About Us
Mill47 is a global neighborhood that resides at the intersection of coffee and people.
Mill47 is committed to the “little guy.”
And commitment means that, above all, we want you to roast, brew, and serve stellar coffee.
It starts with green coffee.
Your success as a roaster obviously starts with quality coffee. We don’t carry an endless list, but a carefully curated selection of top notch and affordable varietals. We source these from producers and importers that are committed to elevating quality and the livelihoods of farming communities.
It includes loads of skill.
Getting the most from coffee hinges on your knowledge, creativity and savvy. We are constantly doing what we can to distill expert wisdom into useful, digestible material. We don’t just draw on our own decades of experience, but are constantly engaging with the latest developments in the trade, learning every day.
The “how” we do all this is important, too.
Mill47 is named in tribute to that broad equatorial zone bordered by 23.5° North and 23.5° South latitude known as the Tropics (explaining our logo, above). This region is well known for its coffee farms and human struggle. Our coffees are curated through direct relationships with producers or in-country partners who work with the farms and the farming communities. These people are not only active in helping improve quality, efficiency and agricultural sustainability, but are engaged with other pressing issues like access to clean water, health care, and education. Increasingly, we are bringing in coffees that are produced predominantly by women.
Generations of Coffee Geeks
Matteo “Martin” Parodi emigrated to the USA in 1919, during the Spanish Flu pandemic, bringing his practice of home roasting with him from Italy. Spinning a clumsy hand-cranked cage over an open fire and, later, a barbecue, was his weekly ritual. As kids, we started drinking coffee at a very young age. While this "coffee" was mostly milk and sugar with just enough coffee to warm it up, the damage was done and we continue to honor this 100-year-old coffee obsession.
Mill47 was founded by the father-son team of Dan and Carson Parodi (grandson and great-grandson of Martin).
Dan
Dan has been in the coffee business for more than 30 years. As a coffee roaster and serial innovator, he has a long history of business ventures—some successful and others not so successful. In the coffee space, he created a line of branded coffees, confections and beverages. He also developed and produced numerous ready-to-drink and cold-brew coffees for some big name brands, hacked together home roasting appliances and holds a U.S. patent on coffee roasting technology.
After becoming an "impact investing" activist and social entrepreneur, he helped build and lead a successful café business model in San Francisco to hire and train at risk people groups. His eclectic experience with people, coffee and innovation are part of the inspiration for Mill47.
Carson
Carson is an inspired writer, chef and coffee connoisseur. His first experience with coffee was gobbling a pack of our highly caffeinated chocolate coffee beans that he snagged while wandering the production floor of the family roastery at the age of two. Now, Mill47 Coffee is an ideal confluence of coffee, human story and digital media where he can leverage his communications degree and studies in Central America, Australia and the USA—all celebrated hubs of coffee production and consumption.
In addition to Mill47, Carson provides digital media support to ad hoc clients, including some pro bono work for a struggling Latino-owned restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic. He continues to hone his palate and roasting prowess in the Mill47 lab, sharing new discoveries with our patrons.