Prologue: Kelvin Yap | Editor： Amir Alamdari

The end of one journey is the beginning of a new adventure. 

I just got back from a short trip to the island, where everything seems so laid back. It’s the total opposite with how I usually feel at work. 

I enjoyed this short break and indulged in every moment of quality time with my friends as we shared all of our life experiences from around the world. 

These moment with friends are always the best… friends play various role in our life, they are loyal listener to your difficulties, or share food, or they can be the jokester in your life that makes you laugh out loud. 

Time flies… this week our story is about our beloved intern, our rugged mountain man, and one of our favorite Torch Instructors—Mason Wilson (or Meimei). 

His time in Pu’er is at an end, and he is currently on his way back to his hometown in Texas. 

Meimei is a really hardworking intern and brings positive energy to everything he does, and he is constantly spread this positivity and joys to the people around him. 

Let’s explore more about Meimei in this week’s coffee voyagers! 

How I come to China

My name is Mason Wilson. I’m from near Dallas, Texas in America. I enjoy sharing coffee with friends, playing guitar, getting tattoos, and seeing the world.  

Joel, the Tattooed Arm Barista, was in China and I was getting ready to graduate university in the February of 2017. 

He mentioned an opportunity to be an intern at Torch and him being able to study coffee at origin. I (half-jokingly) asked him if they had another opportunity for me to come along as well. 

Eventually it turns out I was welcomed on and was soon leaving to head to China that following August.  

Life before coffee

Before coffee, I was just a college student drifting around in life with no real future goals I could be passionate about. 

I was studying Business Management, just hoping God would lead me towards something like the coffee industry that would allow me to help people and spend time with others. 

Why “coffee”?

Well, first of all, specialty coffee is really tasty! So, it’s fun to try new processes, origins, farms, etc. However, it’s really all about the people aspect of coffee that interests me. 

I’m a very people oriented person. Some of my favorite moments in life have come from spending time with a friend or family member over a cup of coffee. 

Being able to bring joy to someone’s day through either serving a beverage, roasting someone’s coffee, or helping people discover more knowledge about something I’m passionate about (which is coffee) keeps me to go further. 

From your journey in the coffee industry, have you noticed anything that you would like to change?

A thing I’d love to see done more often is having people who are on the bottom end of the supply chain spend more time learning about the culture of the people who produce their coffee. 

With that, also educating their customers more on those topics.

Scuba diving instructor in Mexico

If I wasn’t in coffee, I’ll be honest, I don’t have any idea what I’d be doing right now. Probably trying to be a scuba diving instructor in Mexico or something. I’m not too big of a fan of the idea of sitting behind a desk 5 days a week for 8 hours a day.

Leisure Time

In my leisure time I enjoy going to new places, sharing a meal with friends, playing Ultimate Frisbee, and playing the guitar!  

Every coffee voyager has his or her own stories where they were given the chance to grow and develop themselves through this people-based coffee community. 

Opportunities come and go, but the potential benefits will be wasted without hard work. Through countless hours of hard work and learning, Mason has grown into the person he is today. 

We truly believe that regardless of where the coffee voyagers’ journey will lead in future, the core values will remain, and the spirit of helping others shall never be lost or forgotten. Bye Mason!