Daniel Schafer
Communications
Never underestimate the power of great coffee.
Washington is known for its great coffee — from Port Angeles to Spokane to Goldendale to Bellingham, we’ve got some of the best cafés in the world. But something special has been brewing in Olympia. Actually, I should say something special has been roasting. This is the story of a Washington business with global reach, and how Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) helped increase that reach, to share great coffee with the world.
Olympia Coffee: Transparent sourcing and top-quality roasting
Sam Schroeder and Oliver Stormshak purchased Olympia Coffee in 2010, though the pair had worked for the previous owners since 2005 and 2009 respectively. They sought “to create a strong independent coffee roaster in the heart of the Pacific Northwest that will bring our coffee culture into the twenty-first century,” according to the company’s website. Olympia Coffee has accomplished this, and they’ve also succeeded in creating a transparent, equitable business that has created valuable partnerships throughout the supply chain that provides the coffee beans they roast. You can learn more about Olympia’s Coffee’s process in this short documentary, From the Source.
The combined efforts of Olympia Coffee and its partners have not gone unnoticed. The company has earned national acclaim, including first-place finishes in the 2023 U.S. Coffee Championships, where Co-owner Sam Schroeder won the Coffee in Good Spirits Championship and one of Olympia Coffee’s team members, Jake Donaghy, won the Cup Tasters Championship.
Though Olympia Coffee has sourcing partnerships with farmers in Central America and South America, it was being named Micro-Roaster of the Year by Roast Magazine in 2013 that sparked a different kind of international partnership — this time, in South Korea.
A new partnership
In late 2012 Roast Magazine made the announcement. Its Micro-Roaster of the Year would be Olympia Coffee. Though the award didn’t make national headlines, people in the coffee world noticed, including Jongseok Won, a café owner in Busan, South Korea. Mr. Won was intrigued by Olympia Coffee’s story and ordered some of the company’s beans from an overseas direct coffee-selling website called GoCoffeeGo.com. After trying the coffee, “he promptly fell in love with it and dreamed that someday he would bring it to Korea,” says Danny Kim, the WSDA’s South Korea representative.
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| Condisco Coffee in Seoul, South Korea. |
Olympia Coffee. But making his dream a reality was a challenge. Mr. Won contacted Olympia Coffee via email, but both parties needed help navigating the export of products from the United States. That’s where Danny Kim comes into the story. With the help of Kim and the WSDA International Marketing Program, Won was able to connect with his partners in Washington and navigate the export process that would eventually bring Olympia Coffee to Seoul.
But the partnership would run even deeper. In February 2023 Danny Kim, who is based in South Korea, traveled with Mr. Won to Olympia to visit Olympia Coffee in person. The pair spent four days in Washington, learning about Olympia Coffee’s roasting process and visiting all its cafés because, as Danny Kim explains, “Mr. Won wanted to experience as much as possible and feel the philosophy of Olympia Coffee.” Then, in September, Olympia Coffee exported its first coffee shipment to South Korea, just in time for the grand opening of Condisco Coffee, Mr. Won’s new café in Seoul.
A model for the future
The partnership between Olympia Coffee, Jongseok Won, and WSDA offers a model that can be applied again and again. When Washington producers like Olympia Coffee aim to expand internationally, it can be challenging to navigate the export process. But WSDA is a committed partner that can help producers connect with trade partners and share Washington’s products — and in this case, products that started in Central and South America — with the world.
To learn more, visit the WSDA International Marketing webpage.