United By Coffee

United By Coffee

Welcome to the U3 Media Podcast. Thank you for helping us unite the world through coffee! U3 COFFEE exists to create the most meaningful coffee experience for millions of mindful, motivated humans. We go beyond the bean, around the world, and across the value chain to promote empowerment, mutual learning, and connection among: 1) the farmers and co-ops who plant, nurture, and process coffee; 2) the entrepreneurs who broker, roast, and sell coffee; 3) the consumers who appreciate both coffee and coffee culture...that's you! U3 COFFEE is a coffee ecosystem that shares the names, numbers, and stories behind each cup, in order to provide the ultimate coffee experience and create enduring connections. Like our content? Stay connected. Subscribe: * United by Coffee podcast for new episodes each week * YouTube Channel Connect: * Sign up for our newsletter * Visit our website Follow us: * Facebook * LinkedIn * Instagram * X This podcast is created by U3 Coffee for informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, opinions and representations of facts are those of individuals and not necessarily U3 Coffee. Copyright © 2024 U3 COFFEE, LLC. All rights reserved. Terms of Use on u3coffee.com apply. Reproduction, distribution, or public display is prohibited. Download for personal use is permitted. 'U3 COFFEE' is a trademark owned by U3 COFFEE, LLC.

Episodes

November 18, 2024 33 mins
A simple mistake as a new barista sparked a passion for learning everything about coffee—and helped propel her all the way to becoming a Q Instructor just a few years later. Join U3 co-founder Kristi Ross and her co-host, Greg Hess, as they sit down with Candice Madison—a coffee-industry leader, coffee consultant, roaster, barista, and coffee educator who is preparing to launch her own coffee company—Kandake Boutique Coffees.
Find o...
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What happens when an aspiring winemaker wants to leave behind the late-night hours? Join U3 co-founder Kristi Ross and her co-host, Greg Hess, in a conversation with Patrick O’Malley, an award-winning coffee educator, serial entrepreneur, and thirty-year veteran of the coffee industry. Patrick shares how a simple request to create a more palatable schedule wound up changing the trajectory of his career—from winemaker to master coff...
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How does a chemical engineer become a leading voice in the coffee industry? Join U3 co-founder Kristi Ross and her co-host Greg Hess as they sit down with Scott Stouffer, a chemical engineer by training and a 30-year coffee veteran. His remarkable journey started with a chance role as a process engineer for a “little expanding startup company”—Starbucks—and today he’s the Chief Sales Officer at PROBAT, a global leader in coffee roa...
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Join U3 co-founder Kristi Ross and her co-host Greg Hess in an enlightening conversation with Lucas Venturim, a fifth-generation Brazilian coffee producer and commercial director of Café Fazenda Venturim, which specializes in fine Robusta coffees. He’s on a mission to change the narrative around Robusta by educating coffee roasters, baristas, and coffee lovers about its unique flavor profile. He shares why he firmly believes that h...
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Join U3 co-founder Kristi Ross and her co-host Greg Hess in an enlightening and inspiring conversation with Dehab Mesfin, the founder and general manager of Diamond Enterprise and Dahab Specialty Farm, a woman-owned coffee business that’s focused on sustainability and women’s empowerment.

Dehab’s specialty coffee farm—Dahab Specialty Farm—is nestled within the buffer zone of Ethiopia’s Kafa Biosphere Reserve, the largest UNESCO bios...
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Join U3 co-founder Kristi Ross and her co-host Greg Hess in an inspiring conversation with Francisco Lacayo, general manager of L53 Family Estates, a multifaceted family-run operation that includes two Rainforest Alliance Certified farms, co-ownership of a dry mill, and an export company.

Francisco’s father first entered the coffee industry in 1994, when Francisco was seven years old. Twenty years later, after completing his undergr...
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Join U3 co-founder Kristi Ross and her co-host Greg Hess in an inspiring conversation with Jake Elster and Ben Heins, co-owners of Crop to Cup Coffee Importers, a green-coffee importing company that’s committed to a people-first approach to coffee.

Hear all about how their paths collided in a serendipitous meeting at the University of Chicago. Ben, a trailblazer in the ready-to-drink coffee game, was on a quest to learn more about “...
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Join U3 co-founder Kristi Ross and her co-host Greg Hess as they chat with Bill Ristenpart, professor of chemical engineering and founding director of the UC Davis Coffee Center, a groundbreaking multidisciplinary academic center focused on research to support and improve the coffee industry.

What started in 2013 as 18 engineering students in a freshman engineering seminar has now served more than 250,000 alumni around the world and...
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Join U3 co-founder Kristi Ross and her co-host Greg Hess in a conversation with Michael Shultz, founder of Fairgrounds Craft Coffee & Tea, a café experience founded on the principles of diversity, choice, and community.

After two decades working in the restaurant industry, and with his first child on the way, Michael started to think about the legacy he wanted to leave behind. He wanted to find ways to make systemic change, touc...
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Join U3 co-founder Kristi Ross and her co-host Greg Hess in an inspiring conversation with Tim Coonan, co-founder of Big Shoulders Coffee, a hospitality-driven company that prioritizes their customers, their team, and their producers.

When Tim and his wife Patricia, both accomplished leaders in the restaurant industry, were starting to think about their own coffee business fourteen years ago, there were very few cafés in Chicago tha...
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Join U3 co-founder Kristi Ross and her co-host Greg Hess as they sit down with Connie Blumhardt, the founder and publisher of the award-winning Roast Magazine, one of the coffee industry’s best-loved and most well-respected publications. Discover how a job in ad sales helped her fall in love with the coffee roasting community and why their passion for coffee inspired her to create a publication focused on the art and science of roa...
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Join U3 co-founder Kristi Ross and her co-host Greg Hess as they sit down with Ana Velloso, a third-generation Brazilian coffee producer and a champion for the unique flavors and high-quality beans Brazilian coffee offers the world. Find out why Ana never envisioned a career in coffee—and what led her back to her family’s coffee business after 10 years working as an architect.

Today, Ana runs the commercial side of São Luiz Estate C...
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Join U3 Coffee co-founder Kristi Ross as she chats with Laura Sommers, a thirty-year veteran of the coffee industry and the designer behind the innovative SimplyGoodCoffee brewer.

Discover the story behind Laura’s incredibly successful first coffee business—Espresso Supply, Inc—and how she preserved when people told her she was wasting her time, because there was no way coffeeshops in the States would stand the test of time!Today La...
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Join U3 Coffee co-founder Kristi Ross as she sits down with Yannis Apostolopoulos, beverage-industry veteran and CEO of the Specialty Coffee Association. As CEO of the SCA, Yannis leads a team that’s taking a global approach to supporting and promoting specialty coffee through in-depth research into all things coffee, education initiatives that serve coffee entrepreneurs across the value chain, and building a thriving community wit...
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Join U3 Coffee co-founder Kristi Ross as she digs in with Jeremy Hardy, executive director of Vigilant Hope Inc, a nonprofit working to end poverty in Wilmington, NC that’s roasting incredible coffee to fund their important programs. Today, Vigilant Hope Roasting not only helps finance their work, it’s also a way for the organization to connect with their community and share their story.

Learn about Vigilant Hope Roasting’s commitme...
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Join U3 Coffee co-founder Kristi Ross as she uncovers the story behind Nanelle and Andy Newbom, two coffee industry veterans who consider themselves to be “coffee lifers.” They share how coffee became a shared passion (and why Andy originally considered coffee “disgusting”) and why they believe the essence of great coffee is the people who produce it.

After almost 25 years wearing almost every hat in the coffee business—from barista...
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Join U3 Coffee co-founder Kristi Ross in a conversation with Jen Apodaca, one of the world’s most celebrated women coffee roasters. After fourteen years roasting for some of coffee’s biggest brands—including Intelligentsia, Blue Bottle, Royal Coffee—Jen is now the founder, owner, and head coffee roaster of her own company, Mother Tongue Coffee.Learn about Jen’s mission to build her brand on a foundation of trust and equity, her ins...
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Join U3 Coffee co-founder Kristi Ross in conversation with Carmen and Rafael Silva, their family runs the award-winning Sicafe, which includes six family-owned farms in El Salvador, a mill, and exporting company, all focused on specialty coffee.

The Silva family’s coffee legacy started in 1870s; today they own some of the most renowned coffee farms in the world and are nine-time winners of the Cup of Excellence.Carmen and Rafael sha...
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Join U3 Coffee co-founder Kristi Ross as she chats with Julia Stamberger, CEO and co-founder of The Planting Hope Company, a Chicago startup working to create plant-based food options that are sustainable, scalable, and simple to use.

After twenty successful years in the food industry, Julia Stamberger noticed an important trend: While consumers wanted better-for-you options, many of the products on the market weren’t sustainable lo...
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Listen in as U3 Coffee co-founder Kristi Ross chats with Brian Franklin, a coffee connoisseur and a self-described “coffee purist” who is on a mission to educate coffee drinkers on the true potential of coffee. Discover Brian’s journey as founder, owner, and roaster of DoubleShot Coffee Company, and find out why he’s proud that their menu has only gotten smaller over time. Learn why Brian went head-to-head with Starbucks and how hi...
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