BOSS BARISTA

A managing partner at Mighty Peace Coffee, Jim Ngokwey is creating pathways for Congolese coffee growers and posing difficult questions about the future of the industry. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bossbarista.substack.com

The coffee pro-turned-coach talks about the gentleness of service work. A full transcript of this episode can be found at bossbarista.substack.com . Listen to past episodes of Camila on the Boss Barista Podcast in 2019 and 2020 .  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bossbarista.substack.com

In my last newsletter piece , I talked about how customers and community aren’t the same thing. My inspiration for that article was a tweet from the team at Cxffeeblack , regarding their IRL café space, The Anti-Gentrification Cxffee Club . With that fresh in my mind, I decided to pull this episode from July 2020 so you could learn more about Cxffeeblack and its founders, Renata Henderson and Bart...

Wine and coffee are a lot alike—up to a point. In coffee, we frequently refer to wine to explain concepts like terroir (or the idea that crops like coffee taste different depending on where they’re grown). But for years, I’ve wondered if this comparison—what I’ve lovingly called “the wine analogy”—has hindered our understanding of coffee. Maybe it’s just that we’ve focused on the wrong similaritie...

In this episode from November of 2019, we ask, "What if the minimum wage actually reflected the minimum you need to live?" This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bossbarista.substack.com

A few weeks ago, I asked my friends on Twitter to suggest folks I could interview about coffee and milk. I wanted to learn more about why we put milk in our coffee instead of, let’s say, orange juice, or whipped cream, or any other ingredient used to temper its bitterness. I’m still looking for that particular answer—but along the way, I was introduced to Dr. Lori Flores , an associate professor o...

Hey folks—I’m back in your feed this week with a bonus podcast episode. Recently, I got to spend time with Ravani Grace, one of the baristas behind the Intelligentsia Coffee Workers Union in Chicago. Ravani and the baristas at five Chicago-based Intelligentsia stores announced their intent to unionize on May 27, 2022 . The baristas will be voting now—this week—so please show your support. Share th...

You might have noticed a new logo and design accents on this page—I’m really pleased with my new logo marks, and I hope you like them, too. (But don’t worry—the old logo isn’t going anywhere.) I’d love to know what you think of Boss Barista’s updated look and feel! If you want an episode that comes full circle, you’re gonna love this conversation. My guest today is Niki Tolch, a coffee professiona...

We learn so much about the world from the internet that it’s easy to forget that this sort of communication is still new—and take for granted everything we have at our fingertips. Fifteen years ago, if you wanted to learn more about a new coffee shop, you couldn’t just go on its Instagram page and see what sort of content it was posting. But now, a scroll through someone’s feed can tell you about...

My guest today is Gefen Skolnick, founder of Couplet Coffee . Gefen has been an avid coffee fan for years, and she worked in the tech world before starting her brand. In her previous role, she was tasked with assessing users’ experiences and insights, calling people to learn what they liked and didn’t like about the products they interacted with. Gefen used this consumer-focused lens to start Coup...

This week, I wanted to release some bonus content just for Boss Barista paid subscribers—thank you so much for your support! Following last week’s podcast interview with Julien Langevin , the 2022 United States Cup Tasters Champion, we recorded a few extra, off-the-cuff questions. In this short audio extra, Julien breaks down how he tastes and assesses coffee, how his diet has changed to prepare f...

Hi, hello! If you’re here for the first time, welcome! Your contributions make the show possible, so if you can, please consider supporting the show financially by subscribing below and picking one of the paid subscription options: Today, I’m sharing an interview with Julien Langevin, a production worker for Coffee by Design and the 2022 United States Cup Tasters Champion . If you’re a longtime li...

In April 2020, I had Adam JacksonBey on the show . He came on to talk about tipping, and about his new organization called GoFundBean —a play on the crowdfunding website GoFundMe. At the time, early in the pandemic, GoFundBean served as a central hub that pooled virtual tip jars that coffee shop and restaurant workers started to offset some of their losses. It was a simple and straightforward idea...

Hi! Welcome to Boss Barista, a newsletter and podcast about coffee, service work, and empowerment. If you’re new here, consider subscribing! You’ve probably seen a movie or a television show that depicts baristas in a … not so flattering light. Think familiar tropes, maybe a dude with a man bun and facial hair ready to make you feel bad or confused about your coffee order. I can even hear this cha...

I’ve long been interested in partnerships. The way two people interact is a pleasure to observe, and I think we learn the most about ourselves when there’s a person close by to reflect on and share our experiences with. Bianka Alloyn and Sabreen Naimah are the co-founders of Cute Coffee , a small and decidedly joyful roasting company based in Northern California. The story of how Bianka and Sabree...

I met Jaymie Lao three years ago in Los Angeles. She was employee #1 at Go Get Em Tiger , which is an offshoot of a well-known coffee shop in LA called G&B . G&B was started by Charles Babinski and Kyle Glanville—I mention them here since they’ll show up a lot in this conversation. Charles and Kyle are two former baristas who worked for Intelligentsia Coffee, one of the country’s leading and most...

In celebration of the Colectivo Coffee Union finally being recognized (and becoming the United States’ largest coffee union ), this week I’m re-airing a previous podcast episode that focuses on unionization. In this episode, I interview members of the Tartine Union , a group of baristas, bakers, and front-of-house staff members who work for Tartine Bakery in the Bay Area, and who announced their i...

I remember when I met Carlos de la Torre in 2019 at the World Barista Championship in Boston. The World Barista Championship, sometimes shortened to WBC, is the ultimate skills test for baristas—to be on the world stage means you’ve already won your country’s national competition. Carlos was at the WBC competing on behalf of Mexico, but that wasn’t his first time on an international stage. Carlos,...

My guest today is Sonam Parikh, one of the co-founders of Mina’s World, a coffee shop in West Philadelphia. Sonam and their partner, Kate, opened Mina’s World 18 days before COVID-19 forced the majority of hospitality businesses to close or completely revamp how they serve food and drinks to customers. I first reached out to Sonam because I noticed two distinctive things about Mina’s World’s Insta...

My guest today is Eric Grimm , an old friend and someone who’s involved in coffee in a variety of capacities. Eric both works with Ghost Town Oats and The Chocolate Barista ; does consulting work for mobile coffee events; and is also the director of positive outcomes at Glitter Cat Barista , an organization started by their wife, Veronica Grimm. Glitter Cat hopes to reimagine the coffee industry b...

My guest today is Courtney Heald , lead roaster for Modern Times Beer and Coffee in San Diego, California. This interview starts slowly, building up to a roaring thunder as we go. Courtney shares her experiences of staying with a company while it’s going through a public moment of reckoning, and answering for the harm it’s caused—there were multiple allegations of misconduct and sexual harassment...

My guest today is Tio Fallen, an award-winning roaster and co-founder of Three Keys Coffee in Houston, Texas. This isn’t my first time talking with Tio: He was the October featured roaster for another project I work on, Matchbook , where we pursue unique coffee experiences with roasters from across the nation. Our prior conversation had this really jovial vibe, so I asked him if he would be a gues...

Happy 2022! I’m thrilled to welcome the year with a new lineup of podcast episodes. It’s my hope that the guests we have slated will challenge your ideas and perceptions of coffee, service work, and what it means to build equity—and I can’t wait to share our conversations with you. If you haven’t subscribed, please do below: Kicking things off, today’s guest is David Lalonde, co-founder of Rabbit...

Hey friends. For the rest of the year, we’re bringing back old episodes of Boss Barista. Part of the reason we’re doing this is because the community of listeners who are part of Boss Barista is so different than it was just a few years ago. But also, many of these episodes carry lessons and ideas that I still carry with me and are worth revisiting. If you haven’t subscribed to the newsletter yet,...

Hey friends. For the rest of the year, we’re bringing back old episodes of Boss Barista. Part of the reason we’re doing this is because the community of listeners who are part of Boss Barista is so different than it was just a few years ago. But also, many of these episodes carry lessons and ideas that I still carry with me and are worth revisiting. If you haven’t subscribed to the newsletter yet,...