ST. GEORGE — One man left his engineering career to pursue a life filled with coffee. And it was the best decision he ever made.
Andrew Coe is the current U.S. Coffee Roasting Champion who is set to represent the United States at the upcoming World Coffee Roasting Championships in Taipei, Taiwan from Nov. 16-20.
“I’m super excited to just go and represent the U.S. and roast coffee to the best of my ability,” Coe said. “And just see how I rank into the world’s best.”
But Coe’s life wasn’t always about coffee. While living in Seattle, he finished his graduate degree in math. Unsure about his career path, he began looking for a quick job with health insurance. That’s when he began working at a cafe and fell in love with the coffee culture.
For the first time, he was drinking coffee he actually liked instead of choking it down as a source of caffeine. He left that job to pursue an eight-year career in engineering. While the career path paid well, his heart wasn’t in it.
“I didn’t enjoy it,” he said. “A lot of It was just a drag. Coffee for me, there’s such depth to it and so much diversity in just the people that are involved, but they somehow all work on the same project. I just love it.”
At that time, Coe said coffee was an after-work hobby where he roasted coffee beans at home in his spare time. When his wife did her physician residency in Portland, he began attending coffee events, surrounded by specialty coffee and knowledgeable, experienced coffee personnel. That’s when he decided to take the leap to make coffee a career.
“What I found with people in the coffee industry compared to engineering, you go to college, you get a degree in engineering and you’re focused on that,” he said. “But coffee, you have people that have a huge diversity in their educational backgrounds and life experiences.”
After becoming employee number one at a new cafe, he told his partners he wanted to roast his coffee at the shop. Initially hesitant, he won a coffee roasting competition in Portland six months later and they quickly jumped on board.
“I used this little home roaster, and I competed against seasoned coffee professionals who roasted as a career,” he said. “And that was the start of us as a roasting business.”
The cafe closed during the pandemic and pivoted to an online wholesale coffee business – Elevator Coffee. His company is still based in Portland and Coe has plans to expand to St. George. He’s met with developers on plans for a coffee-focused cafe with a coffee roastery, and his goal is to open by the second half of 2024.
Every year, Coe said there are coffee competitions with various categories which include roasting, barista competitions, coffee brewing, tasting and even latte art. He made it through the preliminary rounds and qualifiers to represent Portland in Feb. 2020 — just as the pandemic struck — causing the competition to be postponed.
The following year, the competition was set to take place in New Orleans, but a hurricane blew away those plans. After two cancellations, the finals took place in Boston in 2022.
“I just kept practicing and developing as a roaster and went and competed and took fifth place overall, which I was super stoked by for my first year as a competitor,” he said.
The next season, the finals came back to Portland. He made it through the qualifying round and did better than the previous year. Competitors were judged on roasting skills and green coffee assessment, where they examined a sample of unroasted coffee and identified the defects – of which he got a perfect score.
Their coffee is evaluated based on overall flavor, flavor balance, aroma, sweetness and aftertaste. Judges score after a blind coffee tasting and their results make up for 80% of the overall score.
“I came out on top and that was awesome,” he said. “Just an amazing way to wrap up my Portland career before moving here to St. George.”
That win qualified him to compete at the World Roasting Championships in Taipei, Taiwan. The top category winners from that competition recently spent a sponsored week in Mexico where they visited multiple coffee farms.
“It was just an eye-opening experience, just the diversity of farms,” he said. “It’s the most important part of the coffee industry. Some farms are literally grown on the side of a mountain with like a 45% slope and they make it work.”
The Taiwan competition will include 30 competitors with an international judging panel. Every competitor receives the same coffee to roast; some will use a roaster they aren’t familiar with. Coe went on a hunt for the same roaster in the U.S. and traveled to San Diego to practice using it.
On top of the opportunity to compete, Coe’s family roots are in Taiwan. He and his family will leave nine days before the competition, allowing them time to visit his father’s hometown and be immersed in the culture.
Visit the World Coffee Roasting Championship website for more details on the upcoming event. Follow Coe’s competition journey via Instagram @andrewco ecoffee. Find information on Elevator Coffee via their website or Instagram.
Photo Gallery
Andrew Coe holds a bag of his Elevator coffee in St. George, Utah, Oct. 4, 2023 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
Andrew Coe visits the Finca La Puebla coffee farm near Veracruz, Mexico, Circa Sept. 2023 | Photo courtesy of Andrew Coe, St. George News
Andrew Coe visits the Finca Tierra de Reinas coffee farm near Veracruz, Mexico, Circa Sept. 2023 | Photo courtesy of Andrew Coe, St. George News
Andrew Coe visits the Finca La Esperanza coffee farm near Veracruz, Mexico, Circa Sept. 2023 | Photo courtesy of Andrew Coe, St. George News
Andrew Coe takes a family photo with his wife and son at Bryce Canyon National Park, Bryce, Utah, date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Andrew Coe, St. George News
Andrew Coe roasts at the U.S. Coffee Roasting Championships, Circa April 2023 | Photo courtesy of Andrew Coe, St. George News
Andrew Coe takes first place at the U.S. Coffee Roasting Championships in Portland, Oregan, date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Andrew Coe, St. George News
A bag of Andrew Coe's Elevator coffee sits on the counter inside his home in St. George, Utah, Oct. 4, 2023 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
Andrew Coe stands next to his roasting operation inside his home garage in St. George, Utah, Oct. 4, 2023 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
Andrew Coe roasts coffee at his roasting facility in Portland, Oregon, Circa 2022 | Photo courtesy of Andrew Coe, St. George News
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