These last few years forced people to get better acquainted with their lives inside their homes. During this period, some learned to take better care of themselves, prepared for the future, found their hidden talents, or rekindled their hobbies.
People experimented with what could be achieved inside their homes and, in the process, grew more familiar with themselves. One area of their homes that many people connected with was their kitchens, and the sheer joy of brewing their own coffee.
It wouldn’t be wrong to claim that many people completely shifted to home brewing their coffees after realizing how it can be an excellent experience. It’s happened time and time again; once they learn the intricacies of making their own coffee, they also learn to fall in love with the process, not just the outcome. The credit for making people fall in love with the coffee-making process also goes to the new generation of brands specializing in elegantly designed and intuitively developed coffee-making equipment one can get their hands on easily.
One such brand that specializes in developing coffee-making tools and equipment is Weber Workshops. Founded by Douglas Joseph Weber in 2014, the brand is focused on making intelligently designed and meticulously crafted products for the coffee and gourmet industry. A former mechanical engineer at Apple Inc., Weber’s portfolio includes being an integral part of Apple’s iPod product design team, moving to Japan and leading a team of multinational product designers and material scientists spread across Asia, and developing the patent portfolio, strategic vendor relationships, and core technologies, that are being used in Apple’s product line to this day.
Besides his love for coffee, Weber’s main motivation for starting Weber Workshops was his urge to create products that aren’t measured in fleeting annual revisions but in lasting human generations. He wanted to build machines that remained reliable and steadfast as the day they were made for a long period of time. More than daily use products, Weber wished to develop items worthy of a legacy akin to heirlooms that families could cherish as they were lovingly handed down.
His appreciation for the bean also led him to establish a lifestyle brand called Kamakiri Workshop and the Kamakiri Coffee chain in Fukuoka’s Chuo Ward, Japan, in 2018. Weber, himself, is a resident of Itoshima, Japan, and has been featured in several documentaries on foreign entrepreneurs on NHK (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai) as well as throughout the news media both in Japan and internationally.
At his core, Douglas Weber is a coffee aficionado and strives to improve his creations. Other than the wide array of innovations Weber has developed for the coffee industry, his most notable patents are from his time at Apple and revolve around the glass display on the iPhone and the oleophobic coatings used therein. The products forged at Weber Workshops not only benefit from Weber’s strategic relationships with the most innovative manufacturers in the world but also from a creative team that values good design and solid engineering. This is probably why their Key Grinder subsequently achieved the Best New Product Award from the Specialty Coffee Association.
Douglas told a news outlet that his own love for coffee began brewing while he was employed at Apple, proving that one doesn’t need a pandemic to realize their calling and that it is never too late to answer it.
