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#15, Meet Ken Braz and August 63, the mobile coffee roastery in Berlin
74 Plays3 years ago
We shared Ken's coffee story a few months ago and now wish to share his latest project August 63, a mobile coffee roastery in Berlin
Ken is working hard on his coffee dream - build a mobile coffee roastery in Berlin, and you will find him at farmers markets, street food markets, corporate events, festivals or cultural events soon.
Ken aims to raise 12,000 euros to kick start his dreams, and his project is still alive here. With your support, Ken can launch his project and share his passion for sustainable and transparently sourced coffee with thousands of coffee lovers in Germany.
Ken’s passion and commitment for change drive him forward to make change where it needs to be done and help others be more aware of where they buy their coffee.
Support Ken here
https://www.startnext.com/en/august63
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https://notabarista.org/
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Transcript
Introduction to 'I'm Not a Barista'
00:00:04
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the I'm Not a barista podcast where you can get inspired by real life stories from the people behind the cup. Join us as we talk about everything to do with coffee from having a career in this industry to brewing tips and how you can support this global community. Humanity runs on coffee and together we can empower the people behind the cup.
Meet Ken Bratz and August 63
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello everyone, my name is Mickey, your host of I Am Not Burstain. Today we have a guest, Ken Bratz. So we shared his coffee story a while ago about his project, August 63. And Ken has been working very hard on his dream to build a mobile coffee roaster in Berlin. So later, we hope later you can find his coffee truck, August 63, later in Berlin. So Ken aims to raise 12,000 euros to kickstart his dream. And there are about six days left. So you still have a chance to support Ken.
00:00:56
Speaker
to support his dream.
Ken's Coffee Journey Begins
00:00:58
Speaker
Yeah, my name is Ken. I'm originally from Luxembourg. I'm 27 now. And I moved to Berlin in 2015, I think, yeah, for my studies. So I studied marketing and communications as a bachelor. And basically, my whole coffee story started
00:01:20
Speaker
with a course in my university town, like time, sorry. Basically we had a course which was called like NGO and social businesses. And my professor, he was showing us about like online coffee roastery, which kind of promoted that they are like a social business.
Inspiration from Social Business Course
00:01:43
Speaker
So basically they are roasting and selling coffees from different farms in Ethiopia.
00:01:50
Speaker
and basically donating money to the farmers and building up like education centers like water wells and so on and so on and I really loved that idea. I really loved that there can be a business changing basically like while selling a very
00:02:10
Speaker
nice product. Back then, I was not used to drinking high-quality coffee or specialty coffee, so I was really curious. I was like, how does that coffee taste? How does that coffee from Metopia taste? I actually also wanted to support the idea of that business.
00:02:29
Speaker
So I ordered coffee. I ordered like two filter coffees from Ethiopia. And since I was only used to drinking those like cheap senseo pots, I also already like bought a, I think it was a Chemex.
00:02:46
Speaker
a dripper, like a water kettle, sorry, and the scale because I was like, oh, if you buying like high quality coffee, you also have to kind of like have the proper equipment for it. So that's what I did. So I bought all of these equipment without any idea of how to brew it. And
00:03:07
Speaker
You started very seriously. I did, yeah. If I do something, I always want to do it like 100%, let's say. And I mean, for me, of course, like the Chemex really looked, back then it really, it still looks really, really
Discovering the Specialty Coffee Scene
00:03:22
Speaker
good. It has these kind of aesthetics, which kind of fascinated me. So I was like, okay.
00:03:28
Speaker
either go full or like do nothing. So I did that and basically this filter coffee I brewed back then I didn't follow like a proper recipe or anything but I was like super surprised of how different the coffee can taste like how there was like floral notes and stuff like these typically Ethiopian flavor notes you can find in your cup and for me that was like overwhelming I was like oh
00:03:56
Speaker
There is something in this world which I never had the opportunity to drink before and it really fascinated me a lot. So I got hooked. I wanted to discover more about it. And that was basically my first touch point with like specialty coffee, let's say, or like more extraordinary coffee. And back then from that day on, there was no point of return, let's say.
00:04:24
Speaker
And yeah, so basically after that, I kind of started getting more and more into that topic. And since I was in Berlin, I kind of Googled like, okay, what's where's the different coffee roasteries in Berlin, who offers a similar product and stuff. So
00:04:42
Speaker
So I did like a little tour to Berlin and I went to a couple of groceries. I saw that they were also not only offering like cappuccino or like espresso based beverages, but also like hand-brew filter coffees and stuff. So yeah, I kind of wanted to try them all, let's say. And I was really fascinated and yeah, that passion, let's say, kind of evolved during that time.
00:05:10
Speaker
And when I was in my second semester, my third, we had an internship time.
Cafe Gang: Blogging Berlin's Coffee
00:05:18
Speaker
And back then I was like really getting into coffee. And during my internship time, I had a day kind of like where it was not busy at all or anything. It was still in a communication agency.
00:05:31
Speaker
So I started this coffee block, which was called back then Cafe Gang, Coffee Gang in English, where I actually wanted to explore all the good coffee places around Berlin.
00:05:45
Speaker
being basically like a gang kind of like covering up all the different coffee shops. And yeah, because I saw there was no proper Instagram page about coffee places. There was a lot of food blogs where people were showing about the food culture in Berlin and not really about the coffee scene.
00:06:07
Speaker
And because of that, I really got into the world of coffee. And with the time there was a friend, Antonia, she also joined me on the Cafe Gang blog and she had experience with photography because she was studying photography and we kind of like started getting something done there. So we went to
00:06:28
Speaker
not only coffee shops, because with the time there was coffee festivals, there was cupping events around town. So we tried to soak up as much as possible and to try as many coffees and we really saw that there was this big
00:06:44
Speaker
community. It's still a very niche market, let's say, like a lot of coffee nerds, a lot of passionate people who are about coffee with different backgrounds and different history, and they all kind of shared the same passion.
00:06:59
Speaker
I mean, there was something really beautiful. I really saw that there is so much more than just like a hot beverage with caffeine, you know. And that was really cool. I really enjoyed this. And from that moment on, as I said, like, I really dig deeper into the topic and yeah.
00:07:22
Speaker
That's the magic of coffee, right? True. And your story is kind of special because you get to know especially coffee from a course at a university. Yeah. Like most other people, they start work as a barista for some spare money, you know, like a pocket money at the UniLife.
00:07:41
Speaker
Thanks for sharing your experience and it's definitely very interesting and tell us about what happened since last year. I remember you left Berlin in the very beginning of a pandemic and then you moved somewhere else and now you're back with a new project.
Pandemic-Induced Changes and Challenges
00:07:56
Speaker
So what happened?
00:07:57
Speaker
So yeah, so basically a lot happened since then. We were like me, my girlfriend, her sister and her boyfriend. We had like common plans together because my girlfriend's sister and her boyfriend, they got pregnant last year in November or something.
00:08:18
Speaker
And they were like, hey, there's like lockdown in a big city of Berlin. There's the pandemics. Like life was not that great in the city. Like we were all kind of safe. No one of us got sick or anything. Thanks for that. But it was this like, you know, in winter, Berlin also gets really cold and very gray. And it was just like not the worst.
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah, it was super like not the right vibes anymore. And we were kind of striving for change. So when they told us they were pregnant, and they didn't want to raise their child in Berlin, you know, in the beginning, we were super happy that they were pregnant, and that there was something like exciting coming in 2021, you know, like a little baby, my girlfriend's gonna be a
00:09:09
Speaker
like an aunt, me, gonna be like an uncle and stuff. So because I mean, when I left Luxembourg five, six years ago, I also kind of left my family in my home city, home country. And, you know, they are my family now, let's say, I mean, I can always go back to Luxembourg and stuff. But still, like, it would have been like, you know, like a little family gathering in Berlin. So when they decided to move back, we were kind of sad.
00:09:42
Speaker
shouldn't we join them? I kept that thought for me for three or four days until I told my girlfriend. And she was like, after those three, four days where I didn't sleep for three days, I was really naked. Let's do this. Yeah. And then at one point, I was like, let's do it. My girlfriend, she's a freelance designer. So for her, it wouldn't have been a problem to do so.
00:10:03
Speaker
And in my head it was like...
00:10:10
Speaker
And I was back then working as a barista in a coffee roastery, and also in marketing for an espresso machine distributor, manufacturing. So when I told my former boss, because she has the same companies, when I told her that I'd be moving, so we decided to go to Mallorca with them.
00:10:35
Speaker
So when I told my boss that I would leave Berlin because of those reasons, she was like, hey, because I didn't expect she'd offer me to also kind of work on remote.
00:10:49
Speaker
That's good. For in marketing, you know, so, so I kind of had to give up my job as a barista. And then I kind of got more hours. So I was working like half like part time in marketing, which was pretty cool, because I still had the opportunity to make some money, join them.
Crafting a Dual Business Plan
00:11:12
Speaker
And, you know, like,
00:11:14
Speaker
get things done still. But on the other side, I always had in my back of my head that I actually wanted to do something on my own, like to create my own company, to do something I'm really willing to do. But yeah, so that was the situation when we moved here. And after a couple of months, my boss, she told me that
00:11:40
Speaker
they were kind of like canceling the contract with the espresso machine manufacturer so that she had to cut my hours then it was only like 10 hours a week or something which was not you know enough to to survive for me to pay rent and pay my things so I was bit into that
00:12:02
Speaker
you know like disaster of you know being here and here there is not a big coffee scene especially in the north because we are in the north maybe in the south in palma or so there's a bigger coffee scene but here in the north there is none and
00:12:20
Speaker
And so I had struggle to find a job. And then on the other side, I always had this thought and this will of creating something on my own. And since last year, I started roasting my own coffee. I did that a bit
00:12:38
Speaker
like on the side, giving it to friends and family and getting feedback. So I thought maybe that can be an opportunity for me to kind of make some money to kind of create a brand or to create my own business. And so basically I started writing my own business plan for that.
00:13:02
Speaker
I kind of did some research in the beginning I did some research for here but I also on the side did some research for Berlin because
00:13:11
Speaker
A bigger city with a more bigger market. Exactly. I wrote basically two simultaneous business plans and I always did a pro and con list. While I was writing more, I figured out that Berlin is the city for me. That's the city where my passion for this product
00:13:38
Speaker
you know like was born and where I got also to meet so many incredible talented people such as you know founders baristas roasters uh bloggers like this whole coffee community of Germany but but especially from Berlin it's so valuable to me that I was like I I kind of have to go back like
00:14:05
Speaker
It's going to be super hot to open your own company to do this in a country where you don't even master the language because my Spanish is not that great. Berlin is the place I have to be, so that's why after my business plan was written and stuff,
00:14:28
Speaker
I was like, okay, I have to go back. And so basically now we're back. I'm back. It sounds like you're a man with the plan and you take things seriously in a very structured way. Remember you say you study marketing and communication? Yeah. Writing a business plan isn't something new to you guys for... Yeah. I mean, yeah, a bit, you know, like it was super challenging because in Uni, we also
00:14:58
Speaker
did like communication concepts and stuff or like also like some parts of business plans, but never that in detail, you know, because you also have to have like a financial plan to calculate your three years, your whole investment costs and all of that, you know, and still you're not sure if it's actually working.
00:15:20
Speaker
school and real life. I'm in that situation right now where I'm super motivated, I'm ready to go, but I still need the money. Let's say it like that. I need to get some liquidity in order to start my own business.
00:15:43
Speaker
So we talk about your business plan. You mentioned this is a new brand that you're building and you are going to make it happen, launch it in Berlin. Yeah. Tell us more about this project, what it is about. Yeah.
The Vision for a Mobile Coffee Roastery
00:16:01
Speaker
My business is basically called August 63, Mobile Coffee Roastery, because I'm going to
00:16:12
Speaker
Or like with my plan, of course, I want to build a coffee brand, which is not only an online shop where I sell my own roasted coffee. I also want to create this mobile coffee truck. Let's call it like that, like an Italian Piaggio Appé, like a tricycle. And with that, I kind of want to be present on local
00:16:34
Speaker
farmers markets on events, let's say like cultural events, sport events, festivals, like a whole different event plus like corporate events and be on like trade fairs to have a stand there with my own roasted coffee and basically provide
00:16:57
Speaker
people who gather somehow, you know, on the coolest locations in Berlin to serve them, to offer them my own roasted coffee as beans, but also as freshly brewed coffee specialties like coffee drinks.
00:17:13
Speaker
That sounds a good idea. And tell us more, what is a special part of this coffee truck? I mean, it's so special because it's basically like this whole heart passion, like this heart project I have in me since
00:17:31
Speaker
since such a long time and it kind of gathers all what represents me as a person and what I want to represent with coffee. So basically this whole thought of having like a community project because
00:17:48
Speaker
being on like local markets being on cultural events you know it's places where people meet where people gather where people celebrate together and if i have the opportunity to kind of celebrate with them you know with my stand there and provide them with good quality beverages like i cannot be happier and maybe people as well like they can
00:18:11
Speaker
you know they are happy to have good quality products and good quality coffee with me and it's like all these community parts like and for my business or for me the part of the community for my brand
00:18:27
Speaker
is also not ending there because the coffee I want to buy, the green coffees is also sourced from different imports or farms directly. There's always a big discrepancy of saying direct trade or not, but I want to support imports or smaller imports who create that change in the origins.
00:18:57
Speaker
So let's say back from the first idea of my professor showing me about the company having an impact in the region, I kind of want to do the same. I kind of want to support or buy coffee from imports who do the same. In Germany, there is one or two companies who do that project, projects like that.
00:19:22
Speaker
give you an example if I'm allowed. There's Merved Cafe. It's kind of like an import company from the south of Germany, I think. There's Chris, that's his name. He kind of started
00:19:42
Speaker
This because his grandpa, he bought a coffee farm a couple of years ago and they kind of started creating a big impact in the origin in Kenya. And so they were building up some education centers. They do a lot for the community in the origin.
00:20:02
Speaker
and he imports the coffee to Germany. So that's for example a company I also want to support with buying the green coffee from them also to have this you know the the story but also for me to make an impact because for has a coffee roaster it's always your choice of where you buy your beans and how responsible you do that and how
00:20:26
Speaker
kind of sustainable or let's say how much you want to add to the coffee community by giving your you know like by doing your choice. So that's for example something I really want to do with my coffee company.
00:20:43
Speaker
to not only serve these beverages, but also to have a very direct, transparent and sustainably traded product there, where I also can be proud of and tell everyone, hey, look, this coffee is from Kenya, it's from that farm, it's from that farmer, it's processed like this, having all this information,
00:21:08
Speaker
kind of help people to learn about that beautiful product. That's something what really fascinates me. Yes, it's very fascinating that you're playing a role as the farmer's ambassador. You're promoting their coffee. You're also sharing or raise the awareness of the problems, right? The farmers maybe didn't know, get enough pay for their coffee. So maybe people, your customer, your future customer, probably if you're interested in
00:21:38
Speaker
Why are you telling me this? It's just a cup of coffee. Exactly. You tell them this is not just a cup of coffee. There are a lot of people involved. And I think that's a great thing to do. And your project also reminds me of a friend, Peter, from the UK. He also has a coffee truck, and he's biking around in the neighborhood and sharing coffee during a pandemic. And remember, he believes coffee is about a community. I think this is something special about the coffee, right? Always about a community.
00:22:08
Speaker
Sure. And my opinion is also like, you know, there's always going to people who are not going to be super into the topic as let's say we are or like the whole coffee community. I always, I never want to like, what can I say?
00:22:29
Speaker
introduce it to people in a way that they kind of feel overwhelmed or anything. I always want to give them the information if they want it. If they don't want it, it's fine. If they still like to drink my coffee and they kind of support me, they indirectly support the coffee farmers in the origin as well. So for me, that's also okay.
00:22:52
Speaker
because I sometimes see there's like stubborn people or like people from sometimes, you know, like they kind of want to see like, hey, if you don't like specialty,
00:23:04
Speaker
you got no idea about coffee. I don't want to be that person. I always want to give a hand to people. If they want to learn about it, I'm the happiest guy to show them and tell them as much as I know. But if they don't want to, I respect that too. But still, if they like to drink my coffee and they don't want any added information, that's fine for me too. Yeah.
00:23:34
Speaker
I think you can also have an open course where you'll have a spot in the market. Maybe you can have a Sunday coffee course where people can share a good cup of joy there together. And you can explain what is this coffee and where is it from, who are the farmers, how coffee got from Africa to Taringa Cup. I think that will be interesting. Tell us about your project. How is it going to happen? Which stage are we in right now?
Crowdfunding Campaign Launch
00:24:01
Speaker
Right now, it's really exciting. It's the phase where a lot of things are happening. Basically, I wrote this business plan and I actually planned a crowdfunding campaign. In the last few weeks,
00:24:19
Speaker
My girlfriend, she is responsible for the whole design of August 63. She does an amazing job by helping me setting up the brand and especially right now setting up the whole crowdfunding campaign.
00:24:38
Speaker
I've been shooting it in Berlin with a friend. He was recording it. And basically on the 15th of September, we are launching the crowdfunding campaign in order to collect money to build that mobile coffee truck. So I bought it. I found a pretty cheap one, Piaggio Ape. And it's kind of in very good shape still.
00:25:05
Speaker
But it needs to be converted. The doors need to be opened on the sides. I have to get all the electricity, water tanks and everything in there to set up a proper bar. I need the coffee machine, I need the grinders, all the other coffee equipment in order to be ready to
00:25:25
Speaker
to be able to serve my own coffee on local markets. That's the phase I'm right now in, so I'm just about to start the crowdfunding campaign and hope that there's a gathering of people who really want to support me by
00:25:43
Speaker
helping me with my crowdfunding. Yeah, on the crowdfunding campaign you can basically support me with buying my own coffee. So basically you get already like a hint of how my coffees are going to taste like.
00:25:59
Speaker
There's different products you can get, you can get like a normal coffee bag, but you can also get a coffee subscription or a tasting set. There's also more special prizes like giveaway, like thank yous you can get, which is like merch.
00:26:18
Speaker
I, in cooperation with a friend who is an illustrator, we built this, we created this cafe, which is called the Cafe Mobile Cafe. It's like a sweet illustration of my future coffee truck, drawn by him, by Dieck, that's his name, and also a t-shirt.
00:26:40
Speaker
Plus you can also get like an online workshop with me where we talk about the different coffees or like an online tasting session where I send people over like my coffees for different coffees and then we're gonna have like a
00:26:56
Speaker
a Zoom call together and basically cup the coffees together and talk about it, talk about your region and everything. Or you can even get your private coffee event once my coffee truck is built. So these are all basically like the different thank yous you can get. Yeah, that's
00:27:21
Speaker
So you mentioned this is a crowdfunding project, right? And so it's like, if you're finished or there's nothing, if you succeed or there's nothing, what is your crowdfunding goal so far? Like how much do you need to reach?
Challenges in Fundraising
00:27:36
Speaker
Yeah, actually it's quite a lot. Like it's quite some money. It's like 12,000 euros.
00:27:41
Speaker
12,000 euros. 12,000, yeah, exactly. And with that amount of money, I could build the truck, but I wouldn't have any coffee machine or grinder yet. And so for this reason, I would always have to rent the coffee machine or the grinder until I at one point had that many events that I'm able to
00:28:06
Speaker
to finance a coffee machine. But with the $12,000, I can actually only convert the Piaggio into a mobile coffee truck. But I would still have to rent the machine and the grinder for the different events. Yeah.
00:28:25
Speaker
That sounds a lot of money. What is the biggest challenge so far when you're launching it actually literally tomorrow, right? 15th of September. So what is the biggest challenge so far?
00:28:41
Speaker
I think it's not to be that shy. I'm not a very shy person. Actually, I can say I'm an extraverted person, but still showing the project to friends and not really...
00:29:00
Speaker
asking them for money but you know like to you know ask them to support you because it's for me that's something I'm very I'm not good at like asking friends or someone for money you know like that's something super challenging for me and it's also to get the word out I find it really challenging to like find you know ways of
00:29:28
Speaker
getting the word spread. I mean, I'm super happy when you offered me, we could do like a podcast in order to get my project, you know, to have an ear for my project. I'm super grateful for that. Thanks for the opportunity.
Community Support and Barista Dreams
00:29:45
Speaker
these are the occasions I'm really happy that that they are happening so I can talk about the project because I live in my still in my bubble you know I like I live in Berlin I have my friends I have the people from my coffee block and all the people I kind of like you know met on my way through like during my coffee
00:30:09
Speaker
story, let's say. These are all the people I know, and I'm not sure if it's enough to raise that money. So to get the words out, to be on different events, different locations, like I have the opportunity or the chance to go in two weeks
00:30:27
Speaker
to the coffee festival in Frankfurt. I'm super happy that there is again coffee festivals, coffee events happening in the world. So that's also going to be, I think, I hope so a good opportunity to talk about my project and give people out some stickers or like flyers and talk to them about my project.
00:30:50
Speaker
So these are kind of like the ways I'm trying to get some people together in order to help me support me. I also kind of wrote some press and stuff but so far no one actually replied but I hope they still can.
00:31:13
Speaker
I believe it's not that easy because you are building your dream. And then I don't know how much it normally costs to build a coffee truck to run a business like that, but I think 12,000 euros is a lot of money.
00:31:29
Speaker
And then you definitely need a lot of help. So all the listeners now, if you're a coffee lover and please support Ken, and then we really hope we can work together and help him to reach, make this come true. So we really want to see more baristas like you can dream and make it happen. And that's the happiest thing we can see. And I'm not a barista. That's all about what we're here.
00:31:53
Speaker
So thank you for your time and I hope to see your coffee truck there very soon. Next time in Poland, definitely get a visit to you. Sure. You get all the coffee you can drink in my car. That's promised. Thank you very much.