Bikes, tight clothes and cafe's

Good morning Slowstack subbers!

How’s those tasting notes over the past week since we sat down and hung out? Whilst we are roasters and coffee professionals. We are also coffee lovers and are always buying coffee to discover and learn more. I write this as I drink an Ethiopian (Honey Process) from Assembly coffee (tastes like white grape, peach and sticky) and it’s sticcccky! So interesting. Anyway - back to regulary scheduled programming below.

People often ask why we started slow and how I (Sam) got into roasting. I’ve spent my life being (and still am) a high performance track cyclist riding 2 Olympic games for New Zealand. Throughout this time I’ve been fortunate to travel all around the globe. To big and small cities. To cafe’s with great coffee and not so great coffee. Stunning fitouts to more basic ones. But what was consistent was that you’d see cyclists all around the world at cafe’s. In their lycra, glasses on their head and bikes racked up.

This is where the coffee obsession started. I’ve often thought about why cyclists go to cafe’s. It’s intrinsically linked. I believe a cafe to cyclists is what a pub is to go rugby players. It’s the place of community and connection within the sport. Just as a cafe is so for so many (why do we love cafe’s? Whole substack coming on that soon..).

Cycling has always taken place during the coffee drinking hours and hence has been the natural place of connection. It’s also the place where slow started and our tagline “the world moves fast. slow down.” was formed.

I’d sit at these coffee shops around the globe and in NZ having amazing conversations with people and it felt like the world slowed down around me in that little bubble of the cafe over delicious brews. All whilst sitting in my tight clothing, most likely annoying someone for just being there in my lycra.

So, slow was born. An interest as to how the coffee arrived in my cup from origin. Could I roast myself with no experience? Sure. I thought was the answer. Jumped online, found the Aillio bullet. While I waited for it to arrive I watched Youtube and learnt how to do this roasting thing. Can’t be that hard can it? Turns out. Very hard, the more you learn. The less you know.

It hasn’t stopped us from taking it on and being where we are today. We are motivated by producing amazing coffee and ensuring that we remind people to slow down. We dream; often of the space we will create one day that talks to everything in this substack today. Slowing down, connection, community and amazing coffee. We can see the vision so clealry.

My Friday challenge to you? Pop down to your local cafe. Slow down whilst you’re there and be kind to the person in lycra near you. Those tight clothes squeeze out great ideas!

See you next week

Sam