Interview: Compelling Coffee Roasters

Had the pleasure to speaking to the team behind LA based Compelling Coffee Roasters

Kaldi:
What prompted you to start Compelling, and what prompted you to open a retail shop, moving from wholesale to actual retail as well. I'd love to know about that story.

Compelling:
So, we started off as just doing direct to consumer through our website, and we did pretty great with e-commerce, and then eventually opened that up to selling larger volumes directly through the site and hat naturally kind of transitioned up to wholesale. And from there, it's just been, "Hey, we love your coffee. We'd love to get it in your shop." And it evolved from needing a place to train our wholesale accounts and a need for a showroom to, "Hey, we want to really show what our vision of this company is and communicate our values."

I originally wanted to open up in MacArthur Park, which is the area of LA where I live, which is kind of a desert in terms of coffee concepts, and in terms of even restaurants really.

We worked on a lease with a company for nine months, and right as we were about to sign he brought on a retail consultant, and the consultant said, "Oh, this area's going to be huge in a few years. Don't give anybody a below market lease." And we were about to get this amazing below market lease that was a dollar a square foot, and yada, yada, yada. So, to have it kind of pulled out from us at the last minute was really upsetting.

But the broker that we'd originally worked with said, "Hey, I really like you guys. I'm going to find something fantastic for you." And he found something in Hollywood, which was not a great fit. And then, he found something else that was they weren't really marketing it, but he had said, "I want something cool in there," the landlord. So, they connected us, and we just got this amazing, amazing deal, and the landlord's just been really nice and really supportive. And we got a great lease deal. So now, we're opening in Hollywood in a great location in a great building. And the only really ... The closest thing that there is to specialty coffee is just a Starbucks that's maybe three, four blocks away. So, we're really looking forward to jumping into that space, and having a cool new option for the neighborhood.

Kaldi:
Have you had a lot of challenges doing the construction?

Compelling:
Yeah. Nothing ever goes 100% the plan. From the very beginning, everything has been consistent. We haven't really compromised on the kind of quality that we want to do or the bar flow of the space. Which was great because the health department can be really difficult to deal with, especially in LA. But we have everything set up to be a very efficient bar flow space where it's going to be at all times one barista working it, and rarely we'll have a second barista in there. Just if it gets busy or when we add kitchen service. But we're going to be very focused on takeout, partnering with Uber Eats, partnering with schools and offices in the area. And it's right in the middle of the residential area, but it's also off of the Hollywood Boulevard main drag. We're going to have a cool ability to hit those two little markets of commercial and school stuff, and then a residential people coming in every day from the apartments and houses around there.

Kaldi:
Which architect are you working with?

Compelling:
Fathom Architects. He's kind of new. He's done one other restaurant in LA, but this was a friend of my business partner.

Kaldi:
You said you have the business partner. What motivated you guys to start? Were you baristas before or roasters? What kind of motivated you to start a coffee company?

Compelling:
My business partner is actually just partnering with me to open the shop, but Compelling is my domain in terms of roasting, and wholesale, and all that. I originally started the company just because I love restaurants and I worked in restaurants forever, and I was in grad school and did a little project on the coffee market and the commodities market. And I saw some really cool stuff going there, so I eventually just became a coffee nerd. And from there, I learned a little bit about coffee, and I learned enough to be like, okay, this is the kind of espresso that I like, this is what a good espresso should taste like, and that was pretty much it.

And then, I ended up taking a consulting job with a cafe in Santa Monica that they also hired the trainer of 49 Parallels to come out. And she was the first Canadian woman barista champion. So, I ended up learning a lot from her, and I also learned a lot from another guy who went on to be one of the main coffee guys for a company called Temple Coffee.

He's since left and he's doing stuff more on the green side of stuff. But I learned so much more from them, and eventually just kept working on that knowledge, and then figuring out that, oh, I kind of like stuff that's a little bit more medium roasted. And now, I kind of like stuff that's a little bit lighter roasted. Well, what kind of lighter roasted coffee? And eventually I said, "Well, I'm just going to go for it. I'm going to roast some coffee at home, and give it out to my friends. And if it's no good, then I'll drink it myself." So, I got a cheap little Behmor roaster. I don't know if you've seen those.

Kaldi:
Yeah, like the $300 drum roaster. Yep.

Compelling:
Yeah. And set it up in my living room, and I just started learning about roasting coffee at a very basic level. And I would buy smaller batches of stuff off eBay. And at the time, this was beginning of 2011, end of 2010, there really were no resources like that in Los Angeles. Intelligencia had just opened I believe. Other than that, there was The Cafe Organico, and a really good coffee shop called Linea Cafe, and they were the height of specialty stuff in Los Angeles at the time. So, I did a lot of things where I would just hang out on internet forums, ask a lot of questions. I was lucky enough to have a good working relationship with somebody who had worked for another company. So, he kind of talked me through the basics, and then we had coffee together. And at some point he said, "Hey, these are getting really good. Have you ever thought about selling them?"

So, I made a little website and I thought, okay, I'm going to sell Geishas, and Kenyas, and stuff that's really expensive in small batches because I didn't really expect a ton of volume. And it was just something that I thought, okay, I'm going to do this casually as a side hustle. And within three months of me putting up the website, we won an award for one of the coffees on Coffee Review.

And from there, we started getting people who would randomly come to the website from Wisconsin or whatever and buy the coffee, and they would keep coming back and buy the coffee. At the time, I was buying these super expensive coffees. The cheapest one that we bought was a small batch of Kenya, and it was $9 a pound for just the grain. And we were not really making money on after shipping the coffee, but things just streamlined, and like I said, it eventually-

Kaldi:
Were you still still roasting on the home roaster at that time?

Compelling:
Oh yeah. We had our first order with LA Coffee Club that was approaching a wholesale order, and they wanted something like 30 pounds for that first order. And it was just all going out to mail order people. At the time, my roaster was just doing eight ounce batches that I was comfortable with. So, I roasted everything, stayed up for a day straight, and just knocked it all out.

Kaldi:
Awesome. Now, what are you roasting on now? Do you have a co-roaster, or are you guys borrowing something, or what's your roaster set-up now?

Compelling:
That's not something I'm super comfortable talking about just because we're in the middle of transition stuff, but we have a much larger roaster.

Kaldi:
What do you, in terms of green buying, are you doing direct, or are you buying through Royal, or all kinds of suppliers right now, or what's your supply of coffee like now? I'm just curious.

Compelling:
Oh, we're lucky enough that we're buying in a volume that we can set relationships with. It doesn't always mean that were going down to origin, and we're cherry picking the coffee, and trying to negotiate for full containers of coffee. But we do have relationships that we've set up over the year that we're able to use on getting our larger purchases of coffee set up. And everything else, we just have really good relationships with people at Royal Coffee, Collaborative Coffee Source that they kind of know at this point what we're looking for in terms of higher quality and cup profile.

And they also know that we're not afraid to search out stuff that's a little bit on the weird side, like Indonesians, maybe Tanzania. It just comes down to the cup quality. We have a Timor coffee, East Timor, on our menu. It actually just got off our menu now that I'm looking at it. Those are just one of my favorite coffees. There's some stuff from East Timor that is so vibrant and so clean. I love selling them.

Kaldi:
Yeah. I think in third wave, those countries tend to be less popular, like Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea. So, I think it's cool that you’re roasting. I think people are opening their mind again towards roast profiles, too.

Compelling:
Oh yeah, I totally agree.

Kaldi:
Yeah. I think people are kind of re-engaging Brazil, and Mexico, and some of those. Even Hawaii. I live in Hawaii, and the coffee market here, I think there's a lot of, I don't know if you've had a lot of Hawaiian coffee, but they tend to ...

Compelling:
Yeah. We sold a mocha from Maui a few years ago, and it was really tasty.

We're not dogmatic at all, but there is stuff that I've learned as we have grown that we like to stick to in terms of making things accessible for not just new customers who are trying us out for the first time, but people who have a certain idea of what they think coffee should taste like, and that is what it has always tasted like. We do stuff that is kind of a good middle ground for them. I'm really, really proud of our dark roast. I think we spend more time, too, seeing that roast. Not just because it's one of our biggest sellers, but because that's our first introduction for a lot of roasters, or for a lot of people who drink our coffee, whether it's baristas in a coffee bar, or people who order a bag directly.

Kaldi:
Is that the Blueprint seasonable? How are you approaching the blending?

Compelling:
Yeah. Everything is blended with seasonal coffees that come in. We try to keep everything within a year of harvest. So right now, we have our Brown Betty blend, and that's our best selling espresso that it's kind of our baseline. It's almost always 50% of our Blueprint coffee that's roasted to a little bit of a I wouldn't necessarily say lighter degree, but it's less developed. And then, another 50% of the seasonal African, or like a brighter South American coffee.

And it always has that same profile of just milk chocolate as opposed to dark chocolates, light brown sugar as opposed to, I don't know, burnt caramel, and jam-y fruits as opposed to grilled fruits or brighter fruit juice. We want that to be something that is just very, very accessible in terms of a food coffee. That's a big seller with restaurants. And something that's very consistent for a specialty espresso bar. And I find that probably 60% of our specialty bar clients are using Brown Betty, and pretty much all of them are saying, "Hey, everybody who comes in here is happy." There's occasionally specialty-minded consumers who want something that's just bright, bright, bright, and for them we have a third blend called Copperhead, and that's always lighter roasted, East African coffees, and/or lighter roasted Latin American coffees that are just focused on brightness, acidity, nuance.

Something cool that we're going to be doing with our shop, which we haven't really talked about too much in terms of what we're going to do at our shop, but we're definitely going to have our baseline espresso blend, and then we're also going to have a selection of almost every one of our single origins that we have on bar, and those are going to be pre dosed out, and pre ground in an EK. So, if you want to upgrade your drink to a single origin espresso, it's there for you.

Kaldi:
What's your setup going to be? Are you doing under counter, or what kind of equipment are going to be installing in the coffee shop?

Compelling:
Marzocco Linea.  For the espresso grinder an EK 43 for batch and drip bags if people want it ground. And Fetco for batch.

Kaldi:
I'm curious to know a little bit more. What's your long-term vision? Right now, you're probably 50% wholesale and the rest direct. What do you expect the shop to ... Do you imagine opening many shops, or you think you'll be happy with one, or what's your vision for the next few years?

Compelling:
Right now, we're probably two thirds wholesale, and another third split between direct to consumer, and our subscription stuff. Our subscription stuff is really, really great, but this first shop that we're opening it's definitely a new direction for us.  This is a proof of concept for us where if this works, we're going to take the concept and just run with it.

Compelling:
So, the second location we are kind of figuring out if we want to have it be a roaster retailer location. I personally don't, but it may make sense just depending on the lease. And we want our second or third location to be something that has a kitchen so we can bake off all our pastries, and just have it be kind of a commentary for our locations. But other than that, we really want to stick to 300 square feet for our average shop size. I like having a concept that's maybe just a takeout window. I don't know if you've been to Dinette in Echo Park, or-

Kaldi:
Well, the nice thing about the small footprint is the labor costs. I like the 300 square foot size for making it easier to manage.

Compelling:
Well on labor costs, I really don't mind paying it. I'm happy to be a job creator, and I'm happy to work with people who are invested in coffee, and give them the kind of benefits that I had when I was trying to learn a little bit more about coffee. And there are also some people that just genuinely love working in hospitality, and I would love to have them be a part of the day of the customers that come to our cafes, and experience our brands.

The small shop it's more to me about efficiency. You could definitely make the argument that if you have a slightly larger space, and you have multiple employees each doing one thing that it's maybe a little bit more efficient. But the way that we designed behind the counter, everything is within arms reach for one barista, and everything just gets restocked daily. It's just a question of one barista coming in, and customers having that consistency and experience with the barista. What I'm planning to do with the shop is just have one full-time barista, and then have a relief shift come in for busier mornings and weekends. One really good full-time employee, and then a couple of really good part-time employees.

Kaldi:
Are you still funding this through you and your partner... I'm just curious about the financing. Is this all kind of self-driven?

Compelling:
We got really lucky in that not only we had great lease terms, but everything's kind of getting financed on my end through the support of our wholesale partners and the business. We didn't really take on any debt to do this. And that was something that I was passionate about early on is we're not going to open a coffee shop until there's a demand for it. And there's been a demand for it, which is great.

And then, my business partner also came in because he was a longtime customer. And we kind of kept in touch, and had the same ideas about what we want to do in restaurants, and he wants to do other restaurant concepts besides just a simple specialty coffee shop that in terms of the branding is not going to benefit him. He wants to do wine bars, and a bunch of other stuff. As much as we say this is a proof of concept for Compelling, it's also a proof of concept for our partnership.

Kaldi:
What other roasters are you really into right now? Just ...

Compelling:
I had a really tremendous natural Ethiopian coffee from Tim Wendelbow awhile back.

Yeah. He's a Nordic roaster. They mostly do higher end, lighter roasted stuff, but it was just a really, really sweet coffee. I sent the sample to a buddy of mine from the bag that I got, and we both agree that it just tasted like there was simple syrup in the coffee. It was really nice.

George Howell is also really great.

Kaldi:
Anyone else in LA that you like a lot?

Compelling:
I really like Alana's. He does a really good job with developing the coffees that I think is missing from a lot of LA roasters who are whatever, roasting some of the best stuff apparently. And he also sources really interesting green coffees, which I feel like there's not enough of that. And he's another guy who he started off doing farmer's markets, and graduated into doing his own shop. But his coffee's really, really great.

Kaldi:
Nice. Anyway, last question I have is I'm just curious about your packaging and the product design. Was that done in house, or did you guys ... It looks really nice and consistent. Do you want to tell me about that, or ...

Compelling:
Oh yeah, that was all me actually.

Kaldi:
Oh, well it looks great. I was just curious what ... They're geometric patterns. It's pretty well developed I think. It looks consistent and modern, so nice work on that.

Compelling:
Thank you. We've had good feedback on these bags. We're going to be keeping the box design for our single origins I think down the line, but within the past couple months we've been saying, "Hey, this is great. This is working for us, but what's something that we can do that's maybe even better?" So, I think we're going to be doing something similar to ... There's a few roasters that do this where they have a specific printed bag for some of their coffee skews, and just has all the coffee info on the bag instead of a label. Because putting our boxes together is really nice, but for some of our more economical coffees it's just a lot to take that time to put them together.

So, it's not just for the speed of getting things turned around in production, but we'll maybe even be able to have a better price point for certain coffees like Blueprints. And I think that's really crucial depending on ... For people who buy coffee based on pricing, it seems like you look at grocery stores, and you can get a bag of Stumptown for 14.99. You can go on Amazon and get it for 14.99 and it's free shipping. That's not something that we can necessarily do when we look at wholesale costs right now, but I'm looking forward to doing a new design that maybe we can start approaching something like that.

Kaldi:
Is your espresso usually your favorite drink, or how do you drink coffee usually?

Compelling:
I love drip, but whenever I go into one of our wholesale accounts I always check the espresso. And I always enjoy it thankfully. But if it's something that I'm just drinking at home, I mean I'm drinking a V60 right now.

If you're looking for something that's a lot more consistent than a V60, but it's not necessarily capable of hitting the ceiling for excellence as a V60 does. I really like the Clever Brewer. Bonavita makes one that's really great that I have around the house, and then the Bonavita 1900 TS which is an FDA certified brewer is a mini batch brewer. But that's really nice to have, too.

Kaldi:
This is all great. We can’t wait to try your new shop in LA. Anything else you’d like to add?

Compelling:
We're just all about hospitality. At the end of the day, I feel like that's what makes a really lasting experience, and a brand that stays around in a business where there's a lot of roasters who start up with a lot of cash and flash, and then they just don't last. My employees all know as well we have a strict no shit talking policy. A very strict no shit talking policy. Number one, just because it makes us look bad to do back lighting. number two, just because we're all in the same industry. There's room for everybody. If you're going into a shop and saying like, "I don't like this coffee," and you're representing Compelling, it's going to get back to us, and then it's going to get back to me, and that's just not good.

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(This interview was conducted as part of a premium coffee subscription program called Kaldi in  2020 that is no longer in operation  due to COVID 19  Business Closures).