About Us
ABOUT KINGFISHER SPECIALTY COFFEE
Kingfisher Specialty Coffee is located on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest. We specifically chose the Kingfisher bird as our name and logo because of the year-round presence of these wonderful birds on our shorelines. Kingfishers have a unique rattling sound, and are fun to watch as they fly like aerobatic pilots along the shoreline and dive straight into the water for their catch.
Having previously built two roasting and retail operations over the past three decades we wanted to continue with our experience in specialty coffee and build into our business model an opportunity to give back to our local customer communities – specifically youth activities. We were inspired by the work of Paul Newman and his “Newman’s Own” retail line which has sought to create natural staples and snacks along with the determination to donate profits to charity. In addition, we were also inspired by the tradition of the girl scouts to sell cookies to fund club events.
We are bringing together the spirit of these two organizations using premium coffee as our retail catalyst.
Kingfisher Coffee uses emerging e-commerce tools to provide both existing blends as well as the opportunity for all coffee lovers to create and have delivered to their door their own personal blend and varietal of fresh roasted coffee. We sample roast every batch and can deliver high quality products to support both large scale wholesalers as well as small micro roasted quantities directly to the customer.
Kingfisher Specialty Coffees: Signature Blend and Roasts
Roughly forty years ago some of the modern era specialty coffee entrepreneurs started importing, roasting and opening retail espresso bars that introduced specialty Arabica coffees from around the world to the Seattle Washington, market place. We came along about ten years later, but were still pioneers at that time. Seattle is not by over a hundred years, the foundation for specialty coffee or the espresso bar in America, but it has, for a variety of reasons, become perhaps the most famous.
Blends are the combination of varietal coffees of origin (countries) and roasts (level of darkness). Our Kingfisher Specialty Coffee blend is a combination of four and, depending on the season, five varieties of Arabica coffees from around the world. The objective of this blend is to provide a perfectly balanced cup that can be roasted light, medium, or dark, and maintain the same flavor profile year in and out regardless of the environmental and weather impact of the crops we source. In addition, and critically important, is that this blend must work and produce an excellent cup as a retailer’s espresso bar blend, in a home espresso machine, as a retailer’s drip coffee, in a home drip machine, as a pour over coffee, as a cold brewed coffee, and as a “French pressed” coffee. That’s a tall order.
Kingfisher Specialty Coffee is blended and crafted to suit the variety of roasts and taste profiles that our guests and customers enjoy.
Kingfisher Blend: Café Roast
Kingfisher blend roasted Café is light, bright, smooth, with a Northern European style - traditional taste. It is an excellent transition coffee for those raised on “canned” coffee but who may wish to experience fine Arabica coffee. Often a customer will say, “don’t give me any of that dark stuff.” This is the roast for those that desire a medium body, lightly acidic, clean tasting coffee. It truly brings out everything unique about the coffees we use in this blend.
Cafe is the roast level we cup all our coffees at to determine their true taste and personality.
Kingfisher Blend: Vienna Roast
Kingfisher blend roasted Vienna is a balanced smooth roast, excellent for home, or retail espresso bars that don’t want to serve espresso-based drinks that their customers consider “too dark”. It is delightful, dependable, and makes an excellent classic drip coffee. We have used it for years in our espresso bars. It doesn’t over extract the coffee solids if brewed correctly and doesn’t under extract - leaving the espresso or drip coffee tasting weak or grassy. Vienna is one of our most flexible and sought out Kingfisher Specialty Coffee roasts.
Our medium roast blend that never disappoints.
Kingfisher Blend: French Roast
Kingfisher Specialty Coffee blend roasted French is maybe the “sweet spot”. If you are familiar with tennis it’s the spot in the racket that has the most power if you hit it just right. We love the way this roast can maintain its source of origin uniqueness and add the fully caramelized smoky tastes that have, at this point in the roast, developed in the bean. It makes an excellent cold brew coffee as that process tends to mellow it out a bit. Many love it as a morning drip or press and all-day coffee roast.
A French roasted Kingfisher Specialty Coffee blend is strong and dark, yet still smooth and not bitter.
Michele Malarney, Ph.D. Founder
Michele co-founded Kingfisher Specialty Coffee, LLC with Kent Holloway in 2017 and is now the company’s owner. She utilizes her decades of expertise as a corporate executive to support the expansion and operations of the company.
She is passionate about the concept of “everyday learning” – the idea that people grow and develop through their daily interactions with other people (often over a cup of coffee). Her work over the past twenty years has focused on creating, implementing and improving national/international educational experiences that help individuals, teams and families become more resilient.
In addition to managing Kingfisher Specialty Coffee, Michele also spends time designing educational experiences focused on health education, keeping up with her three beautiful boys, gardening, taking walks on the beach with her dogs, and perfecting the Tea Latte.
In Memory of
Kent Holloway
1960-2020
In Memory of Kent Holloway
1960-2020
Kent Holloway was a pioneer in the specialty coffee industry - opening his first retail espresso bar in 1989 Austin Chase Coffee. After successfully growing and selling this company, he launched his second venture - Fox Hollow Coffee – building a series of high-end espresso drive-thrus. Both companies were founded in the South Puget Sound region of Washington State.
Kent was known for his artful approach to coffee, his sense of humor and a willingness to share his expertise with others. Over the years he supported thousands of people in the coffee industry to grow their companies and purpose to become better people. His influence and expertise were built into the foundation of Kingfisher Specialty Coffee.