The Sunflower Coffee Program Part 2: Down the Rabbit Hole (The Education of a Roaster)

In my last post, I talked about the early days of the Sunflower Caffe’s coffee program, how we evolved from corporate buyouts to local favorites, eventually landing at the cupping table with Steve Decosse at Acre Coffee.

But sitting at a table and picking your favorite flavor profiles is one thing. Actually understanding the physics, chemistry, and global logistics of how those flavors get into the bean? That is a whole different beast.

James tasting espresso at Acre Coffee

My real transformation from a cafe owner who buys coffee to a curator who crafts coffee happened when Steve transitioned the coffee side of the business to a heavy hitter in the specialty coffee world, Rob Daly. Under Rob's helm, the brand beautifully evolved into what we know today as Avid Coffee.

Rob is local coffee royalty. He actually started his career twenty five years ago down the road at Wolf Coffee in Santa Rosa before eventually serving as the longtime CEO of Taylor Maid Farms, another legendary pioneer that shaped Sonoma County's organic coffee culture. Rob knows the global and local industry inside and out, but he has zero pretension. He recognized my pending direction, embraced my obsessive curiosity, and completely unleashed his team to help me learn.

Sourcing Direct: The Colombian Connection

Suddenly, I was not just looking at a menu of available beans. I was traveling down to The Annex, a massive, vaulted green bean warehouse right on the docks in Alameda. Walking into that space, surrounded by towering stacks of burlap sacks from every equatorial region on earth, changed everything. The smell of raw, unroasted green coffee, earthy, grassy, and full of hidden potential, is something you never forget.

Some of the coffee bean bags at The Annex 

Through this network, we did something I never imagined doing back in my construction days: we purchased incredible, high-grade Colombian coffee directly from the source. No massive corporate middleman. Just direct relationship sourcing.

But buying the green beans is only half the battle. Next, you have to apply the heat.

Studying Under a Master (And a Piece of Coffee History)

To truly understand the craft, I sought out a formal education and landed at the Boot Coffee Campus, taking an intensive course under the brilliant Valerian Hrala. Helping out with their educational cuppings completely shattered any remaining illusions I had. I learned that roasting is not just turning beans brown; it is an intricate, unforgiving dance of thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and organic chemistry.

A slide demonstrating the process that coffee beans go through

I was so hooked that I ended up hiring Valerian to consult with me directly. He came up to the Sunflower, tooled around our setup, analyzed our existing workflow, and made a series of rigorous recommendations.

If I was going to take the coffee this seriously, our equipment had to match the education. We completely overhauled our entire process from the ground up. We invested in a top-of-the-line espresso machine, precision digital scales, advanced commercial grinders, and a beautiful, and admittedly costly, ergonomic tamper to ensure absolute technical consistency.

A quiz from the Boot Coffee Campus

Even our serving ware got a complete, thoughtful upgrade. For our espresso, cortados, and cappuccinos, we brought in the stunning amber glass Vero line from Not Neutral. For our lattes, mochas, and specialty drinks, we shifted to their classic white ceramic Lino cups. To match the quality of the bean, we even upgraded our dairy, partnering with Straus Family Creamery to source their extra-rich, non-fat, and half-and-half barista-grade milks.

Armed with this pristine setup and a world-class education, I went back to the roastery. Rob Daly opened Avid's doors wide, giving me access to his incredible head roaster, Jenn, and letting us play on a serious piece of California coffee history.

The machine Jenn and the team use at Avid is a beautiful, vintage Probat roaster. But it is not just any old classic, it is the original, historic roaster used by Blue Bottle Coffee back in their early, revolutionary days. It is an absolute workhorse of a machine, and I can personally assure you, that old Probat still cranks out some of the most delicious, beautifully developed beans in the world.

Working alongside Jenn, balancing my newfound technical knowledge with her years of instinctual, sensory expertise at the Probat's controls, we began to experiment. We were not just roasting; we were designing.

I began to realize that coffee production shares a staggering amount of DNA with fine winemaking. Yet, as I looked closer, I noticed a massive, fundamental difference between the two industries, and it all comes down to who crosses the finish line.