My name is Michael Trung. For more than 25 years, my professional world was logistics—roads, ports, warehouses, and the hidden systems connecting people and products around the world. But coffee had been part of my life long before I entered the industry. I loved drinking it, and I believed I understood it. Then COVID arrived. The world slowed down, businesses paused, and life became uncertain. During that difficult period, I finally had time to look more deeply into something I had loved for many years. In 2020, I officially opened iO Coffee and began studying coffee seriously. That was when many things I thought I knew began to fall apart. Brewing led me to roasting. Roasting led me to green coffee. And green coffee led me to farming, processing, sensory science, sustainability, trade, and logistics. Every answer opened another question. The deeper I travelled into coffee, the larger its world became. And I discovered the philosophy that now guides my journey: The more I know, the more I know I don’t know. This is not the story of someone who knows everything. It is the journey of someone who keeps learning—one farmer, one seed, one cup, and one question at a time. I’m Michael Trung. Welcome to my coffee journey.
