Original Article Via Phoenix Business Journal
A lot of people talk about how big of a deal coffee is to them, but they probably aren’t anywhere near Patrick O’Malley’s level of conviction.
O’Malley’s passion for coffee has taken him all over the world and led him to start a number of different businesses.
Currently O’Malley runs a variety of coffee-based ventures including Espresso Italia, a wholesale coffee roasting and catering company in Tempe he started in 1999, next door to Infusion Coffee + Tea, his consumer-facing coffee shop and brand.
He opened Infusion Coffee at Eighth Street and Dorsey Lane in 2015 at a price tag of around $400,000 including the build out and roasting equipment.
While those companies have some recognition around the Valley, he is known to baristas globally because of his International Barista Coffee Academy. With IBCA, O’Malley trains wannabe coffee slingers in Tempe.
The academy offers high-level coffee education classes, most of which are endorsed by the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe. IBCA is one of 31 coffee academies with a SCAE certified lab in the world and the only one in the U.S.
“The training center is so popular I turn work down,” O’Malley said. “We probably do 70 percent out of the country.”
He said he has trained people from more than 70 countries in the lab in Tempe.
O’Malley founded IBCA in 2012 after he scored a consulting gig with an Italian company and was asked to create a barista training program. Leaders from the SCAE saw him teach and were so impressed they kept asking him to do more sessions.
O’Malley himself received the SCAE Diploma and was only the 43rd person in the world earn one.
O’Malley’s passion for coffee education extends to his cafe employees. He makes his baristas take classes and learn the art and science behind coffee.
“We encourage, and we actually demand, them to be interested in education,” O’Malley said. “We can give them so much, but they have to take it to the next level on their own by practicing, by being diligent, by wanting to learn.”
Within his coffee shop there is a certified lab with more than $100,000 worth of equipment that tests and scores different coffees
O’Malley’s latest passion is working with coffee farmers and helping them grow more profitable, sustainable and better-tasting beans.
“They are the ones that need the help the most and they’re the ones that get the least amount of respect,” he said.
Still, the most important aspect of his work is his wholesale roasting business, which was first backed by the owner of an Italian restaurant at which O’Malley worked in 1999. It’s the money maker through which he funds his other ventures. While O’Malley emphasizes the importance of Espresso Italia, he did not disclose revenue figures for the privately held business.
