We talk to the chief coffee officer of “robot barista” company Artly Coffee—and reigning U.S. Latte Art Champion—about discovering coffee, moving to Portland, Ore., and more.
BY CHRIS RYAN
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Photos courtesy of Joe Yang
Growing up in Central China’s Anhui province, Wenbo Yang didn’t discover coffee until his college years in New Zealand. There, a café job excited his taste buds and ignited his passion. With coffee in his sights, Wenbo returned to China and embarked on a journey of coffee-business ownership. Eventually, this trek would take him to the coffee paradise of Portland, Ore., where he has lived since 2016.
After working as a barista in Portland, Wenbo—who goes by Joe—started three coffee businesses in Portland before co-founding Artly Coffee, a Seattle-based tech startup that uses robots to make coffee drinks. Joe is also the company’s chief coffee officer, and its robotic baristas are modeled after his motions.
In addition to his jobs, Joe has been one of the busiest U.S. Coffee Championships competitors in recent years, taking part in five different events and earning two titles: 2023 U.S. Brewers Cup Champion and 2024 U.S. Latte Art Champion.
In the first installment of our two-part interview with Joe, we learn about how he discovered coffee and launched his career.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Barista Magazine: First, how did you get interested in coffee before you moved to Portland?
Joe Yang: I’m from the Anhui province in Central China, but I never tasted coffee in China growing up. I started my coffee journey in 2010 in New Zealand. I did a two-year program in Auckland as an international student, and I got a part-time job at a coffee shop. This opportunity opened my mind to how interesting coffee could be. The manager there liked to do experiments with different coffees, and introduced me to single-origins and lighter roasters. I tasted all different things, and I saw that coffee isn’t just simple, black, bitter water—it could be something more.
What did you do after Auckland?
I moved back to China in 2012 after I graduated, and I opened a coffee shop. I felt like I really loved this industry—I enjoyed creating all the different flavors and surprising customers—and I wanted to bring that New Zealand style to China. We really struggled the first couple years because the coffee culture was not very strong in China then, but eventually the coffee shop was going well.
In the meantime, because I was in the first bunch of people doing specialty coffee in China, I found another business opportunity. A lot of people on the internet were asking me for tips on starting a coffee shop. So I started a trading company in China in 2013 to sell coffee machines to shops. It was successful, so I moved my attention there, going to different cities to visit all the new coffee shops and trying to sell them machines. That company still exists now; since I’ve moved to the United States, I still work for them as a consultant.
You moved from China to Portland in 2016; why Portland?
Before I moved, I did some research about the coffee market in the United States, and I felt like Portland was a dream city for me, with all the small independent specialty-coffee roasters all around the city. Also, Portland felt like a more livable city—other cities like San Francisco and Seattle were too expensive, but Portland felt OK for starting out. So I moved there by myself without knowing anyone.
How did you launch your coffee career in Portland?
For the first couple of months, I just went to school for English class. Even though I had lived in New Zealand, I had then lived in China for five years, and I never spoke English. So I took classes to try to catch up on my English, and in those months I went to all the coffee shops with a resume. I got a barista job I think in the third month; I was pretty lucky. And then pretty soon I got a different barista job, at Case Study Coffee Roasters, a pretty famous shop in Portland. I worked there from 2016 to 2018, and then I found a space to open my own shop, In J Coffee, in 2018.
I know you currently work as co-founder and chief coffee officer for Artly Coffee. How did you transition from business ownership to Artly?
From 2018 to 2023 I ran three coffee businesses in Portland. I started In J Coffee with a business partner. Then I started my second business, Super Joy Coffee Lab, also with a partner, Topher Ou. And I started Less and More with Ryan Jie Jiang, also as a partnership. Once I went full-time to Artly Coffee, I quit the partnership side of those businesses, but I still work as a consultant for them, roasting and developing drinks.
What do you do at your full-time job at Artly?
In the very beginning, two years ago, I trained the robots on all the steps to make coffee efficiently—how to brew, how to pour latte art, and more. Now, my daily job is to develop roasting profiles, and also to create all the drink recipes. The company has multiple coffee shops—in New York City; Toronto, Canada; Vancouver, Canada; with more planned. I do quality control to make sure the drinks are looking and tasting right, and some training for staff. Because even when robots make coffee, they still need humans to make sure the flavors are right.
Here is part two of this story, where we talk to Joe about the time he has spent taking part in coffee competitions.
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