Nathan Parvin and Brad Haynes - Baba Java Coffee

Speaker 0 00:00:00 <silence> No, I can't let it down. This pole cry. Speaker 1 00:00:26 Alright guys, we got Baba Java in the house. Thank you for coming over. Hey, Brad. Nathan. Speaker 2 00:00:32 So nice to be here. Yeah, man. Thanks for asking us on. Exactly. Speaker 1 00:00:35 Well, thanks for doing it. I end up talking about Baba Java most episodes <laugh>, because I'm, I'm always drinking coffee on Speaker 2 00:00:41 Here. I know. We were, the question must be asked, what are you drinking today? <laugh>? Speaker 1 00:00:44 This is y'all's cold brew not Oh, yes. With a little bit of raw cows milk in there. A little maple syrup. Speaker 2 00:00:48 No, that sounds good. That's awesome. That's my Speaker 1 00:00:50 Go-to. Do y'all have a go-to? Yes. Uh, if I, Yemen on pour over is one of the best things on the planet. So yeah. Speaker 2 00:00:58 The, the Yemen on pour over is really great. I get our, our Nitro or cold brew mm-hmm. <affirmative>, or I get this one called a creamy cap creamy cappuccino, where it's basically just, uh, espresso with basically espresso and milk shaken up. Yeah. Cold. Real good. Most people get it sweet. But I don't like, I don't like the sugar, so, yeah. Speaker 1 00:01:16 So back to pour over. Exactly. What is that? I hear people talk about their big fans of pour overs. Yeah. Especially people who, who know coffee, their fans of pour overs. What exactly is that? Well, I mean, the, the very basic is just hot water poured over ground coffee. Uh, but what makes it so different is the person, uh, pouring the water can control water temperature, how many it's called pulses. How many times they pour the water. Um, and what shape do you pour the water and which that matters a little nuance extraction Speaker 2 00:01:48 Rate. Yeah. You, if you, if you're an auto auto machine, the extraction rate is whatever pours out, but you get to control it a little bit more so you can Exactly. Speaker 1 00:01:58 So this sounds, this sounds more like chemistry than, there's a lot of science, Speaker 2 00:02:00 A lot of coffee really has a lot of science and chemistry behind it. It really does. It's Speaker 1 00:02:04 So typically on pour overs, you want to get, I mean, for us, we want, we want to finish within two and a half to three minutes. Um, and so you can control that with your grind size, how hot the water is. 'cause if you do a cool cooler temperature water, it will not bruise quickly. And then, for example, like a lightly roasted coffee, which is kinda what we do, more medium roast. It wants hotter water, and so hotter water will extract a little faster. So it's there, there's a lot of chemistry that goes along with it. For sure. So I've heard people mention Chemex. Is that one of the pour Speaker 2 00:02:42 Over? That's one of the, that's one of the brands that that does it. We use the B 60 is another brand Yeah. Is the one we normally use. Exactly. Kinex is one brand. Uh, on our podcast we talk about the different types of pour s and things like that. At the shops, at our shops, we use what's called a pore steady. So it's an automated pour over machine. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So the one, if you go to a lot of, uh, coffee shops, cafe, specialty coffee shops, the baristas can waste. It's not wasting time. But they, they spend a lot of time doing the pour overs. Mm. So they've invented this, this machine called a Pore Steady. And we have, is it four, four Head on that one? Yeah, Speaker 1 00:03:14 Three on that one. Speaker 2 00:03:15 Three head on that one. And we have another one that's two at our, our new shop's coming up. And so it's automated. You, you control all the parameters of it, but it does the same thing as what the barista would be doing with the pour over. Speaker 3 00:03:26 So does things like the, uh, the temperature of the water and the length of time you're pouring the water mm-hmm. <affirmative>, does that affect the strength of the coffee? You know, like how, uh, how much caffeine is in it? Or does that not really play a role? Speaker 2 00:03:37 No, because it's the same amount of water. Exactly. So it's the, but the, but the, the rate is different. The extraction rate, so how fast or that you extract the, the coffee from it is, is determined by those factors. Gotcha. Speaker 1 00:03:50 Strength is determined by your ratio of water to coffee. Okay. That makes sense. So like, cold brew is really strong because it's 10 parts water to one part coffee. Whereas when we're doing pour overs, we're doing 16, somewhere between 15 to 16 parts water to one part coffee. So naturally that's gonna be a weaker drink. I see. Whereas, uh, espresso, which is one of the strongest, the ratio is much tighter, you know? So a lot of coffee, a Speaker 3 00:04:18 Little water. Exactly. Speaker 1 00:04:19 Exactly. Speaker 3 00:04:19 Okay, that makes sense. Well, the reason I have so many questions for you guys is because y'all's shop is honestly the first one that I ever visited where the coffee was noticeably better and more flavorful to me. And I've been to coffee shops all over, but I think it might be because y'all roast your own beans, right? We do. We do. Absolutely. And a lot of shops don't, isn't that right? Speaker 1 00:04:40 Yeah. It's not typical for a coffee shop to do their own roasting, for sure. Speaker 3 00:04:44 Well, I learned that that makes a big difference in the flavor, that coffee for sure. Speaker 1 00:04:48 Um, you know, for us, we, we roast coffee to how we want it to taste. You know, first, you know, we're the first customer <laugh>. Yeah. So we wanted a good coffee that we liked. And so we knew that if we did that, then we'd be able to tailor our coffee shop menu to, um, have drinks that other people would like too. So, um, that's what being your own roaster allows you to do, is you can tailor the coffee flavors to what you want your shop to enhance. And so, and Speaker 2 00:05:23 It starts from the very beginning. So you know for sure we we're, people sent us samples of their coffees that they want us to buy, and we only buy a specialty grade coffee. Will you explain what that means, Brad? Speaker 1 00:05:32 Yeah. What's the difference? Yeah. Uh, in the coffee world, there are basically two types of coffee. There's commodity and there's specialty grade. And so just like any, um, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Uh, any commodity. There are levels, like gold has levels, diamonds, I mean <laugh>. That's right. Like Kramer on levels. Oh Speaker 3 00:05:51 Yeah. <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:05:52 Uh, but they're different levels and standards of quality. Right. So, um, the coffee is graded out of a hundred and if a coffee, um, well, so it actually starts at the origin. So coffee gets planted, gets grown, it gets harvested, um, the seed gets extracted. All right? So once that's where the scoring starts. So seed gets extracted, um, the green coffee before it's roasted gets graded. Alright. And then, uh, once it gets graded as green coffee, then it gets graded on, um, once it's, uh, roasted and, and brewed, it gets a grade then. So all those factors coming together will give it a score, Speaker 3 00:06:33 And that score is the quality. Speaker 1 00:06:35 Right? Right. And so if it's, um, 80 or above is considered specialty grade. Mm. Okay. If it's below 80, it, it goes into the commodity market. Now, where that's important is the commodity market is, it's traded just like any other commodity. Right. All right. And so the price for that coffee is basically based on whatever the market price is. And it fluctuates as we know a lot. And that's just Speaker 3 00:06:59 Bulk coffee. Like Exactly. Speaker 2 00:07:00 Yeah, that's right. Any coffee folder for instance. Right. Exactly. Speaker 3 00:07:03 Kind taste like, or Speaker 2 00:07:04 Most coffee shops, Speaker 1 00:07:05 I mean, even commodity coffee that don't do specialty, like Yeah, that's right. Are buying commodity. So they're buying at various price levels throughout the year. Speaker 3 00:07:13 And, and this is not you guys saying this, but to be honest, a coffee like Folgers or something, and they cure egg. To me, when it's just black, it tastes a lot like ashes. Just water. It does really. Right. It Speaker 1 00:07:23 Really does. A hundred percent. And it's, Speaker 2 00:07:24 That's how that's Well, one, it's the quality of the coffee. Yeah. And two, it's how they roast it, it just Speaker 3 00:07:28 Taste burnt. Speaker 1 00:07:28 Yeah. They, Speaker 2 00:07:28 They, they roast it to be the same. Yeah. Yeah. And so to do, to, in order to achieve that, they have to basically burn the beans. That's what they, that's what they did. Speaker 1 00:07:36 Yeah. That's on the way to achieve. Yeah, that's right. Because medium roasted coffee, the flavors are gonna change a lot over time. But a coffee that is over roasted, they're taking all nuance out of that seed. Any flavor profile that's in that seed is virtually gone when you order it. That's what it Speaker 3 00:07:54 Is. That's, and that's why at Baba Java, it has, I can detect actual flavor in it. Right. It's not just like a kind of a burnt water tank. Exactly. It has different flavors. And so you guys are picking only Speaker 1 00:08:07 Specialty grade, specialty Speaker 3 00:08:08 Grade beans. Okay. But they're all, you know, they're sourced from different regions. Correct. Correct. That's right. What are just a few of the differences between some of the re I'm sure that it's, you know, it's like wine and, you know, different Speaker 1 00:08:17 Grape no doubt. Speaker 3 00:08:18 Grapes. How does Speaker 2 00:08:19 That work? Yep. It really is no doubt. Yep. Speaker 1 00:08:21 There, across the coffee growing world, there are some similar similarities between Latin coffees, east African coffees, east Asian coffees. Um, but even in there, there's a lot of nuance. But typically Latin coffees lean towards more floral, but that's not always the case. You know, east African coffees tend to lean citrus and chocolatey. And then East Southeast Asian coffees typically can be more, or flavors nuttier and those type of things. But, but Speaker 2 00:08:53 There's a variety within those. Yeah. I, it's, one of our first coffees was a Colombian coffee <laugh> that, that tasted like tomato soup, like sweet, sweet Speaker 1 00:09:01 Tomatoes. It was like an heirloom tomato. It was probably our most polarizing coffee too. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:09:06 Because you either loved it or hated it. Yeah. It was, I mean, it was interesting, but it literally tasted like tomatoes. It, it was amazing. It was wild. So Speaker 1 00:09:12 That's one of our craziest ones. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:09:14 Not everybody did. And Speaker 3 00:09:15 It all has different levels of what, acidity and Speaker 1 00:09:18 A hundred percent. That's right. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:09:19 Yeah. Yeah. And it's from the environment. It's from the height where it's growing from. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the altitude. It's from the soil. Yeah. The altitude. It's from the soil. It's from what's, yeah. What's been growing there in the past. What's the, the surrounding flora, all those factors come into what Yeah. To make the notes of the, just like in wine, like what you were saying. Yeah. It's exactly the same thing. Speaker 1 00:09:39 Yeah. Very similar. Very similar. 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Uh, Speaker 2 00:11:06 Our most popular single origin is Ethiopia. Almost always. Okay. Yeah. Just 'cause a lot of people know, Speaker 1 00:11:10 'cause everyone knows that what Speaker 2 00:11:11 Ethiopia is and that they're, they're known for coffee. They were the origin of coffee. So a lot of people love it. Is that right? I like it too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ethiopia is where coffee began. I didn't know that. Yeah. There's lots of different mythical stories about how it, how it originated really. But basically, there was a guy who was a goat herter, and he was, he hurt goats? No. Who would hurt goats? <laugh>. Yeah. He hurt goats. He was a goat herter. He was a goat herter. And he, um, had his goats out and they were eating these berry, the, these, uh, the fruit of this, these bushes around. And they started going acting crazy. So he, he thought he'd try it. So he tried it and he took it back to the local monastery just to, to see what it was. 'cause again, back in those days, uh, the, the monks were the educated ones. Speaker 2 00:11:59 So he took, took it to them to, to find out exactly what it was. They, they tried it, and it was the same effect. They started using it to help them stay up later so they could pray and do their studying and, and all the things that they do. So that's where it started. And it kind of spread from there. It spread to the Arabian Peninsula after that, to where, where Yemen is mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, some of the, some of the bushes were exported to Yemen, and then it just kind of spread into the, to the Arab world mm-hmm. <affirmative> after that. Speaker 1 00:12:28 Well, Yemen is the, all the roasting, the grinding and the brewing, we owe to Yemeni coffee farmers. Really? They were the first ones to kind of figure out, Hey, I can extract the seed. Some people say it's because of dates, because they would eat dates and they would always pull the seed outta the date, you know, because you can't seed of a date. Yeah. So they were like, well, this is a similar fruit. It's a cherry what? And date coffee is an actual thing. And they peninsula, they'll take date seeds, roast them. It's okay. It's fine. It doesn't have a lot of flavor. Yeah. But some people say that because they were already doing that with dates that they just try to with coffee and, and it works. Speaker 2 00:13:06 And it's gone from there. So, so the first coffee houses were in the Arabia in some of the cities that formed in the, in the Arab world. And then it moved to the ottoman. Kinda the Ottoman world. Exactly. Speaker 3 00:13:16 And y'all serve a, is it Arab? What, what kind of coffee is it that you serve with a date? Speaker 2 00:13:20 Yeah, that's a Turkish coffee. Yeah, Turkish coffee. So, so the most popular coffee that, that, uh, that kind of evolved mm-hmm. <affirmative> was Turkish coffee. And it's really fine grounds Speaker 1 00:13:31 Finer than espresso. Speaker 2 00:13:32 Yeah. Finer than Es than espresso even. You brew it in a, in a certain way, basically. It's almost like a, like a old pour over with finer grounds. Uh, and then you boil it, you boil it to a certain way mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then you solve, you, you serve it with the grounds. Yeah. You pour it with ground still. And typically they would serve it with a suite of some kind. Yep. And Turkey, the Ottoman world, they would serve it with like Turkish delight or something like that. Yeah, exactly. But in the air world, they don't have Turkish delight. So they sell, they serve with a date. Yep. Speaker 1 00:14:02 I Speaker 3 00:14:03 Saw in y'all's Instagram that, and, and you guys probably have this too, but uh, you were highlighting one of your, uh, baristas that had just gotten a certification to be able to, um, to detect all the notes and coffee. Speaker 2 00:14:14 What is that? Yeah, those are called certified Q graders. Q Speaker 1 00:14:16 We have our head roast. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:14:18 And we have two Reuben Parsons, who's our, who's our master, our roast master. Is he Speaker 3 00:14:22 The Australian? Speaker 2 00:14:22 He's the Australian. He, yeah. He's from Australia. He's a good guy. Yeah, he's a cool guy. And then Joshua, my son Joshua Parvin, he's a certified Q grader also. So we have two. Exactly. And, uh, at some point we'll have, we'll have more. So Speaker 3 00:14:34 Are they dropping knowledge on you guys? Oh gosh, always. Speaker 2 00:14:36 All these guys dropping knowledge on me. <laugh>. It's crazy. I mean, these guys are, I mean, we, we talk about, on our podcast, we talk about all the time, Brad's don't grow on trees. Brad, Brad's not a certified Q grader, but he knows more than everybody about coffee. Speaker 1 00:14:48 We can thank Covid for that. Speaker 3 00:14:50 <laugh>. Yeah. Did you just go down rabbit holes? Speaker 1 00:14:51 No. Well, it's because of my O factor. Yeah. Uh, it got destroyed. Speaker 2 00:14:56 Yeah. During Covid, we were gonna, we were gonna send several people to go get certified in that. And Brad was one of them. I was gonna send Brad and Joshua at the same time. But, um, but yeah, COVID messed up. Is is it Speaker 3 00:15:06 Back? Speaker 1 00:15:06 Uh, it is a little bit, uh, it's, it was gone completely for a few months and it's slowly, it's come back, but there's still no way I can, I could pass the test. The, Speaker 3 00:15:15 My mom has that and she went through this, uh, trial at U A B where they were trying to, you know mm-hmm. <affirmative>, find out how to get, get your smell back. And they were giving her little containers of coffee and other strong, strong flavor or strong scent for it to smell. And it hasn't really helped yet. But what I've found that, that does help is, um, it's called liposomal glutathione. I dunno if you've maybe have tried that Speaker 1 00:15:36 Or even heard it. I, I've tried a lot of things, but nothing. Yeah, Speaker 3 00:15:38 We'll talk about it after the show. Okay. Speaker 1 00:15:39 That's fine. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:15:40 Okay. So when did you guys first get into coffee? When did you realize that it was more than just about Speaker 2 00:15:46 This's a good, this is a good story. Yeah. I don't know if we have enough time on this. Yeah, well, we've got plenty of time. Yeah. Alright, Brad, tell, tell 'em how you got into coffee first. Speaker 1 00:15:54 Well, um, personally, I didn't really drink coffee much, um, in my adult life until my wife and I did, did some community development work in East Africa and Tanzania. There's a lot of good, good coffee there. And found this local roaster and started drinking. It was very dark. But that was the first time I was really introduced to kind of higher quality coffee than from, you know, what Starbucks has been doing. So, um, then we came back to the States for a while, and then a friend of mine knew this guy. No, we got the, when we were in East Africa, we got the overseas bug. And so a friend of mine said, Hey, I got a buddy who's got this business in this country of Oin and he's looking for some help. Would you wanna go do it? And so I took a visit, loved it. Speaker 1 00:16:38 And, you know, fast forward several years, um, met this guy who was roasting this coffee outta Yemen. And it was just incredible. And so we had tried a few different businesses in Oman. Nothing was really catching on. And so a buddy of mine, he and I got together and were like, Hey, we wanna do a good business that can help the community. Um, but they can kind of be, make money <laugh>. Yeah, sure. And so, coffee's a huge part of the Arab world. I mean, it's, when you go into an Arab's home, you get coffee, you get fruit, and you sit and talk for hours. It's fantastic. And so we knew that was a great inroad into communities. And so he brought a friend of his, uh, from the States who was a roaster. He introduced me to this coffee out of Papua New Guinea. I'll never forget it. I took a drink of it and I said, this is incredible. It tastes like you put fruit juice in here. 'cause I'd never tasted coffee that had that much flavor. Speaker 3 00:17:32 So before that you were just familiar with regular Yeah, Speaker 1 00:17:34 Exactly. Exactly. I had had a, the Yemen from my friend, and it was amazing. Uh, but it wasn't as fruity as this Papua New Guinea coffee. And then, so from there, just we started researching and learning and taking classes and, um, starting getting introduced into specialty coffee and what that means and how it impacts farmers, uh, on the positive way and giving them a, a fair price for their coffee. And, um, then 2016, um, Josh that we talked mentioned earlier, I'll tell him about Speaker 2 00:18:05 Josh. So Speaker 1 00:18:06 Go ahead. So, Speaker 2 00:18:06 So my, so my son Joshua, uh, and we had this other guy that was a, that was a university student name named Hunter. And we've talked about him a lot, um, when we're talking about our origin story. And so Hunter and Joshua went to do a summer internship with Brad at his coffee business in Oman. And so they came back and they were fired up about coffee. I mean, they were, they were fired up about coffee, uh, especially my son, especially Joshua <laugh>. And so Joshua is a very persistent <laugh> person. Yes. And so he kept on, dad, we need to open a coffee business, dad. We, because 'cause I, I like investing in starting new stuff and doing things like that. And he was like, dad, we need to start a coffee business. Dad, we need to start a coffee business. So he kept on and kept on. Speaker 2 00:18:45 And I was like, so when Hunter, when Hunter graduated from college, I hired him to do a feasibility study. And, uh, we found out that in this area, it, it's kind of emerging what the, it's called Third wave is what the, this specialty coffee that we're talking about. The let's kind of, uh, there was first second, and this is the third wave, uh, of this ultra specialty coffee that, that we want to get into. And it's, there's, there's kind of a hole here. There's not that much. There's some places, some roasters, but it's kind of emerging, an emerging market. So we decided it was, it was worth it. So I sent Hunter to a bunch of, to learn how to do it, how to roast, how to get into the coffee market. And so, um, he did, he learned, he was our first roaster. We bought our, we bought a sample roaster and, and we put it in the basement of my house. Nice. All right. <laugh>. And so we started this company, we started this, this company, Baba Java. And we, uh, Baba. So my family spent some time in the Middle East also, uh, doing development work. And Brad's family obviously lived in the Middle East. That's how we became such good friends. And then, um, Speaker 3 00:19:52 The name Baba, Speaker 2 00:19:53 Baba means, thank you, <laugh>. I lost track of where I was going with that. Baba means father in Arabic. Okay. It means father in a lot of, uh, languages. Um, but in Arabic it means father. And then of course Java's just a slang word for coffee. So Baba, Java. We thought that was pretty, pretty catchy. Nice. Speaker 3 00:20:08 Yeah. I wondered what Speaker 2 00:20:08 That meant. So, so, um, anyway, so we decided to start it. We were just gonna roast it first and then Brad and his family decided they were gonna move back to the us And so we, so what your plan was, that opportunity was just roast it. Speaker 3 00:20:20 Were gonna, you were open Speaker 2 00:20:21 Up a shop. We were gonna roast and just sell wholesale and Okay. Online and, um, build it like that way. Um, and then Brad and his family were moving back and we were like, we're just gonna start opening some shops too. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, so we recruited Brad. Yeah. And he, he was fired up about it. Um, and so Brad is officially our, our vice president of operations. So he basically is in control of everything. Yeah. Yeah. I like how Speaker 3 00:20:43 Your mindset was, we're gonna open up some shops. You, it's not like, we'll try it, see how it goes. You're like, no, we're gonna go all the way <laugh> Speaker 2 00:20:49 And speak. Speaker 3 00:20:50 And speaking of, you know, you don't just have the one in Hoover, which is the one that I, that I frequent the most. What are your other locations and what do you have upcoming? Speaker 2 00:20:56 Wow. So we have another location in Montevallo. We wanted to get into some college towns. And so we, we had this opportunity drop in our lap. There was a coffee shop in the, it's a small, you know, university of Monte Valley. It's a small university. Uh, the town's like super small mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But, um, this coffee shop was about the, the guy was gonna have to close it, so it was already kinda kind of a coffee shop anyway. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it's kind of dropped in our lap. The, in Monte Valley the rent was pretty cheap, so I bet. Yeah. So we said, Hey, we'll just go for it and see how it works in a college town. Yeah. Uh, see if we wanna do it. You know, another, another bigger college town. So anyway, uh, Montevallo and then we we're about to open up another shop. It's building built out right now in, uh, the, uh, right at the end of Highway 1 19, 2 80. Um, it's the area called Meadowbrook, we call it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> Baba, Java Meadowbrook is what we're gonna call it. So it's gonna be opening up for probably the 1st of September if everything goes into land. Speaker 3 00:21:52 That's a good location. 'cause you got the Publix across the way. It seems like that's kind of a high traffic area and Yeah, it is. We're still growing. Speaker 2 00:21:58 That's right. We always wanted to be on two 80 and, and we actually, we have an Airstream that we go out and we had an Airstream that we put on two 80 at one time and it just didn't work. Well just be so on two 80, there's, it's such high volume traffic people, it, it's hard to pull off and get back on. That's it's, and things like, that's, yeah. So, so it's hard to get a business really going there, like this small business that, that, that revolves around volume Exactly. Like, like what coffee does. And we couldn't get it, but we wanted to be in that area because there's so many people that love our coffee there mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so this was a perfect place. It's not on two 80, but it's real close. So we get all the businesses and the neighborhoods around there. Speaker 2 00:22:34 Exactly. And it's a new, a new, a new, uh, building. Uh, so we thought it would be a perfect, perfect place to open. And it has been. And, and not only we gonna, we opened in Baba Java Coffee there. We're opening up a, we're partnering with Pop bar. Pop Bar is a, um, gourmet. Gourmet popsicle gourmet Gelato pops, gelato pops and milkshakes. And so, um, there's a guy named Ruben Yehuda, who's from Milan, Italy, and he, he started this company called Pop Bar in New York. And so we're partnering with them and we're gonna have pop bar in our Baba Java coffee. Excellent. Speaker 3 00:23:08 A little collaboration. Speaker 2 00:23:08 Yeah, exactly. Definitely. We thought we would, we always wanted to have gelato. We always wanted to. We actually tried with a little gelato machine and Uber before and we just could never figure it out to do it. To do it exactly. Right. So this is gonna be perfect. We think it's gonna bring a little, little extra source of revenue. It'll to be something kind of compliments coffee. Well, definitely, because it's, uh, you know, ice cream is more of a, for when it's hot weather. Coffee's more when it's cold weather. Yeah. Morning and night. So we thought it would compliment what we do already. Really well. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:23:38 These are a few of my favorite things. Exactly. Speaker 2 00:23:40 I know. Same, same. I'm gonna gain weight from it, so I'm not looking Speaker 3 00:23:43 Forward to that. The great thing about Pop Bar Speaker 1 00:23:44 Too, too that it, it's all natural ingredients. There's Yeah. There's no, uh, weird stuff in it, which is nice. Uh, we can, we're able, he's allowing us to use local fruit in our, uh, mixes. Cool. Which is really cool. So we're excited about it. And you can get a proper aga when you're there, if you know what an AGA is. Speaker 3 00:24:00 What's that? Speaker 1 00:24:01 So it's gelato with espresso port over it. Speaker 3 00:24:04 Oh. Say less. And Speaker 2 00:24:05 It's so good. It's unbelievable. So good. Speaker 1 00:24:07 It's unbelievable. Speaker 3 00:24:08 And, uh, you said you might have some, or you have some upcoming openings as well? Speaker 2 00:24:12 Yeah, downtown there is a, so Alabama Power owns a, owns a building called the Powell Steam Plant. Um, Speaker 3 00:24:19 Oh, is it gonna be in there? Right across Speaker 2 00:24:20 From Railroad Park Speaker 3 00:24:21 Park. A project they've been working on for Speaker 1 00:24:22 A long time. Long time. Speaker 2 00:24:23 Long time. Long time. Awesome man. What a great spot. So finally, it's a historic building, and so it has to go through a lot of federal It's federally regulated. Yeah, exactly. National Park Service. Yeah. National Park Service. And so there's a lot of extra hoops you have to jump through for I bet. Yeah. But so that's why it's taken so long to kind of develop it. But anyway, they Speaker 3 00:24:39 Also have a theater in there or something. Yeah, a little Speaker 2 00:24:41 Bit. Yeah. It's gonna be a Alamo Draft House, draft house, Alamo draft house. So it's gonna be a draft house. There's, we just found out the right, our, our next door neighbor is gonna be, um, um, what did she say? It was? It was, uh, oh my gosh, I can't remember. Um, like a, like a, like almost like a pug. Speaker 1 00:24:57 It was, yeah, an Irish pub, like an Speaker 2 00:24:58 Irish pub or something like that. Speaker 1 00:25:00 It's from Boston. That's pretty Speaker 2 00:25:00 Cool. From Boston. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. And then we're gonna be, we're gonna be right on the side of 18th Street facing Railroad Park. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, which is a really good location for us. So, so anyway, we're gonna be there and next year Speaker 3 00:25:11 And um, Revelator just closed down, so that's Speaker 1 00:25:13 Yeah, that's true. Speaker 3 00:25:14 That's kind of a That's true. A coffee window Speaker 2 00:25:15 Abruptly as, Speaker 3 00:25:17 Yeah. So I heard it wasn't a note on the door with kind of No, they didn't even Speaker 2 00:25:20 Tell their, they Speaker 1 00:25:20 Didn't even tell their employees they were closing. Speaker 2 00:25:22 Yeah. They were open one day, didn't tell the employees anything. Shut the door, moved everything out the next day. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:25:26 This isn't gonna turn into a smear revelator show. Oh, Speaker 2 00:25:28 No, no, Speaker 3 00:25:29 No, no. What I read is that they went from being like the number 12 ranked coffee shop in America. And then now they only have a location left, I think in what, Tuscaloosa and somewhere else. Yeah, they're out in Speaker 2 00:25:40 Atlanta. Speaker 3 00:25:41 Yeah. Atlanta. What happened? They blended with oc, they bought Octane Tane, something like that. I remember Octane from Atlanta when I lived there. They bought Octane. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:25:47 Revel, Revelator started in Atlanta also. And so they had started buying, they bought Octane, so they had all the octane stores and the one in Birmingham actually was an octane. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Speaker 3 00:25:56 <affirmative>. Oh, that's right. Exactly. Speaker 2 00:25:57 So Speaker 1 00:25:58 Our barista Abby used to Speaker 3 00:25:59 Work for them. Speaker 2 00:26:00 Yeah. She, that we recruited her from Octane. Nice. Yeah. Nice. Uh, and it, right, right after Revelator bought them is when exactly, is when we, we recruited Speaker 3 00:26:07 Her. She's one of my, uh, favorite friendly faces to see in there. Abby's just always bright. And I know after she is, she, she knows your name. That's very true. All you guys do actually. That's why I feel like it's my, uh, it's my cheers. That's right. It's, Speaker 2 00:26:17 It really is. Yeah. I mean, we want to be like that. That's right. That's Speaker 1 00:26:20 The goal Speaker 2 00:26:20 Of the shop. Yeah. So we want to have excellent coffee. That's num number one. Excellent coffee ex excellent customer service. We want it to be like cheers where everybody knows your name, where we greet people and we want, we want people to feel comfortable and like it's their second home. Mm-hmm. I mean, we really do. 'cause Yeah. Speaker 3 00:26:36 And actually I, I get so used to people knowing my name in there. Whenever I go in and there's like a new person working and they ask me my name, I'm like, Speaker 2 00:26:44 How dare you. You should know me on You. Dunno who Speaker 3 00:26:46 I'm Speaker 2 00:26:46 <laugh>. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:26:48 That's funny. But, um, alright, so we got the downtown location coming up and Speaker 2 00:26:52 Yeah, we'll probably opening, it'll be 20, 24 sometime. Yeah. We, we were supposed to get the, get it to start to build out in January and she said they're already three months behind. Yeah. So Speaker 1 00:27:01 I'd say 12 to 14 months from now is Speaker 2 00:27:03 A good estimate. Yeah. And it'll be this time next year where maybe we will start building out. Yeah. And by the end of next year we think we'll, we'll be able to open Speaker 3 00:27:10 Up. Exactly. Speaker 1 00:27:12 They're expecting the draft has to be open by December of next year mm-hmm. Of 24. So hopefully we're before a little bit before that would be Speaker 2 00:27:18 Nice. Yeah. We were hoping to be in 2024 sometime. So that's when it's gonna be. And then we have another possible place in Homewood that we're still working out the details. We haven't officially signed the lease yet. Right. But hopefully we'll have, we'll have more de more information on that pretty soon. Yeah. There Speaker 3 00:27:31 You go. So y'all are creating a coffee empire? Speaker 2 00:27:33 Well, Speaker 1 00:27:33 Trying to, we'll see. Speaker 2 00:27:34 We'll see how it goes. Speaker 3 00:27:36 I like it. But y'all don't, y'all don't only have your own locations. You also supply coffee for other coffee, coffee shops such as Copper Train and Alabaster, which I'm a big fan of Copper Train, right? Speaker 2 00:27:45 Oh yeah, yeah. Speaker 3 00:27:46 You know, we've talked about, uh, us having sweet, a sweet tooth and they have some, some really good treats. Speaker 1 00:27:51 Yeah. Dakota's. Dakota's, Dakota's an incredible baker. She's, uh, she trained, I think here at the Virginia Culinary Institute. So she's a local girl through and through. But, uh, yeah, stuff she comes up with is amazing. Um, she does our, our croissant sandwiches, our breakfast sandwiches for us. Mm-hmm. In the morning she does our cinnamon rolls. Um, savory scones. Um, we're gonna have chicken salads soon. Nathan, are you excited? Speaker 2 00:28:13 Yes. I love chicken salad. Speaker 1 00:28:15 She's gonna start doing some chicken salad sandwiches for us, so, uh, she's fantastic. Yeah. Her place is great. We have, uh, another shop, believe it or not, in Fayette, Alabama. It's called The Only Door Cafe. She's doing great stuff up there. She's also a baker and one to get coffee. So we love people like that. And in, we have a place out in Adamsville, so we like these small towns. Yeah. Uh, seven Angels Cafe Tony out there. He's, uh, he's a great guy. He's, he's into like the, the health side, so he does a lot of smoothies and shakes and he's a fitness guy, kinda like you chase. So <laugh>, he's big into that. Yeah. <laugh>, he's big into that. So, uh, UHS holic down at Lee Branch, they're using our coffee down there. Oh yeah. Speaker 3 00:28:56 They, I haven't tried that place yet, but I've been wanting to Speaker 1 00:28:58 Vegan cinnamon rolls. Yeah. So, which you would never know when you taste it. Speaker 2 00:29:01 So Yeah. They taste really good. They're Speaker 1 00:29:03 Really good. Uh, and then we also help out, uh, a few churches in town with coffee. And, um, so yeah, we're, we love to help people with coffee. I mean, it's a huge part of what we do. Um, when I was in Oman, we started, you know, and our first thing we started doing was just selling roasted coffee to coffee shops and restaurants and stuff. And, but we soon found out that, well, I'll give you an example. We took one to this restaurant. It was owned by the Scottish guy. It was fantastic food. And his breakfast was great. So we sold him some coffee. Uh, and then he called me back a few days later and was like, Hey man, this coffee is tasting terrible. And I was like, well, I know the coffee's not bad, so something's going on. So me and my colleague, his name's Brad too, we went down there, we got his braces to make us an espresso. Speaker 1 00:29:51 It tasted terrible. And so we actually went, I asked him, I was like, can I go behind the bar and help them? He's like, oh, yeah, please. So, you know, they were, I can't remember the exact recipe they were doing, but it wasn't, they weren't doing it correctly. So, so that was the first time we actually had to teach baristas how to make coffee properly. And that led into really more of a consulting type role with what we were trying to do. So we would then we started selling people coffee, but also offering to train their baristas. And many times, unfortunately, it meant that we were having to clean their machines. Yeah. <laugh>. I went into this one place and the coffee was just tasting burnt. And even after I was making it, I was like, what is going on? And without going into super detail, there's a, there's a screen on espresso machines that the water kind of, it makes the water, what's it? Speaker 1 00:30:41 Shower onto the coffee. So I pulled that screen off. It was black and it's supposed to be Oh man. Silver clear. Yeah. And I had, they probably never cleaned it ever. And so cleaned that, put it back on, made it, and it was amazing. So, you know, we had to, we, we found out that we had to basically train from how to make the coffee, how to serve it, how to take care of your equipment. And even on the customer service side, we were doing, I've been with cafe layout, menu development and those type of things. So when we came here and started Bob a Java, we knew that we wanted to have excellent customer service. Like Nathan was saying. Speaker 2 00:31:20 Excellent coffee, excellent customer service. Excellent Speaker 1 00:31:22 Education. Education. That's the formula. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah, it is. And so when we, now, when you, when we sell you coffee, we're not just gonna drop coffee and leave. We're gonna sell you coffee, but we're also gonna help you with whatever you need for your shop to be Excellent. So, yeah. Speaker 2 00:31:38 Well, so we sell 'em coffee and if they, if they, if it says May serving Baba Java coffee and they make crap. Yeah. 'cause they don't know how to brew it or everything's dirty or they're not doing it right, then it makes us look bad. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. So we want them to be the best they can. It helps them to be the best they can be. Yeah. But it also helps us to be the best we can be. Exactly. Yeah. So we want to help. So we call it our, our sales team is called our customer service team. Uh, our client services team, sorry, <laugh>. So our client services team is full service. So we sell the coffee, we help them with exactly what they need to do. We train baristas. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, if we're, if we're selling to a coffee shop, we'll we'll train the baristas in our shops. Yeah. So they know exactly what they're doing. We help them. Brad knows everything about coffee equipment. He researches constantly about coffee equipment. Yeah. He helps 'em pick out equipment and, and what equipment they need to buy. So it's full service. Yeah. So our client services team really does a great job. Speaker 3 00:32:31 Very nice. I started drinking coffee later in life and I thought it was just one of those things where you had to put stuff in it to make it taste, taste good. I kind of like, um, seasoning meat, you know, you gotta you gotta dress it up to make it taste good. Yeah. But then I learned that, well, you know, if you're getting a really high quality cut of meat, you can just put a little salt and bring out the natural flavors. Salt. And it seems like coffee's kind of the same thing. If you're getting, you're starting out with a grape bean great product and then you're doing it the right way, then you don't have to put the cream in it. You don't have to. I mean, of course that's fun to do. If you want some, you know, some new flavor. Like I love, uh, the Lando, which I think, oh, I Speaker 2 00:33:07 Think it's not even a good drink. It's not even Speaker 3 00:33:08 On the menu anymore. I think Speaker 1 00:33:09 It's a seasonal drink. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:33:09 But I still ask for it. Speaker 2 00:33:11 Yeah. They'll make it. If we have the stuff, we'll make it for you. Yeah. So Speaker 3 00:33:13 The coffee that you get there, you don't have to put anything in it. It's good how it is. But, um, but yeah. Speaking of the Lando, what, what goes into that? How I, it's do you remember off the top of your head? I know it's got like a sliced orange peel and some cinnamon. Speaker 1 00:33:26 It had a vanilla syrup, if I'm not mistaken. Speaker 2 00:33:29 So Landon, who works for us, makes all of our syrups. Oh, okay. He creates syrup, all of our SERPs and the flavors of our SERPs and things like that. And that's, that's basically his, he works with Speaker 1 00:33:38 Job, he works with Abby's, our head barista. They work together to figure out the seasonal menu. 'cause that we have our, our basic menu, which is, you know, our espresso based drinks. And then we have our pour over and we have our drip and we have Turkish. So that's our basic menu. And then from there we have some of our signature lattes that we're kind of known for. And then we have our seasonal menu, which changes every season. We have four of those a year. And so, uh, Abby and Landon and he has some other people helping him on the syrup side. So they get together and they kind of collaborate on what flavors would do well for this season. And so, um, that was the Lando was the first one I think that he actually had input in on, 'cause it was last year, a couple Speaker 2 00:34:20 Years ago. And that's why it's called Land. Because Land, Speaker 1 00:34:22 Yeah. That's why's called Orlando because he, he kind of invented it. So, but now I guess every drink can we called Orlando 'cause he's inventing all of that. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:34:27 So yeah. Speaker 1 00:34:28 Uh, but yeah, we started making our own syrups, um, last year. And it's been a huge success. Uh, it helps us control the ingredients and again, we're only using natural stuff in it, so that's huge. Um, and land just keeps getting better and better at it. And, you know, you can taste the difference for sure. When you have, you know, homemade syrups and you Yeah. Cares being taken, care taken, Speaker 2 00:34:53 You know exactly what's in the, what's in the Speaker 1 00:34:55 Syrup Exactly. What's going into it. Yeah. You Speaker 2 00:34:56 Know, when you buy something commercially, you don't, you know, it can say end up having Speaker 1 00:35:00 Sweeteners, it'll say natural flavors, but you don't know Speaker 2 00:35:02 What's in it. Exactly. Yeah. If we do it, we know what's in it, so. Exactly. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:35:05 So as far as espresso goes, I really enjoy some espresso now and then Yeah. Kind of talk about the difference between espresso and, you know, say regular coffee. I know it's, you, you talked about it's the ratio of water to Yeah. To beans. But I'm sure there's a lot more to it than that. Speaker 1 00:35:21 So, um, one thing I have to make sure everyone knows that it's not espresso, it's espresso. Um, Speaker 3 00:35:27 Yeah. Set the record straight on that. Speaker 1 00:35:28 Yeah, that's right. That's right. Um, we do, in our shop, we use the kind of the Italian names for all the drinks. So we have espresso, we have a macchiato, which is, uh, a real macchiato. It's only three ounces, not the, the Green Mermaid version, which is a large latte. So macchiato means marked. So if, you know, it's just, it's supposed to be a short espresso drink with just a little milk that dots the top of it. So, um, but yeah, espresso's, it's one of the hardest drinks to make because there's so many variables that can affect it really. So because of, you know, anytime you're working any, anywhere in any part of the life, when you're working with hot water and pressure, things can go wrong. <laugh>. And there's a lot, you know, nine bars, nine to 12 bars of pressure. We, we, we, our machines set it nine bars, but nine bars of pressure, of boiling water through what could go wrong. Speaker 1 00:36:24 Coffee bee. Exactly. A lot can go wrong. So, uh, essentially, you know, it's, it's super finely ground coffee that's packed with what's called a tamper. And that gets locked into the machine. And there's a gasket in there that creates the seal between the screen, which is called a porta filter. And the group head, which is where the water comes out. So you, our machine is quite nice 'cause we can control how much coffee is brewed. 'cause there's scales in the drip tray, which is really nice. So when the coffee brews, we tell it we won't stop at 39 grams and it stops at 39 grams. So, um, but there's a lot of, I mean, everybody's got their own espresso recipe. So the traditional Italian recipe is seven grams of coffee to 14 grams of water. Mm. That's to the traditional. Um, but not 14, sorry, let's double that. Speaker 1 00:37:16 28. So we, in the specialty world, it's changed a lot, uh, because, and specialty coffee, especially with, uh, modern machines, we can control extraction, we can change, you know, water temperature. Uh, we can change how much pressure goes through the, through the, uh, porta filter. And there's a lot of variables that go into it. Weather can affect your, can affect your coffee. Really. Yeah. So even from the first of the day. Oh yeah. No doubt. To the end of day, no doubt. Or the middle of the day doubt in Alabama's during the summer's tough 'cause humidity can make the beans swell slightly in when they're sitting in the hopper. So that'll affect the grind. And if it affects the grind, then it's definitely gonna affect the brewing. So it's, we, I tell people all the time, especially new shops, I say, whatever you, whatever your budget is for your shop, the first thing you gotta buy is a good grinder. And then everything else should flow from there. Because if your grinder's not good, the no, there's no uh, super fancy machine that's gonna make up for a bag grinder. Yeah. Because it's still in the end, it's just water flowing over coffee seed. So, and what's the machine that's, I guess it's kinda like the gold standard for espresso machine. Like Lamar, Lamar Zko is what we use. They have been the standard in uh, Speaker 2 00:38:36 That's one of the best Speaker 1 00:38:37 Ones for a long time. Yeah. They've been the standard for a long time. There are some really good machines out there though. Um, Speaker 2 00:38:42 Yeah, the Italians invented the espresso machine. Exactly. And, and so that's why that's so they invented the espresso machine. Can you imagine the first guy saying, I gotta, I'm gonna figure out a way to, to pressure that's boiling water through this coffee. Speaker 1 00:38:55 I don't, Speaker 2 00:38:56 I don't. How am I gonna do that? And they, that's crazy. So they experiment. And how many scalds happen? Just Oh. Just because Speaker 3 00:39:01 Of that. Oh, I know. Oh, I bet <laugh> my my buddy, uh, opened up a shop in another city and um, he's, he was like, guess how much this machine cost? And his was just, I think maybe like a one or a two station uhhuh. He's like, now keep in mind it is the Ferrari of Yeah. Espresso machines. And I was like, I don't know, $5,000. And he just laughed at me. I think he was, it was something. It was, I Speaker 1 00:39:24 Wish Speaker 3 00:39:25 It was over 20,000. Oh yeah. Speaker 2 00:39:27 Have a really good one. Absolutely. Especially if you have two or three group heads. Speaker 1 00:39:30 Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Italy still makes the best suppressing machines. Yeah, for sure. Uh, there are some, some US companies that have started doing it, but yeah. They just haven't caught up to what the Italians are doing. So Speaker 2 00:39:40 They've been doing it for so long. They're exactly. There's Speaker 1 00:39:42 The best Speaker 2 00:39:42 They perfected the, like, sports cars. Speaker 3 00:39:43 Exactly. Speaker 1 00:39:44 Y'all Speaker 3 00:39:44 Mentioned earlier about the, um, about sourcing coffee from specialty farmers. Yeah. From, from specialty farms. Yeah. It's, uh, it's better and it's more fair for the farmer. Speaker 2 00:39:57 Oh yeah, absolutely. It's, Speaker 3 00:39:57 Talk about that for a minute. How does it, it's a huge part of it. How does that have an effect on the farmer? Speaker 2 00:40:01 Well, if you're in the com, if they're just making a commodity means what they, the price they get for their coffee is just dependent upon the market. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:40:09 Okay. Speaker 2 00:40:10 Yeah. So if there's a lot of beans when you're at the great harvest, they don't get as much money for, for this Yeah. For their coffee. If you're making specialty beans, the quality determines how much the price is. Exactly. So the better the quality, the more you get for your efforts. Okay. Speaker 3 00:40:29 That seems fair. Speaker 2 00:40:30 So X amount of coffee commodity, you get whatever the market says, X amount of money for specialty. It depends on how good it is. If it's really good, you get a lot of money for it. Exactly. So you get a lot more money for the same amount of effort and work <laugh> as you would for commodity or specialty. So it really impacts communities, it impacts the farmers' lives, it impacts their families, it impacts their communities to have the best life they can have if we teach them how to do specialty, specialty coffee. Yeah. Um, so that there's a lot of people and companies and consultants all around the world to basically try to, to hammer into farmers' brains how to do exactly. Specialty coffee. 'cause it's gonna make their commun them, their families and their communities a lot better. Exactly. If they do specialty coffee. And that's what people want now. I mean, we're in third wave now, you know, that's what most consumers, especially in the, you know, the developed world Yeah. That, that's what we want now is, is better, better quality coffee. Speaker 1 00:41:28 I'll give you a story from one of our partners. Um, his name's Andrew Nicholson. Um, he's been working in Yemen for a while. That's who we get our Yemen coffee from. Yep. And when he first went to these coffee farms in the, I mean, these mountains in Yemen are like 8,000 feet above. They're very high. And he went and talked to them and uh, when he got there, when they would harvest coffee, they would just strip the trees bare so ripe and unripe, they would just take it all. Mm. And they would just sell it all as one big lump. All right. And he went up there and he, he was trying, he was telling them, Hey, if you only pick the ripe ones and sell only the ripe, you'll be able to harvest multiple times throughout the year and you'll get a better price. Because like Nathan said, the quality will be better. Speaker 1 00:42:17 And they didn't know this, but riper cherries are heavier than unripe cherries. Interesting. And so if they do it by weight, some, some co-ops would do it by weight, then they'll get a better price for that. And so he started teaching them so that it goes even to harvesting techniques on how to harvest, when to harvest, uh, and then to the processing, how to ferment your coffee, uh, the, the cherry to, to try to get as much flavor into that seed as possible. It has to be just like grapes. And, um, then had to extract that seed. I mean, all along those processes, if it's done well, you can get really good coffee out of your, out of your crop. And he said that the first time he served their coffee to them from only ripe cherries, he said they were, they couldn't believe it. They were like, oh, there must be, uh, some fruit in here or something that you put in here. Yeah. And he's like, no, this is your coffee. All I did was roast it and grind it and serve it to you. And they made a Speaker 3 00:43:15 Whole, when you say cherries, is that another name for Speaker 1 00:43:17 Yeah, the fruit. Okay. It's the fruit. 'cause the coffee is the fruit, the seed is the from fruit. So we call Speaker 2 00:43:23 It coffee bean. Well, the general term is coffee beans, but they're really Speaker 3 00:43:26 Seeds. Speaker 1 00:43:27 Yeah. It is the seed. Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. Of a fruit. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:43:37 More cash, more capital and new customers for your business. That's where Moxie comes in. Moxie Birmingham is a growing community of small businesses helping one another Thrive as a moxie member, you earn more revenue from brand new customers, not spend your hard earned revenue on various expenses and even get a no interest, no payment line of credit all within the Moxie Network. As a moxie member myself, I can tell you that I choose to support other businesses that also accept moxie. In fact, I've discovered some of my very favorite restaurants, healthcare practitioners and home and auto service businesses through mie. I'm talking soho, social, heavenly donuts, nothing but cakes, just to name a few. Go to mie birmingham.com. That's m o x E y B h A m.com to learn more. Moxie. It's the smarter way to barter. Speaker 3 00:44:47 Another thing I want to point out about Baba Java that I've noticed is, so I'll compare it to your average coffee shop, maybe the Green Mermaid, for instance. <laugh>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, when you go in one of those shops, it seems like people are by themselves. They're might have headphones in, they might be working, they might be just, they're by themselves. No one's having a conversation. But when you go and baba Java, it's quite the opposite. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, no one's in there just with headphones in. It's all about social. It's like small groups. Small groups are meeting, people are talking about their days. It's like people go there to meet other people as opposed to just going to be by themselves. Why do you, why do you think that is? Speaker 2 00:45:27 Coffee is naturally relational. So we, we, we were in the Arab world, Brad Brad's family and my family, we were in the Arab world. And when you go to someone's house, they serve you coffee and you talk and you form and you cultivate that relationship. So, so we want our coffee to cultivate relationships. We wanted to cultivate our communities to be the best they can be. I mean, that's our philosophy from the very be very beginning. We really wanted to make our money, like doing wholesale and online and stuff like that. And we wanted our cafes to be for the community so people can have a place to come in, meet other people and just make relationships better. Mm-hmm. I mean mm-hmm. It's so relational. Coffee's so relational because it makes people, it, it gives people joy. I mean, that's why we love it so much, because we do something that gives people joy. It helps their lives to be better. And that's, I mean, how, how can you not want to do that for other people? <laugh>. So yeah, it's natural relational. That's the whole reason we wanted to start these, these, uh, cafes so that people can have better relationships with, cultivate those so that their communities can be the best they can be. Speaker 1 00:46:29 I, I think that, uh, along that, I think from the beginning, building a, uh, culture of customer service. Yeah. And I think having baristas and management who have bought into that and 'cause we're relational with the customers too. Yeah. I mean, as you know, chase, you talked about that earlier. So, you know, I think that kind of builds or develops or whatever the word is, maintains a, a culture of just friendship and relationship throughout the, the coffee shop. So Speaker 2 00:46:59 And so, as our farmers are cultivating their crops of their coffee, we want to cultivate relationships in our cafes. Very nice. So we want it to be all along the way, cultivation of making people's lives the best they can be. Speaker 3 00:47:11 It's almost, I mean, it's almost like how the higher, the higher quality the product, the higher quality of the relationship in a way. Absolutely. You mentioned earlier about the, uh, your Airstream. You'll keep it parked down here in River Chase, don't you? I pass it all Speaker 2 00:47:22 The time. Yeah. We have. So, so that's our warehouse. Our warehouse. Where the, the road you pass Old, old, um, Speaker 3 00:47:27 Old Speaker 2 00:47:27 Montgomery. Yeah, Montgomery Highway. That's where our warehouse, where our roaster is. Yeah. Oh, okay. So, so we roast, we roast most of our coffee back there. Yeah. We have a roaster at, at Hoover. 'cause that's where our first roaster was. Yeah. And then, then we, we had more volume, which is great. So we had to have a, a warehouse where we roast, so, and we're out growing that too. So anyway. But Speaker 3 00:47:45 With the Airstream, is that something that y'all set up at events or what, what do y'all do Speaker 2 00:47:48 With that? Yeah, we do events. You wanna talk about that, Brad? Speaker 1 00:47:51 Yeah. Uh, we've bought, uh, we bought two Airstreams a few years ago. One was bigger. It was a what, a 20, 22 foot 6 26 foot. Mm-hmm. And then this one's a eight 20, a 20 foot one 20. Yeah. And so the big one, um, we had it built out and then we didn't know that there were issues. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:48:08 We screwed up with Speaker 1 00:48:09 It and we had this, you know, 500 pound generator sitting on the back and one day it just collapsed Speaker 2 00:48:14 Oof the whole frame. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:48:15 So were Speaker 3 00:48:15 You driving? Speaker 1 00:48:16 I wasn't, Speaker 2 00:48:17 Yeah, we, the guy that was in charge of it at that time, he was driving and it just fell on the road. Yeah. It was a big deal. It was Speaker 1 00:48:24 Bad. I bet. So anyway, so then we had this smaller one built out and, uh, it's been great. Um, it has solar panels on it to help charge the, it has batteries in it, so we wanna try to use as little generator as we can on that one. But yeah, we take it to events. We, weddings, it's a huge for weddings. Uh, wedding season comes, we have a lot of requests for it. Um, we've done office parties with it. We've taken it to, um, Speaker 2 00:48:51 Um, Speaker 1 00:48:52 We've taken it to a few farmer's markets. Those aren't as, as big of, which is interesting. You would think of Farmer's Market, I don't know why, but we, we haven't done well at those places. So, but, uh, weddings and, and office events have been huge for us with Speaker 2 00:49:04 That. Yeah. Any, any events. Um, we, we, we, when we take it to usually does pretty well. Yeah. Because it's really cool the way we way we kind of decorated it. Yeah. But it airstreams are cool anyway 'cause they're that silver. Yeah. They're eye catching. Yeah. And then we, we put the Baba Java logo stuff on it and it looks really cool. Yeah, Speaker 3 00:49:18 It does look good. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:49:19 You Speaker 3 00:49:19 Know, caffeine hits everyone differently. Right. No doubt. I'm one who, uh, what I learned when I was doing functional medicine is that everyone metabolizes caffeine differently. Um, some people are fast caffeine metabolizers, others are slow. I'm a slow, meaning that coffee hits me harder. You know, like the caffeine. Like, I really feel it, it gets me jazzed up and I start talking fast and stumbling over my words. <laugh>, but <laugh>. So I have to edit up this podcast a lot. <laugh>. But, and then others, like my wife for instance, we can drink the exact same amount of coffee and she's like, yeah, I don't feel anything. Speaker 1 00:49:52 Yeah. That's me. Really. Yeah. I, you don't feel anything. Caffeine never affects me, and I wish it did. Really? Yeah. I never know that. It never has done. Yeah. It's Speaker 3 00:50:00 Like jumping a, dumping a drill sergeant on my throat. I get so much Speaker 1 00:50:03 Done. I could, no, yeah. I could have four espressos before bed and I'd still sleep. Really? I don't know. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:50:09 Interesting. Yeah. What about you? Speaker 2 00:50:10 So it, it gives me a little energy, but it's not, its not like woo, you know, crazy stuff. So, but I, and I can still drink it before bed and not, and not I can go to sleep, but it, but it gives me, it doesn't make me more hyper, but it makes me just feel better. I don't know. Just hard to explain. Speaker 3 00:50:25 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. It, I wouldn't say hyper, but, um, if I drank it at three o'clock, I wouldn't sleep until midnight probably. Wow. Yeah. Um, but what I have noticed is that different coffees make me feel a little bit different. Yeah. And the re one reason that I am, am such an advocate for Baba Java is that that doesn't give me that crash that some coffee's doing. I'm interesting. I think I'm just kind of, uh, okay. I'm just really, I don't wanna say sensitive to caffeine, but I guess I am, um, when I've had, uh, what I, what I assume now to be commodity coffee after a few hours when it wears off, I just feel kind of Hmm. Not great. Yeah. Okay. And what I learned about caffeine is that it gives you, for people who are really sensitive to it, it gives you like a, a dopamine hit. Speaker 3 00:51:07 Okay. Which is great. And that's why you feel good and you wanna talk. And then, um, it, it goes on for a while and then when it wears off, you don't just go back down to baseline. If it's like a lower quality coffee, you'll go down below baseline into what they call a dopamine deficit. Interesting. So that's when I get sweet cravings and I'll start looking for like, sugar to get another dopamine hit. But higher quality coffee doesn't affect me that way. It's more, more interesting, smooth, smooth energy throughout the day. And, and I feel awesome. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:51:37 That's Speaker 1 00:51:38 Great. I wish I knew the science behind that. Speaker 2 00:51:39 Yeah. I wish I did too. I should've that would interest, interest studied about that a little more. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:51:43 I didn't Speaker 2 00:51:43 Even, I'll look into that. Speaker 1 00:51:45 That would be an interesting research. Yeah, Speaker 3 00:51:46 For sure. Speaker 2 00:51:47 Yeah. Well, we'll, I'm sure, I'm sure. Speaker 1 00:51:49 I don't know. I wonder if it's the quality of the coffee, if it's the roast level. Maybe it's both. Uh, the reason I say roast level is, so most coffees have basically the same amount of caffeine in it. Um, but when you, the longer you roast your coffee, the less mass, you know, some of the, a lot of the mass gets burned off. And so your percentage of caffeine to the mass increases, the caffeine doesn't change, of course, but the percentage of it to the mass increases. So that's why people say, and it's somewhat true, that darker roasted coffee tends to have stronger, a little bit more caffeine in it because you have to use more coffee to get the same amount. Like if I had 20 grams of medium roasted and 20 grams of darker roasted of the same coffee, well the 20 grams of, uh, darker roast, there's gonna be more beans in that because there's less mass. And so therefore the caffeine level would be a little higher in a darker roasted coffee. So I don't know if that has something to do with it or Speaker 3 00:52:47 Yeah. I've theorized that, um, you know, there are a lot of studies that came out talking about, uh, when you grill meat mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, the area, the sections that get charred and burn. Yeah. Yeah. That's carcinogenic. Yeah. Yeah. So if you eat that part, that's really bad for you. Yeah. Um, I wonder if these places that, that actually do burn the beans and char the beans if it's a similar thing. That's actually not, Speaker 2 00:53:08 That's what we're gonna say. Yeah. We're gonna say that's true. So if you burn the beans, that's carcinogenic. Don't buy any of that coffee. Only medium roast Papa Java coffee. Exactly. None of it's carcinogenic. It's all, it's good for you. It's Speaker 3 00:53:18 A health, it's a health tonic. Yes. That's right. <laugh>. That's right. That's right. That's exactly right. Speaker 2 00:53:23 If you go to the Green Mermaid, they, they burn their beans and it's carcinogenic. Just everybody. You heard it here first. Mm-hmm. Speaker 3 00:53:28 <affirmative> <laugh>. That's great. I like it. So do you guys live in Hoover or do y'all live around? Speaker 2 00:53:35 No, we live on the, uh, highway one 19 area. I live in the Indian Springs area. Yeah. And, uh, Brad lives in Meadowbrook. Yeah. Which is at the end of one 19. Love that. Speaker 3 00:53:42 Yeah. Do y'all have any favorite restaurants around the area? Oh gosh, yes. Because this is, this is Discover Birmingham. You know, the show is kind of Birmingham themed. Speaker 2 00:53:51 So we love, my wife loves to go to Chuck's fish. She loves Chuck's Fish. And I know there's, there's a one in Tuscaloosa and I think there's one at the coast and there's one here. But we love to go to Chuck's fish 'cause uh, they, they, and it's pretty fresh straight from the straight from the Gulf Coast. And, uh, so they have different things there. Like she likes some of their cocktails that they have. And so Chuck's Fish is one of our go-tos, uh, uh, for a chain we like to go to. Um, Perry's. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:54:20 It's a strong, and we went the other night and, uh, speaking of Sweet Tooth, they have this, um, what is it? It's got a homemade marshmallow on top. It's Oh yeah. It's Rocky Road Bread. Speaker 2 00:54:30 Oh man. That sounds so incredible. Speaker 3 00:54:33 So good. You have to split it. It's, I know, Speaker 1 00:54:35 I knows. Huge. I know. And Speaker 2 00:54:36 Then what's the place with the pork pork chop it's called. Oh, that's too. Oh, that's, that's what I was just, yeah. Yeah. That's Perry too. I mean, I, the pork chop that I love the pork chop. Yeah. But I can't eat the whole thing. Speaker 1 00:54:46 It's gin Speaker 2 00:54:47 When I get it. So, you know, you got lunch and dinner. Exactly. Speaker 3 00:54:50 Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And they also have this an appetizer. You can get the pork chop, uh, skewers. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 2 00:54:55 That's right. I get that almost every time too. Yeah. So if I get a, if I wanna get a steak or something else, I'll get those. 'cause I love the pork chops. Speaker 3 00:55:02 Yeah. So good, man. It's one of the best Speaker 2 00:55:03 Pork chops with that little, with the sauce and the little apple sauce of the apple. We, that Speaker 3 00:55:06 Apple sauce stuff too. Yeah, man. That's great. Do y'all ever venture downtown for any of those restaurants? Speaker 1 00:55:10 Yes, we we're huge fans of Brick and Tin. Um, uh, Carrigan's is also very good. We've been there. Speaker 3 00:55:18 Yeah. The Carrigan's corn dog is mean. All right. Speaker 2 00:55:21 I've heard about it all. I love a good corn dog too. Speaker 3 00:55:23 Yeah. I had, um, Lee Panasas on recently. Who owns Gus's Hot Dog. Oh, oh Speaker 2 00:55:28 Yeah, of course. Speaker 3 00:55:28 He's a good dude. Of course. He even, he's a huge fan of the Carrigan's really? With him being hot dog, honestly. <laugh>, he even has his own Instagram account called Burn called Alabama Hotdogs. Oh, really? That's cool. He's like, I mean, he's like raiding hot dogs. And so he's a big fan of that Care Against Corn Dog too. Speaker 2 00:55:43 All right. I've gotta check that out. That's Speaker 1 00:55:45 All right. We, we get, we get sausage and biscuits from, uh, uh, Tony's hot dogs down the street from us. I don't know if you've ever been to their place. No. They, they win like Best hamburger every year. Speaker 2 00:55:56 Yeah. Their burger is amazing. Their cheeseburgers Speaker 1 00:55:58 Incredibly, it's like huge. It's like the size of your head. Speaker 2 00:56:02 They have a Philly cheese, uh, breakfast wrap Oh yeah. With eggs and Philly cheese steak. Oh my gosh. Oh man. It's so good. That's Speaker 1 00:56:09 A good local spot for sure. Speaker 3 00:56:10 Another one, where do y'all get y'all scones from? Is it Speaker 1 00:56:14 Highland Gourmet? Highland Speaker 2 00:56:14 Gourmet Scones, which is right on one 18. Yeah, they do. Yep. Yep. I got Speaker 3 00:56:18 My mom a 10 of those for Christmas, and I think I ended up eating most of them <laugh>. Speaker 2 00:56:21 Yeah, I know, I know. So good. They are, are good. And they've got lots of different choices and flavors, so Yeah. They're good. There's Speaker 3 00:56:26 Another pretty good, uh, breakfast spot that opened up not too long ago in Brock's Gap, uh, called Biscuit Belly. Huh. I've heard of, I've heard of this place. I've been there. I've never been. It's pretty good. I've heard of it. Speaker 2 00:56:36 Anything called Biscuit Belly has to be good. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:56:38 They have a brisket biscuit that's, uh, a brisket biscuit. Mm-hmm. Speaker 2 00:56:41 <affirmative>. Nice. See, you're making us hungry now. I know, I know. <laugh> Sweet. Speaker 3 00:56:45 Uh, we're we're huge fans of, um, Baja Burger. Speaker 2 00:56:48 Oh, yeah. Which is, Speaker 3 00:56:49 I love BA Street from us. They're Speaker 2 00:56:50 Local place. I started gonna Baja when they were at the Colony. I worked. Yeah. Same. I worked real close to there, and I would go to the colon. Yeah. That's first time I ever hunt Speaker 3 00:56:56 Too. Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're Buffalo chicken sandwiches. Unbelievable. Speaker 2 00:57:00 They have good catfish. They have good Speaker 3 00:57:02 Cat burgers. Burger. Yeah. Their Catfish sandwich. Uh, their burgers are good, but I actually like Speaker 2 00:57:05 Their, they, they make the little mini burgers with the sister Schubert's rolls. Speaker 3 00:57:08 Little sliders. Yeah. I like their, uh, it's called The Farmer, I think. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That Turkey. Turkey got fried egg. Yeah. That's Speaker 2 00:57:13 Really Speaker 3 00:57:14 So good, man. Yeah, really good. Where, oh, do y'all ever eat at Dale's across the Speaker 2 00:57:18 Street? I've eaten there before, but it's time. It's been years. I need to, need to try that again. Long time. Yeah. It's just right across the street from us there. Speaker 3 00:57:24 I like good southern food like that. And they give you giant portions for one thing. <laugh>. Yep. And, uh, the guy that, I guess he's the general manager, his name's Dave. Really young guy. We don't eat there that often, but he knows my name on the phone. Like I'll call and he's like, chase, what's up, man? Oh, wow. He's one of those, he's like, great at customer service. Oh, that's, so that's good. He's really good at it. And then, um, we're, uh, having lived in the world, we're always looking for good air food. Oh. And, uh, the Falafel Cafe, which is Speaker 2 00:57:51 Close to Dale's. Yeah. Yeah. Try that. If you like authentic Palestinian type type falafel. It's really Speaker 3 00:57:57 Good. It's unbelievable. I haven't tried that. Yeah. It's unbelievable. Speaker 2 00:57:59 They've got good shwarma. Good falafel. Uhhuh <affirmative>. Yeah. I, I usually get the Schwar is really good. Hummus is good. I get the Shwarma Bowl. Yeah. So it's got hummus and pane and the Speaker 3 00:58:08 Chicken in it. It's Speaker 2 00:58:09 Unbelievable. Yeah. It's really good. So if you like that type of food Speaker 3 00:58:12 Yeah. There's one downtown, uh, next to U A b, and then they, they just opened this one up. Speaker 2 00:58:17 Yeah. A few months ago. Six months ago. Speaker 3 00:58:18 Yeah. That's across the street from us, so, yeah. Nice. Nice. Have y'all ever tried East, west? Mm-hmm. Downtown? I've heard of it. Never had it. Man. That's a strong choice. Is it? Oh yeah. What Speaker 2 00:58:28 Type of food? Speaker 3 00:58:29 It's like Asian Fusion. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They have those, uh, buns. Yeah. And they have, um, they have bowls and all kinds. It's kind of like upscale Asian fusion. It's, it's a strong, Speaker 2 00:58:39 I love stuff like Speaker 3 00:58:40 That. I would say it's definitely top three. Yeah. All Speaker 2 00:58:41 Right. Really top three. Speaker 3 00:58:43 Wow. Absolutely. All right. Have you had the automatic Yeah, Katie and I going, uh, it's automatic. That's night. It's really good seafood. Yeah. They have this, uh, it's called fish collar. Yeah. Y'all had that? I haven't had that one. It's an appetizer, but it's, uh, it's really, you know, this part of the fish? Yeah. Yeah. But it's fried and they have this sauce on it that's just out of this world. Yeah. I've only been there once, but it was incredible. And they get, they like, get it fresh from the Gulf Daily. It's really good stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:59:09 Where is that? Speaker 3 00:59:11 It's on South Side. Yeah. Kind of almost, almost towards Avondale. Really. Okay. Yeah, it is. Yeah. That's right. Speaker 2 00:59:16 Okay. Yeah. Well, that's, check that out. It's Speaker 3 00:59:18 Since, uh, since y'all also have Sweet Tooth, sweet Teeth, <laugh>, do y'all have any favorite dessert? Dessert spots Speaker 2 00:59:24 Around? Well, people in Tennessee, that's a sweet tooth. Sweet Speaker 3 00:59:26 Teeth. Yeah. They have no teeth. <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:59:29 Wow. That's where I'm from. Thanks. Speaker 3 00:59:31 <laugh>. Shots fired. Wow. Wait. But we had that Monte Valley connection. That's right. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:59:35 I That's true. That's true. Do Speaker 3 00:59:37 You know we both went to Monte Valley. Yeah. I didn't Speaker 1 00:59:38 Know you were Monte about just a couple years. Speaker 3 00:59:41 Yeah. I even grew up in Montevallo, so. Really? Yeah. So when y'all opened up the shop in Montevallo, I was like, man, that's amazing. Because, uh, I remember when that was a theater. Yeah, Speaker 2 00:59:50 Yeah, that's right. Yeah. That's where, that's where we are. Str It was the Speaker 3 00:59:52 Strand Theater when I was growing up, and that's where I saw my first movie. And I told you what a story, I think I saw Aladdin Oh, oh wow. In elementary school. And so in my first movie, right. I'm in, I think kindergarten and we're watching, it's just amazing. The first big screen. And then out nowhere, there's a ruckus down in the front. And, uh, ruckus, we all, we all evacuated and come to find out a snake had gotten into Speaker 2 01:00:23 Oh my goodness gracious. Speaker 3 01:00:24 Kindergarten kids. Gosh. I'm sure it's sealed up a lot better now. Yeah, Speaker 2 01:00:28 I certainly hope so. Speaker 3 01:00:29 I hope so. I'm pretty sure that was the nail in the coffin for the Strand Theater, because I think it shut down pretty soon after that. Really? Speaker 1 01:00:35 Wow. Speaker 2 01:00:36 The snake did 'em in. Speaker 3 01:00:37 Yeah. That's some fun montevallo lore for you guys. <laugh>. Speaker 1 01:00:40 That's hilarious. Speaker 3 01:00:42 Yeah. But Montevallo man, it's um, it's a cool little town, you know? I think it is. Speaker 2 01:00:46 It really is Speaker 3 01:00:46 Such a cool campus with the cobblestone streets. Yeah. And it was fun, you know, so I grew up there. Then I went, uh, to the high school there, and then I went all the way across the street to College <laugh>. I spent the first 20, 22, 23 years of my life. Wow. And we never had a go coffee shop there. I think that's probably why I didn't start drinking coffee until later in life. Yeah. That's, there were no good options. That's, but now that's right. Y'all are holding it down. Appreciate it, man. Speaker 2 01:01:08 That's right. Yeah. Appreciate it. Speaker 3 01:01:10 Well guys, anything else y'all wanna talk about before we wrap it up? No, Speaker 2 01:01:13 Thanks for having us on, man. Yeah. Appreciate it, man. We enjoyed it. Speaker 1 01:01:15 Mean check us out on all our social media handles. Speaker 3 01:01:18 Yeah. What, what is that? I'll tag you all the show. Speaker 1 01:01:19 Bob Java Coffee. Uh, Facebook, Instagram, uh, YouTube. I think we have a TikTok. Do you have a YouTube channel? Is that right? Speaker 2 01:01:26 Yeah, we have TikTok on, you know, what's on the YouTube Speaker 3 01:01:28 Channel? Well, Speaker 1 01:01:29 It has, so we have Speaker 2 01:01:30 Have some old Speaker 1 01:01:31 Video. Yeah, we have a few brewing vi videos on there. Uh, we're gonna be adding more later, but, uh, we have a V 60, we have an Arrow Press and we have a Turkish, uh, brewing demonstration on there, so you can check that out. Speaker 2 01:01:41 And we were gonna have all of our podcast stuff on there, but we stopped doing that. <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. 'cause it's just hard to edit. Speaker 3 01:01:47 It really is. Yeah. You can put 'em on their audio only, but nobody listens. Right? Sure, sure. It's a visual thing. You know, nobody's, nobody's gonna Speaker 2 01:01:53 That. Nah, nobody. Speaker 3 01:01:54 So I, I started off doing that as well, just because it takes so long to edit the entire video. Yeah. But after I was getting, you know, 10, 12 views, I was like, oh, it's Speaker 2 01:02:03 Not worth it. Speaker 3 01:02:03 It's Speaker 1 01:02:03 Not worth Speaker 3 01:02:04 It. No. Yeah. Well, yeah, thanks again for coming on guys and uh, we'll have to do it again sometime. Yeah, Speaker 2 01:02:08 We would love, love to chase. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Always good to talk to you. Love to seeing you in Speaker 1 01:02:11 The shop. Speaker 3 01:02:12 Absolutely. Speaker 5 01:02:26 I can't let it down. This the me cry.