At 16, Harvey Uyeyama already has a business, a loyal customer base and a highly specialized craft that most adults never attempt to master.
asserted
adults → have → that
From his home in Davis, California, the soon-to-be high school senior hand-roasts coffee, customizes orders and runs a growing subscription service, all while preparing for college.
asserted
senior → roast → college
But Harvey’s Coffee began with something much more personal, the time spent with his father.
asserted
Coffee → begin → father
According to a report by The Sacramento Bee, Uyeyama learned to roast coffee from his father, John, who had previously owned a coffee shop in Lafayette and continued roasting at home.
uncertain
who → accord → home
In June 2024, his father invited him to join him for a late-night roasting session.
asserted
father → invite → session
The two spent hours working together, beginning what would become the foundation of Harvey’s Coffee.
asserted
what → spend → Coffee
As a child, he tried everything from running a lemonade stand to tutoring math in an effort to make money.
asserted
he → try → money
His father had given him a skill he could turn into something of his own.
uncertain
he → give → own
He began selling freshly roasted beans door-to-door around his neighborhood.
asserted
He → begin → neighborhood
The first customers did not come easily.
asserted
customers → come → ?
After plenty of rejection, Uyeyama refined his sales pitch and presentation, eventually swapping a black backpack for a wagon and adding branded labels to make the business look more professional.
asserted
business → refine → labels
Finding purpose through grief
Not long after teaching his son the craft, John Uyeyama died on his son's birthday.
asserted
Uyeyama → find → birthday
The loss brought roasting to a temporary halt.
asserted
loss → bring → halt
But just a few weeks later, coffee unexpectedly brought Harvey back to the craft.
asserted
coffee → bring → craft
His father’s funeral service needed coffee, and Harvey took on the job despite having never completed an entire roasting process alone.
asserted
Harvey → need → process
The experience was difficult, involving plenty of mistakes and ruined batches.
asserted
experience → involve → mistakes
But the coffee was well received by mourners, giving Harvey a renewed sense that roasting could be more than a business.
uncertain
roasting → receive → business
It could also be a way of carrying forward something his father had passed down to him.
uncertain
father → carry → him
Building a business with patience
Today, Uyeyama operates Harvey’s Coffee with his girlfriend, Abby Merchant, an 18-year-old student at UC San Diego.
asserted
Uyeyama → build → Diego
While Merchant is studying biology, she has taken on an important role in the company’s branding and marketing, redesigning its logo, packaging and overall customer experience.
asserted
she → study → logo
Uyeyama focuses on roasting and the technical side of the operation.
asserted
Uyeyama → focus → operation
He has even built an app to manage sales and recurring subscriptions.
asserted
He → build → sales
The company is approaching 100 monthly subscribers, with customers spread across the country.
asserted
customers → approach → country
Each month, Uyeyama chooses beans from a different region, examining factors such as acidity, body, flavor and the history behind each coffee.
asserted
Uyeyama → choose → coffee
Although he particularly enjoys East African coffees, he deliberately changes the selections to keep the subscription experience interesting.
asserted
experience → enjoy → selections
An old-school approach to modern coffee
Harvey’s Coffee is anything but mass-produced.
asserted
Coffee → produce → coffee
Uyeyama roasts every batch by hand on a machine believed to date back to the early 1900s.
asserted
Uyeyama → roast → 1900s
The antique-looking roaster uses rotating chambers positioned above propane burners.
asserted
roaster → look → burners
Uyeyama manually adjusts the heat throughout the process, watching temperatures, listening for the beans to crack and inspecting their color as they develop.
asserted
they → adjust → color
The machine can handle about four bags at a time, allowing him to produce roughly 12 bags an hour.
asserted
him → handle → bags
Each order is then packaged by hand, with codes and customer names identifying where the coffee is headed.
asserted
coffee → package → hand
Local customers can receive their coffee within 24 hours of roasting, while shipments travel to subscribers across the United States.
asserted
shipments → receive → States
Looking ahead
Uyeyama plans to graduate early after one final semester, giving him roughly nine months to expand the company before heading to college.
asserted
Uyeyama → look → college
Scaling up could mean a warehouse, larger equipment, a new grinder and a more sophisticated setup.
uncertain
Scaling → scale → warehouse
But one thing is unlikely to change: the human touch.
asserted
thing → change → ?
It is about keeping every batch deliberate, personal and handcrafted — much like the first batch he made alongside his father on a late night in June 2024.
asserted
he → keep → June
The Aporia
