Jessica grew up in Boise, Idaho, but has called Portland home for the past 8 years. She originally got into the coffee scene knowing it would be a marketable trade upon moving to Portland. When asked why she stays, she says, "It's a service job that feeds and nourishes me. I like being a part of the community ritual and getting to know our regular customers. It’s super rewarding.” Not only does Case Study Coffee have great staff and customers, but also top of the line equipment. The opportunity to work in such a quality environment gives Jessica a bit of a spoiled feeling. She loves the challenge of making macchiatos because they require perfect espresso, velvety milk, and precision technique. Jessica will...
Marayah Deese is a native Oregonian, splitting her time growing up between Portland and Adelberg, Germany. Many people don’t know that she not only speaks English but is fluent in German as well. Moving around a lot as a kid has given her a great love of travel and adventure. She has come to deeply value various ways of life around the globe, and has been on staff with several international non-profit organizations over the years. During one such time away from the Pacific Northwest, she met her husband Lane. When she is not making beautiful drinks, Marayah can usually be found on a bike. Having injured herself as a snowboarder, she took to cycling to rehabilitate her knee and...
Florida native Matthew Lee believes in signs. "The morning I walked in Case Study Coffee, I knew it was a place I wanted to be," he says, and adds that the months he worked with us were "Amazing. It's been my best experience with coworkers ever." A roamer at heart, Matthew entered the coffee world through the frappuccino door, as so many of us did. "Honestly? I just needed an easy job, and Barney's Coffee & Tea down the road was hiring. I didn't care about coffee, but over the next few months I did build a foundation of coffee skills." Barney's transitioned to CoffeeKitchen and brought in Ultimate Barista Challenge winner James Duncan to train the top employees. Matthew...
The way she tells it, Bre Lloyd has been an understated part of Portland's coffee culture for nigh on a decade. But her history with the City of Roses goes much further back--she moved here at age 5 and grew up in the Sabin neighborhood of Northeast. Though her family moved to Corvallis, she ran away from home at 15 and drifted back to Portland where, she says, her first job off the streets was in coffee. That coffee job (c. 2005) was at Coffeehouse NW, which became the seminal coffeehouse in Portland, first to serve Stumptown coffee on an espresso machine of choice, and eventually setting the bar high for Portland's coffee culture. Other shops Bre has anchored include...
