Unpacking Coffee with Kandace and Ray: Pilot Coffee Roasters

Needmore Designs photo.

This week’s Unpacking Coffee checks back in with Toronto’s Pilot Coffee Roasters, which at the start of this month became the first Canadian roaster-in-residence at the La Marzocco Café and Showroom in Seattle.

Founded in 2009, Pilot was named Roast magazine’s 2014 Roaster of the Year in the Micro category. In 2014, the company opened a smartly designed tasting room adjoining its production roastery, and the company has continuously striven to refine not only its coffee program, but its branding as well.

Pilot account management Nat Fried explained to Kandace and Ray that the in-house design is being led by creative director and co-owner Michelle Wilkin. Said Fried, “We’ve actually rebranded pretty much the whole company.”

Kandace and Ray also briefly chat with Roast publisher Connie Blumhardt, who testifies to the recent success of Toronto-area roasteries in the ROY program:

Unpacking Coffee is a weekly show discovering new coffee roasters one episode at a time led by Kandace and Ray of the Portland-based studio Needmore Designs, which specializes in coffee, wine and lifestyle brands.