Meet Covoya Coffee Trader Joshua Marsceau
The next time you’re in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, driving southwest on 1st Avenue, you’ll pass a location with important historical significance. No, it’s not Coe College, founded in 1851 and having the shortest name of any American institution of higher learning. At least, that’s not the historical location we’re interested in here. Across the street from the college, on the corner of 1st Avenue and College Drive there once sat a coffeehouse called “Brewed Awakenings.” You won’t find a plaque marking the site, but if there was a plaque it might read: “On This Spot Joshua Marsceau Started His Career in Coffee.”
Nearly 20 years ago, Josh’s family acquired the coffeehouse in a town that had little in the way of coffee consciousness. Josh could not have known at the time that he would be part of pioneering the presence of quality coffee properly prepared in Cedar Rapids, but it is doubtful he would have found it a daunting proposition. Despite what some might observe as a relaxed demeanor, Josh has a heart for adventure and the spirit of an explorer. Coffee, it turned out, would satisfy both.
The path that led Josh to the coffeehouse on the corner of 1st and College in Cedar Rapids included travelling around Europe for several months, living for a month in the wilderness (the real wilderness, not the “camping” wilderness), and a couple of months spent taking care of a few hundred sledding dogs 24/7.
There are coffeehouses and there are coffeehouses and for a time after Josh started working afternoon and evening shifts and helping manage things, Brewed Awakenings was just a coffeehouse. He was in the early days of falling in love with coffee and the idea of what a coffeehouse could be, the connections people make and the creative environment. But it wasn’t until he travelled 230 miles east to Chicago, ambled down the length of the Navy Pier, and walked into his first Coffee Fest exhibition that he realized coffee was big enough to hold his interest for a long time and satisfy his search for adventure.
"At that point," says Josh, "coffee became a world of endless possibilties."
In the spirit of a true searcher, Josh began making pilgrimages to points west, Seattle and Portland, to visit coffeehouses. He brought what he learned back to Cedar Rapids and so Brewed Awakenings was no longer just a coffeehouse. It was a coffeehouse. The focus on quality, customer education, and training baristas increased.
His network within the coffee industry grew as he developed relationships across the country. By any measure, Brewed Awakenings became successful. After five years Josh was ready for the next adventure. This time his path led 2,000 miles west. Flying Goat Coffee in Healdsburg, California, was looking for an assistant coffee roaster. Sure, in hindsight we can say that Healdsburg would become a hotbed for specialty coffee and the ideal place to plot a long-term career in coffee, but at the time this could hardly be guessed.
There is substantial evidence that if one remains a barista long enough, once can fall under the spell of the siren song of roasting coffee. It is by no means a universal truth, but it was true for Josh, who was ready to start roasting and make cupping part of his daily routine. For three and a half years he roasted and cupped coffee for Flying Goat Coffee.
There is no doubt that roasting coffee only deepened his love for coffee, but there was some question as to whether roasting would hold his attention for long. Then, fate intervened; that is, if you believe in fate. If you don’t believe in fate, you can just say it was Ian Kluse, Senior Trader and Sourcing Director for Covoya Specialty Coffee (then Olam).
It turns out that Olam was waiting for their offices to be built in Healdsburg and Ian needed a temporary place to roast and cup coffee samples. Flying Goat was happy to allow Ian to use their cupping room and as a result Josh not only had a unique opportunity to cup an incredibly wide variety of coffees compared to the coffees he cupped as part of his roasting responsibilities, and once again the world of coffee seemed to become even larger than it had been.
"Ian was a true coffee mentor and this was a significant turning point in my life.”
As had been the case since the day he first stepped into the Brewed Awakenings coffeehouse in Cedar Rapids, coffee continued to place new experiences in his path.
He returned to Cedar Rapids for a few months, in a consulting role, as his family expanded the coffeehouse business, but California and the green side of coffee was calling his name. His feet itched. The next adventure had arrived. He returned to California to take on a Quality Control job with Olam in Healdsburg and eventually run the department.
Over time, Josh began to sell green coffee to a small number of small roasters. His list of customers grew slowly but steadily, as did the size of the roasters buying coffee. These days Josh spends more time working as a trader than he does setting up cupping tables. He likens this transition to a car mechanic who starts selling cars.
“It really helps that I know these cars inside out.”
His growing role as a trader also means more travel to coffee growing regions like Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and a tour of washing stations in Ethiopia, a coffee pilgrimage that was on his bucket list.
“Two things keep me in this industry,” says Josh, “the connection to coffee and the connection to people. Of course the connection to coffee and all that goes into coffee is an endless journey; but in my role as a trader I’ve really come to value relationships with customers. It reminds me of the relationships I had with regular customers in my barista days. You get to really understand someone’s business, their needs, how they operate, and how you can be a part of it, but you also get to know people personally and even learn about their lives outside of coffee and ultimately it’s those relationships that keep me in coffee.”
