Josiah Abshear

Wide Eyed Wonder

When I was 10 years old, a close family friend bought my dad a pound of raw beans and an old popcorn popper as a birthday present. I sat on a stool in the corner of the garage and listened intently as my dad was taught how to jimmy-rig a roast station. The popper’s motor was not strong enough to keep the beans moving (essential for a consistent roast throughout the batch) so the handle of a wooden serving spoon was used to manually stir the beans. The cooling tray consisted of a cookie sheet and an old box fan by the open garage door.

When they pulled their first batch of beans, my timid voice piped up to ask if I could try one. My dad’s friend laughed, glanced at my father for approval, and then scooped one of the stray beans off the tray, into my beggar’s palm. I remember crunching into it and loving the idea of my mouth being the entire brewing system. Fresh ground with my molars and brewed right on my tongue. The two men laughed as my father made a comment about how I was never going to sleep again. And I didn’t… at least not the same way. Ever since that day, I have been on a mission to share that childhood fascination with everyone I could.

The Baby Business

After a couple weeks of home-roasting, my dad quickly saw that his little shadow was more engaged than he was. He asked me if I would want to start roasting for the family. Not long after that, my uncle asked if I would do an extra couple batches for him. Soon, I had a hand-full of families on my weekly roast list. I saved up my profit and bought another little roaster… and another…. and another. It got to the point that I was using four little machines at the same time and started tripping the breaker.

I was homeschooled so I would double up my school on Mondays so that I could go in around 10AM every Tuesday and stay until the roasting was done. Over time, I went from watching, to helping, to doing it all by myself. When I was 13, the owners asked if I would run the shop for a week while they took a family vacation to Disneyland. And thus, I was introduced to customer service. That week was one of the most exciting, stressful, rewarding weeks of my life. When the owners got back, they said they were impressed the place hadn’t burned down and they offered me a part-time job.

Working the Espresso Bar

When I turned 15, I wanted to start saving for college. The roastery said that they didn’t need more than the current 10 hours per week of help, but that they could ask around at the coffee shops that ordered from them. Sure enough, within a week, the manager of a local shop called me. She said that she had heard I was responsible for roasting their beans and asked if I would be interested in applying for one of their open barista positions. After a run down to the department of labor services to get my worker’s permit, I became the youngest barista to work at the shop. The shop only double staffed baristas during the afternoons and that’s when I worked over at the roastery. So, I took the opening shifts that nobody wanted. But that meant I worked alone! After a 4 hour training session with the manager, I was given a set of keys to the 3 story building and wished the very best of luck. I’ll never forget riding my longboard (I couldn’t drive yet) down Patterson at 4AM to make my first opening barista shift. I was so nervous. Yet, I knew this was exactly where I belonged.

Understanding My Passion

This was a very dramatic shift from being a coffee roaster. However, I had made friends with a lawyer that wanted to work with me and it paid well. I ran this business for six months before I realized that financial stability and happiness are not necessarily the same thing. The high-stress legal environment was not for me. So I started looking at ways to get back to my passion. Now here we are! I am very pleased to say that I am now sharing my gifts with the world in the way that I am meant to.

Roastiva is the culmination of literally countless hours of my life’s work.

I have spent more time learning, working, testing, and roasting coffee than any other single activity in my life. Still, there is so much more to learn! Thank you for taking the time to read about my life. Now let’s have some coffee!

From roastiva.com/josiahabshear