At age 18, when Velton first moved to Seattle for college from his hometown of Myrtle Creek, Oregon, he found himself a part-time job at the espresso cart in front of the Tower Records at 5th and Mercer. Pretty much immediately a passion for “all things coffee” was born. Within weeks he would find himself cutting out every coffee-related article he could find, picking up extra shifts whenever possible, and practicing-to-make-perfect the arts of the barista. 

Unbeknownst to him at this time, college would eventually go by the wayside, but coffee would not. His next coffee job was at Seattle’s Best Coffee at the Westlake Center from ‘91-‘92. He then moved to Hawaii from ‘92-‘96 to pursue a coffee opportunity that came his way, this being Cafe Pronto in Waikiki. He worked at several other cafes during his time on Oahu, including Java Java, Coffee Gallery in Haleiwa, and co-owning an espresso cart on Waikiki beach called Beach Dog Espresso. In ‘96 he moved back to Washington and began working at Bauhaus Books and Coffee on Capitol Hill. Velton managed Bauhaus for several years until the owners opened the second Top Pot Cafe in 2002 in downtown Seattle. At that point they finally began roasting their own coffee for their various coffee shops and they made Velton the head roaster from day one. He roasted there for 5 years, honing and finetuning the arts of roasting and blending, and in 2007 left to start Velton’s Coffee in Everett. The rest, as they say, is history!