Evan's Story
The thread connecting Evan Gilman's seemingly disparate interests in life is a deep thirst for adventure and a connection with people—whether through music, art, travel, or coffee.
Originally from Seattle, Evan first dipped his toe into the coffee industry while serving as a barista at the University of Washington Housing and Food Services in 2002.
Today, he works for Royal Coffee, one of the world's prominent specialty coffee green bean suppliers, as their Creative Director – a title that fails to capture the scope of his work.
Straight to the Source
His early coffee career saw him navigating the Seattle scene, working with Equal Exchange and spending time at Mr. Spot's Chai House, one of the area's last bastions of open-mic nights and counter-cultural weirdness.
But in what would prove to be a recurring theme in his life, Evan pursued his passion for the music of Asia by going straight to the source. He secured a Darmasiswa Scholarship to study Balinese music in Indonesia in 2007, returning briefly the following year to save for his next trip, and followed that up with a stint in Chiang Mai, learning traditional Thai Piphat music.
Still, he never gave up the bean.
Upon relocating to the Bay Area, he joined Blue Bottle Coffee, transitioning from Barista to Lead Barista, and finally to Trainer, where he assisted with menu development and the historic build-out of the W.C. Morse building.
The Archipelago's Advance
As his coffee skills and palate matured, he set off on another international tour, this time with the musical ensemble Gamelan Sekar Jaya in Bali, after which he earned his Q Grader Certificate in Jakarta in 2014.
To this day, Evan continues to travel extensively throughout Indonesia to better understand the complexities of coffee trade, logistics, and regional distinctions. Forging deep connections from Medan to Dili, he was witness to the rapid evolution of Indonesia's domestic coffee market, as international interest in local specialty coffee bloomed.
Today, he leverages that deep archipelago expertise to build a diverse supply network for Royal Coffee's catalog.
Creative Force at The Crown
Much like everything else he does, Evan's role at Royal Coffee's "The Crown" in Oakland, California is multi-faceted. Alongside sourcing, he acts as a central creative force—designing for print and web (including the Crown Jewel boxes), curating the Gallery at The Crown, providing photography, and copy editing the Crown Jewel product pages. Beyond his Creative Director work, he also helps ship coffee out with the Outbound Traffic team. He is a certified Q Instructor, Q Grader, CQI Post-Harvest Processing Instructor, SCA Green Coffee Intermediate, and home roasting specialist.
In his free time, he continues to make music with Gamelan Sekar Jaya, bakes bread, and enjoys a copious amount of science fiction.
Coffee in Harmony
Evan brings balance to his roasting practice by drawing directly from the life lessons he's learned over the years while pursuing his passions:
"For baristas, over- or under-extraction can be analogous to over- or under-development in the roaster, in an abstract sense. Likewise, when I'm in the zone, my experience in photography informs my roasting style, as I try to capture details in both the light and dark. From Balinese music and culture, I understand that even coffee needs to stay in harmony with the people who surround it and the nature that produces it. And from sourdough bread, it's clear that not every bake can be a winner, and that's okay."
As he roasts on the Bullet for the Crown Jewel profiles found on the Royal Coffee website and Roast.World, Evan takes into account all the previous coffees he's screened over the years, noting green specs like moisture content, screen size, and density in order to get the best results the first time. While every batch is an exploration, and no two coffees are the same, Evan uses his experience evaluating thousands of coffees over two decades to provide fellow roasters with a good benchmark to begin their own roasting journey.