Next up in our globe-trotting Build-Outs journey, we visit Portland, Oregon, home to the new Loma Coffee, a collaboration between local Portland coffee pro Brandon Smyth and two-time World Series champion Kevin Youkillis.
As told to Sprudge by Brandon Smyth.
The 2021 season of Build-Outs is presented by Fellow. The series is sponsored by La Marzocco, Pacific Barista Series, Marco Beverage Systems, Dona, and Sustainable Harvest.
For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?
We source weird and unusual coffees whenever possible and roast, pull, extract them to order as delicately as possible. Kevin Youkillis, the Boston Red Sox first baseman coffee/beer fanatic plucked Brandon Smyth (Water Ave) to take an adventurous leap. We roast on a Probat Probatone P12 (modified) and Pull on a Synesso MVP. Our current favored child is a Orange Peel fruit ferment / >70f low temp / low 02 Yellow Catuai from Finca La Montanita in Guatemala.
Can you tell us a bit about the new space?
It was scrapped together during quarantine by Mr. Smyth, who was getting his anxieties out by using paints of intense color. He also dragged in all of his psychedelic 60s era lighting and stereos. It is under construction, always. There is a Television Monument that routinely plays a color enhanced VHS episode of COSMOS with Carl Sagan. Carl is the patron saint of this little roastery.
What’s your approach to coffee?
Don’t limit any possible breakthroughs by being stubborn. Try it. Experiment and record. Find the apex and try to repeat it. Don’t drink too much espresso.
Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?
Some very unusual Ethiopians as usual, plus a couple of variants from Guatemala that are very hard to identify… The cups they produce are a full spectrum, so we will have a lot of fun tweaking them to see where they go this fall.
How is your project considering sustainability?
We are barely sustainable, but surviving. As far as our practices go environmentally, our little cafe’s employees and conspirators do not have a typical carbon or garbage footprint. We reuse as much as possible, craft, get clever, bike to work. In the future we are looking forward to implementing as many intertwined policies with producers and shippers to find novel ways to do more with less.
What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?
We hit it! October 2020… Just went for it. It was insane.
Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?
Brainfood Bread & Visuals, Colt Bowden @ GoldHandSigns.com, Aaron Fratis @ Portland Beeswax Candle Company, and our kids.
Thank you!
Thank you, too.
The 2021 season of Build-Outs is presented by Fellow. The series is sponsored by La Marzocco, Pacific Barista Series, Marco Beverage Systems, Dona, and Sustainable Harvest.
