March 27, 2025 • 40 mins
In this week's episode, I'm talking to Henry Frem, head honcho of The Coffee Cartel, about his journey which began with a humble passion for coffee when he was just 16 years old. It was in the family coffee roasting business that the seeds were planted to eventually becoming a coffee roaster himself. And thus, the Coffee Cartel was born! This is Henry's story.
Connect with the Cartel today:
https://thecoffeecartel.ca/ Thecoffeecartel on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094881040352
Connect with the Cartel today:
https://thecoffeecartel.ca/ Thecoffeecartel on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094881040352
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nobodies are somebodies.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
All right, it's a chadvice. It's the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast.
Welcome to another brand new episode and I'm excited for
this one. Here I talked to Henry from the owner
and mastermind and big Boss, big Chief of the Coffee Cartel. Oh,
the cartel. But don't be scared. Like many cartels, this
(00:26):
one will also make you feel good maybe, but this
definitely will. It's the Coffee Cartel. A little bit of
background here. I first came into contact with Henry and
the Coffee Cartel in a little place called the Navin
Market outside of well basically the big city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,
subsection subdivision of that Navin Vendors Market that was there
(00:46):
last summer in twenty twenty four that we set up
in and sold some of our stuff that we can
find on our Championship Vinyl website sebcamco dot com. That's
se b c amco dot com for all you people interested.
But sold some stuff in the yard sale there as
(01:09):
a vendor, and he was one of the vendors serving coffee.
And if anyone knows me and you or will get
to know me here on the podcast. You know, I
love me some coffee and sampling coffee from all different
places and from different brewers and breweries and roasters as
they're called. I believe, as he will mention here in
the podcast, I get a good coffee education here from Henry.
(01:32):
But I'm always sampling new roasters on the lookout, and
this was one of them. The name, of course, was
really a selling point for me. Eventually we got the coffee,
and eventually it came to the idea of let's get
this guy on the podcast, right, let's find out about
the coffee cartel, Let's find out more about him and
bring that story to you. The good news is you
don't have to be local to the Ottawa or where
(01:52):
he's based Rockland, Ontario, Canada location. He does ship worldwide.
He does ship all over the country of Canada, so
you can get his fine coffee if you want to
try it, sample it out anywhere you might be listening
to this podcast. So that's very cool. So we get
Henry's story from a young age being involved in the
coffee business, kind of leaving that behind for a period
(02:15):
of time and getting back into the car, getting back
into the coffee business and starting the cartel. Once you're out,
you're never truly out. They'll always bring you back in.
So we talk about how that all came together, and basically,
without giving away any secrets, how he roast his coffee
differently from other roasters, some details on that, and just
(02:38):
basically a real coffee education. So I'm looking forward to
having you guys listen to that, and we're gonna do
it right now. Connect with me for more content. More
of the Nobody's are Somebody's podcast. Find me on the
social media that's all over the place. I'm on Twitter
sometimes not really so much anymore Twitter x, but Instagram
and Facebook are the best ways to contact me, either
(02:58):
through the Nobody's or Somebody's at sebcam co s E
B C A mco the website as well as me
Chadvice Directly send me a message, Email me chad Vice
at sebcamco dot com, or you can go on the
YouTube page. We did a video conversation for this one too.
(03:20):
We did a video conversation with this one too, that's
available on the sebcamco TV on YouTube that's at sebcamco TV.
Check out video of this. But if you like good
old fashioned radio audio podcast as I do. This is
the way to go. So thanks for listening to this
and support the Coffee Cartel over on Facebook as well,
(03:41):
and the links to his website or there as well
as his direct contact phone number. You can get in
touch with the Coffee Cartel and set up a little
in discrete meeting if you will, for some delicious coffee.
But now it's some delicious conversation with Henry from the
Coffee Cartel here on the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast with me.
I don't have a cool name, just chad vice, all right.
(04:05):
Anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge fan of coffee.
I've loved it for too many years that I can count,
so it's no surprise. I want to talk to a
gentleman here by the name of Henry who is in
the business of coffee, but not just any coffee. He
runs a coffee cartel. Don't be scared though it comes
to if it comes to coffee, it can't be bad.
(04:25):
First of all, Henry, how are you doing good to
talk to you.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I'm doing very well, doing very well. It's nice to
chat to you with you as well too. It's I
think we met in the summer last year or.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, it was around the late summer. I think there
was a I guess a food place here around Orleans
that vendors can set up and do shop. I was
selling some items there with my business partner as well.
I think you met her, Christine, yes, and you had
your coffee truck was there as well too, So I'm
not sure if I actually saw you there at that
(04:58):
point or we actually talked. We did, but there was
so much going on that day and a lot of people,
so it's hard to say. But that's where I guess
we officially technically met.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Well, Christine, I believe is the one who took who
gave me your card, and I think you came in
and you chatted a little bit at the very end
before we tore down for the day. I don't quite remember.
There's too many things that have happened as well too.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Exactly, Yeah, I think so, I think you're about right.
I think I was setting up and she was going
to just look around and see what was there, and
she found you, and of course you know how much
I love coffee, so she grabbed your business card and
we went from there. So either way, if we didn't
connect for sure that that day. We're connecting now, so
it's going to be great.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
That's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So from what I read what I read on your website,
you've been in the coffee business since you were sixteen
years old. Now I'm going to assume that the coffee
cartel itself, that's your business, that's your name, Brandon, that's
something that you started. But talk to me a bit
about I guess from a young age where coffee from
the family business, where that kind of played a role
in your life, and how you decided you wanted to
(06:00):
kind of make this your full time thing or make
this your path that you followed.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
So when I first moved to Canada in nineteen ninety six,
my family, my relatives here had been in Canada for
a while and my uncle had opened up the first
coffee roasting house in Ottawa in the late seventies called
International cafea Coffee Wow, and it's essentially what they did
(06:28):
is they moved it from the Middle East to Ottawa
and we were the first roasting house in Ottawa at
the time. So coming to Ottawa brand new, it was
the area where it's the child labor at the time,
my uncle.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I forced to be in the business, forced to work.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Exactly, and his son and I were the ones that
were working the business on the weekends evenings, and what
say you, That's where I learned how to roast coffee.
That's where I fell in love with coffee at the time,
and how this all translated into the birth of the
coffee cartel. Well but two years ago now, I lost
(07:12):
my job in corporate where I had been working for
about two and a half decades, and with my wife
being pregnant at the time, I wanted to do something
that would allow me to be more present at home,
and I wanted to do something I was passionate about,
not something just because it took a while for me
(07:36):
to come up with what that was. And eventually, after
a lot of work and a lot of research and
a lot of you could say, almost I won't say,
speaking to other individuals to identify what is the best
name that I could use, I ended up coming up
(07:58):
the birth of the coffee cartel. And on April first,
last year.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Also, it's relatively recent then that you started the business
and started a coffee cartel. This is a relatively new
adventure for.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
You, exactly exactly so, and that's how the Coffee Cartel
was born. The name the Coffee Cartel was one of
five names that I wanted to name the company, and
essentially I wanted to play on something that was a
little naughty. Yeah, but at the same time that everyone
(08:32):
loves to drink. So it's it's nice to say, oh,
I just smuggled in the coffee, but in reality, it's
just you bought the coffee, and let's say.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
So yeah, yeah, no, exactly. Well, everybody loves what the cartel,
the original cartels were selling, so how can they not
love what your cartel is bringing to them?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Right, exactly exactly. And the funny thing is, I remember
a customer giving me a review last year. It was ZFT.
After then, in market in August, my business partner and
I went to have dinner at at a full restaurant
(09:08):
on Inness Road and then we were wearing our hoodies
with the logo and all of that, and we started
talking business and there was two individuals sitting right next
to us. They overheard us, they joined in the conversation.
They ended up buying two bags of coffee from us,
and literally when she wrote the review, she said, I
bought a bag of coffee off of the back of
(09:29):
the truck. Wink wink, nudge, nudge, and it's it's so
authentic exactly. It's a fan to the brand itself. Which
this was not intentional on our part. It's just it
just happened that way. But our characters lead us to
be those individuals as well too.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Well, yeah, it seems like that's the perfect opportunity to
not only to promote yourself and your business, but you're
out there, you're in the public. You're not out there
specifically to promote your business. You're at a restaurant. You're
just you know, there with your family having a meal,
but you're wearing the shirt and it just so happens
that you have, you know, coffee bags or coffee with
you in the vehicle you can sell it. Is that
something that you kind of do to kind of be
(10:12):
I guess in line with the cartel idea of it,
whereas you actually have your products or your items with
you on the go in case you happen to run
into people by happenstance and you just start a conversation
that you can just kind of you know, have that
there to sell it right then and there on the spot, Beau,
isn't you have it in the moment kind of thing
or is that just something by accident you happen to
have it that day.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
That particular day it was coming off of the vendor
market in Navin. I cannot have the coffee in the
vehicle in the wintertime because the beans would end up freezing.
They need to be at a perfect temperature for them.
But in the summer, if it is not a warm
(10:55):
day as well, I do drive around at times with
some coffee in the vehicle just case. Now is more
specifically now than when I first started, just because that
brand recognition and that recognition from the consumers has increased
quite a bit. And as I'm not sure if you've
(11:15):
googled my business, the I have the face of the
business is my home. I don't want to put the
roaster because as I mentioned to you, is it's inside
another business and I have an agreement with them right
now just to use that space. But eventually I'm going
to have my own space here in Rockland. And let's
say you.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
So for going back to that, then you do have
a space where people can go to an actual storefront
and buy the coffee there. It's not just the truck
or the rolling mobile that you have that you break
to like I said, the Navin Fair and stuff like that.
You have an actual space or a place that people
can go to.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
No, I don't. It's online markets and word of mouth
right now, I don't have a storefront.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Okay, not a storefront and all that. So there's no
actual business place in Rockland. People have to buy it
from word of mouth or contacting you online, and then
you meet them somewhere to to to do the transfer,
or people come to your home. How do people get
the coffee?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Then people sometimes come to my home or I deliver them,
deliver the coffee to their houses, and if they order online,
it just gets shipped to them directly.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
It's a lot cheaper to do it that way too.
Of course, having an actual property, owning an actual storefront
is very expensive, whether you're paying rent or owning the
building out right is very It's a huge overhead, right
so I can imagine that this saves a lot of
costs for your business and allows you to obviously keep
more of the profit and to expand more that way.
I would assume there's no plans and have a storefront.
(12:45):
Do you want to keep it this way in a
real cartel fashion where you're technically duiling it out of
your trunk.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
So there is a plan to have a roasting storefront,
not necessarily a storefront in the in the makes of
let's say a Giant Tiger or a wal Mart or
or something along. It's to have a space where I
roast coffee and then where people would be able to
walk into that storefront and if they wanted a bag
(13:13):
of coffee, they can buy. But it's it's not it's
not per se as a storefront in the natural sense
of a small dapanner or a grocery store or something
like that. Now the I want to try and keep
in true fashion of the cartel. What we're also looking
as at is instead of having a brick and mortar cafe,
(13:38):
will have a mobile caffe. But instead of having one,
the plan is to start with one obviously, but grow
to a couple where we are all over the city
at the same time. All the cartel is in Westborough,
to the order the cartel is in Kemptville, All the
cartel is in in Rockland. Yeah, exactly, exactly exactly do.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
You find there's a lot of opportunities for that to
park or to go into different I guess, let's say
little towns or villages or cities neighboring Ottawa or Rockland
where you're based. For those who listen outside the world,
you're based in around We'll say Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, but
of course you're in Rockland. There's places around there. But
for the most part, do you like that idea of
being able to move from place to place and not
(14:20):
staying in one place like a brick and mortar, Because
that's something that appeals to you.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And it does appeal to me, because the idea behind
it all is I want to bring a coffee and
I want to bring a good cup of coffee to
as many people as I can.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
That's good to hear, for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And because here's the thing there is I'm offering specialty coffee. Okay, So,
and what I mean by specialty coffee these are coffees
that are a little higher grade. These are coffees that
are roasted to order. Okay. Now, it's a fine line
(14:59):
between a Starbucks coffee and something else. But I'm not
offering these coffees at Starbucks prices, right, the Starbucks prices
is a little astronomical if you could, if you could,
but I think, I think consumers would rather pay a
little extra for a good cup of coffee where there
(15:20):
is no aftertaste, there is no bitterness, there is no
acidity in what say you, and that happens by from
the art of roasting in itself.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
There's a lot of competition for coffee too, not only
like the big name brands like you said, but pretty
much every restaurant, every big name corporation. Talking about McDonald's,
there's Tim Horton's in Canada, you know, there's Second Cup,
things like that. That It's coffee is everywhere. People themselves,
artists or people in the entertainment world make their own
coffee as well too. There's all kinds of different choices.
(15:50):
There's almost too many choices for coffee lovers like ourselves too.
You don't know where to look when you first got
back into it, like we said, you were doing this
business when you were sixteen, working with your own uncle
and then got to have it. But when you got
back into it, were you concerned it at concerned it
concerned at all? Easy for me to say where you
concerned it all of the competition level that's out there,
and how you're going to make the coffee car tell
(16:11):
unique for you, and how you're going to make it
stand out.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Authenticity is very important. So here's the thing. A lot
of coffee roasters, and I will not speak of negatively
of any of the small ones, because a competition is healthy.
But a lot of the coffee roasters will tell you
that they have the state of the art coffee roaster
(16:35):
and that's why their coffee tastes smooth, or they have
this type of coffee roaster or this type of coffee.
At the end of the day, if you have a
decent coffee roasting machine and you are actually there by
the machine side and looking at the roast profiles and
(16:56):
paying attention to what you're roasting and not just relying
on computer to tell you it's whether it's ready or not,
you will produce a good cup of coffee. Because at
the end of the day, here's the thing. If I'm
roasting an espresso, a single origin espresso coffee, Okay, you
may determine that the espresso color profile is this color.
(17:20):
I may determine that it's this color based on my
experience of two or three decades of roasting with my
uncle's business. But I am determining that based on experience
from that and based on what I know from the
general public. Somebody that's just starting in a coffee roasting
(17:40):
business may not necessarily have that experience, and they may
base it on what their learnings are. Maybe if I
let it sit for an extra forty seconds, it may
give you a different cup of coffee. And at the
end of the day, when I say authenticity, I will
speak out my roasting journey. I will speak about the
(18:04):
way we do the roasting, and then when opportunity arises,
I would love for the general public to be able
to come to us, to the store where I'm gonna
have my roaster and actually watch us roast.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Oh wow, I definitely be into that. Yeah, that's very cool.
For those interested, that would be very interesting to see
how that works and see how the process goes, because people,
like I said, they either do it at home and
they careg or they look at the coffee they have
and they buy it at the store or whatever, and
then that's it. That's kind of where it ends. But
to find out how it's made, where it's made and
how it's made correctly, or why you enjoyed this particular
(18:39):
cup so much or this coffee so much? That to
me and I think many others would find that very fascinating.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I say, roasting coffee is an art and a science
at the same time, but it's also something that requires
a lot of attention to detail.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Have you had other let's say smaller or maybe a
local independent coffee birds or coffee roasters come to you
and kind of ask these questions, are kind of you
want to pick your brain about that? Or is it
kind of you know, I stick to my business, you
stick to yours type of thing in that world? Can
you talk about it about that?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Is?
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Do you have any insight on that?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
So it's the smaller roasters. No, not necessarily, I'll be
honest with you. My uncle sold the business about fifteen
years ago. But we are in contact with the new
owner of that business, and we've chatted a lot. And
(19:37):
let's say, you and very very awesome individual and very
genuine individual from that perspective, but I find it's because
he's a lot larger than us, so he will speak
freely with us. And what's say you, I think smaller,
smaller businesses just naturally stick to what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Right because they want to keep what they do for
themselves and they feel like obviously everyone who has their
coffee grows to feels it's their best and feels it
is the best, and that's what people should should go to, right.
So they're not going to kind of collaborate. They're not
going to try and pick your brain, and they're not gonna,
I don't know, not work together, but they're not gonna,
you know, talk about it so much. It's a it's
a business that we all that you that you love
(20:21):
so much and that we all love the results of.
But it's very I guess, secretive and protective in that manner.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Then I won't say too too secretive because I do remember,
and I won't share the name of the company, but
I do remember when I first started at the U.
I went to the first vendor market last year in
May and Novin I was approached by another coffee roaster
and we started chatting up and what say you. Then
(20:49):
after that initial meat we went our own separate ways,
but then we did chat a lot about what we
were doing and what they were doing and what I
was doing. And let's say, and that's how I tend
to find out what people's preferences when it comes to
roast profiles and what type of roasters they're they're they're
(21:10):
using and so on. So there are a lot of
these small business roasters that don't like to roast a
darker coffee.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Why is that?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Because a darker coffee is very oily, okay, and an
oily coffee in your machine if you don't clean the
machine on a regular basis, and if you don't clean
the machine properly, can damage your machine or can clog
up the machine, especially on the vent pad where you
drop the coffee and it's venting and it's it's cooling
(21:43):
down the beans.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
And I understand people not wanting to take the extra
time to do that, but do you think it's worth
that extra time that I mean, you're not making suggestions
to other people, but do you think it's worth that
time that they should do that? Because it's part of
the whole experience as being a roaster, and that's part
of some of the the task that you have to do.
Or is it not really required then you don't really
have to make a darker coffee.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Do you remember the cup of coffee that you bought
from me or Christine bought from me in the summer.
Did you enjoy it?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I did. Yes, I'm not I'm not just saying that
because you're here, but yes, I did it. But it
was very different tasting too, definitely no unique taste for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So the reason for that is because it was a
mixture of a dark roast and a medium roast. When
you are not roasting a darker roast, you're limiting yourself
to the options that you are presenting to the consumer.
So our number one seller is the Coffee Cartel Reserve roast,
(22:40):
and that's what you tried last year, very very smooth.
And if you look at my Google reviews online, eighty
percent of those Google reviews are about that particular blend.
And every single time every single customer takes a sip
of that coffee, wait, they don't get that aftertaste, and
(23:04):
has been consistent time in and time again. But that
blend has a dark roast in it. So you're the.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Reason it's making sense. Now, I think about that and
think about what you're saying. That makes that kind of
puts it together. That makes me, Yeah, I understand now
why I taste it differently, how there was something unique
I couldn't quite put my finger on at that time.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
You limit yourself to your options, your flavor options that
you're providing the.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Customer, right. That makes if.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It's not if you don't have a dark roast and
you just have a medium roast and a light roast,
you will not be able to get the different When
you're starting to blend coffees together, you won't be able
to get like that perfect cup or that perfect flavor
that you're looking for in that point.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
And that seems like the natural choice to give first
time customers who may come to you and say, oh,
I don't know what I want. It's one thing if
someone comes in and they know exactly what they want,
give me a dark, or give me a light or
a medium. But when someone says I want to try
your coffee for the first time, it sounds like this
is the one you give them the go to the start.
It seems like that's the one that really hooks them
(24:13):
and gets their attention. Was that something you decided a
long time ago when you were going to do this,
or is this something you stumbled upon and thought I'm
going to give them this flavor? How did that? How
did you come to arrive with the idea to give
them the mixed rose for lack of a better term.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
And it's it's not coming to the idea. Is you
look at the flavor profile of the of the coffee
Cartel reserve ROAs it says, it's not nutty, smooth and complex,
and the smooth and nutty flavor. When I open up
the bag and you get a whiff of it, you
(24:49):
can smell the nuttiness a little bit from it, but
people don't believe that it's smooth. So for me, is
it's almost like like a show. Okay, here, I'll open
up the bag, have a smell of it. You enjoy
the smell came out here? Try the cup, Try a
(25:10):
cup of the brood coffee in itself, and tell me
what you think. And usually this is what happened. They're waiting,
they're waiting for that aftertaste that you get in your
mouth when you drink a cup of coffee, essentially, especially
a cup of coffee that's been sitting in that pot
(25:33):
for god knows.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
How long, yeah, less or more than twenty minutes. Even
though they say otherwise.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
So from from that point is this is where I
try and distinguish ourselves from others. And then on top
of that for me is I'll say this. It's authenticity
is I will not sit here and give you a
bullshit response just to say coffee. Right, Okay, somebody asked
(26:04):
me over the course of the summer, why don't I
offer organic coffee?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Okay, yeah, I get to.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
See and now here's the thing, and my apologies for
the world I used earlier, but.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
No, no, that's funny. You can say what you want.
It's a free it's open. Yeah, you can say, you
can curse again, swear and say whatever you want to say.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
The reason I don't offer organic coffee is because there
is no way I can guarantee and validate that the
organic coffee is actually really organic. And the reason for
that is the organic requirements in North America, particularly in Canada,
are different than they are in Colombia, different than they
(26:46):
are in Peru, different than they are in Panama. You
can't really validate whether that particular bean that was harvested
was actually organic or not, whether or not they actually
really used chemicals or not with it. And let's say
So if for me I cannot validate that, I don't
(27:08):
know how others can.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
I'm just gonna ask you, like, so, anybody who makes
that claim, is that even possible then or I guess
they have it.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I don't. I'll keep it that. The fact is, I
don't know, and I'm not. I'm not here to put
negativity on you on organ.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Which is interesting to me that people that you say
that though, is because it's it says organic and that's
a proud selling point. But if it really can't be verified,
how can anybody say that right?
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Exactly exactly? And that's that's the piece for me, is
I can't verify it. Maybe the way for me to
verify it is to fly to these different countries and
buy the coffee and actually validate what's happening there. Maybe
there are roasters that do that, but honestly, that is
(27:52):
a lot of money and you don't reap the rewards
of it if you want to continue selling coffee at
a reasonable price to consumers. I don't have the time
to fly to these different countries. Truth is the coffee
is and then come here and do what I'm doing
right now and still be able to sell you a
(28:14):
bug of coffee at a reasonable price that you would
be willing to pay for.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Do you have, by comparison, do you have a lot
of people asking about organic coffee with you? Or is
the even the demand for not that significant either?
Speaker 1 (28:26):
So I can tell you up until I probably said
September of last year, I had maybe a handful of
customers ask about organic. And then one particular customer asked
me about organic but was probing me in a sense.
And then when he heard my response that I just
(28:47):
gave you right now about organic, he said, and that
is why I'm going to be buying a bag of
coffee from you. Thank you for being honest with.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Your honesty and your integrity too, which is great. So
that's good to hear too. And yeah, that's it's it's
you know, it's your knowledge and it's your integrity that
will bring people there, not just and the coffee as
well too, which to me, i'd actually I remember that
specific night. I had been up the night previous before
and then doing this at the navin Uh market all day,
so that coffee was more than welcome for sure, and
(29:17):
it really hit me. So it worked out pretty good.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
And then this is not to say that the individuals
that are buying the coffee organic from a supplier, they
are the suppliers saying it's organic, which is fine. But
from my end is it's not just I'm not just
gonna trust what the supplier is saying. Is we know
that how the health standards in Canada are different than
(29:44):
our friends in the US and are different than anywhere
else anywhere else in the world. So how am I
going to truly truly believe that this organic being that
my supplier is telling me is organic is really genuinely organic?
So I just away from it.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
It's amazing that you take the extra step not only
with doing that, but what do you do for the
whole process and the roasting process to make it unique
and very authentic as you say, And that's very very
very very good and very very cool and another selling
point for your coffee. I wanted to ask you about
going back to you originally leaving your uncle's business and
(30:22):
starting in the corporate world, as you mentioned, so when
you avenge when you originally did that, was there ever
did he ever want you to stay on? Did you
ever think maybe you would just stay working for his
business for the rest of your life at that point.
At what point, I guess working for your uncle, did you,
I want to say, get tired of it or decide
to move on? What was the kind of the catalyst
for that?
Speaker 1 (30:43):
It wasn't tired of the business in any shape or form.
It was I was younger, I was ambitious. I was
after a title.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
In a business, corporate title, yes, like I was.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
After all, I want what I saw in my mind
is VP of Operations, VP of Operations. And to be
honest with you, after doing that for two and a
half decades and understanding what happens in the corporate world,
I love being self employed. Right now. It's a lot tougher,
(31:24):
there's that uncertainty about that study income coming in, but
it's fine. I am my own boss. I don't answer
to anybody, and that's the best part about it. And
I get to spend time with my family. I have
a fifteen months old daughter at home, and I love
(31:46):
that I'm able to spend every day with her. Like
I don't miss mornings, I don't miss evenings with her,
and that for me is the best part and the
best decision I've ever made about owning a coffee business.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Absolutely, when you made that decision, like you mentioned, when
your wife was originally pregnant and he decided you need
to be home and be there for them, which is great.
You obviously you chose the coffee company and creating the
coffee cartel, But was that always your first choice? Did
you want to do something else or was coffee the
main calling once you decided I want to kind of
stay at home and work for myself. Was coffee the
(32:21):
one one business you wanted to go into or were
there are other options for you that you considered at
the time.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I'm I am. I have two businesses. I'm running the
coffee business and I'm also a consultant, a business consultant, Okay,
so I have my own consulting business as well too,
and those two combined are how I put food on
the table.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Essentially, it's very very good the coffee cartel. So going
back to that, you mentioned of course the medium and
dark roast and the blend like that. Do you have
other flavor choices there as well or is it mainly
these type of coffees?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
So there there are obviously espresso blends. We have two
espresso blends that that are very popular. One is a
darker roast espresso blend. It's two darker roasts and then
the other espresso blend is a mixture of a dark
roast and a medium roast. But that is a mixture
of seven different coffee is into that one one blended result.
(33:23):
And that is it's called the velvety pulse. That what
is known for what that blend is known for, sorry,
tongue tied. There is the krama that it produces when
you do an espresso, it produces more krama than the
other espresso blend.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Okay, yeah, well that sounds very very good. Do you
have you ever thought of, I guess, teaching or instructing
other people when it comes to the coffee, coffee sales
people that come to you, maybe young entrepreneursnwers, maybe passing
along through your family. Has anyone come to you and
approached you about kind of continuing on becoming the head
of the cartel, should you know longer be able to
(34:00):
do it at some point.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Not at the moment right now. Right now, my business
partner and I who is my cousin as well, it's
the son of our uncle. Okay, we're very we're very
protective of what we have, so we should. Yeah, So essentially,
if it's going to be anybody that literally I guess
(34:26):
will take over, it would be either my nephew or
my cousin's eldest son in that regards. But at the
moment right now, we are very particular about how we
even speak to customers, what we do, and let's say
you in that regard. So right now it's just the
both of us.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
That makes perfect sense. Keep it in the family, right exactly. Yeah,
nothing wrong with that last question here. I'll ask before
I let you go and get your particulars where people
can find you and where people where people can with
you online and order your coffee, I want to ask
you so of course, like I said, we met a
sort of yes and no at the Navin Market, markets
(35:08):
like that, or businesses or stuff I would say downtown
speaking about Ottawa, do you get contacted by businesses or
other markets to come and park your vehicle there and
set up shop. Does that happen a lot or do
you make the approach yourself? And kind of I'm not
asking to reveal your business and how it works and
business wise, but basically you find yourself doing more of
the asking if you can set up shop with these
(35:30):
markets to gain some visibility or do they find you
and approach you. How does that generally work? I guess
when it comes to sign up your location for the cartel.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
So at the very beginning, it is me sourcing out
the locations that I want to join. As you start
to build that brand and that brand recognition, then what
ends up happening is, oh, I heard about you from
so and so person. We're having this event, are you
(36:00):
able to attend? And that's what happened to me. I
went to an event in Finish in October last year
and they had reached out to me themselves for that.
But at the very beginning I would say well, and
I would say still right now, because we're still in
our infant stages as an organization. Is most of the
(36:22):
event is sourced by myself, Okay, what I attend, but
there are opportunities that have come up where we get
reached out to as well too, And.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
I assume that would begin to happen more and more
as you're attending more events, Like you said, right, the
more events or places you're setting up shop, whether you
inquired about that or through word of mouth, people have
asked you to set up at their event. The more
that happens and the more people have a positive experience
with you and your coffee, which is the main thing,
is how the coffee is if people. If it doesn't
(36:53):
work out, then you got nothing after that. I would
assume with more profile and more prolific events like that,
you would get more requests and more opportunities, especially to
even attend people who have private events who would want
you to come and you know, host the coffee and
be the official coffee of their event. I would assume
that would be more likely to happen. As you continue
(37:15):
on exactly exactly. Keep in mind, although I did to
start in April last year, I had about two and
a half months of injuries that knocked me out oh
last year, so that limited the amount of times that
I've been out out and about and where we got
(37:37):
that visibility as an organization too. So I would say, yes,
April first is our one year anniversary, but it's coming
up technically listen, yeah, yeah, it's not a full year
because of some injuries I had last year. So well,
hopefully you're recovering from that and hopefully can get back
out there and make the next year the year number two,
(38:00):
more more positive and more more presence out there, a
chance to be seen.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Thank you very much. I appreciate that for sure.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
So before I let you go, where can people connect
with the Coffee Cartel? Where can people don't keep it
on the hush hush? Where can people if they want
to stop buy or get your coffee, get in contact
with you working. Where's the best place to do that?
Speaker 1 (38:22):
So they can obviously on our website at the Coffeecartel
dot ca A. They can look us up on Facebook
at the Coffee Cartel, or on Instagram at TCC dot
the Coffee Cartel. But if they need to get in
contact with me directly on on on my website, I
(38:45):
have my email address and the phone number of the business.
They can text me if they have any questions from
that perspective, and usually within a couple of hours, I
will respond.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Well, you're drinking coffee. I mejure up all day and night,
right somethings You can spawn at any time.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Exactly, And I am like, I guess the question for
me is, I know a lot of people are apprehensive
about the shipping costs that are associated with shipping in
within the Greater Autawa area. I have fixed at a
flat rate of seven dollars and fifty cents. But if
people want to buy coffee or try it out and
(39:22):
they don't want to pay the shipping cost, send me
a text message, send me an email. Will work something out.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
No, it's very good to hear, very customer friendly too.
Do you ship worldwide or all over Canada? Or is
that just mainly for the local area for now?
Speaker 1 (39:35):
No, it's worldwide. There are some countries that they don't.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
I don't ship to the restrictions that you can't I guess.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yes, But for the most part Canada, the US, some
parts of South America as well, Europe. I ship all over.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
No, it's good to hear, so there's no excuse where
we are most places in the world. Get yourself, don't
forget contact the cartel. They'll treat you right, nothing to
be afraid of. It's just great coffee, and that's all
that matters. Henry. It's been great talking to you, a
great meeting you, and I can't wait for our people
to hear this and hopefully hear more of your story,
and we should connect again at some point and see
how things are going.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I appreciate it. Thank you very much. That's aweso great.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
You've been listening to the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast with chadvice,
and this podcast has been voted as the number one
podcast by people that don't vote
Nobodies are somebodies.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
All right, it's a chadvice. It's the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast.
Welcome to another brand new episode and I'm excited for
this one. Here I talked to Henry from the owner
and mastermind and big Boss, big Chief of the Coffee Cartel. Oh,
the cartel. But don't be scared. Like many cartels, this
(00:26):
one will also make you feel good maybe, but this
definitely will. It's the Coffee Cartel. A little bit of
background here. I first came into contact with Henry and
the Coffee Cartel in a little place called the Navin
Market outside of well basically the big city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,
subsection subdivision of that Navin Vendors Market that was there
(00:46):
last summer in twenty twenty four that we set up
in and sold some of our stuff that we can
find on our Championship Vinyl website sebcamco dot com. That's
se b c amco dot com for all you people interested.
But sold some stuff in the yard sale there as
(01:09):
a vendor, and he was one of the vendors serving coffee.
And if anyone knows me and you or will get
to know me here on the podcast. You know, I
love me some coffee and sampling coffee from all different
places and from different brewers and breweries and roasters as
they're called. I believe, as he will mention here in
the podcast, I get a good coffee education here from Henry.
(01:32):
But I'm always sampling new roasters on the lookout, and
this was one of them. The name, of course, was
really a selling point for me. Eventually we got the coffee,
and eventually it came to the idea of let's get
this guy on the podcast, right, let's find out about
the coffee cartel, Let's find out more about him and
bring that story to you. The good news is you
don't have to be local to the Ottawa or where
(01:52):
he's based Rockland, Ontario, Canada location. He does ship worldwide.
He does ship all over the country of Canada, so
you can get his fine coffee if you want to
try it, sample it out anywhere you might be listening
to this podcast. So that's very cool. So we get
Henry's story from a young age being involved in the
coffee business, kind of leaving that behind for a period
(02:15):
of time and getting back into the car, getting back
into the coffee business and starting the cartel. Once you're out,
you're never truly out. They'll always bring you back in.
So we talk about how that all came together, and basically,
without giving away any secrets, how he roast his coffee
differently from other roasters, some details on that, and just
(02:38):
basically a real coffee education. So I'm looking forward to
having you guys listen to that, and we're gonna do
it right now. Connect with me for more content. More
of the Nobody's are Somebody's podcast. Find me on the
social media that's all over the place. I'm on Twitter
sometimes not really so much anymore Twitter x, but Instagram
and Facebook are the best ways to contact me, either
(02:58):
through the Nobody's or Somebody's at sebcam co s E
B C A mco the website as well as me
Chadvice Directly send me a message, Email me chad Vice
at sebcamco dot com, or you can go on the
YouTube page. We did a video conversation for this one too.
(03:20):
We did a video conversation with this one too, that's
available on the sebcamco TV on YouTube that's at sebcamco TV.
Check out video of this. But if you like good
old fashioned radio audio podcast as I do. This is
the way to go. So thanks for listening to this
and support the Coffee Cartel over on Facebook as well,
(03:41):
and the links to his website or there as well
as his direct contact phone number. You can get in
touch with the Coffee Cartel and set up a little
in discrete meeting if you will, for some delicious coffee.
But now it's some delicious conversation with Henry from the
Coffee Cartel here on the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast with me.
I don't have a cool name, just chad vice, all right.
(04:05):
Anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge fan of coffee.
I've loved it for too many years that I can count,
so it's no surprise. I want to talk to a
gentleman here by the name of Henry who is in
the business of coffee, but not just any coffee. He
runs a coffee cartel. Don't be scared though it comes
to if it comes to coffee, it can't be bad.
(04:25):
First of all, Henry, how are you doing good to
talk to you.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I'm doing very well, doing very well. It's nice to
chat to you with you as well too. It's I
think we met in the summer last year or.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, it was around the late summer. I think there
was a I guess a food place here around Orleans
that vendors can set up and do shop. I was
selling some items there with my business partner as well.
I think you met her, Christine, yes, and you had
your coffee truck was there as well too, So I'm
not sure if I actually saw you there at that
(04:58):
point or we actually talked. We did, but there was
so much going on that day and a lot of people,
so it's hard to say. But that's where I guess
we officially technically met.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Well, Christine, I believe is the one who took who
gave me your card, and I think you came in
and you chatted a little bit at the very end
before we tore down for the day. I don't quite remember.
There's too many things that have happened as well too.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Exactly, Yeah, I think so, I think you're about right.
I think I was setting up and she was going
to just look around and see what was there, and
she found you, and of course you know how much
I love coffee, so she grabbed your business card and
we went from there. So either way, if we didn't
connect for sure that that day. We're connecting now, so
it's going to be great.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
That's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So from what I read what I read on your website,
you've been in the coffee business since you were sixteen
years old. Now I'm going to assume that the coffee
cartel itself, that's your business, that's your name, Brandon, that's
something that you started. But talk to me a bit
about I guess from a young age where coffee from
the family business, where that kind of played a role
in your life, and how you decided you wanted to
(06:00):
kind of make this your full time thing or make
this your path that you followed.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
So when I first moved to Canada in nineteen ninety six,
my family, my relatives here had been in Canada for
a while and my uncle had opened up the first
coffee roasting house in Ottawa in the late seventies called
International cafea Coffee Wow, and it's essentially what they did
(06:28):
is they moved it from the Middle East to Ottawa
and we were the first roasting house in Ottawa at
the time. So coming to Ottawa brand new, it was
the area where it's the child labor at the time,
my uncle.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I forced to be in the business, forced to work.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Exactly, and his son and I were the ones that
were working the business on the weekends evenings, and what
say you, That's where I learned how to roast coffee.
That's where I fell in love with coffee at the time,
and how this all translated into the birth of the
coffee cartel. Well but two years ago now, I lost
(07:12):
my job in corporate where I had been working for
about two and a half decades, and with my wife
being pregnant at the time, I wanted to do something
that would allow me to be more present at home,
and I wanted to do something I was passionate about,
not something just because it took a while for me
(07:36):
to come up with what that was. And eventually, after
a lot of work and a lot of research and
a lot of you could say, almost I won't say,
speaking to other individuals to identify what is the best
name that I could use, I ended up coming up
(07:58):
the birth of the coffee cartel. And on April first,
last year.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Also, it's relatively recent then that you started the business
and started a coffee cartel. This is a relatively new
adventure for.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
You, exactly exactly so, and that's how the Coffee Cartel
was born. The name the Coffee Cartel was one of
five names that I wanted to name the company, and
essentially I wanted to play on something that was a
little naughty. Yeah, but at the same time that everyone
(08:32):
loves to drink. So it's it's nice to say, oh,
I just smuggled in the coffee, but in reality, it's
just you bought the coffee, and let's say.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
So yeah, yeah, no, exactly. Well, everybody loves what the cartel,
the original cartels were selling, so how can they not
love what your cartel is bringing to them?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Right, exactly exactly. And the funny thing is, I remember
a customer giving me a review last year. It was ZFT.
After then, in market in August, my business partner and
I went to have dinner at at a full restaurant
(09:08):
on Inness Road and then we were wearing our hoodies
with the logo and all of that, and we started
talking business and there was two individuals sitting right next
to us. They overheard us, they joined in the conversation.
They ended up buying two bags of coffee from us,
and literally when she wrote the review, she said, I
bought a bag of coffee off of the back of
(09:29):
the truck. Wink wink, nudge, nudge, and it's it's so
authentic exactly. It's a fan to the brand itself. Which
this was not intentional on our part. It's just it
just happened that way. But our characters lead us to
be those individuals as well too.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Well, yeah, it seems like that's the perfect opportunity to
not only to promote yourself and your business, but you're
out there, you're in the public. You're not out there
specifically to promote your business. You're at a restaurant. You're
just you know, there with your family having a meal,
but you're wearing the shirt and it just so happens
that you have, you know, coffee bags or coffee with
you in the vehicle you can sell it. Is that
something that you kind of do to kind of be
(10:12):
I guess in line with the cartel idea of it,
whereas you actually have your products or your items with
you on the go in case you happen to run
into people by happenstance and you just start a conversation
that you can just kind of you know, have that
there to sell it right then and there on the spot, Beau,
isn't you have it in the moment kind of thing
or is that just something by accident you happen to
have it that day.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
That particular day it was coming off of the vendor
market in Navin. I cannot have the coffee in the
vehicle in the wintertime because the beans would end up freezing.
They need to be at a perfect temperature for them.
But in the summer, if it is not a warm
(10:55):
day as well, I do drive around at times with
some coffee in the vehicle just case. Now is more
specifically now than when I first started, just because that
brand recognition and that recognition from the consumers has increased
quite a bit. And as I'm not sure if you've
(11:15):
googled my business, the I have the face of the
business is my home. I don't want to put the
roaster because as I mentioned to you, is it's inside
another business and I have an agreement with them right
now just to use that space. But eventually I'm going
to have my own space here in Rockland. And let's
say you.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
So for going back to that, then you do have
a space where people can go to an actual storefront
and buy the coffee there. It's not just the truck
or the rolling mobile that you have that you break
to like I said, the Navin Fair and stuff like that.
You have an actual space or a place that people
can go to.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
No, I don't. It's online markets and word of mouth
right now, I don't have a storefront.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Okay, not a storefront and all that. So there's no
actual business place in Rockland. People have to buy it
from word of mouth or contacting you online, and then
you meet them somewhere to to to do the transfer,
or people come to your home. How do people get
the coffee?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Then people sometimes come to my home or I deliver them,
deliver the coffee to their houses, and if they order online,
it just gets shipped to them directly.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
It's a lot cheaper to do it that way too.
Of course, having an actual property, owning an actual storefront
is very expensive, whether you're paying rent or owning the
building out right is very It's a huge overhead, right
so I can imagine that this saves a lot of
costs for your business and allows you to obviously keep
more of the profit and to expand more that way.
I would assume there's no plans and have a storefront.
(12:45):
Do you want to keep it this way in a
real cartel fashion where you're technically duiling it out of
your trunk.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
So there is a plan to have a roasting storefront,
not necessarily a storefront in the in the makes of
let's say a Giant Tiger or a wal Mart or
or something along. It's to have a space where I
roast coffee and then where people would be able to
walk into that storefront and if they wanted a bag
(13:13):
of coffee, they can buy. But it's it's not it's
not per se as a storefront in the natural sense
of a small dapanner or a grocery store or something
like that. Now the I want to try and keep
in true fashion of the cartel. What we're also looking
as at is instead of having a brick and mortar cafe,
(13:38):
will have a mobile caffe. But instead of having one,
the plan is to start with one obviously, but grow
to a couple where we are all over the city
at the same time. All the cartel is in Westborough,
to the order the cartel is in Kemptville, All the
cartel is in in Rockland. Yeah, exactly, exactly exactly do.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
You find there's a lot of opportunities for that to
park or to go into different I guess, let's say
little towns or villages or cities neighboring Ottawa or Rockland
where you're based. For those who listen outside the world,
you're based in around We'll say Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, but
of course you're in Rockland. There's places around there. But
for the most part, do you like that idea of
being able to move from place to place and not
(14:20):
staying in one place like a brick and mortar, Because
that's something that appeals to you.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And it does appeal to me, because the idea behind
it all is I want to bring a coffee and
I want to bring a good cup of coffee to
as many people as I can.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
That's good to hear, for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And because here's the thing there is I'm offering specialty coffee. Okay, So,
and what I mean by specialty coffee these are coffees
that are a little higher grade. These are coffees that
are roasted to order. Okay. Now, it's a fine line
(14:59):
between a Starbucks coffee and something else. But I'm not
offering these coffees at Starbucks prices, right, the Starbucks prices
is a little astronomical if you could, if you could,
but I think, I think consumers would rather pay a
little extra for a good cup of coffee where there
(15:20):
is no aftertaste, there is no bitterness, there is no
acidity in what say you, and that happens by from
the art of roasting in itself.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
There's a lot of competition for coffee too, not only
like the big name brands like you said, but pretty
much every restaurant, every big name corporation. Talking about McDonald's,
there's Tim Horton's in Canada, you know, there's Second Cup,
things like that. That It's coffee is everywhere. People themselves,
artists or people in the entertainment world make their own
coffee as well too. There's all kinds of different choices.
(15:50):
There's almost too many choices for coffee lovers like ourselves too.
You don't know where to look when you first got
back into it, like we said, you were doing this
business when you were sixteen, working with your own uncle
and then got to have it. But when you got
back into it, were you concerned it at concerned it
concerned at all? Easy for me to say where you
concerned it all of the competition level that's out there,
and how you're going to make the coffee car tell
(16:11):
unique for you, and how you're going to make it
stand out.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Authenticity is very important. So here's the thing. A lot
of coffee roasters, and I will not speak of negatively
of any of the small ones, because a competition is healthy.
But a lot of the coffee roasters will tell you
that they have the state of the art coffee roaster
(16:35):
and that's why their coffee tastes smooth, or they have
this type of coffee roaster or this type of coffee.
At the end of the day, if you have a
decent coffee roasting machine and you are actually there by
the machine side and looking at the roast profiles and
(16:56):
paying attention to what you're roasting and not just relying
on computer to tell you it's whether it's ready or not,
you will produce a good cup of coffee. Because at
the end of the day, here's the thing. If I'm
roasting an espresso, a single origin espresso coffee, Okay, you
may determine that the espresso color profile is this color.
(17:20):
I may determine that it's this color based on my
experience of two or three decades of roasting with my
uncle's business. But I am determining that based on experience
from that and based on what I know from the
general public. Somebody that's just starting in a coffee roasting
(17:40):
business may not necessarily have that experience, and they may
base it on what their learnings are. Maybe if I
let it sit for an extra forty seconds, it may
give you a different cup of coffee. And at the
end of the day, when I say authenticity, I will
speak out my roasting journey. I will speak about the
(18:04):
way we do the roasting, and then when opportunity arises,
I would love for the general public to be able
to come to us, to the store where I'm gonna
have my roaster and actually watch us roast.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Oh wow, I definitely be into that. Yeah, that's very cool.
For those interested, that would be very interesting to see
how that works and see how the process goes, because people,
like I said, they either do it at home and
they careg or they look at the coffee they have
and they buy it at the store or whatever, and
then that's it. That's kind of where it ends. But
to find out how it's made, where it's made and
how it's made correctly, or why you enjoyed this particular
(18:39):
cup so much or this coffee so much? That to
me and I think many others would find that very fascinating.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I say, roasting coffee is an art and a science
at the same time, but it's also something that requires
a lot of attention to detail.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Have you had other let's say smaller or maybe a
local independent coffee birds or coffee roasters come to you
and kind of ask these questions, are kind of you
want to pick your brain about that? Or is it
kind of you know, I stick to my business, you
stick to yours type of thing in that world? Can
you talk about it about that?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Is?
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Do you have any insight on that?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
So it's the smaller roasters. No, not necessarily, I'll be
honest with you. My uncle sold the business about fifteen
years ago. But we are in contact with the new
owner of that business, and we've chatted a lot. And
(19:37):
let's say, you and very very awesome individual and very
genuine individual from that perspective, but I find it's because
he's a lot larger than us, so he will speak
freely with us. And what's say you, I think smaller,
smaller businesses just naturally stick to what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Right because they want to keep what they do for
themselves and they feel like obviously everyone who has their
coffee grows to feels it's their best and feels it
is the best, and that's what people should should go to, right.
So they're not going to kind of collaborate. They're not
going to try and pick your brain, and they're not gonna,
I don't know, not work together, but they're not gonna,
you know, talk about it so much. It's a it's
a business that we all that you that you love
(20:21):
so much and that we all love the results of.
But it's very I guess, secretive and protective in that manner.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Then I won't say too too secretive because I do remember,
and I won't share the name of the company, but
I do remember when I first started at the U.
I went to the first vendor market last year in
May and Novin I was approached by another coffee roaster
and we started chatting up and what say you. Then
(20:49):
after that initial meat we went our own separate ways,
but then we did chat a lot about what we
were doing and what they were doing and what I
was doing. And let's say, and that's how I tend
to find out what people's preferences when it comes to
roast profiles and what type of roasters they're they're they're
(21:10):
using and so on. So there are a lot of
these small business roasters that don't like to roast a
darker coffee.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Why is that?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Because a darker coffee is very oily, okay, and an
oily coffee in your machine if you don't clean the
machine on a regular basis, and if you don't clean
the machine properly, can damage your machine or can clog
up the machine, especially on the vent pad where you
drop the coffee and it's venting and it's it's cooling
(21:43):
down the beans.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
And I understand people not wanting to take the extra
time to do that, but do you think it's worth
that extra time that I mean, you're not making suggestions
to other people, but do you think it's worth that
time that they should do that? Because it's part of
the whole experience as being a roaster, and that's part
of some of the the task that you have to do.
Or is it not really required then you don't really
have to make a darker coffee.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Do you remember the cup of coffee that you bought
from me or Christine bought from me in the summer.
Did you enjoy it?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I did. Yes, I'm not I'm not just saying that
because you're here, but yes, I did it. But it
was very different tasting too, definitely no unique taste for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So the reason for that is because it was a
mixture of a dark roast and a medium roast. When
you are not roasting a darker roast, you're limiting yourself
to the options that you are presenting to the consumer.
So our number one seller is the Coffee Cartel Reserve roast,
(22:40):
and that's what you tried last year, very very smooth.
And if you look at my Google reviews online, eighty
percent of those Google reviews are about that particular blend.
And every single time every single customer takes a sip
of that coffee, wait, they don't get that aftertaste, and
(23:04):
has been consistent time in and time again. But that
blend has a dark roast in it. So you're the.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Reason it's making sense. Now, I think about that and
think about what you're saying. That makes that kind of
puts it together. That makes me, Yeah, I understand now
why I taste it differently, how there was something unique
I couldn't quite put my finger on at that time.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
You limit yourself to your options, your flavor options that
you're providing the.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Customer, right. That makes if.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It's not if you don't have a dark roast and
you just have a medium roast and a light roast,
you will not be able to get the different When
you're starting to blend coffees together, you won't be able
to get like that perfect cup or that perfect flavor
that you're looking for in that point.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
And that seems like the natural choice to give first
time customers who may come to you and say, oh,
I don't know what I want. It's one thing if
someone comes in and they know exactly what they want,
give me a dark, or give me a light or
a medium. But when someone says I want to try
your coffee for the first time, it sounds like this
is the one you give them the go to the start.
It seems like that's the one that really hooks them
(24:13):
and gets their attention. Was that something you decided a
long time ago when you were going to do this,
or is this something you stumbled upon and thought I'm
going to give them this flavor? How did that? How
did you come to arrive with the idea to give
them the mixed rose for lack of a better term.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
And it's it's not coming to the idea. Is you
look at the flavor profile of the of the coffee
Cartel reserve ROAs it says, it's not nutty, smooth and complex,
and the smooth and nutty flavor. When I open up
the bag and you get a whiff of it, you
(24:49):
can smell the nuttiness a little bit from it, but
people don't believe that it's smooth. So for me, is
it's almost like like a show. Okay, here, I'll open
up the bag, have a smell of it. You enjoy
the smell came out here? Try the cup, Try a
(25:10):
cup of the brood coffee in itself, and tell me
what you think. And usually this is what happened. They're waiting,
they're waiting for that aftertaste that you get in your
mouth when you drink a cup of coffee, essentially, especially
a cup of coffee that's been sitting in that pot
(25:33):
for god knows.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
How long, yeah, less or more than twenty minutes. Even
though they say otherwise.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
So from from that point is this is where I
try and distinguish ourselves from others. And then on top
of that for me is I'll say this. It's authenticity
is I will not sit here and give you a
bullshit response just to say coffee. Right, Okay, somebody asked
(26:04):
me over the course of the summer, why don't I
offer organic coffee?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Okay, yeah, I get to.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
See and now here's the thing, and my apologies for
the world I used earlier, but.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
No, no, that's funny. You can say what you want.
It's a free it's open. Yeah, you can say, you
can curse again, swear and say whatever you want to say.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
The reason I don't offer organic coffee is because there
is no way I can guarantee and validate that the
organic coffee is actually really organic. And the reason for
that is the organic requirements in North America, particularly in Canada,
are different than they are in Colombia, different than they
(26:46):
are in Peru, different than they are in Panama. You
can't really validate whether that particular bean that was harvested
was actually organic or not, whether or not they actually
really used chemicals or not with it. And let's say
So if for me I cannot validate that, I don't
(27:08):
know how others can.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
I'm just gonna ask you, like, so, anybody who makes
that claim, is that even possible then or I guess
they have it.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I don't. I'll keep it that. The fact is, I
don't know, and I'm not. I'm not here to put
negativity on you on organ.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Which is interesting to me that people that you say
that though, is because it's it says organic and that's
a proud selling point. But if it really can't be verified,
how can anybody say that right?
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Exactly exactly? And that's that's the piece for me, is
I can't verify it. Maybe the way for me to
verify it is to fly to these different countries and
buy the coffee and actually validate what's happening there. Maybe
there are roasters that do that, but honestly, that is
(27:52):
a lot of money and you don't reap the rewards
of it if you want to continue selling coffee at
a reasonable price to consumers. I don't have the time
to fly to these different countries. Truth is the coffee
is and then come here and do what I'm doing
right now and still be able to sell you a
(28:14):
bug of coffee at a reasonable price that you would
be willing to pay for.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Do you have, by comparison, do you have a lot
of people asking about organic coffee with you? Or is
the even the demand for not that significant either?
Speaker 1 (28:26):
So I can tell you up until I probably said
September of last year, I had maybe a handful of
customers ask about organic. And then one particular customer asked
me about organic but was probing me in a sense.
And then when he heard my response that I just
(28:47):
gave you right now about organic, he said, and that
is why I'm going to be buying a bag of
coffee from you. Thank you for being honest with.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Your honesty and your integrity too, which is great. So
that's good to hear too. And yeah, that's it's it's
you know, it's your knowledge and it's your integrity that
will bring people there, not just and the coffee as
well too, which to me, i'd actually I remember that
specific night. I had been up the night previous before
and then doing this at the navin Uh market all day,
so that coffee was more than welcome for sure, and
(29:17):
it really hit me. So it worked out pretty good.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
And then this is not to say that the individuals
that are buying the coffee organic from a supplier, they
are the suppliers saying it's organic, which is fine. But
from my end is it's not just I'm not just
gonna trust what the supplier is saying. Is we know
that how the health standards in Canada are different than
(29:44):
our friends in the US and are different than anywhere
else anywhere else in the world. So how am I
going to truly truly believe that this organic being that
my supplier is telling me is organic is really genuinely organic?
So I just away from it.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
It's amazing that you take the extra step not only
with doing that, but what do you do for the
whole process and the roasting process to make it unique
and very authentic as you say, And that's very very
very very good and very very cool and another selling
point for your coffee. I wanted to ask you about
going back to you originally leaving your uncle's business and
(30:22):
starting in the corporate world, as you mentioned, so when
you avenge when you originally did that, was there ever
did he ever want you to stay on? Did you
ever think maybe you would just stay working for his
business for the rest of your life at that point.
At what point, I guess working for your uncle, did you,
I want to say, get tired of it or decide
to move on? What was the kind of the catalyst
for that?
Speaker 1 (30:43):
It wasn't tired of the business in any shape or form.
It was I was younger, I was ambitious. I was
after a title.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
In a business, corporate title, yes, like I was.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
After all, I want what I saw in my mind
is VP of Operations, VP of Operations. And to be
honest with you, after doing that for two and a
half decades and understanding what happens in the corporate world,
I love being self employed. Right now. It's a lot tougher,
(31:24):
there's that uncertainty about that study income coming in, but
it's fine. I am my own boss. I don't answer
to anybody, and that's the best part about it. And
I get to spend time with my family. I have
a fifteen months old daughter at home, and I love
(31:46):
that I'm able to spend every day with her. Like
I don't miss mornings, I don't miss evenings with her,
and that for me is the best part and the
best decision I've ever made about owning a coffee business.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Absolutely, when you made that decision, like you mentioned, when
your wife was originally pregnant and he decided you need
to be home and be there for them, which is great.
You obviously you chose the coffee company and creating the
coffee cartel, But was that always your first choice? Did
you want to do something else or was coffee the
main calling once you decided I want to kind of
stay at home and work for myself. Was coffee the
(32:21):
one one business you wanted to go into or were
there are other options for you that you considered at
the time.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I'm I am. I have two businesses. I'm running the
coffee business and I'm also a consultant, a business consultant, Okay,
so I have my own consulting business as well too,
and those two combined are how I put food on
the table.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Essentially, it's very very good the coffee cartel. So going
back to that, you mentioned of course the medium and
dark roast and the blend like that. Do you have
other flavor choices there as well or is it mainly
these type of coffees?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
So there there are obviously espresso blends. We have two
espresso blends that that are very popular. One is a
darker roast espresso blend. It's two darker roasts and then
the other espresso blend is a mixture of a dark
roast and a medium roast. But that is a mixture
of seven different coffee is into that one one blended result.
(33:23):
And that is it's called the velvety pulse. That what
is known for what that blend is known for, sorry,
tongue tied. There is the krama that it produces when
you do an espresso, it produces more krama than the
other espresso blend.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Okay, yeah, well that sounds very very good. Do you
have you ever thought of, I guess, teaching or instructing
other people when it comes to the coffee, coffee sales
people that come to you, maybe young entrepreneursnwers, maybe passing
along through your family. Has anyone come to you and
approached you about kind of continuing on becoming the head
of the cartel, should you know longer be able to
(34:00):
do it at some point.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Not at the moment right now. Right now, my business
partner and I who is my cousin as well, it's
the son of our uncle. Okay, we're very we're very
protective of what we have, so we should. Yeah, So essentially,
if it's going to be anybody that literally I guess
(34:26):
will take over, it would be either my nephew or
my cousin's eldest son in that regards. But at the
moment right now, we are very particular about how we
even speak to customers, what we do, and let's say
you in that regard. So right now it's just the
both of us.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
That makes perfect sense. Keep it in the family, right exactly. Yeah,
nothing wrong with that last question here. I'll ask before
I let you go and get your particulars where people
can find you and where people where people can with
you online and order your coffee, I want to ask
you so of course, like I said, we met a
sort of yes and no at the Navin Market, markets
(35:08):
like that, or businesses or stuff I would say downtown
speaking about Ottawa, do you get contacted by businesses or
other markets to come and park your vehicle there and
set up shop. Does that happen a lot or do
you make the approach yourself? And kind of I'm not
asking to reveal your business and how it works and
business wise, but basically you find yourself doing more of
the asking if you can set up shop with these
(35:30):
markets to gain some visibility or do they find you
and approach you. How does that generally work? I guess
when it comes to sign up your location for the cartel.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
So at the very beginning, it is me sourcing out
the locations that I want to join. As you start
to build that brand and that brand recognition, then what
ends up happening is, oh, I heard about you from
so and so person. We're having this event, are you
(36:00):
able to attend? And that's what happened to me. I
went to an event in Finish in October last year
and they had reached out to me themselves for that.
But at the very beginning I would say well, and
I would say still right now, because we're still in
our infant stages as an organization. Is most of the
(36:22):
event is sourced by myself, Okay, what I attend, but
there are opportunities that have come up where we get
reached out to as well too, And.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
I assume that would begin to happen more and more
as you're attending more events, Like you said, right, the
more events or places you're setting up shop, whether you
inquired about that or through word of mouth, people have
asked you to set up at their event. The more
that happens and the more people have a positive experience
with you and your coffee, which is the main thing,
is how the coffee is if people. If it doesn't
(36:53):
work out, then you got nothing after that. I would
assume with more profile and more prolific events like that,
you would get more requests and more opportunities, especially to
even attend people who have private events who would want
you to come and you know, host the coffee and
be the official coffee of their event. I would assume
that would be more likely to happen. As you continue
(37:15):
on exactly exactly. Keep in mind, although I did to
start in April last year, I had about two and
a half months of injuries that knocked me out oh
last year, so that limited the amount of times that
I've been out out and about and where we got
(37:37):
that visibility as an organization too. So I would say, yes,
April first is our one year anniversary, but it's coming
up technically listen, yeah, yeah, it's not a full year
because of some injuries I had last year. So well,
hopefully you're recovering from that and hopefully can get back
out there and make the next year the year number two,
(38:00):
more more positive and more more presence out there, a
chance to be seen.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Thank you very much. I appreciate that for sure.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
So before I let you go, where can people connect
with the Coffee Cartel? Where can people don't keep it
on the hush hush? Where can people if they want
to stop buy or get your coffee, get in contact
with you working. Where's the best place to do that?
Speaker 1 (38:22):
So they can obviously on our website at the Coffeecartel
dot ca A. They can look us up on Facebook
at the Coffee Cartel, or on Instagram at TCC dot
the Coffee Cartel. But if they need to get in
contact with me directly on on on my website, I
(38:45):
have my email address and the phone number of the business.
They can text me if they have any questions from
that perspective, and usually within a couple of hours, I
will respond.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Well, you're drinking coffee. I mejure up all day and night,
right somethings You can spawn at any time.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Exactly, And I am like, I guess the question for
me is, I know a lot of people are apprehensive
about the shipping costs that are associated with shipping in
within the Greater Autawa area. I have fixed at a
flat rate of seven dollars and fifty cents. But if
people want to buy coffee or try it out and
(39:22):
they don't want to pay the shipping cost, send me
a text message, send me an email. Will work something out.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
No, it's very good to hear, very customer friendly too.
Do you ship worldwide or all over Canada? Or is
that just mainly for the local area for now?
Speaker 1 (39:35):
No, it's worldwide. There are some countries that they don't.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
I don't ship to the restrictions that you can't I guess.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yes, But for the most part Canada, the US, some
parts of South America as well, Europe. I ship all over.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
No, it's good to hear, so there's no excuse where
we are most places in the world. Get yourself, don't
forget contact the cartel. They'll treat you right, nothing to
be afraid of. It's just great coffee, and that's all
that matters. Henry. It's been great talking to you, a
great meeting you, and I can't wait for our people
to hear this and hopefully hear more of your story,
and we should connect again at some point and see
how things are going.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I appreciate it. Thank you very much. That's aweso great.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
You've been listening to the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast with chadvice,
and this podcast has been voted as the number one
podcast by people that don't vote
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