Boss Barista

I can't say enough good things about Anita Tam. She's the owner of Slow Pour Supply in Houston, Texas and has made social justice and advocacy for baristas part of her business model.  Anita is a musician by training and is keen on tools. What are the tools you need to be successful and how can tools help you get better at your craft? After making the switch from music to coffee, she noticed...

I studied Sociology in college. Sociology is basically just a fun way to say I studied people and why social structures exist. And the biggest thing I learned is that nothing is pre-ordained. Everything in the world is based on complex social structures, but none of them are necessarily good or bad—they’re good or bad based on the meaning we assign them.  This mode of thinking would sometimes...

Have you ever felt invisible?  Gyalene Torres, who goes by Gya, is a barista living in Carmel, Indiana, and in this episode, we talk about what it means to feel overlooked, and the challenges she's faced emigrating from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria to the United States. Self-reflection, rebuilding your life, and dealing with feeling lost or overlooked are all touched upon in this intimat...

A few weeks ago, I was honored to attend Re:co, a coffee convention that invites speakers from all over the world to talk about these big ideas in coffee. This year's conversation was focused on coffee prices and the crisis that we face as the price of coffee dips lower and lower. I talked to the head of the Coffee Price Crisis Response Initiative a few weeks ago. If you want more context on that,...

What do you do when you begin to feel powerless in your cafe? When ten folks are competing for one or two higher-paying positions in a business, how do you build trust and accountability? These were questions that Sarah Hewett-Ball wanted to answer.  In most cafes, baristas are powerless. Promotions can be slow to come, and decision-making is usually left to managers and owners, who maybe don...

What is it like being a working parent? I imagine most of you would say it’s not easy. Now, what’s it like being a working parent in the service industry, where many folks make minimum wage, and considerations for working parents, like paid parental leave or schedules to accommodate childcare, are often seen as a nuisance?  Hannah Craig is a barista in Louisville, Kentucky, and has a toddler...

How often do you say you’re busy? It’s pretty much an automatic response: “How are you?” “Oh, I’m good…busy!” But are you?  Melissa Stinson is the owner of Everybody’s Busy, a coffee pop up in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. Melissa features coffees from some of the best roasters in the world, but Everybody’s Busy is much more than that.  In a way, Everybody’s Busy is a reflecti...

This episode was made in collaboration with Good Beer Hunting . We originally aired this on their podcast on Saturday, May 18, 2019. This podcast was made in the style of a GBH podcast, so it might sound a little different than what you're used to!  There’s a big problem in coffee—we’re not paying enough for it. With every clickbait article talking about how much you can save by cutting out y...

In light of current events, we decided to rerelease two episodes we did about coffee folks and abortion—the second story will come out tomorrow. These stories only capture a narrow window of the experiences of folks who have gotten abortions, so I encourage you to donate to places like The Yellowhammer Fund and Planned Parenthood . Keep calling your representatives and elected officials, and quest...

In light of current events, we decided to rerelease two episodes we did about coffee folks and abortion—the second story will come out tomorrow. These stories only capture a narrow window of the experiences of folks who have gotten abortions, so I encourage you to donate to places like The Yellowhammer Fund and Planned Parenthood . Keep calling your representatives and elected officials, and quest...

I remember the first tax bill I got as a freelancer. I remember being so proud of myself for having this side hustle, and finally being able to save money, and then I got my tax bill—and there went all my savings. I told a friend of mine about it, and they laughed, and asked why I didn’t know that the IRS would claim almost a third of my income.  Freelancing is fucking hard. It sounds fun and...

CW: Mental health, eating disorders We run the gambit of emotions in this episode. T. Ben Fischer, founder of the Glitter Cat Barista Bootcamp , sits down with us in his friend's home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to talk hash browns, social media, and learning to be open about past trauma. On paper, T. Ben has had a super successful year — Glitter Cat, a program which provides training and financial a...

Coffee prices have hit astronomical lows, with farmers on average receiving less than a dollar per pound of coffee. In response, specialty roasters around the world have began publishing how much they pay for coffee. While many are paying higher than a dollar per pound, that number sort of doesn't mean anything if farmers aren't covering their basic costs—perhaps the $2.50 per pound your local roa...

A few weeks ago, I was staying in Paris with my friend, Mihaela Iordache, Head Roaster for Belleville Coffee. Originally from Romania, Mihaela came to Paris to pursue music, and is now one of the most distinguished, disciplined, and talented coffee pros in the game. After dinner and drinks one night, we decided to have a conversation about coffee, knowing ourselves, and the things you only talk ab...

Ildi Revi is the teacher you wish you had. She's the Director of Learning for Ally Coffee, and in this episode talks about how adults process information, what leaders need to do to recognize the skills of their teams, and highlights the specialness of baristas. Ildi has been in the coffee industry for over 20 years, and she generously shares her ups and downs with our audience. 

Along with 30 past and present employees of Ristretto Roasters, Camila Coddou signed a letter highlighting the problematic #meneither YouTube channel. The channel, co-hosted by Nancy Rommelman, wife of RR's owner, touted itself as a channel addressing 'toxic femininity' and poised itself to question the legitimacy of victims of sexual violence and harassment. In the letter, the co-signers describe...

When the 2015 United States Brewers Cup champion Sarah Andersen was announced as the winner, Tom Jones' "She's A Lady," started playing. It was a strange and confusing moment in the competition - because no weirdly gendered anthem played for any of the other competitors.  Sabine Parrish decided to study this phenomenon - why are women treated differently at coffee competitions. In her essay,...

"I realized I hadn't lived as myself for the last five years." Christina Snyder is a roaster for Deeper Roots Coffee in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in this interview, they talk about creating space for others, the constant code switching of customer service, and honoring one's boundaries and mental capacity. In this deeply personal episode, Christina answers some difficult questions about the self, taki...

Last year, eight women came forward with allegations against the San Francisco-based roaster Four Barrel and its owner, Jeremy Tooker. They filed suit against Tooker and the business, citing multiple instances of sexual abuse and harassment. SF Chronicle Reporter Justin Phillips diligently reported this story and the subsequent fall out, backlash, and unfortunate return to the status quo on the pa...

It can sometimes seem like our coffee heroes have always been successful—but nothing could be further from the truth. Alicia Adams is the Director of Coffee for Red Bay Coffee in Oakland, Calif., and she talks about her journey to this position. Alicia shares how she learned from others around her, how she stays focused, and shares her approach to tasting and evaluating coffee.  Alicia is als...

“I’m kinda a cowboy in my cooking,” shares Preeti Mistry, Chef, Entrepreneur & Author of The Juhu Beach Club Cookbook: Indian Spice, Oakland Soul. Preeti is also kind of a cowboy in the culinary world—she’ll share her thoughts and call bullshit on the antics of the fine dining world. In this episode, Preeti talks about speaking your mind, watching other folks get thanked for the food you made them...

Erna Knutsen had been a secretary for over thirty years before she was given a seat at the cupping table. Once she found her love and passion for small lots of coffee, what she called 'specialty coffees,' she upended people's notions of what women could do in the industry. She bought the company she worked at, and fired all the men—but there's more to her story than just getting rid of the 'unimpr...

Get ready for life lessons, intensive personality breakdowns, and yelling at your significant other in this interview with Erica Escalante, owner of The Arrow Coffeehouse in Portland. Learn what it's like to own a coffeeshop at 21, what it means to be an Ennegram 8, and how to reckon with your personal power and platform. Erica is one of the most dynamic and candid guests we have—we promise you'll...

Have you ever wondered what the judges are looking for during coffee competitions? Emily Orendorff placed third in the barista competition at the Denver CoffeeChamps Qualifying Event—and we break down her scores one by one. We talk about her successes, where she lost points, and talk about the tricks and techniques that score well and those that don't. This is a rare peek into how judges determine...

Carolina Ibarra Garay is the 2018 World Aeropress Champion! In this interview, Carolina tells us her coffee story—from growing up in Colombia to bouncing around different jobs to entering her first coffee competition this year. She also talks about the responsibility that her win brings, and hopes to pass on information to others and promote women and other underrepresented groups in the competiti...