Comfortable space with skillful instructors I visited Boot Coffee after reading the 'Monk of Mokha' and was instantly convinced that I need to take a few courses here. I have taken Sensory, Roasting Biz, and Q grader courses with them. Valerian, the course director, has a wealth of knowledge from his roasting businesses and happily shares it through his teachings. He cares for the progress of all students and is completely invested in our success. For the Q, Willem has been teaching the course since years and he does a great job at calming the nerves. The Q course is a stressful 6 days but both Valerian and Willem are there for you throughout the process. Overall, I would definitely recommend taking courses with Boot and if you are giving the Q exam, would urge you to take the sensory courses as they help immensely for the Q course.

I'd be more careful After hearing all the hype about this place, I was super excited to have signed up to take my Q here. I had saved up for the last year because I was going to drive up there from Los Angeles (7 hour drive) and I had to pay for an airbnb plus food. This is no easy feat for one person and it does take a lot just to get to the class so I can see why so many people just can't get this sort of certification if it's not offered close to home. The course was great, the people I met who were also taking it were great but I had one big problem....I paid $1,187 more than everyone else and they refuse to refund me. The problem is that when you're on their site signing up for this, you get a prompt that offers you some extra courses. These extra courses are SCA classes that are supposed to help you get your Q certification on top of the Q classes. Since there was no indication about anything other than I could add these classes, I said why not? If I was going to spend all this money to go up there it would only make sense to spend a little more to ensure I came back certified. I received my invoice after my purchase and the countdown began. I booked my airbnb, got new tires for my car, oil change and anything else I could do to ensure a safe trip. The week before my classes I received and email that went out to all students about the start date. It said something about "classes start this Monday, please park..." so immediately confused I go and look at my invoice and see that my dates are correct. I read further into the email and it turns out that in those extra SCA classes that are offered, are a week before the Q classes. In the invoice there is only one date and nowhere else in any emails sent did they state the classes were on separate dates. I see this mistake and I reach out to them right away, had I been informed these classes were on separate dates, I would've never signed up for them. I wasn't going to be able to afford another week off of work and at an airbnb. I was ensured it would handled after I reached out but their idea of that is to give me a gift card to take another class. I would essentially have to spend another week off of work, $240 in gas, 14 hours on the road plus the cost of staying at even a cheap hotel would be $100 a night. Instead of correcting this issue and admitting fault for not stating any date difference on their website originally, they changed the wording and have then continued to make me feel like I'm the loser who didn't know. I quote Valerian's email telling me "How can you even imagine that you take a pretty serious course during the week of the Q? Like how would that work?" as if I'm supposed to knows the hours and length of the classes. I've worked in Customer Service and in Coffee my whole life and although the knowledge here might be great, I'd advise going someplace else that doesn't make you feel like you like an idiot for not knowing information they never gave you to begin with.

Q - Grader course Going thru Boot Coffee Campus has been an amazing, professional growing experience. I started by taking Coffee Pro, the courses and videos provided a plethora of information for anyone interested on immersing in the vast coffee world. My end goal was to get Q- grader certified, for what I decided to enroll in both Sensory Modules followed by Q-grading classes and examinations. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but after reading most of the blogs I knew becoming a Q-grader wasn't going to be easy. Sensory classes with Valerian were eye opening, I thought I knew some about coffee sensory, but Valerian sure taught me there was a lot more to learn about. He went the xtra mile for us involved in the modules to understand coffee sensory. Once done with these two modules, we moved into our Q- grading course. So much information to process, constant testing and practices make your senses spin like a tornado. Willem Boot taught the vast majority of the course, but it is imperative to mention that both Willem and Valerian choreographed all classes in such a way we had the time to digest and fully understand their lectures. Examinations of course brought the stress factor to a higher level, but at all times both instructors made sure we felt confident. Thank you Willem Boot and Valerian Hrala, it has been quite a ride, one for the books, can't wait to return for more quality Coffee Roasting training. Till next time, Ramon

Coffee Roasting week at Boot Roasting with Valerian was a fantastic experience. He is incredibly knowledgeable about roasting coffee, and the coffee business. As a seasoned coffee, roaster professional, Valerian taught the course, adding a personal touch coming from his experience as a roast master. He made sure that student always had enough time To practice and experience roasting coffee. Boot Campus It’s also well equipped with enough roaster to have plenty of time of practice for each student. I recommend taking courses and classes at Boot and with Valerian as instructor.

Up to my elbows in chocolate! I signed up for a week long hands-on course in making bean to bar craft chocolate. We learned about sensory analysis and chocolate tasting, about roasting, cracking, winnowing, roasting, grinding/melanging, conching, tempering and molding. A lot of effort goes into making a chocolate bar and that's not including all the work that the farmer does at origin. Valerian made the work fun but also made sure we learned. We made six different kinds of bars and had plenty to take home with us. We also tasted an infinity of craft chocolate bars from around the world and had an in depth visit to the Dandelion Chocolate Factory in San Francisco. All in all well worth it and I came away with the knowledge I needed to get into trouble making chocolate at home. Recommended.