Bridge Coffee Company builds a bridge with the UC Davis Coffee Center
The UC Davis Coffee Center is proud to announce a recent $50,000 gift from Bridge Coffee Company to support the center’s education and research in coffee science. The UC Davis Coffee Center aims to do for coffee what UC Davis has done for beer and wine as the first multidisciplinary university research center focused on coffee science.
“We are incredibly grateful to Bridge Coffee Company for its investment in the Coffee Center,” said Coffee Center director Bill Ristenpart. “We look forward to using this generous gift to help inform and train the next generation of coffee producers.”
Bridge Coffee Co. is a micro-roastery in Marysville, CA, owned and operated by Timothy Styczynski, a former paramedic who first started roasting his own coffee in 1997. Since founding the company in 2015, Bridge has been an advocate for micro-roasteries in the Specialty Coffee Association.
“I remember immediately thinking that the world desperately needed a four-year coffee education program,” said Styczynski, who has been following the Coffee Center since its inception in 2016. “It’s dumbfounding how little research has been done for something that all of us love so much. Coffee is such a huge piece of our global economy that hasn’t been given the due regard that has needed.”
Bridge gets its name because from Styczynski’s mission to create connections through coffee. As he got involved in roasting, he realized how much a single cup of coffee could connect passionate growers, roasters and drinkers, and he also remembered all the times as a paramedic that he and his coworkers gathered around coffee.
To Styczynski, his investment is about creating connections both with UC Davis and the greater community of coffee producers and drinkers through the research and education he will help fund.
“I wanted to make my commitment to the Coffee Center because I know that its research and the students who graduate from it are going to have generations of impact into the industry,” he said. “I would love for the future of coffee to have its own, new written history, and the ability for us to continue to have this wonderful product. The investment will secure my ability to continue those connections.”
It’s fitting, then, that Bridge’s gift will also name the arboretum bridge that leads to the Coffee Center.
“The first steps into the Coffee Center will be across the Bridge Coffee Company Bridge,” said Styczynski. “That’s a huge honor for us.”