Rising Star Charlie Habegger of Handsome Coffee Roasters - Biography

Native Californian Charlie Habegger left his Bay Area hometown Oakland for the East Coast just as Blue Bottle was taking off there. Eventually he’d make it back west and become part of that Third Wave of Coffee, but before all that he earned a degree from Boston College and a master’s in psychoanalysis from the University of Chicago. While studying in Chi-Town, Habegger worked in a serious coffee shop—his first professional job in java—but his sincere interest in coffee had percolated earlier, during travels in Europe and North Africa.

Fascinated by the caffeinated world at the shop, Habegger decided to pursue a coffee career in earnest, pushing aside PhD-program applications, almost as if he had no choice. In 2008, he landed a gig with one of the Third Wave’s big three: Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea. He remained in Chicago for the next five years as an educator and green coffee buyer for Intelligentsia, where he honed his skills and was fully immersed in coffee.

Habegger returned to the West Coast to join fellow former Intelligentsians and founders of Los Angeles’ Handsome Coffee Roasters Tyler Wells, Michael Philips, and Chris Owens as Director of Coffee. He curates Handsome coffees, directs roasting, sources, and is refining the flavor of coffee in L.A. In 2013, he was a United States Barista Championship finalist.