We recently completed our North America Roastshow, in partnership with Nucleus Coffee Tools. Here's a wrap-up of the events from James Shepherd.
"This started as an idea for getting the Nucleus LINK more recognition on the West Coast of the US and Canada and also to create some exclusive sneak peeks at the new up-and-coming coffee distribution tool, the NCD Pulse.
The format was to see if we could find a host partner willing to let us use their space and let us invite coffee industry people to a two-hour workshop - all free of charge - with a focus on education and connecting with the coffee community. Once we discussed this with a few potential hosts, they were all extremely generous and supportive of the idea and were gracious enough to say yes! So, what began as a three to four-location event in just a few cities, became an adventure with a total of 9 hosts across 7 states and two countries!
The Roastshow developed into the idea of offering hands-on workshops and demonstrations with LINK from the people themselves who helped create and develop the software. We were fortunate to be joined by Jerome Rosler from Nucleus Coffee Tools. Jerome has an impressive career in the coffee industry, having competed in coffee championships and coached numerous national champions in developing their roast profiles. Most notably, in 2024, Jerome used the LINK to develop the coffee used by Austria's Martin Wölfl, the World Brewers Cup Champion 2024.
La Marzocco Canada was the first company to agree to host us in the beautiful city and location of Vancouver, Canada. The team at LM Canada was so good at helping us and guiding us through the first event. They also helped invite industry people they are connected to. This was our first time running the LINK and NCD Pulse workshop and we had a great turnout from the Vancouver coffee community, with many questions and people wanting to know more about both LINK and NCD Pulse.
The following morning, we moved down to the US and the city of Portland, Oregon where Proud Mary Coffee Roasters hosted us. Portland has a strong connection with the coffee community and is the home to some great companies like Black Rabbit Service Team, Heart Coffee Roasters, and Roast magazine, along with so many great roasters and coffee shops. We had companies drive down from Seattle to take part. Jerome and myself were still learning the format, but we had already developed a system to break the attendees into groups after the main presentation from Jerome. This would allow more people the individual time to spend on LINK and then the NCD Pulse.
Leaving Portland, we travelled down to San Fransisco and were hosted by Counter Culture Coffee at their training space. Then we drove down to the LA area and were hosted by Copa Vida. Both of these cities are vast but both offer some great coffee shops and roasters. The support we received from Copa Vida and Counter Culture Coffee was the reason we love our industry and remember how lucky we are. LINK is a great word and the one word that can bring us all together.
The following cities and hosts were, Proud Mary in Austin, Texas, and LDU Coffee in Dallas, where we had one person make a 12-hour round trip drive to take part in the workshop and purchase two LINKS after the event in Dallas! These are two great cities for food and coffee, with fantastic hosts who looked after us and helped to promote the event around their network.
Denver, Colorado with Corvus Coffee Roasters was our next stop, and Jerome was keen to do a workshop in Colorado because of the altitude. We all know Denver as the mile-high city, but this was a great way for Jerome to highlight the fan-trim with the LINK and let people understand how the LINK can adjust the fan speed depending on the altitude. In theory, this should run faster at the higher altitude and help develop the coffee to profile in the same way in Denver as it would at sea level - and it did just that!
The second-last stop was Durham, North Carolina, where we were hosted by Counter Culture Coffee at their HQ and training space. This event was our biggest attendance and we had a great evening there, making some really good connections with our existing wholesale accounts and some new people, too. When you consider what had just happened in North Carolina just a few days before we arrived, we were honoured that people made the effort to come and attend this event. This was our eighth time presenting LINK and NCD Pulse and wihle we had developed the presentation and workshops by that point, we also had a great group of people to present to and work with. The coffee scene in North Carolina seems a very strong and helpful coffee community, with a willingness to support and help!
Our final stop on this Roastshow was Minneapolis for Coffee Fest and our workshop at SK Coffee Roasters. This was our final workshop and demonstration, and we had friends who were at Coffee Fest attend and support. We also had people who had heard about the LINK Roastshow through Eventbrite who were not in the coffee industry attend to learn and know more.
What have we learned along this roast trip? I think what stood out across the 2 countries, 12 days, and 9 cities was the coffee community - everyone was welcoming and wanted to learn more about the companies and products.
We could not have put this together without our host partners, La Marzocco, Proud Mary, Counter Culture Coffee, Copa Vida, LDU Coffee, Corvus Coffee, and SK Coffee roasters. Thank you for the support from Jerome at Nucleus Coffee Tools. Please look out for more road trips next year and if you are interested in knowing more about the workshops or hosting future road trips with us, please email us at [email protected] or [email protected].
We look forward to seeing you on future Roastshows in 2025!
Thank you!
James"
Photo credit: La Marzocco Canada.
