Past Releases

NAME: Jacob Mingle

RELEASE: New Meditation

COMPANY: Totem Coffee, Placerville, Ca

One phrase came up over and over when we talked to Jacob Mingle, Matchbook’s featured roaster for June. Jacob, who is the owner of Totem Coffee Roasters in Placerville, California, kept mentioning his principles; when he discussed roasting, or his store, or the way he lives his life. Jacob saw this project as a moment to step back and reevaluate his place in coffee. “This whole project has been so much more profound than I ever thought it would be,” he says. 

NAME: Camilla Yuan

RELEASE: No Use Ganchos

COMPANY: Temple Coffee Roasters, Sacramento, CA

“I’m not really used to talking about myself.”

Camilla opens up our conversation hesitantly—the only way I can think to describe Camilla in the beginning is cautiously grateful. Camilla is our featured roaster for the month of May, and when you ask her why she thinks she was chosen to be part of the project, she responds with the same careful grace. “I was so floored. I thought, ‘me?’”

NAME: Steve Cuevas

YEARS ROASTING: 2 Years

COMPANY: Black Oak Coffee Roasters, Ukiah, CA

Steve is the person who time seems not to touch. “Seeing everyone running around like they have the must urgent task to accomplish, while I tried finding dogs to play with at parks,” is somehow the most apt description of him, and he describes himself as a person for whom life cannot be measured or quantified in any way. “My life has been filled to the brim with great memories I don't remember, and experiences I can’t think of, but I appreciate them all because they make me who I am. It's complicated but life is meant to be lived and not measured or compared.”

NAME: Karley Jane Webb

YEARS ROASTING: 2 Years

COMPANY: N/A, San Francisco, CA  

“If I had to identify with an animal, I’d pick an ant. They’re really good at getting things done and then coming home to their colony,” Karley says, jovially and without batting an eye. Karley is our featured roaster for March at Matchbook, and is maybe more excited about this project than you are (certainly not us here at Matchbook HQ—we’re thrilled!). “I’m doing this because it seems like it’d be really fun,” she exclaims. Trying to transcribe Karley’s interview made me question how many times I was using exclamation points, but Karley radiates pure enthusiasm and delight.

ROASTER: Christopher Schooley

YEARS ROASTING: 16 years roasting, 21 years in Coffee

COMPANY: Troubadour Maltings, Fort Collins, CO

“Surrealism is a snake in the grass”

Suitably, I've never been able to find the quote again since I first saw it. It was in a book that I was thinking about purchasing for my brother for Christmas which was a collection of publications from Breton and the original Surrealists. I can't even remember the name of book store. It was in Chicago, north on Broadway near Irving Park. An enormous garden level apartment converted for retail with unsorted random stacks of books.

ROASTER: Mandy Spirito

YEARS ROASTING: 5 years

COMPANY: Halfwit Coffee Roasters, Chicago IL

I met Mandy at a bar in 2015 and I knew we’d be best friends. Not become best friends—be best friends. Immediately.