planning, but like at some point, like you have to say,
this isn't for me. Yeah.
(25:33):
Oh yeah, totally. 99% of the coffee we buy, I'm not drinking.
If you want to, yeah. So what is it that the people
are going to relate to? Yeah, right.
Yeah, I, I have found just a really solid, so, you know, us
(25:53):
being, you know, tucked under Portland, a specialty coffee
hasn't been a massive thing around here.
We've had some, you know, a couple of like hit shops and and
roasteries and shout out to archive 'cause they're former
(26:16):
roaster, I mean taught me how toroast done.
So I've got mad respect for them.
Rabbit trailing. Yeah, I would say I totally lost
my train of thought and you're seeing the ADHD come out right
now. No, it's AI.
(26:37):
Think of ADHD, which I have veryclose people in my life with
ADHD or ADD or some variant, andit's a it's a thing that like it
what just happened to you where you lose your train of thought
can happen, but it can also giveyou this great advantage in
other areas of your. Life.
Oh, totally. Yeah, yeah.
(26:57):
There's got to be ways that you use that or you, you realize,
like, oh, this actually helps mehere.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It can be a stumbling block, but
it's not only a. Stumbling block.
No no no, not only. I think I only got here by being
this way. I don't yeah, without my like
(27:21):
passionate hyper fixations that I get it wouldn't, you know,
wouldn't be here without them. And there's also so many things
I could have been really good atif it didn't get difficult, then
I quit because that's also part of it too, getting super stoked
on it and then being like, yeah,well, it's hard now, so.
(27:44):
Yeah, but that's, this is the thing that you didn't, which
makes it matter more. It's like, oh, this, this was
the thing. Coffee was the thing that made
me want to push through. Right.
And that was something you kind of expressed to me the last time
we chatted. I'm going to ask you in just a
second about the role of the coffee shop, but let's take
(28:05):
another break. Just OK, yeah.
Audio and technical doesn't work.
We got to check it. OK, and we're back.
I'm going to try to sit down in this deep chair that I'm not
tall enough for, trying to make sure I keep my boots out of the
shop. This is the second time we've
been sitting here. This time it's not.
(28:27):
We're not open. The store is not open.
Yeah. Correct.
I'm not part of the store is notopen, but every other time I've
been here it's been pretty much full and a lot of the people
here live in this neighborhood walkable.
So you're part of an agrahood, which is like this kind of
community with a shared garden and greenhouse and shared open
(28:50):
space, and there's a little rootcellar store next door, but
you're also kind of tucked away from the rest of the community
that maybe doesn't live here. People have to make it a
destination. I'm wondering what you've
learned in a year or so here, just under a year being open,
right? Yeah, January 15th will be one
(29:11):
year, OK. So coming up on a.
Year coming up, yeah. I'm wondering if you've learned
anything or what you've observedmaybe about the value of a
coffee shop in a community. I say that knowing you're also
opening a second location in kind of similar neighborhood.
Yeah. Out in Monmouth.
Yeah, yeah, it, it just becomes like a core place for the lives
(29:42):
of the people directly around here.
And I mean, many of the people in the community are like, have
become seriously like, like family.
And yeah, it's just, it's been so cool to see like the this
hub, you know, things like when I, you know, pop my attire last
(30:07):
week, I had people from this community, you know, call me, be
like, are you OK? Do you need me to pick you up?
It's, it's seriously been just an absolute, absolute treat to
to see that. Do you give your authentic self
to the customers here? Very, very much so There's.
(30:28):
Not like a a forward facing Kyle.
There. I mean, there is, because if I
know you really well, I mean, everyone gets greeted, but like
the ones I really love, I'm swearing at you.
And. Well, that a little bit, but
(30:49):
yeah, Well, we'll get there. I mean, come be where.
Yeah. I just.
Yeah, yeah. And it takes time, but you know,
everyone gets like AI think a very good part of myself.
And it's, it's fun to work through that and to begin to
(31:11):
like come out of my professionalshell a little bit.
And that's how I want to operate, you know, out of that,
just like very realness, something that I despise is like
corporate good customer service,you know, with like a, with like
(31:32):
a script or like the Chick-fil-Amy pleasure thing or going to
like a drive through coffee spot.
That's all just like hype and energy.
I think it's fun. You know, I think like going to
a Dutch Bros is probably a fun experience, but that vibe, hype
(31:59):
service just feels so inauthentic.
And that offends me because I like to do it really real.
And yeah, it's not bad. It's not bad for people to be
hyped. And you know, I've learned.
Ask you 30 questions. Transcripts in my time, some
(32:20):
more specific than others. I I find that like the older I
got, the more there was a distance between my my persona
behind the bar and and who I wasin real life.
And then the more in charge I got that started to fall away
because I felt comfortable just being OK.
(32:42):
This is who I am, and this is maybe you're not getting all of
me. But you're getting.
A real version. And those are always the roles
that I felt more successful in. I don't know if my boss has
thought that. But.
I felt that way, like customer service is such a weird thing
and and you know, we're talking around the holidays and
(33:03):
everybody is a little bit stressed, but also seemingly a
little bit more graceful. Everybody's kind of oh, it's
been a long. Year it's been, yeah.
How do you feel? I guess do you feel more
pressure this time of year or because the world has been the
way it's been to offer people analways positive experience?
(33:29):
Because I think that's the hard part is I never want someone.
I would never want someone to come in, spend their luxury
money, and then I'm a bummer. Yeah, right.
So. How do you find that balance
between your personal emotions and this thing you're giving to?
Yeah, yeah, I think it, it comesdown to the skill of just like
(33:53):
reading where the the customer may be at, you know, picking up
on things. And like I usually hit people
with kind of like the same, you know, energy each time that I
chat. And then I am intentional about
(34:15):
like listening to the response back and making a further
decision to respond differently based off of like what that
looks like and toning it down orstepping into a more caring vibe
(34:37):
or a more comforting vibe or whatever, you know is necessary
to like meet people where they're at in that in that
regard. So I think kind of in the
holiday season, you know, I think about like, I think about,
you know, people who may be similar to myself that have, you
know, a tough day or a tough time around holidays or, you
(35:02):
know, maybe they get stressed out about travel plans.
And and so taking all of that into consideration and being
extra mindful to meet people theway they want to be met kind of
if that makes sense, if that answers your question at all.
The other day my wife came home and she had pulled some names
(35:24):
off of a Christmas tree at theirworkplace to buy gifts for
foster kids and things. That's something we've been kind
of doing. It's just like a a fun tradition
here. I'm wondering, and I didn't ask
you to think about this before, so I thought, do you have any
sort of charitable efforts or things that causes that matter
(35:48):
to you that maybe don't get, youdon't get to talk about in your
day-to-day work? With causes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So now. We can just.
Go just clip it. No, no, no.
The so the big part of like the,you know, core of Prismatic is
(36:11):
giving back to the community. So in my like personal and most
recent one was just making sure that we had a food drive here
for when SNAP benefits were looking like they were going to
be removed. So you know, that was a recent
(36:34):
one as like a kid who often grewup getting food from the food
bank. That one definitely like shrug a
nerve. So I in the midst of, you know,
kind of all the operations was actually like a little bit late
to getting that started. And you know, I talked to John
(36:58):
from Epilogue kitchen because hehe did a a citywide Dr. at like
40 different restaurants that hewas all organizing.
And so I talked to him and he already had stuff in motion.
And then Justice, one of our baristas also just on his on
(37:21):
their own did brought in boxes and just started putting it out
on their social media. And yeah, so it was really cool
moment, you know, seeing that. Yeah, that one, that one was.
(37:42):
I know that food. Banks anywhere, whether it's
here in Salem OR any town in America, it's going to have a
food bank and a need for food atthat thing.
It's a little messed up that we have we're in that situation.
We don't see have enough food tofeed everyone.
But sometimes I think you mentioned mindful in your in
(38:03):
your comments about hospitality.But I think as we're going
through this time, yes, enjoyingand being grateful for all the
things we have, but also being mindful that there are people
who are just as excited about things from the food bank.
Yeah, yeah. One of the things we noticed
this year more than other years,most of the kids on the tree
were just asking for necessitiesthat you know they were giving
(38:25):
to their family. You know.
Very few were going I want toys,I want this, but most were like
gift card to Safeway. That's what I really like this
year and so I think as we are enjoying these fancy coffees,
which I'm incredibly grateful for, that I get to drink also
knowing that like hey, like there's a lot we can do.
(38:46):
You. Know platform and and also.
For you. With this, this business, yeah.
So Congrats. Thank you.
Thank you. It's yeah, it's a it's a work in
progress too and an ever growingthing and always looking at
ways, you know, to support the community when we can.
(39:12):
We so the the wine coffee that you have currently is our second
time doing it. And previously we did a collab
with St. Innocent Winery and a dollar for
each of those sales went to an organization who helps provide
(39:35):
wine workers and harvesters withhealth insurance.
So we were able to to do that and and give back.
And it was super awesome. It was super awesome to be able
to do that. And yeah, definitely want to do
so much more. Whatever that I want, I want
everyone to you. Have an idea?
(39:57):
Yeah. Let's let's get it out.
Yeah, send me a message. My last question for you in Part
2 of our Our Conversation for Coffee People podcast with Kyle
Layton of Prismatic, I'm introducing you at the end of
the show is probably not great with the full information.
But my last question for you is,any New Year's resolutions that
(40:18):
I should know about? For.
You or for prismatic. Yeah, I'm so bad at like setting
them because when I don't, then I have nothing to fail.
Fair question with ADHD. Yeah, I I would say for me just
(40:38):
to and you know, as as it is just like my baseline function,
but just to continue to learn, continue to grow, to continue to
raise the bar of coffee here in Salem.
Yeah. I mean, not that I want to, you
(41:00):
know, just pump out the best product that I think we can, but
but to do it in a way that brings in the community and
engages and shows those who are interested like, you know, how
far this specialty coffee thing goes.
(41:22):
And I hope to it was originally in the plan to do education
classes and we've done a few events like that.
But in this next year, I would really love to set that as a
focus and really dive deep into the community and teach, you
(41:44):
know, intro to roasting, do morecuppings, do latte art stuff.
That was all like my plan in in beginning all of this.
But then in doing everything, I didn't realize how much of A
vortex it was of like what you're actually able to do
(42:07):
versus what you thought you weregoing to be doing.
That feels like a really brilliant coffee.
Smarter advice to the segment, right?
Yeah. The vortex of what is possible
versus what you intend. Yeah, right.
Yeah. And just like the learning
process of like, Oh yeah, all these things I wanted to do
(42:28):
individually, they could take a year, 2 years, you know, to
reach that point of where you'd like, wanted it to be.
And, you know, for any of our education classes and courses,
you know, I wanted like a specific coffee to give away and
(42:48):
a brew kit that you could take home and a packet of information
to help you brew perfect coffee at home.
And gosh, just getting all of that together while operating.
Yeah, absolute vortex anyway. Well, bandwidth is a bandwidth
it, right? Not just for you though, but for
(43:09):
the people you work with. You know, I've worked with some
really incredible coffee people and, and hospitality people and
sometimes we didn't get things done and it was because we were
on different paces. Our bandwidth was different.
One of us could go further on any given day, but the other one
needed a little bit more processing time.
(43:31):
And so finding that that rhythm where everybody's on the same
path at the same time so you canget it done or they're taking
care of this over here so you can focus on the class.
Or whatever. Is always a challenge, but Kyle,
I appreciate you spending more time with me.
We both have empty glasses, so we.
(43:52):
Should get. Another coffee or maybe
something less caffeinated this late in the day.
Thank you for being on. Coffee of course, of course.
My pleasure. Thanks for dealing with my
sometimes rabbit brain with hopefully some good Nuggets in
between it. I hope I said good things.
I think you did OK. We'll we'll edit as best as we.
(44:14):
Can all right Beautiful. On that note, prismatic dot
coffee. Prismatic dot coffee.
Top as well. Yeah, Thank you for being here
and thank you to everyone for surviving 2025 and another
season of coffee. People.
Yeah. Cheers.
Cheers. Hello again everyone.
(44:40):
Thank you for listening or watching the Coffee People
podcast. Kyle Layton is still figuring
out his place in this new version of a coffee life.
Our original conversation that was held at Prismatic still
exists and I hope you check it out.
The content is really good, evenif the audio is not listener,
watch it wherever you're watching this podcast.
(45:01):
But please, you know, we appreciate you being a little
forgiving of that audio. It's something we're we're still
figuring out as we explore the video side of this podcast.
Coffee People is presented by Rostar coffee packaging found
online at rostar.com. It's because of them that we can
try new things, that we can learn how to do new things like
video. I love that these match that you
(46:57):
did the shirts with. Them.
Yeah, we have a full. There's actually still oh, that
is a strong magnet. You have any crap?
There's still a yet to be released a piece of this bundle.
What do you mean? Like a merch or something or?
(47:19):
Screen printed posters. Nice they.
I don't see one of those. Got I'll have to check in with
my buddy Drew, the artist who did all of this.
But originally we were planning the hoodie, the blend and a like
(47:40):
we were going to do 100 screen printed posters and then he he
had to move into a new house andthen a bunch of other life stuff
happened. But I believe that he's actually
working on them now, so. It's like a good example.
We were just talking about same same pace of bandwidth, right?
And yeah, so I'm I'm. These might be some of my
(48:03):
favorite packages of the year. Yeah, heck yeah.
I and another bandwidth thing, when Rostar did their bag
competition, I wanted to like get these submitted but also
drop the ball on that one 'causeI think, I think Rostar would
(48:24):
definitely also think that theseare some of the best ones
they've done. They haven't said that to me
specifically. I don't think they can like play
favorites. But yeah.
Yeah, these are. It's also just kind of my vibe.
I think I like skulls. I mean, and you know, if it's
not, there's like, it's OK to bewrong, but like.
(48:45):
But you guys did you guys have done some other cool ones too.
But I think what is there's so many great packages now.
I love packages. So yesterday I went to an adult
beverage store just to look at labels and they kind of because
they kind of especially whiskey labels now remind me a lot of
(49:06):
like playing cards used to be like like coil or is it oil or
Doyle? They used to do these intricate
designs. I think they still do, but I
just don't see it as often. But I always think that's just
such a great thing and I'm not agood enough designer to do that
stuff. And so I'm, I think it's cool,
(49:29):
Yeah. Anything else?
Anything you anything I can do for you man?
No. Awesome.
That's it. Yeah, that's.
The best kind of deal for me. Yeah, yeah.
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