On the Road With Nick: First-Half Highlights from 2025

Tales from the country's top coffee scenes and what we learned along the way.

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Sips, Shops, and Stories from the Road

From coast to coast (and back home to Wisconsin), Roastar’s Specialty Coffee Ambassador, Nick, has been brewing conversations and cupping coffees with some of the most inspiring shops, festivals, and communities in the specialty scene.

Coffee shows across the country give us the chance to connect face-to-face with the roasters and cafes who trust in Roastar packaging. There’s nothing better than seeing their vision come to life!

From traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremonies to inventive modern brews, Nick has experienced a wide range of what makes the coffee world so vibrant. Here’s a recap of his travels and discoveries in the first half of 2025.

February

Nick kicked off the year with a caffeinated sprint through the Pacific Northwest and down to Texas.

In Portland, he filmed coffee shop recommendations for our social media followers heading to Coffee Fest.

The highlight? A $21 Panama Geisha at Proud Mary Coffee (yes, it’s worth the splurge) and a deep dive into sneaker culture at Deadstock Coffee, where founder Ian fuses his past life as a Nike designer with a bold, lifestyle-forward coffee brand.

Then it was on to Seattle for what Nick called one of his most special coffee experiences to date: a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony hosted by Boon Boona Coffee. Roasting, brewing, and sipping as a group was a reminder that the best coffee experiences are the ones you share with others.

After that, Nick traveled to Austin for a quick cafe crawl. Both Radio Coffee and Cosmic Coffee, with their beer garden vibe, ended up being perfect places to linger.

Finally, he wrapped up the month at the San Antonio Coffee Festival.

“The coffees I tasted had a commonality of being very traditional,” Nick said. “They were dark roasted and homey versus the nuanced, light roasted, single origins I’ve become familiar with in other parts of the country.”

March

The month kicked off in NYC for Coffee Fest, where Nick didn’t get to hit up many cafes but was pleasantly surprised by how warm and welcoming the East Coast coffee community was.

From there, it was back down to Houston to scout cafes for Roast Magazine’s The Inside video series.

At Three Keys Coffee in Houston, Nick was blown away by the staff—especially Jeremy, a barista with more than a decade of city coffee experience under his belt. Nick also bumped into a familiar face that he had met in 2024 at SCA Chicago, a reminder of how small the coffee world is.

Then it was over to Fifth Vessel, a shop that nails its aesthetic: industrial concrete softened with round paper lanterns and thoughtful lighting. “Just cool,” in Nick’s words.

Fifth Vessel Coffee

April

April took Nick back to the West Coast. In San Francisco, Nick dropped by Boot Coffee Campus—one of our educational partners—to participate in a day of learning, cupping, and teaching. After brushing up on marketing and sensory skills, he gave a talk on packaging materials and sustainability (our two favorite things).

Just about a month after his first visit, Nick returned to Houston, this time for the Specialty Coffee Expo—but his experience this time ended up being quite different. “The city had come to life from a coffee perspective,” Nick said.

Between coffee shop parties, latte art throwdowns, and a jam-packed show floor, it was clear the city had shifted into high gear to welcome the specialty crowd.

May

May was spent closer to home, starting with a few weeks in Wisconsin. Nick revisited his go-to hometown spots right here in Wausau, WI —Tucknee and The Pinery.

Tucknee is a unique spot filled with quirky thrift finds and inventive seasonal specials (think white pepper and star anise). “As far as I’m concerned, they hit on everything that matters,” Nick said.

Meanwhile, local coffee shop The Pinery (one of our valued customers) is making roasting accessible with a Bellwether system inside the café, which allows for in-house roasting without the need for ventilation.

Nick then went southeast to Milwaukee. Discourse stood out with its high-concept, cocktail-bar approach to coffee. Forget the vanilla lattes—this menu was full of crafted originals. At Canary Coffee Bar, a multi-roaster café, Nick found one of the most fruit-forward coffees of the year: a watermelon co-fermented pour-over that exploded with juicy complexity.

Later in the month, Nick zipped out to Southern California to prep video content for Coffee Fest LA and catch up with podcast partner Ryan Woldt of Roast! West Coast.

Highlights included:

Go Get Em Tiger in Los Angeles for his usual Espresso Tonic (no stop in LA is complete without one).
Goodboybob in Santa Monica, an all-around cool café run by a race car driver (who apparently brings the car meet to the cafe).
Dayglow, the unapologetically pink, multi-roaster standout that always manages to deliver something exceptional.
Kumquat Coffee, the place to nerd out over experimental coffees and get a pour-over.

What We’ve Learned

From traditional coffee ceremonies to espresso bars decked out in neon pink, Nick’s journey is a testament to just how diverse (and endlessly creative) the specialty coffee world really is.

Every stop along the way brings new insights for us here at Roastar: how shops think about atmosphere and what customers crave in different regions. These trips aren’t just about geeking out over good coffee (although there’s plenty of that). They’re about listening, learning, and showing up for the people who make this industry what it is.

Over the years, these conversations have given us real insights into how we can help our customers, not only by offering high-quality coffee packaging, but by solving some common pain points along the way (like slow lead times and artwork confusion.)

We’re lucky to have Nick on the ground, soaking it all in. We’re even luckier to support the roasters, baristas, and brand builders who keep pushing things forward.