Scott Klepper

In the early 2010s, Scott Klepper was a college student seeking a part-time job. He ended up landing a barista position at the student-run coffee shop on campus—a job that would provide him not just with income, but with an important discovery. The campus café was the social hub of the school, and by working there, he was instantly connected to his community—and enjoyed being part of it from behind the bar.

“In college, with all my brain power going into thinking and writing, I found I loved the aspect of making something tangible while working with coffee,” Scott says. “Making people’s day better with well-made coffee and facilitating an environment that everyone enjoyed spending time in became central to my experience with coffee over the years.”

Scott decided to continue working in coffee post-college, and has been a longtime member of seminal Portland coffee company Portland Coffee Roasters (PCR), formerly known as Portland Roasting. Currently, Scott serves as PCR’s learning and development program manager, where he oversees coffee training and standards for the company’s retail staff and wholesale customers.

“While our retail leadership handles on-site training and management, I have a hand in initial onboarding and content development,” Scott says of his role at PCR. “I manage internal development and train our sales and customer service teams on standards, and host tastings and continuing coffee education for everyone at the company.”

Scott’s duties at Portland Coffee Roasters also include handling non-coffee training projects. “This includes building on-boarding materials, documenting new systems and standard operating procedures, and designing training material to help department leads,” Scott explains.

As a member of the Pacific Foods Barista Series™ Brand Ambassador, Scott lends his coffee experience, knowledge, and passion to training new folks on how to assess our products, then leading assessments and development. He’s no stranger to Barista Series products—having used them since his early days in the coffee world—and has come to rely on their performance.

“Barista Series products are unique for their consistency, and because they are true to the ingredients: Each product tastes distinctly like itself while still remaining well balanced with coffee, as opposed to having the almond or coconut flavor overly softened to be more neutral,” he says.

We’re proud to have this dedicated coffee pro as a Brand Ambassador!