The extended grind.

Patton Coffee Consulting was born out of a desire to teach people about coffee.  For the enthusiast or the new business owner, coffee can be intimidating because the world of coffee is vast and overwhelming.  Chuck Patton’s teaching experience and almost 20 years as a coffee industry leader make him an ideal partner and guide for those who want to begin their coffee journey. 

Prior to starting his coffee journey, Chuck was a teacher.  He was a substitute high school teacher in San Diego, taught ESL in Japan and Special Education in San Francisco.   After receiving his Masters Degree in English Composition at SFSU,  Chuck taught well over 80 sections of English at community colleges around San Diego County.  Chuck’s teaching philosophy is very much student-centered.  Learning should be an interactive endeavor and we learn best in social environments, not when someone is lecturing to us at the front of the classroom.  A teacher must help students gain the courage to try something new and help them to gain the confidence to keep trying if they initially don’t succeed, a philosophy Chuck still adheres to when guiding a novice through a coffee tasting or helping an experienced coffee roaster refine their approach to coffee.

Chuck started his coffee journey as a hobby while still teaching.  The hobby gradually took over in 2002 and Bird Rock Coffee Roasters was born.  Soon, he was roasting coffee in his garage after class to sell at farmers’ market on the weekends and started delivering coffee during his off hours to residents in the neighborhood.   

It was a risky endeavor to quit teaching to pursue coffee full time, but at the time, it seemed worth the risk.  Few in the city were treating coffee like he felt it should be treated; coffee is an elixir meant to be enjoyed and treated more like a fine wine instead of a quick shot of energy or cheap stimulant. Chuck opened a tiny coffee bar/roasting operation in a 8x10 foot kiosk not far from Bird Rock, San Diego.  The place was so small, in fact, at the time it was the smallest licensed coffee wholesaler in the state of California.  At the time Chuck was using a Diedrich IR3 but soon got an opportunity to buy a Probat L12 and he was able to increase his wholesale business.

In 2006 Chuck opened his first retail cafe in Bird Rock, right across the street from Bird Rock’s long-established Starbucks.   While many questioned his logic opening across the street from such a popular and well-established coffee company, Chuck was convinced that customers would respond to a better product that was made with care and attention to detail.  He was right.   Bird Rock Coffee Roasters was embraced by the community and grew rapidly.

Soon after the cafe opening, Chuck began to source more and more of his coffee at origin, taking the lead from companies like Stumptown and Intellegencia who were buying exceptional coffee and paying coffee growers a well-deserved premium.   Chuck became a leader in the Direct Trade movement and over the next several years would make well over 50 sourcing trips to 17 coffee growing countries.

Buying exceptional coffee is one thing; but if the coffee is not roasted well you might as well buy commodity/low-grade coffee.   Roasting coffee is an art which takes a long time to master.  Chuck and his roasting team dedicated many hours, days and weeks to profile development and experimentation in pursuit of perfection.  In an effort to take the next step in quality and controllability over the roasting process, BRCR moved to a Giesen W15 coffee Roaster in 2011, buying the first Giesen to be imported into the USA.  Soon after adopting the Giesen, BRCR won Coffee Roaster of the Year which recognized not only our skill in roasting coffee, but our educational programs and our contributions to the coffee industry.   Many other awards and accolades followed as the brand continued to grow in stature.    

Chuck went on to open a roasting facility/cafe in the USD area of San Diego with a huge Loring 35 coffee roaster, and a cutting edge cafe in Little Italy, the heart of downtown San Diego.  By 2016 BRCR had a team of well over 50 employees and served 1000s of customers a day.

Since the sale of Bird Rock Coffee in 2017,  Chuck saw a need for accessible coffee education, not just for the coffee enthusiast but for people who wanted to get into the coffee business.  Patton Coffee Consulting marks the beginning of a new coffee-journey for Chuck.  You have many options when it comes to hiring a consultant or coffee trainer.  However, few in the industry have the teaching background and coffee experience (retail, coffee sourcing, and coffee roasting).  We can offer you help in just about every facet of the coffee industry.

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out.