From a very early age Willem was intrigued and captured by coffee in every sense and all facets. He roasted his first batch of coffee at the age of 14 and after obtaining a masters-degree in business economics at the University of Amsterdam he co-owned his family’s specialty coffee business in The Netherlands. When Willem moved to the USA in 1998, he founded Boot Coffee and since then he advised coffee companies, coffee associations, development banks and governments around the world. As a consultant, Willem has been involved in coffee quality programs in countries like Ethiopia, Colombia and Honduras. He also designed extensive marketing programs for coffee industries in Ethiopia and El Salvador. In 2006, a dream was realized. He bought 5 ha. of land on the slopes of the Baru volcano in the Chiriqui province of Panama and planted 6,500 Geisha coffee trees. The farm was named "La Mula". In 2009, a second farm "Finca Sophia" was established at an elevation of 6,000 feet and up. In 2014 the natural processed La Mula won first place at the Best of Panama coffee competition. In 2015, La Mula maceration washed Geisha earned the Coffee of the Year recognition by Coffee Review with the highest ever score of 97 points. In 2016 his coffees won multiple Good Food awards and in 2017 Finca Sophia washed Geisha won first place at the Best of Panama. Willem is also a co-founder of a third farm in Panama: Finca La Cabra and he helped start a 400 hectare estate in western Ehiopia: Gesha Village Estate. Willem has extensive experience as a coffee roasting consultant and trainer. He wrote many articles about coffee roasting techniques in trade magazines. In addition, he educated hundreds of aspiring coffee professionals around the world in the sensory evaluation of coffee. In 2016 Willem started Boot Coffee Campus, a leading training institute located near San Francisco, CA, servicing the coffee industry in the entire Pacific region
In this episode we talk with Willem about:
Links:
Related episodes:
RoR #28 : Ease and Accessibility in Sample Roasting w/ Andrew Stordy, Inventor/Founder of IKAWA
450: A Conversation About Mobile Apps and Hospitality w/ Joe Capone of Espressly
SHIFT BREAK: Embracing Your Constraints
449: Convenience and Automation in Coffee w/ Tim Cox of Franke Coffee Systems
448: Founder Friday! Part 2 "Switching Gears" | w/ Doug Zell of Intelligentsia and The Meteor!
448: Founder Friday! Part 1 "Switching Gears" | w/ Doug Zell of Intelligentsia and The Meteor!
SHIFT BREAK : It's OK to Have Reasonable Tolerances
447: Understanding the Business of Coffee w/ Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood
SHIFT BREAK: How to Approach Holiday Hospitality
446: Building a People-First Coffee Tech Culture w/ Jason "Double J" Johnson, Black Rabbit Service Co.
SHIFT BREAK: We Need Inconvenient Coffee
RoR #27 : Scaling and Relationships in a Small Roastery w/ Cody Gordon, Cerberus Coffee
445: Evolution of the Barista-Machine Relationship w/ Ryan Willbur, Middleby Coffee
444: Founder Friday! w/ Julia Peixoto Peters of Peixoto Coffee, Arizona
SHIFT BREAK: The Weight of Relationships
443: Keep Your Communication Simple! w/ Author Ben Guttmann
SHIFT BREAK: Make Customer Feedback a Priority
442 : We Need Confidence, Celebration, and Joy!
SHIFT BREAK: Your Manager Has No Time To Manage!
441: How to Achieve Operational Excellence w/ Laila Ghambari
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
50 Tastes Of Gray
Walk-In Talk Podcast
Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio
The Turn of the Screw
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Recipe with Kenji and Deb
Gastropod