A Coffee Partnership Brewed in Paris
From 08.2014 to 12.2016 I lived 10 minutes north of Paris, France. I was working with a small non-profit called “tu n’es pas seul” or “you are not alone”. We mostly taught English and created community for people who felt alone, practically, this meant that we played games together, walked together, ate together, studied the Bible together, and had true, deep friendships.
During my first year in Paris a group of four young men came and volunteered at our organization for 7 months. Whenever we weren’t in the classroom, we were downtown exploring the hidden corners of the city. As a photographer I loved to see what others didn’t see, and find places that few people knew. I was thankful that one of the four guys, Chayne, was also a photographer and enjoyed exploring with me.
One day after work, TJ, a friend from a different non-profit, wanted to grab a coffee. I remember walking by probably 20 cafés on the way to this one particular café and thinking to myself all the coffee in Paris is the same, why are we going so far? When we finally arrived at 10 Bells near the Canal Saint Martin I realized this was a different kind of coffee shop. There were new flavors that I didn’t know were even possible. I loved this coffee and this experience; it completely changed my perspective. Chayne and I spent the next several months exploring as many cafés around Paris as we could. We visited nearly all of the specialty coffee shops that Paris had at the time. Telescope café, and Honor quickly became staples. I also began to explore roasters from across Europe at this time, my favorites were definitely Koppi, from Sweden, and then Five Elephant, from Berlin.
When Chayne moved back to the United States he began working as a barista at a coffee shop in Wichita, Kansas, where he slowly made his way to roasting. Meanwhile, I continued to live, work, and explore Paris for another year. When my contract was up I decided I wasn’t made for this particular big city, so I went back home to Canada for a short 3 months, and then, moved to a small town in Germany where I fell in love, married, and worked as a photographer. After just a couple of months of marriage, Judy and I had the same thought we need to sell everything we own and move to Myanmar. It was a crazy thought but we had both volunteered in Thailand for 8 months years earlier where we met migrant workers from Myanmar.
Judy and I contacted Dave and Louise, our point people in Myanmar and asked if we could come by for a visit. When we arrived in March of 2019 the first half a tonne of Lighthouse coffee had just arrived from the mountain in their yard and was ready for sorting which we got to participate in. Almost exactly one year later Judy and I moved to Myanmar to join the coffee production team in the marketing department. At the exact same time, Chayne became the head roaster for Legacy CoffeeWorks, a youth training program that focuses on career skills in the coffee field.
CoffeeWorks is now one of our first partner roasters in the United States where a limited quantity will be briefly available… until the 2020 harvest arrives that is.
Chayne in Paris.
