We were lucky to catch up with Kyle Brady recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kyle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
My inspiration for the naming of Kairu starts in Tokyo Japan. I was out on the town one evening eating at various izakaya’s in the Shinjuku neighborhood when I struck up a conversation with a coffee roaster. After talking his ear off (and quite possibly annoying him) for hours he offered to show me his roasting operation and teach me the basics of coffee roasting. I agreed but unlike most late night promises and to his surprise, I showed up the next morning. He taught me the basics and showed me his meticulous process for roasting coffee. After trying some of his coffee I was inspired to learn more. The roaster spelt my name in Katakana as カイル which in English is pronounced Kairu. Very similar in pronunciation to the verb (かえる) kaeru which means ‘to return’. Since I returned to Seattle with this newfound inspiration and mission, I decided to name the company Kairu.
Kyle, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My company Kairu is a micro roastery that provides specialty coffee roasted fresh to order. I often find that coffee I purchase has been roasted too dark and has been sitting on a shelf for too long to experience all of the tasting notes from the origin. Through some of my networking efforts I joined a small collective of passionate hobbyist coffee roasters (@coffee_and_company) to help in finding and sourcing rare coffees around the world. My goal is to find unique coffees from around the world and small batch roast them for my customers to experience all the distinctive tasting notes. I am also big on community so I encourage all my customers to reach out to me on social media with questions whether it be about the coffee origins, tasting notes, roasting process, or brewing process.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
I am an open door and I encourage our customers to reach out to me anytime they have questions or issues with the product. I love connecting with people often will meet with customers for a coffee or run into them around the city and stop to ask about the coffee they’ve had an new flavors they have tried recently. Having those conversations helps me in adjusting my products and finding new coffees to try out.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Consistency. Consistently showing up in the market and trying to give the consumer a great experience. It helps that I enjoy what I do, but even on the days when I really don’t want to get out of bed on a Sunday to go out to the Farmer’s Market and sell coffee, the consistency is what has helped me to gain customer loyalty and become part of our customer’s routine. Also consistency in our product. Quality is very important to me and the meticulous roasting method and attention to detail that was instilled in me while I was in Japan has carried over into every aspect of the company and it’s presentation/service.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kairucoffee.com
- Instagram: @kairucoffee
