Filling "Blank Space"
with Heavy Water
Brewing community through quality coffee, straight from the source.
Welcome to "Blank Space," a series by BELLA+CANVAS in which we visit members of our creative community as they fill in their own blank canvases, whatever those may be. From his ethical sourcing of quality beans, to his finely-tuned roasts, tasty concoctions, and group runs & rides, owner Tim Riley strives to build real community, connected through coffee and meaningful merch worth living in. Learn more about Heavy Water Coffee Roasters, and shop their favorite BELLA+CANVAS blanks, today.
"I chose BELLA+CANVAS because the silhouettes of the shirts feel like they're based off of your favorite vintage tee that you just live in. And it made the most sense for us to create merch for our customers on shirts that they want to live in."
It's 5:30am and the mechanical hum and creak as one Los Angeles garage door opens is the only sound to make its way through the dark. Tim Riley, owner and operator of Heavy Water Coffee Roasters, checks his bike, snaps on his helmet, and coasts quietly down the driveway and off into the street, the rapid clicking of his bike's rear hub fading in the distance.
By 6:30am, he's on the cusp of Echo Park and Chinatown at Heavy Water Coffee Shop, his first brick and mortar location, a new and welcomed addition to the neighborhood. He puts out the tables and umbrellas, tidy's the merch on his shelves, and kicks off a long day of serving coffees with a double shot of espresso for his very first customer — himself. By 7am, there's a steady stream of regulars in and out of his door, some opting to sip their cups in the overgrown garden behind the shop.
Tim describes Heavy Water Coffee Shop as a "community focused coffee project." The key word being "community," but not just in the obvious ways. As he puts it, "community is really the foundation of the specialty coffee industry, whether that's the community of farmers, or importers, or roasters, or baristas, or the people that make up our customer base."
On the one hand, Heavy Water is about "providing a space for the neighborhood to come and be communal," while on the other, it's a vehicle for supporting the communities that give life to the coffee industry as we know it.
Growing up working in coffee shops, Tim was inspired to start his own as a means of "rectifying some of the inequities in the power structure that exist within cafe culture." From the relationships with the farmers, to those with his cafe employees, Tim knows that quality, first and foremost, is at the center of his response to the industry-wide issues.
"I think that the coffee has to be of a certain quality to evoke meaningful change within the industry. People will not support the business if the quality isn't there. So to pay fair wages to our employees or pay farmers a fair price for their coffee, the product has to be of a certain quality."
To ensure quality throughout his entire supply chain, Tim insists on going straight to the source, working directly with farmers around the world. "I think having an ethical company is really about sifting through a lot of bulls**t. A lot of bigger importers will gate-keep information on certain farmers, because if we don't have all the information, we don't know how much money the farmer's getting paid. So I try to go directly to the source, as much as possible."
This didn't happen overnight. Tim explains, "it's taken a long time to get to the point I'm at now, where I'm on WhatsApp, texting with different farmers from Ethiopia, Guatemala, Columbia and Mexico, and letting them dictate their prices directly." It's through this direct communication that Tim can be so confident in the product — its quality, where it comes from, who grows it, and how they're treated.
Tim not only buys the green (raw) coffee, imports it and roasts it, but you can find him most days behind the counter, developing the recipes that showcase the unique characteristics of each coffee bean, and serving them up to friends, new and old. This hands-on approach and total attention to detail is Tim's modus operandi.
"At the end of the day, what I hope to do is just showcase the work that the farmers have done, at the origin."
Whether that's in a traditional form, like a shot of espresso, pour over, or cappuccino, or in one of Tim's wildly unique signature concoctions, like The Quicky — an "ode to childhood" in the form of cold brew shaken with Nesquik, topped with coconut cream and cinnamon — Tim is constantly exploring new ways of serving his coffee and, in the process, connecting with his community.
But the Heavy Water community isn't bound to the small caffeinated oasis that Tim has built at 1021 Alpine St. Taking cues from his formative days in the music industry, Tim leans into the power of merchandising to help cultivate a community that transcends geographic barriers.
"I think merch is super meaningful to the company, because it allows people to identify with us, and represent the coffee shop outside of the neighborhood, outside of the cafe parameters. For them to buy a shirt or a hat, or even buy beans and take them home, they align with the ethos of the brand, and then rep that somewhere else."
+ The Boxy Tee in White & Navy
Unsurprisingly, Tim approaches merch with much the same attention to detail as he does coffee. "I think doing merch for bands gave me my initial love for the blank shirt. There's nothing worse than buying your favorite band's t-shirt at a show, and then getting home and realizing it fits like garbage. So, I became obsessed with finding good blanks, and wanting to create merch that people would want to wear over and over again." Which led him to our 3010.
"I chose BELLA+CANVAS because the silhouettes of the shirts feel like they're based off of your favorite vintage tee that you just live in. And it made the most sense for us to create merch for our customers on shirts that they want to live in."
Whether you pop into Heavy Water for your favorite cup, to buy a tee, or to meet up with a group bike ride hosted by the shop, you'll find a bit of community in coffee...and that's the whole point.
