BY HOWARD BRYMAN

or billions of people F around the world Micro every morning, life begins with coffee.

For millions of people in farming communities between the tropics of of the Cancer and Capricorn, life depends on Roaster Year coffee. Yet for Amavida Coffee Roasters, Barista Coby McGraw slinging lattes at Amavida’s St. Andrews cafe in Panama Beach, Florida. | Photo by life isn’t just about coffee; it’s about Jack Gardner people. Amavida founders Dan and Sally Bailey and their crew of roasters, THE WINNER’S STATS AMAVIDA COFFEE ROASTERS baristas, creatives, technicians and administrators are not only cognizant of the fact that coffee is a delicate, natural product that changes lives at every link along the chain from coffee farm to coffee shop—they are motivated by it. As the company name implies ESTABLISHED | 2004 (“ama vida” is Spanish for “love life”), these coffee people love the LOCATION | great balancing act of a life in coffee, keeping the best interests of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida every stakeholder in mind while stewarding the bean from farm to EMPLOYEES | 44 (full-time, part-time and seasonal) cup. LEADERSHIP | Founded 13 years ago on the Florida Panhandle, the business Dan and Sally Bailey, founders now includes three cafes on the Gulf Coast, with another slated RETAIL LOCATIONS | Three (a fourth is opening in to open in March 2018, along with a roastery and headquarters in March 2018) Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. That means Amavida must navigate both ROASTERS (MACHINES) | A Diedrich IR-24 and a the natural ebb and flow of patronage in a tourism-fueled area as Loring S35 Kestrel well as the ramifications of larger dips in the economy. “When the economy goes south, here we see quite a bit of ROASTING OUTPUT | 90,000 pounds (2016 total) impact. It’s like a double whammy,” says Dan Bailey, who takes pride WEBSITE | amavida.com in Amavida’s resilience. “If somebody can survive in a business down here in this market, they can survive anywhere. It’s really challenging, and on top of that, we have risks like hurricanes.” When the Baileys agreed that Dan would exit his corporate job to scale his coffee roasting passion into a business, they envisioned a business that would involve and support the family while serving and supporting their local community. And yet, as he stepped up from a hot-air popcorn popper to a 3-kilo Diedrich roaster, studied the industry and attended specialty coffee-focused events, it became clear it wasn’t only small towns along the Gulf Coast that could benefit from a well-run coffee roasting business.

STORIES IN THE BEANS

“I’m roasting the coffee, so I get to tell the story of the coffee, and it’s Director of Coffee Martin Trejo roasting with Cropster. | Photo by AMAVIDA COFFEE ROASTERS Members of the Amavida Coffee Roasters team at the company’s new headquarters in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. really interesting,” says Martin Trejo, Amavida’s director of coffee, Jack Gardner Photo by Jack Gardner CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

22 November | December 2017 23 Micro Roaster of the Year AMAVIDA COFFEE ROASTERS (continued)

Amavida coffee-producing partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo during a visit to support Project Congo. | Photo courtesy of On the Ground Global

who transitioned from the role of training coordinator into full-time roaster more than three years ago. Trejo profiles coffees to bring out their most origin-indicative characteristics. He has found Congolese coffees particularly engaging, and recalls the beginning of Amavida’s relationship with one young cooperative to which the company has remained loyal. “The first year we got it, we had a hard time using it,” he says of the co-op’s coffee. “We wanted to buy the coffee to support the farmers, but at the same time, it wasn’t very good. It was kind of all over the place. From bag to bag, it was spotty, and that’s what we expected because they had only been producing coffee for a few years.” The quality of the coffee has skyrocketed since the partnership began, he adds. Jonathan Williams—a former Amavida barista, now a cafe owner and client of the company—brewing on an Alpha Dominche machine at the “Each year, through the support of On the Ground, through the Amavida cafe in Seaside, Florida. | Photo by Jack Gardner support of the people that had been buying their coffee, they really increased their productivity and the quality of the product, and it’s pretty incredible to be a part of that,” he says. On the Ground Global (OTG) is a nonprofit organization that coordinates and supports community development and sustainability initiatives in coffee-growing regions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, Ethiopia and other countries. Amavida got involved with OTG in 2011 when the nonprofit launched Project Ethiopia, which was supported by Cooperative Coffees. (Cooperative Coffees is a group of roasters that imports coffee directly from small-scale farms and cooperatives; Amavida became a member in 2006.) Project Ethiopia raised roughly $300,000 with its Run Across Ethiopia, for which 16 ultra- marathoners ran 400 kilometers (almost 250 miles) in 11 days. Sally Bailey took daughter Caroline, then 10 years old, on a Cooperative Coffees origin trip that occurred in conjunction with the Amavida founder and CEO Dan Bailey visiting coffee producers at Maya project. Vinic co-op in Chiapas, Mexico. | Photo by Jack Gardner CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

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“[We] got to witness the run and go to all the farming both a certified B Corporation and a Florida Benefit Corporation, communities, and meet them and learn their struggles,” Sally two designations that attest to its commitment to measure and recalls. manage its social and environmental impact. It even banks with Inspired by that experience, Amavida has since joined the another certified B Corp, the local, independent First Green Bank. board of OTG and routinely sources coffees through its initiatives, As such, Amavida is driven not only to make a positive impact at including the Congolese coffee Trejo mentioned. origin, but also to be a responsible steward of the environment “It’s very much integrated into our supply chain,” says Dan, and make positive impacts on the communities it calls home. adding, “There’s a lot of people doing great work [at origin]. I hope “Certainly farmers, on our coffee side, are very important to other people may see what we’re seeing on the other side, which us. We want to create impact, but we also have a responsibility in is that we’ve got to do more for growers than just buying their our own community,” says Dan, who works with local schools to coffee. We have to find alternate solutions. I don’t mean that in a educate students on environmental issues. “Real change comes way that we’re enabling them. I’m looking at real creative ways to with working with schools, particularly with the generations that create impact in a community that we’re working with. I think that’s are following.” everybody’s challenge that works with coffee, that really works with To that end, Amavida partnered with a local school, The it in a serious way and cares.” Ohana Institute, on a social entrepreneurship program through which a group of high school students conceptualized and QUANTIFYING CORPORATE IMPACT designed their own nonprofit coffee company. The project culminated in an actual roasted coffee product, with all proceeds The inclination to seize opportunities to drive positive change is supporting clean water initiatives in Chiapas, Mexico. The interwoven into the very fabric of Amavida Coffee. The company is students traveled to Chiapas with an Amavida team, making personal connections with their supply chain. Dan also brings special guests into his daughter’s school on a quarterly basis to speak about issues pertaining to sustainability, such as how to protect local clean-water sources and ecosystems, and how to deal with waste. All Amavida cafes, offices and the roastery are powered by renewable wind energy, and the company’s burlap sacks, spent grounds and chaff are offered to the community free of charge for gardening and composting. While the local county government and taxpayers have yet to prioritize recycling as an essential public service, Amavida recognizes the critical importance of such programs, so it collects all of its own paper and cardboard recyclables and delivers them to a nearby recycling center. When Amavida began using only World Centric paper Amavida’s business development manager, Adrian Edge, playing ukulele products—100 percent compostable and made by a fellow with children in Chiapas, Mexico, during a delegation trip with On the certified B Corporation that’s carbon neutral and donates 25 Ground Global. | Photo by Jack Gardner percent of its profits to progressive causes—Dan convinced other local businesses to do the same. Amavida now serves as a regional distributor for the company. Jennifer Pawlik, program manager and benefit officer for Amavida, compiles a sustainability report for the company every year, documenting its achievements and ongoing efforts to continuously improve its environmental impact. This year, she notes, the company can finally report that it uses 100 percent local, organic milk. That’s been listed as a challenge for several years because, until recently, there have been local options and organic options, but never a milk option that was both. In seeking out a local, organic milk, Amavida “helped create a route and a market among other businesses in the area,” Pawlik says. “Now our big challenge is going to be recycling,” she adds, Amavida sells bracelets made by female artisans from coffee-producing chuckling at the irony. “We have nowhere to go with all these communities in Chiapas, Mexico—pictured with representatives from On the milk jugs.” Ground Global—to support Project Chiapas. | Photo by Jack Gardner CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

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THE AMAVIDA FAMILY says. “Now she’s in school and things are getting a bit easier, but my life changes every quarter. My world wraps around that kid, While outreach with the communities outside Amavida’s doors is and they’ve just been amazing here. Our manager jumps through important, it has always been equally important to support the a lot of hoops to get everybody the schedule they need.” community on the inside. The company is proud of its “diverse and inclusive workforce,” all of whom are paid living wages; eligible for LOVE THE UPS, LOVE THE DOWNS full-time benefits at 28 hours per week; offered access to financial and substance abuse counseling, if needed; and provided flexible Life happens, and when it does, the Amavida credo is to embrace scheduling options to accommodate outside pursuits and/or the it with courage and confidence, lumps and all, then learn from the demands of raising a family—because after all, Amavida is a family experience and look back on it fondly. When the company was still business. relatively new, for example, the Baileys accepted a 1,000-bag order, “I’m a single mother, and I’ve been a single mother since I which precipitated the decision to step up from a Diedrich IR-3 to started working for Dan seven years ago,” says Amavida employee an IR-12. Dan describes the installation of the new machine as “a Nicole Cheney. “That means my schedule is very set. I can’t just jump comedy of errors.” up and run somewhere at the drop of a hat.” For starters, the ceramic burners had cracked during shipping. Cheney says Dan’s concern for her family obligations facilitated “It was a scary moment,” Dan recalls. “I lit it [and] there were her progression from barista to wholesale accounts manager. flames shooting out.” He called Diedrich and a remarkably patient “He saw an opportunity for me to better myself within the and kind Idaho mountain climber put him at ease, and promptly company,” she says, “and also because if something happens with shipped replacement burners, which Dan installed himself. my daughter, if she’s sick, I can bring her here with me. I can work “Now think about that for a moment,” he says. “It just blew from home. It’s very open.” up on you. You’ve never worked on it before, and now you have Sunni Ellis, Amavida’s trainer and outreach coordinator, is to light it again. That was a moment. Took me a while to get another employee who has progressed within the company, though comfortable, but we got through it. It’s been a lot of fun.” she left for a few years to continue her education and start a family. Another “fun” moment came years later, when Dan decided That family would be a direct catalyst for her return, when she to build a mobile espresso bike, simultaneously indulging his handed her phone to her 2-year-old daughter one day—to keep her passion for setting an eco-friendly example and his infatuation entertained while loading groceries into the car—and the toddler with the Dutch bakfiets cargo bike design. The sales projections inadvertently connected with Ellis’s former boss, Dan Bailey, on justified the idea, and everyone at the company loved it, though FaceTime. there was a certain dubiousness to the venture. “I started pulling out and all of a sudden I hear a voice coming “That was a crazy dream,” says Dan. “Of course people thought from the back of the car,” she recalls. “It was a male voice, and it we were crazy, even though the idea sounded cool. I can’t tell you gave me a little bit of a startle.” how many Home Depot trips we made trying to figure out how to As it turned out, Amavida was hiring at the time, and Ellis ended design the system to make it work.” up rejoining the company. She cites the flexibility Amavida offers its And they did make it work: a fully operational two-group employees as a big draw. Rancilio manual-lever espresso machine installed on a beautiful, “We were having issues with my daughter being so young, and wooden cart built onto a pedal-powered cargo trike, complete we were trying to figure out how to have that working balance,” she with a sink, condiment station, canopy and point of sale. It soon became a regular feature at a local farmers market. “We were doing it because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we could,” says Jacob Thompson, Amavida’s general manager of cafe operations, “and kind of like advertising, showing folks the things that Amavida does, that we’re always trying new stuff and either it works out or it doesn’t.” Eventually there came a week when the Seaside Farmers Market was relocated to Gratin Beach, about a mile down the shore. Caught by surprise, the barista who generally took charge of the bike — a tall, slender, avid cyclist—figured he might as well ride it over there. It was a bike after all, albeit an incredibly heavy, fixed-gear bike. Unfortunately, as he was passing by Western Lake, the bike started veering off the path, and he was unable to steer it or stop it. “He came pretty close to turning it into an espresso boat,” jokes LEFT From left: Sally, Caroline and Dan Bailey. RIGHT Dan Bailey and quality Thompson. consultant Dale Hampton, 2004. | Photos courtesy of Amavida Coffee CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

28 November | December 2017 29 Micro Roaster of the Year AMAVIDA COFFEE ROASTERS (continued)

Dan Bailey (second from right) with producers and delegates from On the From left: Cafe manager Megan O’Conner with chef and barista Scotty Ground Global and Cooperative Coffees at Maya Vinic co-op in Chiapas, McMullan and barista Coby McGraw at Amavida’s St. Andrews location. Mexico. | Photo by Jack Gardner Photo by Jack Gardner

The whole contraption rolled straight toward the lake, got stuck and production together under one roof. While manufacturing had in the silt and started taking on water. Thankfully, no one was hurt. yet to occur in the new space at press time, with organic and other The equipment was retrieved, and the bike did live to ride again. It certifications still pending, a shiny new Loring S35 Kestrel was has since been converted into a nitro cold-brew dispenser, though already assembled and ready, waiting to usher Amavida yet another everyone looks back fondly on the espresso bike that sounded great stride forward in efficiency, consistency and quality. on paper and was, though relatively short-lived, an impressive feat There aren’t many things that keep Dan Bailey awake at night, he of ingenuity. says, but the “big black hole into the sky” emitted by his and other roasters’ older-fashioned equipment is one of them. He believes GETTING BETTER ALL THE TIME the industry has yet to focus heavily enough on improving its environmental impact. And with Amavida’s wholesale roasted coffee The lake-bound bike and the cracked Diedrich burner exemplify sales up 30 percent in the past year alone, improving the company’s more than Amavida’s ability to smile at and bounce back from efficiency and mitigating its carbon emissions has taken on even foibles. That same devotion to continuous improvement can also be more urgency. seen in the company’s successes. “We’re always looking to find ways to improve, and the Loring Colt Austin, Amavida’s operations manager, takes particular was a really good fit for that,” Dan says. “It certainly helps us on the pride in his team’s unrelenting drive toward improvement over environmental side, and likewise, it’s still addressing the quality the past several years as the company has voluntarily undertaken side.” good manufacturing practices audits by the U.S. Food and Drug He and Trejo will be visiting the roasteries of fellow Cooperative Administration. During its first audit three years ago, Amavida Coffees members for pointers on the Loring, to which they anticipate scored 97 out of 100. Austin recalls the auditor telling him that was transferring the lion’s share of production by the end of the year. fairly unprecedented, as the typical first-time score is about 90. “It’ll be a whole learning process,” says Trejo, “but it’s always fun “The next year, in 2015, we made some improvements based to learn new stuff.” on that audit, and got a 98,” Austin beams. “Then this past year, in And yet, the excitement over the flashy new machinery is hedged 2016, we got a 98.2. … To have our team here be able to execute that, by the bittersweet reality of parting with the old machines that at and to find ways where we could improve from that [first] audit this point feel like members of the family. just to increase 1.2 points, it’s really impressive. We strive for quality “You know, it’s like an old dance partner,” Dan muses. “If we do and safety here at the roastery. Quality is quality, but you have [sell the old roasters], it’s going to be emotional. … We’ll definitely to have good processes, good ways of doing things to get those want to hang onto one for a little bit, at least. You can’t kick your accomplished. I was very proud of that.” dance partner off the floor.”

AHEAD OF THE CURVE HOWARD BRYMAN is a journalist who focuses on the specialty coffee industry. He currently serves as associate editor at Projects like the espresso bike show both the team and the public dailycoffeenews.com. With experience as a barista, trainer, manager, that Amavida Coffee Roasters is not afraid to combine craft and roaster’s apprentice, origin tourist and equipment tinkerer, Bryman technology. The Alpha Dominche Steampunk brewers in the relishes the opportunity to scrutinize coffee almost as much as he enjoys company’s Seaside and Rosemary Beach locations is a more drinking it. permanent demonstration of this spirit. Another example lies ahead, in the company’s new 10,000-square-foot headquarters, which will at last bring administration, training, the cupping lab MACRO ROASTER OF THE YEAR ON PAGE 32

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