Kenzel Fallen, Three Keys Coffee

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Guest: Kenzel Fallen
Based: Houston, TX
Online: https://threekeyscoffee.com/

The Coffee People Podcast traveled to the Specialty Coffee Association Expo in Houston, TX, to interview coffee pros at the Roastar, Inc. booth on the convention floor. Over two days, we recorded six episodes of Season 14. The second episode features Kenzel Fallen. We chat about starting a business with a partner, the multi-sensory experience found in a Three Keys Coffee cafe, and their Jazz Flavor Color Wheel.

A graphic of a color wheel designed to look like a record on a record player from above that shows how coffee flavor and jazz music overlap. — The Jazz Flavor Wheel is ©Three Keys Coffee. Click the screenshot to explore it in depth on threekeyscoffee.com.

I’m a big fan of the idea that coffee is—to use a term from Three Keys—multisensory. I keep a personal playlist for drinking coffee, and drop a new one every month for followers of the podcast. By marrying the sound with the taste, scent, and touch experiences, my coffee goes from a nice morning coffee to a true ritual that helps me frame the day.

With SCA in the Three Keys Coffee community (Houston), Kenzel was really busy. I really appreciated the time we got to chat. What inspired me the most was how actively they are courting growth in a variety of arenas without (showing) fear.

There has been a notable uncertainty around the industry due to climate change, economic instability due to changing consumer habits, and political confusion (tariffs, anyone?), but Kenzel and Tio Fallen are pushing forward towards growth in the retail and wholesale space in real life and online. They don’t seem to be hesitating to answer the door when opportunity knocks.

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The Three Keys Coffee packaging is produced by the Coffee People Podcast's presenting sponsor Roastar, Inc. They are a premier coffee packaging company utilizing digital printing. Roastar enables small-to-gigantic coffee businesses tell a big story. Learn more at https://bit.ly/4gIsHff.

You can learn a lot from a coffee package beyond the standard weights, roast profile, and flavor notes. The Three Keys Coffee bag goes beyond to express their affinity for pairing jazz with coffee by providing a unique set of notes related to sound, a QR-code to the playlist associated with this coffee, and the stripe around the bag ties the design concept to traditional Japanese album cover art concepts.

You might also note that Three Keys was 2024 Roaster of the Year finalist, and that the coffee is Smithsonian Bird-Friendly certified. We interviewed Kirstin Hill from the Smithsonian about the program way back in July of 2023.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: FIRST STOP IS AT TRUE LOVE COFFEE CO.

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