Today we’d like to introduce you to Marc Wortman.
Marc, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve loved coffee for most of my life. Coffee was a fixture in my home growing up and before long, I was joining the rest of the family in the morning tradition. In 2006, I started writing about coffee by launching MakeGoodCoffee.com. It was originally meant as a hobby but before long, a community of coffee lovers were learning more about the world of coffee from each other.
This sharing of knowledge was also my introduction to roasting coffee at home. Soon, I was roasting all of my own coffee, as well as for friends. It’s such a passion that I remain a regular presenter on the subject of home roasting at the annual CoffeeCon show in Los Angeles.
Over the years, I continued to research and share new coffee knowledge over my blog, now by meeting and interviewing coffee roasters wherever I traveled, as well as taking trips to coffee origin. I’ve visited coffee farms throughout Central America and Hawaii, and this year will be visiting farms in Mexico and Peru. I’ve published one of my origin trips in “Marching Forward” in the May-June 2013 issue of Roast Magazine.
In 2013, I relocated from Portland, Oregon to San Diego to realize my dream of making better coffee more accessible to everybody. Following an intensive coffee roasting course in the San Francisco area, I purchased my first commercial coffee roaster, and the Make Good Coffee Co. was born. I provide delicious and meticulously roasted coffee to restaurants, cafes, and grocers throughout San Diego.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road, but I’ve enjoyed every step. Fortunately, I’m well organized and enjoy sales so that has helped. But as for bumps in the road…
It took seven months from the delivery of my commercial roaster, until it was operational due to the permits and approvals required to open any business in this area. That’s seven months of rent and insurance, and no sales.
Roasting coffee creates a smoke and smell that not everybody enjoys, and I’ve gotten to know my neighbors very well (not always a pleasant introduction) to work out when my roasting is the least disruptive to them.
I’m not handy by nature, but I’ve learned my coffee roaster down to its parts. It’s my personal mission to know coffee roasting as well as it can be known, so I’ve been forced to become handy (at least in terms of understanding my roaster).
Make Good Coffee Co. – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We provide coffee for restaurants, cafes, and grocers throughout San Diego. Here’s what sets us apart…
Everything we deliver will have been roasted within days of delivery, so it’s fresh and full of flavor.
We roast in small batches so there’s strong attention to detail.
For all of our customers, we take the time at the front end to make sure we are pairing the right coffee for our customer’s customer. We do that with formal coffee tastings until the customer and we identify the right coffee for them, or finetune the coffee samples we provide until we identify the right one. We could theoretically have a unique coffee or blend for each customer.
We provide full service, including inventory management to cold brew coffee installation to unique blending for our customers.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my coffee roasting career is today. I’m providing a living by making quality coffee available to businesses in San Diego, California. Life doesn’t get better than that.
Too tacky? Ok, then my proudest moment was the first restaurant business I ever won. It’s a large restaurant in Pacific Beach that took months to get. I’ve been their coffee provider ever since.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://MakeGoodCoffee.com
- Phone: 619-458-0575
- Email: marc@makegoodcoffee.com
- Instagram: http://Instagram.com/makegoodcoffee
- Facebook: http://Facebook.com/makegoodcoffee
- Twitter: http://Twitter.com/makegoodcoffee
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