THE CONVERSATION
Ray: Today, we are here to talk about ReAnimator of Philadelphia.
Kandace: ReAnimator.
Ray: I feel like the name bears some explanation.
Kandace: Sure, well, you’re pretty excited it about it, so go for it.
Ray: It was inspired by an H.P. Lovecraft story. Herbert West, Reanimator.
“As I have said, it happened when we were in the medical school where West had already made himself notorious through his wild theories on the nature of death and the possibility of overcoming it artificially.”
Did we talk to anyone from ReAnimator, Kandace?
Kandace: How about our buddy, Matt, tells us about this. Matt?
Matt: My name is Matt Scottoline, and I’m with ReAnimator Coffee in Philadelphia. ReAnimator started about 6 years ago. It was started by Mark Capriotti and Mark Corpus, who began roasting in their row house in Philly.
At the time, there was really no specialty roasting going on in Philly. This was 2010, or so. They saw that needs to be filled and just got a small roaster and started roasting in the basement of their house. It kind of just came from there, so it started really naturally.
There’s an urban farm in our neighborhood of Philadelphia that had a CSA pickup and ReAnimator would be there on Saturday mornings and make pour overs for people and try to sell the few bags of coffee we had. It sort of grew pretty naturally from there over the last 6 years or so. Scaling it and finally getting a larger production roaster and the café and just kind of growing that way.
Ray: What else can you tell us about ReAnimator Coffee from Philadelphia?
Kandace: Well, they were founded in 2011 by Mark and Mark, have two locations. They love Philadelphia. They’re making some pretty fantastic coffee. They just actually redesigned their bags.
Ray: Yeah, last year.
Kandace: Last year.
Ray: The artwork was based on an old German woodcut, is that right?
Kandace: The bags were designed by Mike Holmquist. Pretty rad.
Ray: These have got to be biotray or something. That’s what they feel like. Do you know?
Kandace: Don’t just start saying words.
Matt: We really wanted to revamp the packaging. For a long time it was super utilitarian. It was just plain brown craft bags that we hand-stamped every one. It had a cool vibe because it was hand-made, but it was pretty tedious, and as we started selling more coffee, it wasn’t sustainable.
A designer that lived in our neighborhood named Mike Holmquist, who did design for some other businesses in the neighborhood helped us out with the new bags. The new bags, the main thing we wanted to do was find better ways to differentiate between the coffees because when it was just stamps, they all kind of looked the same next to each other. With the stickers, we’ve been able to color code based on country of origin, which helps differentiate on the shelves and have them look a little more interesting. It was good. Mike did a great job on the designs.
Kandace: We heard about ReAnimator from Josh Lee on the Instagrams.
Ray: Really?
Kandace: Yeah! We put something out. We asked people who they’d like to see on the show, and Josh got a hold of us.
Ray: That’s awesome!
Kandace: This is his favorite coffee, so here you are Josh.
Ray: Josh, you get a free shout out. Josh Lee, YOU RULE!
Kandace: We can cheers him.
Ray: Yeah, cheers to Josh Lee for introducing us to ReAnimator of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I’ve been there a couple of times.
Kandace: I think we should talk about lightly roasting coffee.
Matt: Okay. This is third wave coffee, and third wave coffee is generally all about roasting light. Middle wave coffee, I guess you can call second wave, would be like Starbucks and Pete’s. They roast darker, and that’s what third wave is kind of getting away from because a lot of that would mask the flavor. First wave, f*** it. That’s just Folgers. That doesn’t matter.
Kandace: They’re just throwing out coffee beans.
Ray: They’re just f***ing whatever. They don’t even use coffee. They just use chicory or something.
Kandace: Yep.
Ray: By third wave …
Kandace: Tobacco and chicory.
Ray: Byproducts.
ReAnimator coffee of Philadelphia, Philly, Pennsylvania.
Kandace: It was founded by Mark and Mark. Not Marky Mark, Mark and Mark.
Ray: I bet they get that a lot.
Kandace: Please let me be the first person that ever made that joke.
Ray: The first person to draw a parallel with Mark Wahlberg on this show, that’s for sure.
Kandace: Wait, Marky Mark is Mark Wahlberg?