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Scott Angelo

Head Judge
Oceana Coffee & Certified Arabica Q Grader

I was born in Sydney in NSW but grew up in Brisbane QLD. I joined the Navy at 16, and then while still young I got out and worked in private industry, starting in Port Macquarie, NSW before returning back to Brisbane, QLD. Moving to the USA I began my coffee career shipping Australian Di Bella Coffee to the States.

I then jumped online and started ordering coffee from coffee roasters all around the US.  I bought a bag from George Howell and it blew us away, so being very Australian I had to find out how I could do that for myself every cup. I jumped into a ton of forums, books etc. and found out about home roasting, also found a story about building my own home roaster. So I did!  I bought a popcorn popper on eBay for $35, converted the electrical circuits in it for better control and started roasting my own, buying all sorts of green beans from Sweet Maria’s.

From there I converted a Webber gas grill to a 4lb roaster. Roasting out of our garage, selling to family, friends and a whole lot more until we were found out by Florida food inspectors. Fortunately they were great and helped us with all the rules and regulations. Soon after we came across a reasonable deal to buy a used Diedrich.

I am also involved with a few coffee roasting consulting projects, including a project in China.
Oceana Coffee

We are a small operation doing what we love. Last year we roasted only 45,000 lbs, this year we have roasted a lot more. In regards to our coffee and my style of roasting, I do my best to let the coffee origin speak for itself, one of the main attributes that I look to encourage out of the bean is sweetness. I think that is a definite strong point for us.

When I entered the Golden Bean Competition I thought it would be a great way to gauge how I do as a roaster, looking more for feedback than the HUGE surprise of winning 4 medals in 2015 and then the Overall Champion’s prize in 2016 (plus another Gold Medal for Espresso!).

Oceana Coffee also won North Palm Beach County “Small Business of the Year 2016”.

In my cafes I teach our baristas and the public about Flat Whites (traditional), Lattes and the more Espresso based milk drinks like we have back home in Australia.