Coffee People at CoffeeFest NYC 2026 Part 3
We visit with the guests of CoffeeFest NYC as part of the Roastar coffee packaging booth in March 2026.
Full video posted below, or watch and/or listen to Coffee People on:
Apple Podcasts • YouTube • Spotify • All Your Favorite Platforms
Hey everyone, I was at World Of Coffee in San Diego last week. New pods coming soon. Until then, enjoy these interview shorts from last month's CoffeeFest NYC.
We attended as guests of our presenting sponsor, Roastar. They included a late-night-esque studio set for us to engage with visitors to their coffee packaging booth. We're dropping batches of them on our podcast channels each week.
MICHAEL ACOSTA, STORY & SOIL COFFEE
Where: Hartford, CT
Find online: https://www.storyandsoilcoffee.com/ • @storyandsoilcoffee
What he orders: A flight: batch brew, espresso shot, and (possibly) a flat white.
Michael Acosta got his start in coffee working at the college campus cafe. He fell in love with coffee and never left it. When he went to open his own space, he committed to the concept of being a multi-roaster cafe. His motivation was to uplift the excellent roasters who were creating a product that met his baselines for quality, equity, farming practices, and so on. The best of the best, so to speak.
The name had to be unique to represent what he was trying to bring to the Hartford coffee scene. Story And Soil comes from a Bright Eyes album named "Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground." It is a name meant as a callback to both the production side of the bean–the soil, and the roasting and cafe side–the story.
It seems to have worked. The hyper-specialty cafe was just included as one of the 100 best coffee shops in the world for the second time in two list publications. A distinction they were unaware they were being considered for. While lists can be arbitrary, the distinction inspired them to improve the customer experience, the coffee, and everything, so that they could live up to the billing people might expect. Being included has drawn more attention to Connecticut's coffee community, in particular, Hartford. There, the Mayor is proclaiming the capital city the "Coffee Capitol of Connecticut."
PRESENTING SPONSOR
This show is supported by Roastar coffee packaging. Refreshed from the salty SoCal air near the World Of Coffee convention. Their team is ready to create some sweet packaging, brah.*
When asked for advice on how to thrive as a coffee shop operator, Michael expressed the need to invest. Work to improve in all areas of the business, including equipment, coffee, and staff training. Don't forget culture. Create roles that people want to commit to. Consistency will help keep labor costs down and generate goodwill and familiarity with customers.
As for coffee, when sourcing, Michael has a list of non-negotiable variables. If the coffee and company producing it meet those, they make it onto the maybe table. The next step is examining a trader's green buying practices. Finally, the coffee needs to be sampled, and he loves to try new coffee.
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