Andrew Houghtaling & Christine Houghtaling, Kissing Rock Coffee

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Role: Co-Owners and Collaborators
Location: Gold Beach, OR
Find online: https://kissingrockcoffee.com/ • @kissing_rock_coffee

"...one thing that works really well for us is just really honest feedback. So he'll roast something, and I'm always just like, 'Hey, I really like how you did this. Could we change this? Could we bring out more of these notes? Can we have a little bit of a flavor profile that's a little brighter?

So, just being really honest with feedback is a huge thing for us "
• Christine Houghtaling

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KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE POD

• Andrew and Christine are a married couple and partners in business. Andrew jumped in first, but the business really gained momentum when Christine joined to help the brand grow.
• Kissing Rock is one of few specialty coffee shops along that stretch of Oregon coastline. There was no certainty the Folgers crowd would adopt them and learn to appreciate coffee in a new way.
• The Gauntlet has been thrown down Portland.
• They won two gold medal awards at 2026 Golden Bean World Series,* not to mention 1 silver and a bronze Medal. They were also named Runner-Up for the Overall Golden Bean World Roasting Champion 2026. Back home in Oregon, the Gold Beach community became Team Kissing Rock! Entering Golden Bean was an opportunity to present what they do with coffee to the world, and generate a new scale of feedback from outside their daily coffee bubble.

"We wanted to kind of put it out there—on more of a bigger stage and try to learn from them, because I think that coffee is something you will never perfect. You can always get better. You can always put little twists on it. And so to be able to put it out there on a bigger stage and get that feedback has really made us grown. And a real cool thing is us coming from such a rural area and small, everybody was in our corner. It was like team Gold Beach going to the Golden Bean.
•Andrew Houghtaling on the motivation for entering the Golden Bean competition.

Look for Kissing Rock Coffee in Natural Grocers all over Oregon.

*The Golden Bean is a coffee roasting competition and conference "designed to educate, innovate and create a valuable opportunity for roasters to network with each other and form great alliances within the industry."

Visit: https://goldenbean.com/ for more information.

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