Issue 135: May | June 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.
Don’t be afraid! Be very afraid! I had a hard time sleeping after reading our primer on the effective use of Generative AI (GenAI) in this issue. Previous AI-adjacent technologies like Grammarly, Apple Maps, or Google Translate evolved over a number of years and in such a natural and adoptable way that it was easy to see how they enhanced our lives without feeling like we were ceding control to something unknown.
The acceleration of GenAI capabilities, paired with people’s creativity, has created a world where now I have more fear of missing out or falling behind than I have of learning a different way of working. If, like me, you have been avoiding the technology or dabbling at the edges, now is the time to start. Take time to review the Zambrano Coffee wholesale presentation example in the article and the additional examples available at roastmag-ai.roastlog.com. It will certainly be eye opening. The use cases are real, and so are the techniques described.
The beauty of how the technology is evolving it that you don’t have to be a computer scientist to become effective at interacting with an AI model. In fact, I would argue that the future may be more open to philosophers and artists and creative thinkers of all types. The power is in the interaction and making sure that it’s not only the AI model that is learning about you, it’s also you learning about the AI model. My best advice is, “Don’t be a lazy AI person.” Put effort into describing your problem. Ask the model to interview you for better context and understanding. Challenge the model to be better. You will find that with practice, the painful frustration that it’s not understanding what you want will shrink quickly.
Finally, no discussion of GenAI is complete without recognizing there are currently economic and environmental issues tied to the ever-growing appetite for the rapidly evolving technology. We are businesses that are completely dependent on a crop that is extremely sensitive to pollution derived from increasing AI energy consumption and on consumers whose power bills are climbing in parallel with AI use. We have a responsibility at any level we can impact—local, national, and global—to support efforts to mitigate the negative impacts of this growing industry.
Warmest wishes,
Connie
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