About Timothy Bruno

I Got Started Pretty Early

My earliest memories of coffee are in my grandmother’s kitchen, watching the bubbles in the glass top of the percolator on her stove as she made coffee for my grandfather.

Stove Top Percolator
Stove Top Percolator, photo by Kristen Haynie

I must have been 3 or 4, enjoying my own cup with lots of milk and what I assume was a saccharine tablet for sweetness (although I am old enough that it might have been cyclamates!).

I remember feeling so grown up.

High School Coffee

Fast forward to my junior year of high school where the occasional late-night essay required “a little boost” of caffeine. By my senior year, I would occasionally sneak into the teacher’s lounge for a pre-lunch “pick me up.” Coffee was not available anywhere for students, presumably because it would stunt our growth, but I wanted to be fully attentive in Mr. Macnamara’s AP European History class. He may or may not have felt that that particular act was appropriate. My how times have changed… Carmel High School in Indiana runs a coffee shop by and for students that makes over $100,000 per year!

College Coffee

In college, I had a morning radio show (let’s hear it for the Woo Crew!) and we would go through at least three pots of coffee before we were through. If I decided to skip French class (who knew I would need to speak French?) I would have another couple of cups at breakfast. There followed a couple more cups after lunch and a couple at dinner, as well. All of this allowed me to make it through until Letterman’s monologue before heading to bed for 4 hours of sleep. It is conceivable that I may have had a small caffeine problem at this time.

Coffee in the Workforce

Being in sales for a large portion of my pre-farm work life, I wasn’t always in an office. When I was, there were multiple trips to the office coffee maker, regardless of the quality being brewed. Then my wife and I chucked our conventional lives and bought a Kona coffee farm on the Big Island of Hawaii in 2008.

Our time in Hawaii was wonderful and full of plenty of hard work. Discovering that making a small fortune growing coffee was easy (provided you had a large fortune to start with – we didn’t), we diversified. We started a local farmers market that helped me develop deep connections in the Kona coffee growing community, where I became a member of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association, the Hawaii Coffee Association, the Hawaii Farm Bureau, and the Hawaii Farmers Union United. We also started and continue to operate a natural skincare company, Luana Naturals, using Kona coffee in many of our products. Many thanks to our dear friend Miranda who keeps everything running smoothly. 

After ten years of beating back the jungle, my wife and I are now living in France and our two “kids” are at university in London and Rotterdam. Time marches on. I am very much looking forward to connecting with a nice, worldwide group of coffee lovers and sharing what I have learned.

tim and karen after haircuts in hawaii

What’s Happening Now

I am currently working with publishers and agents to bring Procaffeination: A Coffee Lover’s Dictionary to the marketplace and am nearly finished with a tasting guide and diary that will be available soon – just the inside covers to complete! Also, watch for “The Complete Guide to French Press Coffee” sometime in 2021. If you want to keep up to date on the publications, sign up for my newsletter at the bottom of this page. I promise: I will never spam you.

The focus of this blog will be to showcase cool coffee gadgets and techniques for getting the best brew possible while regaling you with stories from my years growing coffee in Hawaii. You can also count on stories from coffee’s long history; it truly has had a profound impact on society. But not to worry, it will be in a fun and informative way. Thanks for joining me here and I would love to hear from you; feel free to send me an email at tim@procaffeination.com.

More about Tim and Coffee

My author page is www.TimothyBruno.com and I can highly recommend our Facebook group for fun coffee memes and stories.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothy-bruno/

I was quoted in this article posted on Perfect Daily Grind

Here is an article I wrote about the Farmers Market my wife and I started on The Big Island of Hawaii

And here are some articles that were written about us

Want a laugh? Check out this video I made in college (1986)

Fair warning. It has nothing to do with coffee.