Marlon Bolaños

Big Step Coffee is a small-batch, direct-to-consumer roaster in Southern California, founded in 2016 by Kyle Hayslip. He came to coffee as an outsider — an obsessive rather than an industry veteran — with the aim of building a business from scratch that reflected his own values, and a conviction that coffee connects people across a global community in a way little else does. The name comes from his son, who as a small child would shout "Big Step!" whenever the two encountered a large crack in the sidewalk on a walk. For Hayslip it captures the same fearlessness that led to starting the company. The roasting philosophy is deliberately unhurried and untrendy: honoring the skill, risk, and years of labor behind each lot, and setting profiles to highlight the intrinsic qualities the producers intended rather than imposing a house signature. Green coffee is bought through import partners with long-standing relationships at origin, with an emphasis on consistent repeat purchasing that provides financial stability to smallholder farmers rather than one-off transactions. Big Step roasts out of the California Roasting Collective in San Marcos, offering rotating single origins alongside subscription and wholesale programs.