Iron Sharpens Iron at Roast Summit.
Ben Jones recaps the collaborative vibe at Roast Magazine's 2026 Roast Summit in Portland, OR.
Editor's Note: We recently attended Roast Magazine's Roast Summit in Portland, OR, but we're not roasting on the regular. In order to better see the event from the perspective of an active roaster, we enlisted accomplished coffee person and active coffee roaster Ben Jones to share his thoughts on the event. His only directive: Write something good. To which we say, "Mission Accomplished." Photo credits: Ryan Woldt
Guest contributor: Ben Jones
Ben Jones is a coffee consultant, the 2016 U.S. AeroPress Champion, and he enjoys helping people fulfill their coffee-centric dreams. Link to his much neglected blog:
For some industries, protecting secrets is a matter of survival. Tech relies on proprietary algorithms. Aerospace and defense contractors rely heavily on developing and patenting designs and materials. Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper guard their recipes as fiercely as Colonel Sanders protects his 11 herbs and spices. Entire disciplines of law exist to protect proprietary information. The coffee world is different. We share information to improve the industry.
Recently, Roast Magazine hosted its 12th Roast Summit. Coffee professionals and researchers from around the globe spent two days in Portland, OR, learning from each other and openly discussing the ways they source, roast, and sell their coffees. There were no NDAs. Social media was active. Attendees freely photographed and recorded presentations.
"Roast Summit is an event designed for roasters to gain insights and knowledge, and connect with fellow coffee professionals." www.roastmagazine.com
The Portland area is full of coffee roasters, myself included. Some sell massive volumes globally while others are small enough to need only rent time on a shared roaster. In a city where competition for every wholesale account and grocery store shelf is intense, why would so many rival coffee companies come together to share information? We share information to improve the industry.
Roast Summit presenter Laila Ghambari won the title of United States Barista Champion in 2014. She continued to build her career within coffee and currently owns and operates Guilder Coffee Company, a Portland-based roaster-retailer-wholesaler. Her presentation was titled "The Business of Roasting," discussing the importance of knowing where a business makes and loses money. Such is the nature of business. What really shook everyone was that she supplemented her lecture with a printout of Guilder's profit-and-loss statement. There it was, on our seats, waiting for us to sit down. The dirty details of an entire month. No hiding behind a polished Instagram story or professional photos on a web page.
"I want to give back to the community. I learned by asking. All of this information is available to anyone who looks for it."
• Laila Ghambari, Guilder Coffee Roasters
Beyond that vulnerability, Ghambari broke down her rationale for how she set key targets for labor, cost of goods, and operating costs. "I'm really good at asking questions. That's how I got to know what I know," she explained. I chatted with her at the end of the day and asked why she felt the need to freely give all this information when direct competitors were sitting in the audience. "I want to give back to the community. I learned by asking. All of this information is available to anyone who looks for it."
Information is not the only thing shared within the specialty coffee community. Even the core ingredient, green coffee, is rarely exclusive or proprietary. Coffee importers commonly break up large shipments from the same farms, washing stations, and warehouses to sell to coffee roasters all across the country. It is rare to see exclusive farm-to-roaster trade. Even with the broad distribution of the same raw product, the resulting roasted beans are vastly different. For example, at Roast Summit, multiple roaster manufacturers set up machines for attendees to roast on. Green coffee was provided by the importer Covoya Specialty Coffee. On day one, we roasted.
On day two, we tasted. The range of flavors was massive. Each roast tasted different even though everyone started with the same bean. Roasting coffee is not like an algorithm that drives internet optimization. Coffee is not a recipe for metal alloy that will give an airplane manufacturer an edge over competitors. Industry secrets don't exist in the same way.
All the knowledge needed to start a roasting business is available in blogs from the 1990s and early 2000s. Green coffee importers and roast machine companies will help their customers make the most of their products. When all the information is free and available, building an enthusiastic community around sharing education and experience propels the industry forward. Iron sharpens iron.
Even if each roaster, machine, and person could reproduce a uniform profile from the same green coffee, the unique personality of each cafe and the way they prepare the coffee adds another differentiating variable. Cody Gordon, a Roast Summit attendee and the co-owner and roaster at Cerberus Coffee in Jacksonville, OR, offers a roasting service for other local coffee shops. He explains that he is happy to roast and sell coffee to his competition, even encouraging them to use their own bags and labels, if it means getting the local community excited about specialty coffee. Gordon is not afraid that the other cafes will be successful. He has been in the business long enough to know that there is room for cooperation. He knows each customer will present his roasted coffee with their unique spin, making a space for people who might not frequent Cerberus.
I got my first real coffee job in October 2012. That winter, I entered the NW Regional Brewers Cup competition. I was nervous. I was intimidated. I felt the imposter syndrome for real. Then I started chatting with other competitors. Before long, we were tasting each other's coffees and recommending ways to improve the brews. Competitors were washing dishes for each other. The were loaning grinders and filters and decanters. When the next round was announced, the brewers who didn't advance became the support crew and cheerleaders for the finalists.
Mutual support is as deeply ingrained in the specialty coffee world as secrecy is in tech or aerospace. When we realize our shared vision, we share our knowledge. When we share our knowledge, we improve our industry.
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