The founder of Smooth Coffee Company, Noah Reeves, takes a different approach to tasting.

A coffee tasting with Noah Reeves involves staging. He has neatly lined up vessels shaped like an hourglass with coffee grounds in the bottom. In front of each brewer is about a quarter cup of whole coffee beans. He wants you to examine them.

“I like my coffee tastings to be super hands on and interactive,” he says. “If there’s something here you want to look at and touch, then do it.”

After working with Captain + Stoker during the pandemic as their head roaster and then at Chez Noir for almost two years, Reeves launched his own roasting company, Smooth Coffee Company, based in Sand City. (It is the coffee served at the Michelin-starred Chez Noir.)

Starting his own company was a goal of his since tasting a cup of Washed Worka Ethiopian blend at Captain + Stoker, which opened his eyes to the world of coffee. He greets people with a smile paired with a now-encyclopedic knowledge of coffee. Reeves hosts coffee tastings once a week.

Weekly: What’s the point of doing a coffee tasting like this?

Reeves: This is a variation of the classic form of coffee tasting called “cupping.” Traditionally it is done in little bullion bowls where you put anywhere between 16 and 20 grams of coffee. You then fill it up with water and then use spoons to slurp the coffee off the top. We do basically the same thing, but I do it with individual tasting cups instead. Everything else here is designed to give more information about the coffee that they’re drinking.

Why display the whole beans?

I want people to pick up and feel the beans so they can see what they look like and how they compare to one another.

This process isn’t about brewing up the best cup of coffee you’ve ever had. It’s about brewing all the coffee in the exact same way so you can taste the differences between them – for example this Tanzania versus the Brazil are going to be wildly different. You can tell that by the beans, by talking about what you’re tasting, and by talking about the regions and terroir.

This is like talking to a sommelier, but instead of wine it’s coffee.

[Laughs.] I feel like if I were to call myself a sommelier of coffee, it’s like a musician calling themselves maestro. It’s not a title I can give myself. I really like coffee and what’s possible with it.

There’s still so much going on in the world of coffee that is being discovered for the first time. Technology for coffee roasting in controlled environments where we can see what’s actually happening to the bean is still being developed. Coffee in the way that we know it – even back when Folgers and Maxwell House were first coming into the mainstream – was developed only about 100 years ago.

A couple of quick ones. How much coffee do you drink a day?

About three to five cups. I’m caffeinated.

Is it OK to add cream and sugar?

There’s no wrong way to enjoy coffee and coffee culture.

How did you learn all the technical details of tasting?

During the Covid-19 pandemic when I was working at Captain + Stoker, they sponsored me to go down to Los Angeles Coffee Fest. The purpose of this was for education.

I came across this Rattleware two-chambered immersion brewer we’re using today. It’s kind of like a French press without the push down filter. As the coffee is falling, the hot water is extracting the coffee and creates the flavor.

What is your mission with this new company?

The mission for the business is to make modern coffee accessible to anyone. I have always struggled with pushing myself to do things when they are based on values or ideas and concepts that I didn’t understand or didn’t personally believe in. I’ve always felt like I have good ideas and I can see ways that things can be improved.

Even though running a business is hard and I don’t fault any of them for not doing everything perfect, because nobody is, I’ve always felt like I could do more than that. The only way I could see accomplishing that is by doing something on my own.

That’s part of it. The other part of it is that I find the world of coffee fascinating. Coffee is a frontier. We’re only now starting to understand it.

SMOOTH COFFEE COMPANY sells online or by subscription. Free tastings are offered 10am Sundays at various locations. smoothcoffeeco.com