THE CONVERSATION
Kandace: Today we are unpacking Pilot, out of Toronto, Ontario. Even the box, super nice.
Ray: A little watermark?
Kandace: Open the box. Get a little handcrafted and artisan roasted.
Ray: The box is great!
Kandace: Yeah.
Ray: We’ve just been really digging all these cards they threw in here. This one from Jasmin tells us that we’re going to enjoy our coffee. Which we did.
There’s instructions for making a pour-over which is excellent. Very detailed. I need to get a scale. And then a card about the coffee we got which was a Guatemala Gesha-Honey Processed with an interesting story on the back of that card about the producer.
Kandace: So this producer owns their farm with their… It’s a mother-son team.
Ray: Fifth generation, yeah.
Kandace: Fifth generation. They’ve been doing some pretty cool things right?
Ray: Absolutely.
Kandace: You wanna tell me about them.
Ray: Well this year for the first time they have their own…they’re doing their own processing. So they’re doing honey-process on the estate which is super cool. Also wanna mention the bag…
Kandace: There’s a lot of layers of texture on the bag, and I think that actually matches pretty well the way they seem to talk to you about their coffee too.
Ray: They seem to have a pretty solid direction with their design…the use of Archer is nice.
Kandace: So one of the offerings that they have right now for the holidays I find completely intriguing.
Ray: Yes.
Kandace: Can we talk about that?
Ray: Absolutely.
Kandace: Is this a good time?
Ray: No it’s cool. Please!
Kandace: So it’s their kits right? And they have two kits—one is Gesha, which is a different processing method, and then the Bourbon, which are different varietals of the Bourbon.
Ray: Yeah. It’s very cool. I love how they’re doing this it’s like, they’re roasting them on…they tell you the day they’re roasting.
Kandace: December 17, you have like two days. I think…
Ray: Yeah. So you’ve gotta order it before that. They’re roasting to order. Exactly what people order. And they’re sending them out on these lovely designed tins.
Kandace: They’re beautiful!
Ray: Yeah. Super cool. Flat price seventy-five bucks includes shipping. I love this idea.
I mean it’s great for the holidays but honestly, I just love the idea of being able to try, you know, tasting—changing one variable in a coffee. Like changing just the production method or just a varietal within a region, or even just a brewing method changing up things like that makes you realize wow I really love this type I really don’t like this type and I can actually identify with just the one variable changing what’s…you know, the difference. Very cool.
Kandace: As just a coffee consumer, I would have, right now, not a strong idea of what processing method I’m drawn to. But to actually be able to have the same coffee processed four different ways and taste…
Ray: Yeah.
Kandace: What an experience!
Ray: Yeah.
Kandace: Yeah.
Really love anything that helps people that love coffee that might not be in the coffee world bubble learn more about the coffee that they’re drinking.
Ray: Yeah.
Kandace: Can we call it a bubble? Someone did.
Ray: We did just now we called it a bubble. You guys are living in a bubble in that coffee world.
Kandace: Are we in the bubble?
Ray: We’re like on the surface of the bubble.
Kandace: Yeah. We’re like the shiny rainbow texture.
Ray: So they have really nice videos on Vimeo, instructions for brewing, they do barista training—they’re really big on training. You can see where this all comes together for Pilot. They’re really big on the education piece.
Kandace: I especially enjoyed the few videos they had the origin, the roasting, the burn videos. Just, beautiful, ambient, photography and short clips and music.
Ray: Pilot Coffee Roasters of Toronto, Ontario.
