From Brew to Burns: How an Accomplished Coffee Professional Became a Spill Burn Expert Witness

This month, our Founder and President Dan Cox traces his journey into the coffee industry, and tells the story of how a coffee expert became a sought after resource in coffee burn lawsuits.

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I often get asked how I found my niche as a spill burn expert witness. Who would set out for such a role?

The truth is, I didn’t set out to find it. After decades steeped in the coffee and tea industries, it found me.

It turns out that being an expert at what goes into the cup impressed on me the importance of hot beverage safety, and left me uniquely qualified to advise business counsel when a hot beverage spill burn happens.

From racquetball to specialty coffee

I bounced into the coffee industry on the racquetball court.

My competitive doubles partner had started Green Mountain Coffee Roasters with his wife in the small town of Waitsfield, VT, and I became their first full-time employee. It was 1981, and the fledgling industry was just about to go mainstream. Having been raised on canned coffee, tasting the real deal was an “aha” moment that planted a seed of fascination in the journey of coffee from source farm to consumer cup.

After a decade at Green Mountain, and shortly after receiving the Distinguished Service Award from the Specialty Coffee Association of America and being knighted their “Man of the Year,” I was ready to launch my own company in an underserved niche.

I founded Coffee Enterprises, the sister company to Dan Cox & Associates, in 1992. What began as a business consulting and brokering soluble coffee and coffee extract bloomed to an in-demand service testing coffee and tea to guide companies to craft the perfect cup. As owner and president, I lead a team of highly skilled specialty coffee professionals providing unbiased analysis and consulting throughout the industry. We specialize in the evaluation and improvement of coffee and tea programs throughout the global supply chain from producers and traders, to roasters and private-label brands, including foodservice, retail and single-cup products.

Quite literally, it’s our job to stay on top of research and best practices and to know exactly what makes a good cup of coffee.

The importance of hot beverage safety

What does it take to make a great cup of coffee or tea? High-quality ingredients. Attention to details. And very hot water.

While some practices for brewing hot beverages have been refined over time, they continue to require using water at a temperature that can scald and burn if spilled. Like cars, which present inherent danger but are continually made safer, hot coffee and tea present risks which can’t be eliminated, but can be reduced with safeguards and careful practices.

My interests expanded to include educating and advocating for best practices for hot beverage safety that would reduce spills and burns while preserving a business’s ability to brew and serve high-quality beverages.

Parlaying a niche expertise

By 2000, with two decades in the coffee industry, including a decade at the helm of Coffee Enterprises, I had a deep base of experience and knowledge in most aspects of coffee and tea when Ted Lingle came calling. The Executive Director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America and of the Coffee Quality Institute, somewhat of an industry titan, Ted sought me out for support handling the large volume of lawsuits he was asked to consult on. By this point the landmark Liebeck vs. McDonald’s Restaurants case from 1994 was widely known and hot beverage spill lawsuits were on the rise.

Ted saw the potential in me—a good listener and clear public speaker with a thick skin who doesn’t shy away from a challenge—to parlay my credentials, personality, and expertise in the field of coffee temperatures and handling operations into becoming a consultant and expert witness for businesses facing coffee spill litigation.

I relished the opportunity to expand the ways my knowledge could serve, and grew into this role as I had with many others: through reading about recent spill burn cases, boning up on technical information and research, and learning the nuances of serving as a legal expert. What began as a stint helping out a respected colleague became a niche that fit like a glove.

Dan Cox & Associates today

After many years of legal consulting through Coffee Enterprises, I founded sister company Dan Cox & Associates in 2019 to establish a company singularly focused on hot beverage safety and consulting for spill and burn litigation.

I still get to live and breathe coffee—Coffee Enterprises is going strong helping our clients brew excellent coffee and tea. Dan Cox & Associates enables me to promote hot beverage safety through two definitive books on best practices, a well-designed warning label, and a comprehensive safety poster that communicates the dangers of spills and burns and promotes safe serving practices to protect customers and employees.

In the 20-plus years since Ted invited me to take on the role of consultant and expert witness, I’ve had the pleasure and privilege to consult in over 65 lawsuits—including four that went to trial, all of which were won by the defense, which I represented.

I love my work, but I wish that this type of litigation didn’t exist. Burns are serious and debilitating. In an ideal world, hot beverage spills and burns would disappear, with no injuries that lead to lawsuits. But as long as we drink coffee and tea, that’s not realistic. At Dan Cox & Associates, I’m able to carry out a mission of reducing spills and injuries while committing to factual discovery that protects businesses when spills do happen.