Issue 133: January | February 2026
From the Publisher
The founder and publisher of Roast magazine, Connie Blumhardt has spent over 25 years in magazine publishing and has worked in the coffee industry for the last 20 years. Connie brings the same passion and commitment to this industry journal that is present within the roasting community.
With each issue, Connie brings insight and inspiration to the pages of Roast with this column.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
—Pablo Picasso
Never has this been truer than today, at the dawn of whatever artificial intelligence (AI) will become. Most everyone has tried to use AI in some format, and your initial experiences are likely similar to mine: Feed it a question and get back an answer that is either of limited use or, at times, garbage. This leads to repeated questions, refinement, and often giving up in frustration, uttering, “I could have done this faster myself.” The key, of course, is knowing and refining the right questions. The right questions are original, creative, and based on knowledge that often comes from both personal experience and interacting with others.
Roast Summit has been a success because it brings together a community that fosters sharing and personal experience. The questions that are asked, discussed, and even argued about at the event bring attendees back year after year. I believe if we could run 30 Summits across the globe, they would all sell out annually. Since that’s not logistically possible for a small company, we are going to expand the experience by bringing a larger audience into a virtual community of roasters supporting roasters. Over the next few months, be on the lookout for iRoast, which will be a professional network and community of coffee roasters shaping the future of the craft. We are tremendously excited about launching this platform and we know that there is a vibrant community ready to ask the right questions.
In other news, I would like to welcome a new member to the team: Wes MacDonald. Wes will be filling the role of operations manager and comes to Roast with bachelor of science degrees in computer science and microbiology. Get ready for a database and computer-process overhaul! Wes also loves coffee and spent time as a barista and specialty cocktail creator in Portland before joining us at Roast. Be on the lookout for Wes at various industry events and trade shows.
Warmest Wishes,
Connie
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