Coffee Roasting Apprenticeships

Join us for an intensive in-country learning experience. Let us help you lower your startup expenditures and take the guesswork out of the way. Utilize our 27 years combined experience in the coffee trade. Working together, we can help you define your vision and focus your creative passion into practical steps to realize your dream of owning and successfully operating your own truly world class cafe


Includes:

•Agricultural background
• Green bean selection and quality contro
• Roasting
• Choosing your first roaster
• Custom blending- house and signature blends
• Espresso- blending keys that produce great espresso
• Branding and marketing
• Making retail result in wholesale sales
• We will assist in locating housing nearby.
• Cost: $3,800.00 for a twenty day day course including field trips to two coffee farms.

No Compete - Confidentiality Clause:
Apprentice will maintain honorable intent and confidentiality in regards to the following:

• Proprietary information and processes
• Sourcing of green beans
• Will not roast or market, nor re-train another knowing they will roast or market (beans, grounds or coffee by the cup) within 200 miles of Crossroads Café, Panajachel, as long as Crossroads Café operates in Panajachel by the Roberts family

Interested: Contact us.

Reference: Oliver Ray

had a great experience as a roasting apprentice with the Robert's family. Crossroads is one of my favorite cafes in the whole world. It has spirit, great, fresh roasted coffee, Adele's amazing pastries, and lively atmosphere. Michael taught me the subtle art of roasting coffee; he explained clearly its technical aspects (including the mechanics of the roaster and roaster maintenance); but he also transmitted that part of roasting that comes from the heart and has nothing to do with watching a timer. All of this came to pass in real time, in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the cafe. He loves coffee. He knows coffee. We took a buying trip to Tajamulco, in the mountains of north western Guatemala. I can still see him with his face buried in a handful of green coffee and the old senor whose coffee it was looking at him with a smile. On this journey I learned how to find and buy hard bean coffee and gained insights into this process that I don't think I could have gotten any other way.

The location of Crossroads in Panajachel on beautiful lake Atitlan is an ideal place to be. The local culture is colorful and friendly and there is a large international community. Many opportunities to learn Spanish. Many opportunities to see how coffee is grown and harvested. Overall, it is a wonderful place to learn about coffee, from the people who grow it and harvest it, all the way to the cup. All of this makes for a great place to learn the art of roasting.