Keia & Martyn’s medium light roast coffee from Colombia will be available on drip, on espresso and freshly roasted by the bag at Nossa Familia’s cafes through the end of June while supplies last.
ABOUT KEIA & MARTYN’S
Q&A
K: There’s something nostalgic for me and my history about coffee’s convergence of the past and the future. In the past, I grew up around coffee in Italy (in my childhood). It deeply impacted me and affected my life. There was always this thread connecting me to coffee since my time in Italy and growing up around that intoxicating smell every morning as my mom and dad prepared for work. These experiences impacted my want for a personal and solitary experience with coffee as well as a more social desire towards coffee culture. Coffee to me is about community and being with oneself - my answers will contain dualities. My Libraness shines through. It’s those dualities and juxtapositions that bring me joy in life.
K: I love a good instant coffee. Having been a barista for so many years and striving hard for excellence, I get a lot of enjoyment out of providing a product that doesn’t require a lot of skill to produce . My JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) work (my other job) makes me look for a way to enjoy coffee without having to expend all the effort for quality. So that is the side of me that works outside of coffee and seeks it out as a joyful and warming part of my day. My public facing answer or coffee professional answer is my Origami dripper. Cup quality of filtered coffee is exceptional and easy to produce.
M: I enjoy the tried-and-true method of French press. I like the apparatus, the classic Chambord. Semi-filtered and the flavor profile! I think it’s the best, most classic way to enjoy coffee.
Yeny Capiz is a farmer in Huila, Colombia. We have purchased coffee from her husband in the past and were really impressed with how the collective they a part of has shared strong regenerative farming practices and support and a familial spirit of cooperation with its farmer members. Personally, Yeny and Nilson being a couple in coffee really aligned with us, as we have a similar union, and we were super excited to seize the opportunity to share Yeny’s coffee with our community.
We always set our roasting profiles to try and bring out the best out of the particular coffee that we’ve purchased. With notes like molasses, sweet red tea, citrus and candied hazelnut, we really found that a City Roast both for espresso and pour-over would highlight those flavors. We especially get the molasses and light citrus notes up front and like the sweetness and body of the final cup.
K: I love coffee. I was disenchanted with coffee when I had worked so hard for so long as a barista and manager, and I knew what I was capable of. I spent a long time learning and perfecting my craft as well as training other baristas. I worked at and with some heavy hitters like Stumptown, Crema, and Tiny’s, where I rarely felt seen or truly valued for all that I gave. I never felt like I got the proper support. I eventually felt pushed out and I turned my back on the industry when I felt it had turned on me.
In environmental equity, I felt I had gained a new perspective and a new purpose, and could affect change.
Martyn came to me about beginning a subscription business late in 2019. I was originally supportive with my skills in website building and design. Soon afterward we discussed the future of the company. We discussed why I left the industry in the first place and what it would take for me to use those skills I worked so hard to develop. I really enjoyed what he was doing and it was intriguing to me to consider grabbing that thread of coffee in my life again. I told him I would join him IF he showed me roasting and we used my new skills in JEDI and environmental justice to inform our company. We were both all in.
Martyn, do you miss roasting?M: I miss my former role as production roaster at Groundwork. There I roasted on a GG60, a classic mid 1950s Probat. There was a ritual to prepping the machine every day and then there was the entire process, which is somewhat antique today. It is mentally consuming. I also miss batch roasting on their 70 kilo Loring. I am a lover of small batch roasting as well but I do miss the wild pace of big batch roasting.
M: In my new role, I enjoy the design and marketing of our products. Especially designing labels and any forward facing images for our coffee. I went to school for advertising when I was much younger and now I get to put that experience into practice.
I also head up the research and development of K&M. For instance, we are passionate about getting into carbon zero infrastructure for our company and have dreamed about owning our own electric delivery vehicle. I spent several months researching the benefits and plausibility of deploying an electric vehicle to be used for both deliveries and pop-ups. This summer we will debut our incredible Truck Trike, which we’ll begin to feature at markets, pop-ups and deliveries.
M: We actually have years of experience in the industry. Not just our experience but we are creatives. Amongst our experience in coffee, conversely we work to sustain our creative pursuits, we have now combined those skills. We are not coming from a capitalized background, (meaning that we have boot-strapped this venture entirely on our own). We have personalized our image by making it about us and I think our customers really identify with that. We bring a personal touch to what can be sometimes an alienating space for people not “in the know”.
As a couple, we are very different people that bring our own lived experience and personality to our little coffee company.
The results of our divergent ideations are pretty radical. Whether it's building out profiles for different coffees, using an equity lens to purchase coffees, or designing and then creating all of our packaging and branding, you'll get the best of both worlds as it all merges together into this company.
K: Our Equity Pricing model is unique and built out of a desire to provide quality products for everyone, not just those of a certain income bracket. The Equity Pricing model allows the customer the choice of three prices for all of our products, with each price helping to support and sustain our service.
M: Climate change promises to threaten and is threatening the sustainability of specialty coffee across the board. The quality of coffee growing today is matchless in comparison to previous decades. Micro lot coffees and haute importers bringing high quality coffee to market will eventually all be under threat across the industry. This is always in the back of my mind. Even though there are efforts being made to combat the effects of climate in the future the reality is that unique and specialty coffees will be greatly diminished. All that we can do is enjoy these halcyon days of wonderful quality coffee and continue to push for practices and policies that advance a climate healthy future for all.
M: To me it is a dream come true to finally build something of our own. And so therefore each day that we get to grow this family business is a success.
K: If we can continue to focus on outcomes and not get distracted by everything else, that will be a success. Little things or sometimes big but temporary things can come up and striking that balance between addressing them AND staying laser focused on your goals can be difficult at times. I've been working a lot lately on how I can mitigate some adverse situations by running it through an equity framework. I plan to have this help us affect change within our own company but also to have some reciprocal learning and sharing happening with the wider community. This is all with the hope of helping us keep true and expand on our original vision.
M: We are always looking at ways to sustainably grow our business. We consider ourselves the modern version of an American micro roasting company and plan to find ways to build on that.
K: I’m excited about developing more offerings like tea, more instant coffees, packaged beverages, in-house food products, and purchasing products from other local and/or BIPOC businesses. I am stoked about turning up the volume on our vibe and getting a little silly. I think using our new electric bike to get out into people’s neighborhoods, turning up at block parties, hitting up some spots on occasion and just throwing people bags of coffee from the bike; just bring the JOY!
SUPPORT KEIA & MARTYN’S
- Shop Keia & Martyn’s coffee a la carte and as a subscription service on their website.
- Look for Keia & Martyn’s at all Market of Choice stores in Oregon, Providore, Coquine, and at pop-ups and markets all over Portland, Oregon.
- Follow @keia_and_martyns_coffee on Instagram
ABOUT OUR GUEST SERIES
One of Nossa Familia’s core values is ‘Always Be Making Friends’ (ABMF). We like having coffee friends! Since day one, in the extremely competitive coffee industry, we’ve valued the camaraderie and friendships of other specialty coffee roasters and have actively sought out deeper connections through coffee trades and guest features in our cafes.
In May of 2020, Nossa Familia Coffee made the decision to dedicate all of our guest features to Black-owned coffee businesses to support and elevate their work. This decision was part of our companywide commitment to be allies to our Black community, find ways to educate ourselves, improve, do the work to confront discrimination, and counter systemic injustices for people of color. We recognize that making a deliberate choice to promote and buy from Black owned businesses supports racial justice, builds a more equitable economy, and ultimately strengthens community.
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