Andrew Hetzel
Consultant
CafeMakers
Waimea (Big Island), Hawaii
What other coffee jobs have you had?
None. I was an enthusiastic consumer before starting in coffee as a business consultant in 2001.
What’s your favorite part about working in coffee?
The people: they’ve (you’ve) all become my extended family. There’s no other industry I have found to care so much about so many people and do so while having fun. Would the world be a better place if more industries were more like us? I think so.
Where do you ideally see yourself in 10 years?
On the road less but still working with great coffee people from around the world.
Who and what inspires you?
I’m inspired by anyone who works harder and smarter to improve themselves and the world around them.
What are you drinking right now?
A Mai Tai. Really.
Crazy coffee experience you’d like to share?
My career in coffee thus far has been one continuous crazy coffee experience spanning more than 35 countries on six continents in just 13 years. In that time, I’ve danced with baristas and Russian Generals on Red Square; drank coffee with locals on a blanket in the Omani desert; been handed an envelope stuffed with cash on a street corner in Bucharest; and robbed in Vancouver. I’ve walked the dusty, crowded streets of Kampala, and immaculate, sprawling farms of Brazil; seen the sunrise from a hilltop in rural India, and set behind the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This business has taken me to far more places and affected my perception of the world in ways that I could not have possibly imagined, but it’s always the people that I will remember.
