In celebration of this weekend’s Father’s Day, we wanted to take a moment to highlight our good friend, Andy Kent of Stamp Act Coffee. In a city world-renowned for its coffee, the small batch operations still stand out. We’ve been partnering with Stamp Act Coffee for the past few years to feature some of their specialty roasts and with each delivery, there’s a level of education and transparency that we strive to find with every designer and collection that we work with at Glasswing.
Stamp Act was founded in 2018 with a simple mission to roast great coffee from around the world and to share that story and sense of place with each variety offered. Andy has a pretty extensive resume within the coffee industry. As a Seattle local, he started off as a barista and his passion for coffee took him all over the world. He worked with coffee growers in Ethiopia, opened up a roasting company in Singapore, and lived in Australia working with the Five Senses Coffee team. While abroad, he met his partner Ambera and the two of them started a family; their daughter Keala was born in Australia.
“We found ourselves moving back to Seattle to be closer to our family and within that, I had the opportunity to open up a business for myself, rather than doing that work for other people…I was finally able to take the leap of faith, so to speak.”
His life experiences combined to create a niche viewpoint on the larger coffee industry. With Stamp Act, the goal is to stay small and through that, they are able to import green coffee thoughtfully, using the relationships that have been so carefully built and nurtured across the world for the last fifteen years.
“Stamp Act is founded around two pillars: Relationships and Quality. I'm fortunate to be in this industry as long as I have, which has allowed me to build a network of relationships with importers, exporters, farmers and industry experts. I’ve been purchasing coffee from cooperatives, estate farms and supporting shareholder farmers around the world for many years. It’s these relationships that open the doors to the best coffee I can find and to bring in new coffees that aren’t often found in the states.
Coffee is like wine in a sense, in how it’s scored. For a coffee to be considered specialty, it has to score above 80 points through a green (raw bean) quality sorting and sensory analysis. We buy coffees that are 85+ and we’re always searching for that forever elusive 100 point coffee. To do this, we rely on our relationships with farms, growers, and importers. Places I’ve previously visited and through relationships I built help us source, since as a small business we can’t always travel. With each sample, we score the green seed, cup and only buy coffee of the highest quality.”
If he’s not in the roasting room or working on Stamp Act, you’re most likely to find Andy hanging with the family, probably at the park or the playground. We look forward to seeing Andy, Ambera and Keala at Glasswing whenever they pop by.
“Once you become a dad, it’s a lot more about being selfless. Fatherhood isn’t something that should be rushed. Take your time. Allow yourself to be selfish. But as soon as you do it, it’s surprisingly the most rewarding aspect of our lives. Being a dad…there’s nothing better. It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.”
Stamp Act coffee is available at Glasswing year round. The specific varieties change throughout the year, always offering a lighter profile that’s well suited for filter coffee no matter your specific preference to brewing. We just debuted a subscription offer that will ship you our Glasswing x Stamp Act beans on the regular to make sure you never run dry, select from weekly or monthly options. Sign up here.