…and is rooted in two accidents from the past.

In 2008, I was in Washington D.C. visiting my brother-in-law. One afternoon, I went looking for a cup of coffee in the neighborhood and stumbled upon an Ethiopian market, a likely place to pick some up. The owner did not have any roasted coffee on hand but she pointed me to the green beans and told me they were easy to roast on the stove top. “Great!” I thought, “this will be a fun afternoon experiment.” The first attempt tasted horrible and I continued to make sub-par roasts on a cast iron skillet for many years. I got better but quickly realized the skill and perseverance it takes to make a good cup of coffee.

Fast forward to 2010. With Ph.D. in hand, I headed to Salt Lake City for my first permanent job , teaching African and World histories at a liberal arts college. At the end of my first year, money was tight and I was desperate to teach another course to pay off some bills. As a result, the course “Coffee in History and Society” was born. We started off the class with Antony Wild’s Coffee: A Dark History, a donated Black & Decker coffee maker from someone’s garage, and lots of crappy coffee. By 2019, the course was a staple in the college’s offerings and coffee, very good coffee, was made by electric drip, in siphon pots, French presses, and pour-overs for 20+ students twice a week.

In 2019, I landed in the upper midwest, Kalamazoo, Michigan to be exact. I continue to pursue opportunities to teach about and research coffee cultures and and preparation methods in all forms.

--Gary Marquardt, CEO, Feedback Coffee & Education