Meet Our Cuppers: Brandon Bir, Coffee Sourcing and Education Manager

So what is a cupper, you ask? At Crimson Cup, it’s someone who is passionate about coffee. Many of our Cuppers have invested long hours – in some cases, years – in learning to objectively assess the quality of coffee. Each of our Cuppers brings a unique palate, set of skills and personality to our mission of consistently roasting the world’s best-tasting coffee. This is one of a series of interviews with our Cuppers.

At Crimson Cup, Brandon Bir engages his passion for coffee to teach independent coffee house owners how to run a successful coffee business.  He’s worked with dozens of coffee shops and trained hundreds of baristas since he joined the company as a customer experience specialist in 2010.

Outside of Crimson Cup, Brandon pursues multiple passions with the same joie de vivre that he brings to leading a group of coffee shop owners on a tour of coffee farms in the remote mountains of Costa Rica.   When he is not engaged with customers, Brandon enjoys handcrafting exotic wood hand brewing equipment, including; pour over stations, coffee chorreadors and tampers.

He has traveled to coffee trend setting regions including the Northwest, San Francisco and Miami to stay on top of coffee industry trends to share with Midwest coffee shops.

Brandon also has visited more than a dozen coffee plantations in Central America, Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands to bring back stories of great coffee, direct farmer relationships and community sustainability.

The former coffee shop manager has always had a passion for coffee and philanthropy. Youth Services Bureau (providing services and resources for all youth), The Parks and Recreation Department and the National Cancer Society are a few organizations that he contributes his time to.

And, he pulls a mean shot of espresso.

Since 1991, Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea has roasted and packaged quality, great-tasting coffee in Columbus, Ohio. We’ve also taught more than 300 independent business owners how to be successful in specialty coffee through our coffee franchise alternative program. 

Questions about opening a coffee shop? Or want to learn more about our wholesale coffee roasting programs for specialty grocers, colleges and universities and restaurants and food service operators? Give us a call at 888-800-9224 or fill out this form, and we’ll get back to you within one business day.