About Bruce

Bruce Milletto

Bruce is recognized by the press and the coffee industry internationally as “the voice of the specialty coffee industry.”

The media frequently call upon Bruce for information about the specialty coffee industry. He was quoted in the popular 2007 book Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture by Taylor Clark. This is only one of 6 books in as many years he is quoted or mentioned in.

He has been interviewed by, or quoted in: the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Newsweek, 60 Minutes, Kiplinger’s, Starbucks Annual Report, Forbes, the Economist, Harvard Management Update, Crain’s Business Review, the Seattle Times, the Oregonian, the Washington Post, Business Week and Entrepreneur. His expert commentary has been heard on the radio, including Coffee Talk on National Public Radio. In 2003-2004, Mr. Milletto appeared on an HGTV [Fine Living Network] television series that aired on the national cable station and on the United Airlines in-flight service network. In 2005, he appeared on the History channel program Modern Marvels in an episode about coffee.

Bruce is often described as a Renaissance man, as he is also an accomplished composer, photographer, filmmaker and fine arts collector. He has worked for various corporations and government agencies in marketing and teaching positions. He has owned three successful retail gourmet coffee operations and has assisted hundreds of clients in creating new coffee start-ups around the world. As a consultant, he has worked with individual and corporate clients in Asia, Mexico, Europe, Central and South America, Africa the Middle East, and North America.

Bruce holds an undergraduate degree from Northern Arizona University and a master’s degree from the University of Oregon, where he taught in subsequent years in the MBA department.

In 2003, the Specialty Coffee Association of America [SCAA] named Bruce Milletto one of its 20 “Coffee Luminaries,” and in 2004, he appeared in Gourmet Retailer’s 25th anniversary issue on the list of the 25 individuals who helped shape the specialty coffee industry.

Bruce is also the recipient of the SCAA’s Distinguished Author Award in 1999. He servered on the prestigious editorial boards of Fresh Cup Magazine and the Specialty Coffee Journal, covering the marketing segment of the specialty coffee industry. He also is a member of a coffee product review panel for NSF International, an independent, not-for-profit third party standards development and certification organization specializing in public and environmental health. Bruce served on, and is the former Vice Chair of, the SCAA Communication Committee, is Chairman of the advisory board of Coffee Kids and is a volunteer and member of the Coffee Corps.

Underscoring his role as the “voice for the specialty coffee industry,” Bruce wrote a column for many years for Fresh Cup magazine, the specialty coffee industry’s leading publication. He continues to frequently author articles for the magazine as well as provide articles and interviews for such trade publications as Specialty Coffee Retailer, Fancy Food, Gourmet Retailer, Coffee and Beverage [Canada], Euro Coffee [Italy] and Coffeenet [Greece].

Bruce was the keynote speaker at the first Greek Coffee Industry Forum in 2001, and has provided keynote speeches and led seminars at all of North America’s major coffee trade shows, including numerous talks at the SCAA trade events – The National Coffee Association and has given more talks at Coffeefest than any other speaker in it’s history.  Bruce has keynoted coffee events in Italy as well as other coffee events and trade shows in Europe including being  a featured speaker at CoffeeBiz 2006 in Thessaloniki, Greece and served as a WBC Judge at the Greek Barista Championships. In 2008 Bruce was ANACAFE’s featured speaker in Guatamala City and a featured speaker a month later in Moscow Russia. In 2009, Bruce was a featured speaker at Encafe in Bahia, Brazil, and Let’s Talk Coffee in Managua, Nicaragua.

Bruce is the author of Effective + Essential Marketing for the Specialty Coffee Retailer, which was named Best New Educational Product at the 2005 SCAA Conference and Exhibition, and co-author of Bean Business Basics, Bellissimo’s 740-page start-up/operational manual, now in it’s third edition.

Bruce is also an award-winning film producer/director of coffee-industry films. In 2001, the Bruce Milletto/Kenneth David’s production, The Passionate Harvest, won Best of Show at Coffee Fest Las Vegas and Best New Product at the 2001 Specialty Coffee Association of America Conference and Exhibition. The film won a Bronze Award at the 22nd Annual Telly Awards, a Silver Award at the 2001 Summit Awards, the Award of Distinction at the 2001 Videographer Awards and a Platinum Award at WorldFest Houston 2001. In 2005, Bruce won a Gold Award from WorldFest Houston for Advanced Barista Training: Extreme Pours.