ABOUT CRAIG

At the helm of the little black machine spinning out the kilo batches of toasty goods that are the basis of CRAIG COFFEE and source of covetousness for all mass-charring coffee conglomerates of sad sirens, is its roaster and designer and amateur fireman, Craig King.

Craig has been roasting coffee for over twenty years and has ten years of experience as Head Roaster for one of South Carolina’s oldest and largest specialty coffee roasters, which provided coffee to the likes of the Biltmore Estate, Table 301 (Soby’s, Lazy Goat, etc.), and dozens of regional coffee shops and restaurants. Craig trained at Diedrich in Sandpoint, ID and Probat in Memphis, TN. In his previous role, he roasted on a Diedrich CR-25, Probat two-barrel sample roaster, and Sonofresco roaster. After leaving the commercial coffee world and eventually needing to fill the void, Craig found the Aillio Bullet, drawn to its familiar capabilities but also the technical advancements and improvements over traditional gas drum roasters.

When he’s not guzzling coffee or grinding beans on his abs and snorting the fines, Craig claims to be a working musician and artist. A graduate of Yale School of Music*, his coffee obsession really took hold in New Haven, CT with daily visits to Willoughby’s** and Koffee. He teaches at a university and performs with orchestras, brass ensembles, and jazz bands. With an eye for portraiture (and a lineal link, to boot***), he paints and draws portraits in his free time. Also a singer-songwriter, one, if so inclined or held at knife-point, can listen to his musical meanderings on Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming rackets. His newly released acoustic album Entropy in Six Dimensions has been hailed as “the most pretentious sketch of an album in decades.” Another bewildered critic said, “I mean, is it a demo or a cry for help?!”

ABOUT CRAIG COFFEE

After a 4 year partnership called Two Giants Coffee, his partner became Santa Claus and Craig went solo****. CRAIG COFFEE is a mere vanity project that barely sustains itself on a good day, and on a bad day contributes to climate change and the rising waters of insufferable coffee snobbery. His Aillio Bullet pumps out a paltry 800g at a time, which Craig has been known to consume himself in a single day, so to think that a coffee roasting business could be anything more than a subject to force upon people at cocktail parties is willfully pigheaded. So if you are lucky enough to accidentally stumble upon this website on a day when there is actually bagged coffee in stock and ready to ship, then look out your window, my fortunate friend, because this is the day your cow comes home, wearing roller skates, a fancy watch, and ready to party.

*Not that anyone asked; not that asking has ever been needed to casually bring this up in every conversation.

**We miss you, Shakespeare Lady. Your Ophelia was the best I’d ever seen.

***Somewhere along his father’s ancestral line is Winthrop Sargent, uncle of John Singer Sargent. A stretch perhaps, but a detail Craig is sure to bring up if one can bear to talk to him for more than 10 minutes.

****Like when Krampus left the death-ska band The Horn Line and began performing largely goat-topical original folk music. (And really, Art Haecker is Santa. Look it up, kids.)