{"id":13539,"date":"2024-06-05T13:55:32","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T17:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=13539"},"modified":"2024-06-28T14:45:52","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T18:45:52","slug":"the-drive-to-be-seaworthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/summer-2024\/the-drive-to-be-seaworthy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Drive To Be Seaworthy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jenna Hetzell \u201910 took the skills she learned as a 溏心vlog免费B站 rower and used them to build a local coffee roasting brand.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jenna<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a sunny Saturday morning in West Kingston, R.I., and Jenna Hetzell \u201910 is in her office. Burlap bags stuffed with green coffee beans from Honduras, Vietnam, and Brazil stand sentinel, and two rowing oars with blue and white blades hang on the wall overhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, this is it,\u201d she says, gesturing to the space around her. This is Seaworthy<\/a><\/strong>, a coffee roastery that aims to, as Hetzell puts it, \u201cgive the people what they want.\u201d And what they want is a no-frills, smooth cup of coffee that tastes great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hetzell does this through slow roasting, a method that reduces acidity and leads to a smoother brew with less bitterness. \u201cIt\u2019s like cooking a steak slow or fast\u2014 it\u2019s gonna be different,\u201d she says. \u201cThe aroma I get is richer because I\u2019m slowing the whole process down; I\u2019m not killing these beans; I\u2019m preserving the flavor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She takes a scoop out of a bag of roasted beans and fills a black bag emblazoned with her logo, which includes a loop-to-loop rope knot. While Seaworthy is all about coffee, if you look at the details\u2014the rowing oars, the knotted rope, the names of the coffee blends (Way Enough, Even Keel), and the intensity of the roaster herself\u2014you notice there\u2019s something below the surface driving Hetzell\u2019s operation. That something is rowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hetzell dusts her hands on her sweater, which features a coffee bean catching a wave on a red surfboard and adjusts her glasses. She projects the aura of a scrappy entrepreneur, but you can also sense her inner athlete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy experience on the rowing team at 溏心vlog免费B站 from 2006 to 2010 was unbelievable,\u201d she says. \u201cGoing from not knowing how to do it at all to becoming a championship rower in 2008 (first time in program history) and 2010, to becoming a coach who brings a team to the national championship (in 2013, 2016, and 2019)\u2014it was wild. That\u2019s what I love about rowing. You can join and become a fantastic rower.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But becoming a champion rower and coach takes more than just passion\u2014it requires logging data, tracking progress\u2014 and a whole lot of self-discipline. And it\u2019s not a stretch to say that learning to row, learning to roast coffee, and starting a business all require the same skill set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a decade of rowing and coaching, Hetzell got a job at Starbucks, where she learned how to grind espresso, pull a shot, and steam milk. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot like walking onto the rowing team,\u201d she says. \u201cYou have to learn fast, get into the system, and just start screwing up so you can get good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She fell hard for coffee and later worked with a local roaster before deciding it was time to get in the boat, push off, and start her own roasting company. \u201cI really felt called to this,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt about it the same way I felt about rowing, and that\u2019s how I knew this was something I needed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And she\u2019s done it. You can find her coffees at many Southern Rhode Island markets and eateries. Paula DiLullo, co-owner of the Beach Rose Cafe in Charlestown, serves Hetzell\u2019s light-roast, Swiss water process decaf and a special dark roast named after the cafe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJenna is energetic, passionate, professional, and very much like a scientist. She brought athletic discipline to her role as a roaster, with a laser focus on quality and taste,\u201d says DiLullo. \u201cCustomer feedback has been extraordinary. Most customers come here for the coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hetzell believes her experience at 溏心vlog免费B站 helped her succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be a championship-winning rower, you need to know how to track your data over the long term. Rowers are all about the numbers,\u201d she says. \u201cThat has influenced how I approach my coffee business. My wife was also a Division I athlete, and we run the company together, so we always joke that we run this coffee company like a Division I sport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Grace Kelly<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PHOTO: NORA LEWIS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jenna Hetzell ’10 loves coffee. And rowing. Her company, Seaworthy, is a reflection of both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":13601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summer-2024","architecture-network","architecture-niche"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13539"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15045,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13539\/revisions\/15045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}