It's Not All About Coffee... With Olwethu Silo

You might have spoken to him or had him make your coffee at either of our branches — Olwethu Silo is a relatively new addition to the Rosetta team and yet has already made his mark.

Today we take a turn to speak to Silo about coffee, doing it excellently and hear what he says about bringing the customer along for the journey.

ROSETTA: Introduce yourself to us and tell us what you do at Rosetta / how long have you been working there? 

OLWETHU: My name is Ollie, and I’ve been working at Rosetta for nine months, going on to ten. Since January. 

ROSETTA: What are some of the best things about being a part of the Rosetta team? 

OLWETHU: Education. The knowledge, the forward-thinking — it’s way past the coffee. You work with people like Jono, and it’s fantastic. 

ROSETTA: Do you have other passions outside of coffee? 

OLWETHU: Nothing worth mentioning. 

ROSETTA: How has working at Rosetta changed your life and your pursuits more, especially your pursuit of excellence? 

OLWETHU: If I’m honest, it’s elevated my knowledge when it comes to coffee and raised my expectations. I now pay attention to things I would never pay attention to before — specifically when it comes to extraction. 

I’ve become a better barista — that goes without saying. 

Excellence in coffee — from sourcing to knowing about c-types, to learning about producers who make the coffee, and translating that and meeting the consumer where they at — is one of the biggest things that we are the barista’s have to do. We always have to push the consumer five percent down the line — making sure that if they came in drinking ‘whatever’ that they come out drinking something better.  

Better means a lot of things — going from 4 sugars to 2 sugars, a lot of things, but for the most part, better means that we care about the person before shoving the coffee down their throat.