Palm Springs Life Magazine / Lisbeth Scordo 

January 7, 2022 / See Web Version / Download PDF

"818 Coffee owner Michael Rodriguez’s love of roasting started, of course, in the 818 – his home in Glendale, California, to be exact – a few years ago while he was working in the entertainment industry. Roasting his own beans began as a hobby, but when he was furloughed from his job at the start of the pandemic, Rodriguez and his fiancée moved to the Coachella Valley, where he started small-batch roasting full-time in an industrial space in Palm Desert, selling his beans online and providing coffee to private and pop-up events. He currently sources most of 818 Coffee’s beans from Guatemala, Colombia, and Mexico.

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“We’re making about three pounds at a time,” explains Rodriguez, who plans to open a brick-and-mortar coffee shop near El Paseo. “You can fine-tune the flavor more so with smaller roasters. People who drink coffee can notice the difference. What I roast depends on the beans. Some are better light roast; some are better medium roast. I’m not selling the same thing over and over.”"