Catherine’s Life Before Coffee
Before becoming involved in the green coffee bean industry, Catherine had a successful twenty-year career in the heavy industry. She was proficient in all aspects of the business from procurement, sales, marketing to supply chain and has always been incredibly good at understanding and implementing anything she learns or experiences into the real-time application of her life.
Catherine Draws from Her Uncle’s Passion for Coffee
She decided to help an uncle who owned and operated Domba Coffee factory in Bali with the promotion and marketing in the United States. Through this experience, she discovered her passion for coffee. This led to a decade’s worth of study on all aspects of the process of producing coffee and a desire to correct the common misconception that the quality of Indonesian coffee is inferior to the quality of coffee from other regions of the world.
Life’s Next Lesson: Hong Kong
Moving onto the next milestone of her life, Catherine left the heavy industry career and fully dedicated herself onto the journey of searching about Specialty Coffee which began with a Q Grader course in Hong Kong. Although it was a challenging course, she gained invaluable knowledge and experience in green coffee grading protocol which is crucial in appreciating the quality of each coffee bean and the true value of a specialty coffee to the producer and consumer.
The Connection that Would Change Catherine’s Life Forever
During her Q Grader studies in Hong Kong, Catherine met Eddie Kevlar, a Coffee Specialist with vast experience in the Specialty coffee industry spanning over twenty years, and they developed a remarkably close professional relationship due to common passion. Coffee connected Eddie and Catherine in an intangible way, both sharing the philosophy that coffee is part of God’s creation and through the contemplation of its beauty and complexity, we are brought to humility.
One of Eddie’s life quotes says: “Coffee is one of my mirrors, it reflects who I am and sometimes it shows emotions that I may not be aware of. That’s why we see a lot of egos in coffee because it mirrors out what is within… “ Eddie believes we can taste our feelings through coffee.
Catherine’s philosophy of coffee is “True happiness comes from the interracial connection of weaving lives through coffee as a bridge of love.” For her, “Coffee is a journey to the inner soul.”
Towards the end of 2013, 2nd Mile Specialty was born. Catherine and Eddie committed to spreading the love for coffee while striving to positively impact livelihoods of the coffee producers creating a long term partnership, a key element for sustainable development. Their focus is to build socially responsible producer and roaster relationships, becoming a dependable bridge with those who share similar purpose and values.
Striving the quality of excellence in Specialty Coffee is one of the main goal hence continuous education is essential. It would also be critical that they ensure that all their beans undergo a thorough evaluation, processing, and storage to provide their clients with a superior quality product. This is an idea that could spread through the communities of the region and beyond if given the proper attention and understanding. All this highlights just the beginning of an interestingly unique story that has yet to be written.
Forging forward, against all odds:
Special appreciation goes out to an incredibly supportive family that have unreservedly supported and persevered with Catherine steering through the unprecedented journey to date.
Being unknown in a market dominated by rather big players, Catherine’s resilience driven by passion has led her to meet incredible clients within the region and beyond over the years who have given her the opportunity to serve them - now turned into the amazing 2nd Mile family. There could be people out there who may have never heard of 2nd Mile Specialty, it is simply because we merely started with a humble heart, knowing we are a homegrown company whose focus is growing real relationships by becoming a solution to their individual business needs, adding unmatched value whilst building trust. It’s through this that the company has gained client loyalty guaranteeing a steady increase in referrals and repeat business.
Catherine is currently serving as the company’s Commercial Director, focusing on product and service quality, creating new and maintaining 2nd Mile Specialty relationships, as she continues to develop and implement new business opportunities.