David Pohl
David Pohl is an American coffee consultant who works on the buying side of specialty coffee — sourcing, trade and quality — rather than behind a bar or a roaster. He is currently a Senior Consultant for International Trade & Quality at Boot Coffee, the San Rafael, California training and consulting firm run by Willem Boot (Boot Coffee — our team, accessed 2026-07-23; Coffee for Peace, accessed 2026-07-23).
The thing he is remembered for is a farm. Pohl is named as one of the four owners of Finca Sophia in Panama — the California-backed experiment in growing Geisha near 2,000 metres — alongside Helen Russell, Brooke McDonnell and Willem Boot. In ABC7’s words, the farm is “owned by Equator’s own Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell, as well as Willem Boot of Boot Coffees and Equator’s former director of coffee, David Pohl” (ABC7 News, accessed 2026-07-23). SCAP’s producer profile independently names him in the farm’s early development and management (SCAP Panama, accessed 2026-07-23).
That is a useful thing to understand about him: he is the person in the group whose job was choosing and paying for coffee. A director of coffee at a roaster is the one deciding which lots the company buys, at what price, and to what quality standard — so the Finca Sophia group had a grower, two owner-operators of a roasting business, and a buyer.
Story
His own summary of the work is broad rather than specialised: “an independent consultant serving the coffee industry from origin to end consumer, with a focus on quality and sustainability” (Coffee for Peace, accessed 2026-07-23). Boot Coffee’s team page describes his expertise the same way — sustainability and coffee quality across sourcing, roasting and sales (Boot Coffee — our team, accessed 2026-07-23).
Before the consulting, he was director of coffee at Equator Coffees, the Marin County roaster co-founded by Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell (ABC7 News, accessed 2026-07-23). No source consulted gives the years he held that job.
The San Rafael circle
Pohl sits inside a small, tightly overlapping group of Bay Area people who bought a Panamanian mountain instead of just bidding on its coffee. Boot Coffee and Equator Coffees are both headquartered in San Rafael, California, a city of under 60,000 people; Finca Sophia is co-owned by people from both. Boot Coffee’s own team page makes the overlap plainer still — it lists Kelly Hartman, the Finca Sophia farm manager, as its “Coffee Farming Specialist” (Boot Coffee — our team, accessed 2026-07-23). So the farm’s buyer, its consultant-grower and its farm manager are all on one consultancy’s roster.
The reason this matters beyond gossip is Premiumisation: the very top of the coffee market is small enough that the same dozen or so people appear as buyer, trainer, judge and owner in different combinations, which is exactly why a wiki like this keeps flagging who published which claim.
To verify — his own consulting company
The engine research report states that Pohl is President of “Pohl Coffee Consulting” and has held that role since July 2017, based in Los Angeles, California. The only source given is his own LinkedIn profile (linkedin.com/in/davidnatepohl), which returned HTTP 999 (bot-blocked) when fetched on 2026-07-23 and so could not be read at source. No company website was found either:
pohlcoffee.comreturned an empty page andpohlcoffeeconsulting.comdoes not resolve (both checked 2026-07-23). Treat the company name, the title, the 2017 start date and the Los Angeles location as self-reported and unconfirmed. Note also that Boot Coffee and Equator, the two firms he is documented with, are both in San Rafael in the Bay Area, not Los Angeles.
To verify — who actually owns Finca Sophia
This is an open conflict already recorded on the Finca Sophia, Brooke McDonnell and Kelly Hartmann notes, and Pohl sits in the middle of it:
- SCAP names Willem Boot and Helen Russell as founders, with Pohl as partner (SCAP Panama, accessed 2026-07-23).
- ABC7 names four owners, Pohl among them (ABC7 News, accessed 2026-07-23).
- Equator says the farm is co-owned by Russell and McDonnell and does not mention Pohl.
- The farm’s own homepage once named Boot, Pohl and Kelly Hartmann as its stewards; re-checked on 2026-07-23, the live page names no individuals at all.
These are compatible but not identical accounts. No source publishes shareholdings, a legal entity name, or a purchase document. Pohl’s involvement in the farm is well attested; his precise legal stake is not.
To verify — no results, scores or prices under his name
- No competition placing for David Pohl personally was found in Best of Panama, SCA, CQI or ACE records. Finca Sophia’s wins in 2017 and 2020 belong to the farm, not to him.
- No cupping score is attached to him or to a lot credited to him.
- No auction price, buyer or transaction involving him was found. The circulating price claims for Finca Sophia lots contradict each other and are documented on that note — do not attach any of them to him.
- No Q Grader licence, certification, birth date or education is published in any source consulted here.
Related
- Finca Sophia · Willem Boot · Helen Russell · Brooke McDonnell · Kelly Hartmann
- Best of Panama · SCAP · Best of Panama results archive
- Geisha · Cupping · Coffee scoring · Q Grader
- Premiumisation · Coffee Quality Institute · Specialty Coffee Association
Official links
No personal or company website was found. pohlcoffee.com served no content and pohlcoffeeconsulting.com did not resolve when checked on 2026-07-23, so the closest first-party sources are his employer’s team page and his own profiles above.
Sources
- Boot Coffee — our team — accessed 2026-07-23
- SCAP Panama — Finca Sophia producer profile — accessed 2026-07-23
- Coffee for Peace — David Pohl member profile — accessed 2026-07-23
- ABC7 News — Bay Area LIFE: History of Equator Coffees & Teas — accessed 2026-07-23
- Boot Coffee — official site — accessed 2026-07-23
- David Pohl — LinkedIn — returned HTTP 999, could not be read, accessed 2026-07-23