Getting to know Kasidis Laoboonmee (Pop) - Co-founder and Roaster of Rise Coffee.
How did the journey of Rise Coffee start?
In 2016, I was roasting coffee as a hobby in my home garage and started doing small wholesale orders for coffee shops and restaurants in the neighbourhood. The volume grew as time passed, so in 2019, I decided to quit my full-time job and pursue the idea of starting my own coffee brand.
Between 2019 and 2020, I spent the whole year traveling to the origins, building up my sourcing network, and doing free hours for different coffee roasteries and coffee shops. In 2021, I finally decided to open the first RISE COFFEE flagship store with the ambition to build the best coffee experience in Bangkok and ultimately make specialty coffee more accessible to everyone.
Can you share more about Rise Coffee's approach to sourcing and roasting coffee?
Sourcing is the core of our business. We work directly with local farmers and cooperatives in the northern part of Thailand, where we constantly share knowledge and feedback to help improve and ensure that only the best green beans are arriving at our door.
At the roastery, we are all about the 3Es - Exploration, Experimentation, and Explanation. We believe in the collaborative learning environment and are continuously working within the team to explore new roasting approaches, improve the QC process and finally make sure that we bring out the best potential of the coffee we work with.
What was the inspiration for Rise Coffee to decide to put coffees into the convenient capsule format?
As previously mentioned, one of our primary objectives is to make specialty coffee more accessible to everyone. We believe that offering our coffee in capsule format helps achieve this goal by making it easier for people to experience specialty coffee in a convenient way.
Coffee is fuel to get us moving throughout the day, especially in the morning. What is your daily morning ritual like?
I usually start my morning routine with a quick and simple cup of americano/espresso to get my brain running while going through the to-do list of the day.
What are you most excited about right now and for the future of Rise Coffee as a brand?
I am excited about getting our new locations up and running in 2023. We are planning for two new coffee spaces in which we will be exploring new coffee experience concepts that we have been working hard for in the past years.
As a brand/business, I’m also super ambitious to see how we expand and foster a culture of learning and collaboration within the team.
