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What are characteristics that you’re looking for with a Heart coffee?

It all goes back to getting really good green coffee. Everybody will say that. Get good green coffee and just don’t skimp out on things. Be consistent in what you’re doing, and log everything, and don’t burn it. Don’t over-roast it. Try to showcase what coffee has to offer instead of over-developing it, as a lot of Northwesterners do. It’s just a very traditional way of roasting coffee. I don’t think that way works best, but some people like it.

Was it always important for you to have a café as part of your business?

No. Originally I wanted to have a café and not roast, but I realized I actually wanted to roast. I did a lot of roasting at the beginning, and now Josh [Hydeman] is doing 90% of the roasting. I’m more of helping define profiles and dialing in new coffees and buying new coffee. I would love to have a roastery separate from the café that I work at, but we’re not there yet. One day.

Describe a typical coffee drinking day, from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed.

I come into work. I won’t have any coffee, not for awhile. We usually cup first, at nine in the morning, go through profiles and all the batches in production, to make sure they taste the way we want them to, consistently, and see if there are any problems. I may have one coffee or espresso around noon, and then I might have one more coffee in the afternoon, but I don’t drink that much coffee. In the beginning, I think I was consuming a lot, but two coffees is enough, and cupping coffees is enough for me. That’s my favorite way of consuming coffee, is cupping.

What’s your preferred brewing method at home?

I brew on either Aeropress or Chemex. Those are my two favorite ways of brewing coffee.

Do you ever work behind the bar?

Sometimes.

What sort of music do you like to listen to while you’re behind the bar?

In the beginning, I was playing a lot of sonic and minimal techno. In the café, more like electronic music, I guess.

If you could pull a guest shift at any other coffee bar for one day, what would it be and how come?

I would like to work a shift at Cafe Myriade in Montreal, just to see how Anthony [Benda] and those guys do it. I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard great things and seen pictures. It sounds amazing.

If you could only drink one more shot of espresso, who would pull it for you?

I’m not really that excited about espresso, but it would probably be one of my employees.