Good Coffee
Launch: 7/25/25
When I started in coffee my favorite drink was a hot chocolate. In the Pacific Northwest there was a boom of drive thru coffee kiosks opening in the early 2000s. I got a job "slinging coffee" while recommending black & white hot chocolates to customers.
I graduated to a caramel white chocolate mocha — just enough sugar to drown out the mediocre coffee — until one day, around the time my front teeth began to ache, I stumbled on an article in Fresh Cup magazine. It talked about a guy named Billy. He was a Barista Champion. I had no idea barista's had champions. He was just about to open his second coffee shop in Portland, off Hawthorne Blvd. Albina Press.
The next time I found myself in Portland I stopped by. As I walked through the front door, a wooden sign that said "Proudly Serving Stumptown Coffee" clapped against the glass.
The menu didn't make sense so I asked if they had white chocolate. No. I'll just have a mocha then. No. Okay... um, what should I have, then? We have latte, cappuccino and coffee. Hmmm. Latte?
About an hour later the 90s inspired hipster said, Latte, and then set a ceramic mug down on a plate at the bar. He looked at me. Raised both brows. He didn't smile.
I did my best not to spill my overflowing mug, and plate, and spoon — who puts a plate under a mug, what am I gonna do with this plate, and this spoon, I ordered coffee, not soup — on my way to my wooden seat at my wooden table.
When I sat down and got over the plate spoon fiasco I looked at my coffee and paused. It had a beautifully humble white tree on it. I looked back up at the bar and noticed that the barista was wiggling the milk pitcher as it hovered over the mug. What sort of witchcraft is this? I took a picture of it.
I got back home to my drive thru shop and spent every morning from 5am to 7am, the slow hours, practicing my wizardry until one day I put a beautifully humble tree down. I took a picture of it.
That was 17 years ago. Since then I haven't stopped exploring new shops and taking pictures. That's how Good Coffee got here.
Good Coffee was born out of my desire to find great coffee fast. The search became a science. Yelp in the US, Trip Advisor for the rest of the world. Browse for five minutes, find a latte art pic, an interior pic. Nope. Next candidate. Until I had a good list for my daily coffee crawl in whatever city I woke up in.
I started taking one latte art photo at every shop to document my travels in the form of coffee. Then I started rating every shop 1-10. This turned into a multi-category weighted rating system and a personal app I made for myself to easily input and track them all. 150 shops later and I'm finally (after 6 years of fits and starts) launching Good Coffee. Something for the good coffee community around the world to enjoy. I hope.
My dream is to create a space for all the good coffee people to come and share the good, great, and disastrous. And find good coffee fast.
Eventually you'll be able to be able to stamp your Good Coffee Digital Passport around the world. And review great and not so great shops. And collect points towards discounts at all the best shops. And buy subscriptions to the coffee that comes from those shops. And someday make your way up to that all powerful Critic Status. It'll be fun.
If you're wondering why I, a lowly peasant who just sits around making low-code apps and shopify websites all day, am qualified for such a task, I bring you exhibit A. My latte this morning. Obviously, not from a shop, from my house.
I took it from far away so you can't see all the tiny mistakes.
I've been in the coffee industry for 25 years. I founded a mediocre second wave coffee chain that has 150+ locations. Sold it because it was life sucking and the demand was for shit coffee. Founded an incredible third wave/specialty coffee roastery. Won a couple small time awards, barista and roaster.
I've been to over 200+ unique third wave/specialty (I'll just start calling them Good Coffee) shops around the world. And to cover my bases, I will be completing my Q Certification in a few months. No really, I promise.
All that to say, I'd like to create an app/site that's like Michelin f++cked Yelp in a good coffee shop. Why not join me?
If you've got questions, or just want to chat, shoot me an email at rh@goodcoffee.guide
-RH