I write to you today from deep in the churn. Three more quarts before noon, then it’s all thoughts and prayers from there.

Tonight is the big Brewmania competition by Minor Figures. The premise is simple: make a drink, any drink as long as it uses their oat milk, wow the judges and the general public to win enough votes to receive the coveted belt, a Fellow Aiden brewer, and $500 cold hard cash. I’ve partnered with one of my bootcamp alumni, Gabi, who currently works at Mañana. We’re slated to serve 100 4oz samples of “The Hell Bitch”, a toasted millet oat milk affogato with spiced carrot-date syrup, rested Mercado Sin Nombre espresso, and buckwheat crunchies as the sprinkle.

Oat milk ice cream was a big swing. Everyone told me so, but I've been so deep in the homemade ice cream rabbit hole that it felt like the only way to go. Actually, that's not true. Gabi and I tried two other concepts first — a tomato vine matcha, made with vines from Gabi's garden, which was a gorgeous shade of forest green but tasted like spinach juice — and an homage to the peregrine falcon, declared no longer endangered on Aug. 20, 2000, 26 years to the day before Brewmania. We used turmeric paste for the feet, black sesame milk for the breast, an Amarena cherry for the eye, marigold petals for the beak, and would pour a turbo shot of Kenyan coffee down a custom ice luge shaped like the falcon's dive path, since it's the fastest bird after all. I was obsessed with the falcon drink but sadly the flavors didn’t mesh and also did you know the price of a custom ice luge STARTS at $500?!

So we settled on ice cream, because who doesn’t love ice cream? Gabi and I have very similar tastes, one being that if we’re going to go all in on a sweet drink, it better involve ice cream. And by the grace of god, I found an oat milk ice cream recipe online that with a few tweaks, had great flavor and a fine texture for the application (affogato).

Ice cream is a little like bit like coffee. To achieve the perfect flavor and texture, you gotta be the master of your scientific variables. Little changes can really mess it up — if the ratio of sugar/fat is off, if there’s too many free water molecules, if you churn too long or not long enough. It’s very difficult to get the same exact result twice.

In both cases – brewing and churning – we are trying to control water, an element that does not want to be controlled at all. I’m like water, too, because I just can’t seem to do the scientific thing over and over. I know, in theory, what’s supposed to happen. But there’s a little voice in my head that says "what if we tried something new today?” and decides not to use the timer, or add a little cream cheese to the base, or change the grind size for no reason. Why do I do this??? I have seen the science play out time and time again and I fundamentally understand that the key to great coffee, espresso, and ice cream is consistency. I guess my curiosity is stronger than my discipline.

After 11 years making coffee, I am more consistent than I used to be. Ice cream is my new frontier, and I’m unashamed to say that I’ll be serving about six different recipes tonight at Brewmania. I saved my best batch for the judges, but the rest of y’all are getting my first, second, third, and fourth drafts. Just like coffee, imperfect homemade ice cream is still edible, even enjoyable. It’s a process and a practice and I’m on my way to mastery. Just give me, like, 10 more years.

The competition is this evening at Proud Mary on S Lamar. We start serving at 6 p.m. and though the organizers told us to prep for 100 guests, the RSVPs are edging on 300. We are definitely going to run out of ice cream, so if you wanna try it, you better get there early!

Oh, and before I forget, let me tell you about the name! Some of you may have already clocked this but “The Hell Bitch” is a Lonesome Dove reference. I’m currently reading this classic piece of Texas literature and loving it, which surprised me, because I’ve never been one to reach for a Western.

The book was written in 1985 but lately I feel like it’s been everywhere, and for once my timing on a cultural moment is right on the money (usually I resist the wave and by the time I get on it’s already over). Not this time! I’m surfing!!! And apparently so is my ex, who I found out is also reading Lonesome Dove. Part of me wants to text them every time something wild happens in the book, like some forbidden little book club… But better not poke at that nest of snakes, if you know what I mean.

ANYWAY! Speaking of spicy, that spiced carrot-date syrup was inspired in part by a brainstorm sesh I had with Mia at Fleet while covering a shift a few weeks ago. I mentioned wanting to do a horse-girl drink, since Gabi is into horses. I love the horse-girl archetype: emotionally intense, one with her creature, but still a girls’-girl through and through. Mia suggested some kind of carrot or apple syrup to really bring the concept home and I thought that was just so brilliant. So thank you Mia, if you’re reading this! Your name is on the Lonesome Dove sign!

I hope to see you this evening at Proud Mary. Let me know you read this newsletter and I’ll scoop you some of the good stuff. Wish us luck! ♞.°˖⋆ ℧ 𓃗 .°˖⋆♞

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Maybe you’ve heard the news that Austin was named the Top U.S. City for Coffee by Food & Wine Magazine. I’ve gone back and forth a lot about whether or not to write about this, because the truth is, I couldn’t believe it when I heard it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my little city and all the people who make coffee in it. But ahead of New York, L.A., and Chicago? It just didn’t sit right with me. Actually, my gut reaction was “who paid for this?”

The featured image is a spread of drinks from Leona Botanical Cafe & Bar, a sprawling cafe/cocktail/food park with gorgeous landscaping and a super-automatic espresso machine. Baristas place a finger on a touch screen to pull a shot of Proud Mary Coffee, a roaster the article somewhat incorrectly cited as “from Portland” (they’re originally from Melbourne, have a cafe on South Lamar which weirdly wasn’t named, and currently roast on Burnet).

No doubt Leona is a beautiful space with good food and decent coffee, but it is not a place you go for the best coffee in town. It’s also brand spanking new, so it felt just kinda strange that out of all the wonderful shops in town, this was the poster child for Austin coffee.

The full Food & Wine write up – a mere 105 words – nods to the scene’s variety, cultural influences, and creativity, all of which are true things. But then it goes on to haphazardly name a handful of shops you could visit on your way to Franklin Barbecue. At once it feels like a round of applause and a backhanded compliment. Don’t forget who you are, Austin. You’re barbecue and live music to the rest of us.

At first, this article felt like just another entry in the canon of food writers getting it wrong about coffee. Even Anthony Bourdain had an ambivalence to the beverage. One could spend days waxing poetic about the perfect way to braise a lamb, but when it comes to coffee, a seasoned chef would have it black, hot, and cheap. Or worse — a 20-oz. cold brew from the taco truck, dripping with sweat, its ice rapidly melting in the hottest corner of the kitchen.

Never mind the fact that coffee contains far more flavor compounds than wine and is one of the fastest growing industries within the food and beverage category. I can only chalk this up to a lack of education. After all, what we call the “specialty coffee industry” is still relatively new. The term was first coined in the 1970s and the way we do things now – with precision scales and latte art and luxury pour overs – is barely 20 years old.

In a way, it only seems right that a city so obsessed with novelty and creativity would take the cake as the king of the coffee scene. But it begs the question: how are we evaluating these coffee shops? And furthermore, who should be the voice of authority when it comes to criticism? Because on any given day my Instagram feed is infiltrated with influencers praising cold foam in plastic cups, shepherding their massive audiences into places that I, a person who has worked in the industry for over a decade, wouldn’t dare step foot in.

It reminds me of the time my boyfriend and I visited the Tex Mex competition at the Texas State Fair. Within a roped-off section of a huge, fluorescent-lit barn, several boomers tucked clipboards under their armpits as they scooped spicy 8-layer dips into their mouths via Frito. Amused and eager to learn more, my boyfriend and I asked a woman at a podium how the dishes were being evaluated.

“Tex Mex,” she replied, smiling.

“Yeah, but, like, what about it?” I asked.

She cocked her head to the side, never losing her Texas-sized smile. “I’m not sure what you mean, sweetie.”

Anyone who is publicly claiming something is better than something else - whether it’s specialty coffee or indie music or national parks - has their own set of metrics about what matters.

Now I’m stuck where I always get stuck when I think about coffee and what makes it good. Is it the farm where it grew? High up in the mountains of Kenya or Peru, appearing through the mist of a cool morning as a gaggle of pickers strap buckets to their chests and begin their work for the day? Is it how much those pickers get paid, how they’re treated, how well they do their jobs?

Or maybe it’s how evenly the coffee dried, and for how long and in what conditions, and how easily a producer can translate this information, plus their entire life story, into something that might pique the fancy of a micro-roaster in Brooklyn or Copenhagen.

It could be the scientific approach of that micro-roaster, tracking a bell curve on a laptop screen, or it could be the artistic flair of someone more experienced, covered in tattoos, dropping their 30,000th batch from the mouth of an ancient Probat into the cooling tray.

Does the coffee taste good because it came from a test tube in a freezer, or the same mustard-colored can in your grandma’s cabinet? Was it the mineral composition of the water in the kettle, or the shape of the kettle itself? Don’t even get me started on the grinder.

Here, finally, lies the tip of the iceberg that most people see: the cafe itself. Was it cute? Clean? Organized? Did it have enough natural light, enough plants? Were you greeted as soon as you walked in the door? Were the baristas friendly, precise, efficient? Is it because your latte was the perfect temperature, or because the latte art was so beautiful you didn’t even want to drink it? Was it the balance of sweetness, acidity, and bitterness in your espresso? The coating mouthfeel, the aftertaste that lingered into lunch? Maybe it was actually the miso caramel sauce, or the specific brand of oat milk they use, or the weight of the ceramic vessel in which it was served.

Or maybe it was just vibes.

If Food & Wine evaluated cities solely on the quality of the coffee grown within its limits, there would be but three US cities to mention: San Juan, Santa Barbara, and Kailua-Kona. If Food & Wine evaluated cities on the quality of locally roasted coffee, then I think maybe, juuust maybe, Austin would grace the top 10, but I would hope to see Desnudo, Superthing, and Sightseer on that list.

We must recognize, too, that on their list of top 10 coffee cities in the world, there is not a single U.S. city. It’s hard to make a living as a barista in America and our coffee culture suffers for it (and that is not the fault of the baristas, let me just say, but the lack of social systems to support careers in craftsmanship in general).

I think what the article is actually getting at, and what most influencers also see, is that is there’s no shortage of creative coffee concepts in Austin. I agree, and I’m glad we’re getting attention for our scene’s diversity! But if diversity and cultural influence is what we’re highlighting, then why is Mercado Sin Nombre missing from that list? What about Lau Lau? Talisman? Comunidad, Dhaba Cafe, Dam? Obviously, there’s no way Food & Wine could ever do justice to a ‘vibrant community’ in just 105 words, and maybe that alone is a good enough reason to land us at the top.

Still, I can’t help but imagine the New Yorkers and Angelenos raising their eyebrows in disapproval.

“If we’re strictly discussing the quality of green coffee,” offers the New Yorker in my mind, “or even the talent of the roaster, then Austin doesn’t even come close.”

“How many U.S. Coffee Champions hail from Austin again?” The Angeleno chimes in.
”Right. Zero. That’s what I thought.”

Part of me agrees. There are cities with larger talent pools, older roasting programs, more ambitious green buyers and more technically-skilled baristas. There are cafes in L.A. and New York, cafes that were also mentioned in the article, that are serving drinks that would blow any Austin coffee shop out of the water. But that can’t be the only stuff that matters. Right?

“Listen y’all,” I say, slamming my fists down on the proverbial table. “What we have here is a real community.”

“You’re not even from Texas,” snaps the Angeleno.

“Yeah, but that’s Austin! It’s a transient city with all these different personalities, but everyone is actually present, and thoughtful, and not, like, totally full of themselves.”

The Angeleno slumps into their chair, which I take as a green light.

“A lot of times it’s, like, a bad breakup, or a personal renaissance, or like, some crazy life thing that brings people to Austin and you don’t think you’re gonna stay very long and then you get a job in a coffee shop and it’s like, everything finally makes sense! I found my people! And they’re all artists and musicians and they work at this coffee shop, too, and they believe in some kind of future where we can all work here and make good coffee and still pay our bills and enjoy our lives and ride our bikes to Barton Springs on a Tuesday. Do you know what I mean?”

From my soapbox, I notice the skeptical New Yorker shifting nervously in their seat.

“Don’t you wish you had a life?!” I blurt out, then immediately regret it. “I’m sorry. I just mean, like, OK. Do you want to open your own coffee shop?”

“If I had a million dollars…” mutters the New Yorker.

“Well only in Austin, if you ask people in the coffee industry for help, they will actually help you. You can roast out of Rising Tide, you can take roasting classes with Sara from Sightseer, you can go to a coffee tasting at Proud Mary and taste a freaking $30 cup of coffee for free while Nolan answers your questions like you’re the only person in the room.

“It might be naive, it might even be temporary, but there’s a feeling here that there’s a place at the table for all of us, and everybody has something important to share.

“Do you have any idea how rare that is?! Our country needs this. The world NEEDS THIS!”

By this point I’m yelling and sort of crying?! I’m lost in myself again, running around in circles about why what I do is important, and where I do it is correct. I matter. This matters, I whisper to the walls of my rabbit hole, forgetting completely how I got here in the first place. Is this all a dream? If I could go back and do it all again, would I still end up behind this espresso machine? Like I said, when I stop to write a newsletter, I write myself right into the ground again…

Austin has a thriving, growing coffee scene. Is it the best in the country? I think that’s a really, really hard question to answer. But if Austin deserves recognition for anything, let it be the openness, curiosity, and generosity of its community, the thing that truly keeps pulling people into the orbit of this city and convincing them to stay.

What do you think? Did Food & Wine get it right? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. And next time you’re in town, take a coffee class with me! I’d love to continue the convo IRL.

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I hope this newsletter finds you in good spirits! It’s April Fool’s day and a full moon and hopefully, if everything goes well, four astronauts will circle that beautiful moon for the first time in over 50 years. Pretty wild day, if you ask me!!!

In my tiny corner of the universe, things are relatively chill. I started my day with a cup of Sightseer’s Space Cowboy (apt), brewed on an Origami at a 1:16 ratio. I took a walk around my neighborhood, no phone, then drove my kei truck on 183 (brave or dumb) to go visit a potential client. I spent my lunch break at the gym and now I’m sitting at home writing this newsletter. In a few hours I’ll run (or skip?) three miles with my run club and then I’ll end the evening at Hole in the Wall, where my partner is playing a show. And that’s a day in the life of Barista Friend!

I had the absolute privilege of hosting Austin Coffee Trivia night on Monday at Strangelove. It’s been a lifelong dream to host trivia night and I’m very grateful to have crossed this one off the bucket list with 10 teams!

Congratulations to The Fellowship (Corey, Leah, Randi, Randy, Mike, and Shaun) who unsurprisingly took home first prize. It was such a joy to write these very niche, very clever questions. I think I found a new calling…

The only bummer was that The Fellowship swept so hard, we didn’t get to do the tiebreaker round. So now YOU, dear reader, get to try, just for funsies.

Guess the correct number for each of the following prompts, then add ‘em all together. The closest team to the winning number wins (but in this case, you just win the glory). Comment your answer below… and no cheating!

Next weekend I’m heading to San Diego for the World of Coffee expo. I’m an emcee for the World Latte Art Championship and I’ll be playing an acoustic set of music at the GH Grinding + Brewing Solutions booth (#2941) on Saturday afternoon. Other than that, I look forward to attending lectures and trying out new equipment and taking lots of notes. Expect a FULL REPORT in the coming weeks!

Loads of fun coffee classes on the calendar for April! Join me for one, if you’re in Austin! Lately I’ve had a lot of return students, which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Thank you for supporting my coffee project!

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Upcoming Classes

• Tuesdays in April, 5 p.m. — Beginner Barista Bootcamp! — now $295!

• Saturday, April 4, 9 a.m. — Home Espresso 101

• Saturday, April 4, 11:30 a.m. — Latte Art 101 (sold out)

• Friday, April 10 - Sunday, April 12 — World of Coffee San Diego

• Friday, April 17, 9 a.m. — Sensory Development Training

• Friday, April 17, 2 p.m. — Latte Art 101 — just added!

• Saturday, April 18, 1 p.m. — Other Vessels performs at the Dallas Coffee Festival!

• Saturday, April 25, 8:30 a.m. — Espresso 201

• Saturday, April 25, 11:30 a.m. — Latte Art 101 (sold out)

• Saturday, May 2, 11 a.m. — Austin Coffee Tasting

• Saturday, May 2, 2 p.m. — Coffee Brewing Science

When it came to working on a team, Meg wouldn’t be my first-string choice. More about vibes than efficiency, a closing shift with Meg meant hustling through the checklist while she hyper-fixated on one simple task like Windexing the bathroom mirrors.

Despite the imbalance of effort, you couldn’t help but love her. Meg was a freakin’ genius in the right setting, but in the cafe, her ADHD was totally taking over. And what a wonderful thing, really, to take interest in every little detail of life. Brutal for the coworker, brilliant for the spirit.

A lot of coffee people (diagnosed or not) deal with some form of attention-deficit. It’s almost a cliche at this point — the scatterbrained business owner, the messy barista, the distracted production assistant — probably made worse by a diet of espresso shots and day-old pastries. And to be honest, I’m no different. Focus is a hot commodity that I, too, struggle to capture.

One thing that requires a great deal of focus is consistency. It also happens to be the cornerstone of any quality-driven coffee program, and it might feel impossible for the coffee person who describes themselves as “a little all over the place, but a lot of fun”.

So I guess what I’m asking is this: Is consistency achievable in today’s coffee shop, with today’s workforce? And if so, how can we create environments in which our creative community can thrive?

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What I’m about to tell you, dear creative, brilliant, chaotic reader, are things I’m sure you already intellectually understand. But I’d like to gently ask you to put these -isms into practice today.

Think of an area where you’d like to be consistent. This could be the quality of your coffee program, the texture of your milk, or showing up to write or run or make content or do whatever else it is you love to do but for whatever reason, avoid like the plague. Pick just one thing. Got it? Okay, let’s practice:

1. Start with the end game

Meg truly wants to be better at closing. She knows it sucks for her coworkers and she’s tired of being considered deadweight. So Meg makes the goal of “be better at closing”.

I’m sorry, Meg, but this goal sucks. It’s vague. It’s got no metrics. Let’s fix it up.

The scheduled closing shift at Meg’s cafe gives her one hour to close. It should take no more than one hour to close the shop. So a good goal might be “finish my closing shift in an hour”.

This is specific, measurable, and achievable. It’s also not too overwhelming, which is really important for those of us who consider ourselves overly ambitious. We need to start with the littlest, most achievable thing first, even if it feels basic or insultingly easy, I don’t care. We need to prove to ourselves that we can do this so we can move forward.

Now your turn: What is your one goal, exactly as you hear it in your head? Good! Now, what is the simplest, most achievable version of that goal? Keep whittling it down until you have something that you can accomplish in the next ~30 days.

2. Work with yourself, not against yourself

Distraction, doubt, overwhelm, and overthinking are no strangers to the creative individual. But what if, beneath each one of these setbacks, there’s a rare and beautiful strength to be wielded?

Meg is easily sidetracked, inefficient, and lacks a sense of urgency. Ooor, Meg is detail-oriented, thorough, and takes pride in her work. Both of these true - they’re just slightly different framings of the same girl. Do you see what I’m saying? The first way makes Meg out to be an enemy to be defeated. The second way paints a picture of a real person with potential.

If you want consistency, you need to work with your strengths, not demonize your weaknesses. It’s really easy to think about it in terms of Meg. You can give this stranger the benefit of the doubt. She’s quality-driven and meticulous, but she could work on prioritization and efficiency. No big deal, life is just practice.

And then, FOR WHATEVER REASON, when it comes to yourself, this exercise feels downright impossible. Am I right? I know! I’m the literal same!!! I hate to say this, but we’re being unnecessarily stubborn.

So let’s practice together. What’s holding you back from achieving this goal? Let your inner critic have a voice for a second so we can hear them. Is it because you’re easily bored? Overly competitive? Lazy? Overthinking? Embarrassed? Whatever it is, it’s allowed. Write it down. Next — and this is tricky and might feel cringe but please — think of the beautiful thing underneath it. Treat yourself like a stranger if it’s helpful. This is gonna be our toolbox from which we build the life of our dreams… No pressure…

3. Create flexible systems

Once we have our goal and we understand our strengths, it’s time to support ourselves (or our employees) with systems and strategies that can be molded. For left-brain, chaotic thinkers, malleability is huge.

Maybe Meg needs a time-bound closing checklist she can work through, where for the first couple of shifts, time is more important than perfection. The part of her that’s detail-oriented will appreciate filling out the exact time at which she completes each task and the part of her that is quality-driven will feel fulfilled when the entire document is complete.

This time-bound closing checklist might seem like overkill to another barista who has no trouble at all prioritizing task and that’s OK! That’s what it means to work with a creative team to achieve consistent results. We don’t all work the same way, so don’t treat yourself like a robot :)

Unleash your creativity. What flexible system could support your goal? Use that beautiful brain of yours to think up one or two things. Keep it simple. Again, treating yourself like a stranger for a moment really can help. What are they trying to accomplish? What kind of person are they? What holds them back? What unique tools could support them in their journey?

4. Accountability

It’s a rare individual who can accomplish great things completely solo. Most of us need a manager, a support group, or an audience to motivate us to keep on keeping on.

In the coffee world, we have the baked-in benefit of a team of people working toward a common goal like create a more equitable supply chain, provide top-tier hospitality, or create memorable coffee experience. A calibrated community lowers the stakes for the individual. It’s all of us in pursuit of xyz, and when you win, we all win.

For Meg, having a manager who is genuinely invested in her success and checking in on her checklists is gonna be huge. Perhaps even sharing her goal with her coworkers will help, so they know that she’s doing her part to achieve the larger goal, which is to have a consistent and efficient closing procedure.

Tell your friends. Invite at least one person into the fold of your journey toward consistency. That could be your coworkers, your partner, a run club, a songwriting group, or even just posting on Instagram. Make your goal known! Allow yourself to be seen! You’re not annoying, you’re trying! It’s cool and inspiring to try and care and grow!!! Who knows, your journey might just be the seed someone else needs.

5. Patience + self-compassion

We got a microdose of this in step #2 but let’s go deeper. Here’s the thing: you’re gonna frick this up. I’m just gonna tell you right now, you’re going to set a goal and use your strengths and create your systems and join a club and then you’re going to have at least one day where it just… doesn’t happen.

It might sound crazy, but when this happens, please keep going. Be curious and don’t let it get you down, because that’s life and you’re not alone in it. We’re helping each other, remember :)

Equipped with a specific goal and her time-bound checklist, Meg failed to close the shop in an hour. She used the checklist up until it was time to clean the bathrooms, when she got sidetracked scrolling on her phone. Behind the closed door, she could totally zone out and hardly realized that 20 minutes had gone by. When her manager asked what happened the next day, Meg decided to be honest and share this story.

“I totally get that,” said the manager. “Sometimes I totally lose track of time on my phone, too. The apps are literally made to keep you hooked! I wonder… What could you do differently next time?”

This is a great response because it A) validates the behavior as normal and B) leads with curiosity. This is the same way you ought to be treating yourself!!! I know it’s hard.

Be nice. Think of a recent time when you failed. Recount the story with as much specificity as you can. What circumstances led to the failure? If you were not yourself but a character in someone else’s story, how would you respond compassionately? Validate the experience, then ask, what could you do differently next time? Do you have everything you need to take a new action? Could there be some adjustment to the systems, the accountability, the original goal?

Nice work, everybody! To return to my original question, yes, of course, consistency achievable in today’s coffee shop, with today’s workforce, but it is gonna require some concerted effort.

With clear goals, self-knowledge, flexible systems, accountability, patience and compassion, anything is possible (cue the rainbows). But for real. I think the biggest mistake I’ve made in my own journey toward consistency is expecting perfection if I lay the groundwork perfectly. It’s step #5 that really gets me. I want so badly to be able to control my life, to be the master of my own reality, and when things don’t go the way I want them to, I get upset and self-destruct.

This is the dance between control and flow, which is truly the dance of life on earth. We live in a society that values rigidity and automation, but let us not forget the way the wind and the water shape our world. It’s flow.

It’s like a cortado, okay? Dialing in espresso feels very yang to me; it’s controlling the variables, being consistent with puck prep, calculating the data to reach optimal extraction. And then there’s the yin of steaming milk. Yes, there’s a science to it and yes, consistency matters. But pouring and laying that rosetta on top, that’s all flow. The result is a beautiful balance of yin and yang in equal parts, something that is greater than its individual components. That’s us working toward our highest selves.

What do you think?

For the shortest month of the year, February sure packed a punch. For starters, I left my role as a barista trainer with Barrett’s. Honestly, it was a long time coming. It all boiled down to a culture misfit, but dang if I didn’t try to make it work.

Breaking up is hard to do and I straight up don’t wanna do it. I’m the type to try every possible solution before I throw in the towel, but I kept hearing this voice inside my head telling me “this isn’t right for you”. I couldn’t rationalize it but I couldn’t ignore it, so I quit.

Some days I feel like I failed. I came up with a whole list of problems that I didn’t really have the time or the energy to solve. But honestly — and I’m still learning this so bear with me as I struggle to even type it out — you don’t have to have a good reason to leave a job. It’s okay to just say “this isn’t right for me” and go do something else. As my astrobiology professor used to say, the universe is VAST! Don’t ever forget it.

In other news, I helped Sightseer Coffee design a brand spankin’ new espresso blend! At the beginning of this year, Kim and Sara asked me point-blank what I thought of their espresso blend, Hellacious. I respect and love those girls so I told them the truth, which is that even at optimal extraction, it was too sharp and acidic for most of my students. I suggested something smoother, more syrupy and chocolate-forward. And to my absolute surprise and delight, they listened to me!

Instead of roasting, cupping, and speculating, we dialed in the blend components based on the espresso recipe we knew most people would be using: 18 grams in, 36 grams out, 30 seconds. If it didn’t taste good at those specs, it wasn’t good enough to sell as an espresso blend to the masses.

Roaster Kim freaking knocked it out of the park, y’all. These shots taste like straight up chocolate ganache and dried cherries. I can’t wait until it’s live on the website so you can dial it in at home! My first custom blend wow :’)

This project was a nice segue into my new role as a part-time wholesale manager with Sightseer Coffee. Woo! I’ll be helping create content, train and maintain accounts, and drop off samples of our new espresso blend around Austin. I think Sara and Kim are doing something truly unprecedented by sourcing coffee exclusively from women producers. It’s hard to do and it’s sustainable and it’s also Women’s History Month… so GO WOMEN!!! Can you think of a more worthy pursuit in 2026 than to support women everywhere?!

This is in addition to my work with Barista Friend, don’t worry! I’ll still be teaching public and private coffee classes featuring a wide variety of roasters. I also have some fun plans to revive the podcast…

Anyway, I won the latte art throwdown at Once Over last week, which is pretty crazy because I almost didn’t compete! I generally don’t compete anymore because A) I help organize the events and I think that looks bad and B) I have nothing left to prove. But there were three spots to fill and I wasn’t judging or MCing and I thought, what the heck. Might as well.

Lately I’ve been worried that we, as in the Austin Coffee Collective, are doing a disservice to the community by keeping these competitions too casual. For as long as I’ve been part of ACC, the local competition format has been first round hearts, second round tulips, third round rosettas. I like to think this keeps the competition more accessible to newer baristas who can’t pour the more advanced designs. If you can pour a heart, you have a decent chance of getting to round two, which is really cool and exciting.

The problem here is that a lot of veteran baristas don’t really pour hearts anymore. In the big leagues (CoffeeFest, WLAC), you can free pour whatever you want in all rounds. There’s a scoresheet and panels of qualified, meticulously calibrated judges, which we absolutely do not have here in Austin. At our competitions, the judges are usually previous winners (qualified) and regular customers (sort of qualified?) whom we bribe with free beer. Many of them didn’t even know “latte art competition” was a thing until they got invited to judge one. There’s no scoresheet. Just vibes. And sometimes vibes don’t really vibe with the scoresheet, if you catch my drift.

This is all to say, I’ve noticed some tension at the last few throwdowns between the people who show up to have fun and the people who show up to win. The latter have spent hours practicing, gone through gallons of HEB whole milk, memorized the WLAC scoresheet, which is all freaking awesome because it’s cool to care about something deeply and work hard at it. But for the former, this is no more than a coffee people party.

I think there’s merit to both approaches. A great barista isn’t just someone who can pour good latte art, right? It’s about executing the simple things well and consistently with a great attitude. So maybe pouring a heart and laughing at yourself when it looks more like a garlic because you’ve been pouring nothing but rosettas during service is actually the point.

Because the throwdown was Twin Peaks-themed, we free-poured into hollowed-out logs for the final round. This kind of tomfoolery is par for the course for the local competitions so it’s really important, if you wanna do well, to not take yourself too seriously. Lucky for me, I teach latte art, so I know the science behind the pour. Not to brag, but I could pour into a shoe. I’m also not nervous to compete, thanks to years of exposure therapy, which gives me a leg up on the competitors who experience the “barista shakes”.

It was me versus Cass from Lamppost, a great competitor and a frequent finalist. Devestatingly, when Cass set her log down before the judges, it spilled because the bottom of the log wasn’t actually flat. Bummer, and totally not fair. The judges all agreed they saw the designs before they spilled and chose their answer fairly, based on the criteria of symmetry, contrast, and harmony, but it still didn’t sit right with me. I tell this story because so often, since these competitions are casual, it’s not always 100% fair.

You could argue life isn’t fair. But I think you could also argue that as a community, we have an opportunity to design something that is more fair and accessible by creating systems and structure… Uggggh! I don’t know the right answer here. But I know one thing for sure is I’m donating my prize money. It’s the right thing to do. And I’m officially retired from latte art competitions, they wreck my nervous system!!!

Last little things here in the Barista Friend universe… I’m expecting a new single-dose grinder any day now, so my espresso classes are about to get a LOT more nerdy! I’m deep in content-mode for Barista Friend. I am absolutely terrified to become a content creator (is there anything more cringe in the year 2026?!), but I swear to God that little voice inside is telling me it’s what’s right for me. Go figure.

What else? I’m on day 21 of a 28-day morning walk challenge. If I hit my goal, I’m gonna get a puppy (!!!), which will usher in definite joy and deeper meaning. I’m finishing up a five-song EP with my band that’s turning out to be the beginnings of a full-length album, which is exciting but also about to get very expensive. And I’m having the time of my life driving my kei truck around town! I can officially drive stick and I’m better for it!!!

Lots of fun coffee classes this month at Rising Tide. If you’ve been thinking about stepping up your home espresso game, I am the coffee spiritual guide you’ve been looking for… Browse upcoming classes or book a private lesson here.

P.S. - What do y’all think about the latte art competitions? Should we keep them casual or hold people to a higher standard? All thoughts welcome.

But before I get into it, I feel the need to acknowledge the atrocities that are happening today in our country. I know I’m preaching to the choir to say so, but there are many organizations and individuals working tirelessly to protect and defend, and to them, I send all the power and love. It has been truly incredible to witness masses of people in the streets, fighting for justice for immigrant families. It has been even more incredible to join them.

I hope this silly story brings you a little joy in a heavy time.

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Like so many Austinities, I’ve recently become obsessed with the idea of getting a kei truck. These little guys have been popping up all over the place since becoming fully street legal in Texas last year, and for a city overrun by Cybertrucks, Rivians, and self-driving vehicles, I think they offer a healthy counterpoint. Plus they’re just so dang cute.

Anyway, there’s this place on Airport and 51st called Sunshine Imports that sells them. They filled a previously abandoned lot with a fleet of adorable mini vehicles that I drive by several times a week, squealing with girlish joy as I do.

Imagine me, Barista Friend, rolling up to your house for a private espresso lesson in THAT thing! Are you kidding me?! Not to mention the phone number on the vinyl banner out front has a Maryland area code, and I’m from Maryland, so clearly this was a sign from a higher power that I was meant to thrive behind the right-hand drive.

But like every dream I’ve ever had, the idea was quickly cannibalized by the part of me that calls herself “practical”. First of all, I don’t know how to drive stick, and almost all of these vehicles have a manual transmission. Secondly, I famously hate car stuff. Nothing in this world stresses me out more, and I could only imagine the amount of car stuff that comes with a car that’s as old as I am. The list goes on: they’re unsafe, unreliable, and most prohibitively, they cost anywhere from $5-10k, which is pretty good for a vehicle, but still pretty steep for a freelance coffee educator.

Well, the weeks went on and I started to reason with myself. This would be a great marketing tactic, I decided. I could write it off on my taxes! And I was sure I could learn how to drive stick. How hard could it be? So I texted the 443 number and made an appointment to meet Jack on the lot one afternoon in October.

No surprise, he’s a fascinating guy. We chatted for an hour about entrepreneurship, music, and of course, kei trucks, before he invited me on a test drive. He giggled as I hopped into the passenger seat of a white Honda Acty. At 5’1”, I was the perfect-sized human for a mini vehicle.

The pickup started up right away and we took off down 51st. He swiftly shifted from second to third to fourth, rocking around the roundabout and onto the 35 frontage road, rattling as we approached 60 mph. I was terrified and I was alive.

When we got back to the lot, we made soft plans to stay in touch about fresh imports that fit my wishlist (A/C, 4WD, round headlights) and I promised myself I’d take a long hard look at my finances. But time spun out like a green bean in a too-hot drum and before I knew it it was New Years’ Eve and there was no chance I’d be writing off a truck on my 2025 taxes.

I genuinely thought that was that. I was fully prepared to give up the idea forever. There were much worthier causes, investments, projects in this terrible, awful world. Why should I spend my time and resources on something so frivolous and self-serving?

But oh, how the tiny truck haunted me… I didn’t stop driving past the lot. I didn’t stop fantasizing. I didn’t stop checking Facebook Marketplace either, which is how one day I ended up in Canyon Lake handing a guy with a front spike hairdo an envelope stuffed with $100 bills.

I am forever in debt to my friend Jacob, who accompanied me on this mission and drove my 1996 Suzuki Carry all the way back to Austin. Jacob really came in clutch again when he reminded me a few days later that if the truck doesn’t start, which happens about one out of every four times, all you need to do is lift the panel in the bed, reveal the engine, and jostle the starter cable.

My kei truck and I had many adventures in that first week together. Sara taught me how to drive stick in the parking lot of Rising Tide, and I lurched in laps around the building until I felt brave enough to drive him home. I prayed to St. Christopher as I peeled out onto Stassney, then again at every stoplight, and again when a souped-up Jeep Wrangler risked everything to weave around me in 5pm traffic. But it was worth it. The mini truck seemed to have a tranquilizing effect on anyone who witnessed us bopping down the road. It was impossible not to crack a smile.

Fortunately, I was kind of a natural when it came to manual driving. I actually found it to be a lot like steaming milk. There’s a certain science about it, and plenty of YouTube videos, but the only way to get better is to do it and kinda suck at it for a while you get the hang of it. Also, every car (steam wand) is different and you just gotta feel it.

After about two days of driving around, my fear was subsiding. I wish I could say the same for my boyfriend, who was terrified every time I left the house in my new car. I mean, it’s justified. You are the crumple zone in a mini truck. God forbid anything should happen, it’s as good as being on a bicycle.

Despite his trepidation, my boyfriend accompanied me on a small errand in town. I noticed the tank was getting low, so we rerouted to the closest gas station. As soon as we pulled into the lot, the truck died.

“What do we do?” I asked him.

“We’re gonna have to push it,” he said. I steered while he pushed and we made it to a pump. “Either I’ve been working out or that car weighs ten pounds,” he laughed. We filled the whole tank for $12.

The next morning, I took the Barista Friend Mobile on his first official mission as a work vehicle. Mercado Sin Nombre was my first of three stops that day; I was there for a QC cupping, just sitting in to taste their current lineup. I don’t want to totally derail this story because I know it’s getting long, but I just want to say that I found it incredibly difficult to pay attention to the flavors on the cupping table. All I could think about was my tiny truck. I felt so embarrassed. Funny how the mind works.

After the cupping, I went off down the road for my next appointment at Barrett’s. Every full stop between Pleasant Valley and St. John’s would be an opportunity to practice: shift into neutral, then to first, let off the clutch just enough to feel the bite point, give a little gas, get into second. We were dancing all the way up until the stop sign at Webberville and Oak Springs, where I failed to notice the slightest incline and let off the clutch too quick.

The lights on the dash turned red and the engine sputtered, then stalled. No problem, I thought, remaining calm. Just turn the car back on again… But when I turned the key, nothing happened. I tried again. No luck. A line of cars started to form in the rear view. I pulled the handbrake, threw on the hazards, and jumped out to the bed of the truck, waving the cars to go by before lifting the panel to stare at the engine.

All I have to do is jostle the starter cable. But which one is it? I tugged at all the wires I could see. Yellow, red, green, blue. I smashed plastic connectors together, thumped on some metal, waved the cars around, then climbed back into the cabin.

Come on, don’t do this to me, I begged and turned the key. Nothing. I hopped out once more when, what to my wandering eyes should appear, but a driverless Waymo waiting patiently, leaving about 10 feet of space between us. Its cameras whirred in the still air, left blinker pulsing, not a single soul inside.

Let me be clear — I am not necessarily anti-Waymo. I totally see the merit of a self-driving vehicle that stops for pedestrians, abides by the speed limit, and gives cyclists their due space. The issue with the Waymo, I think, is the isolation it encourages: put on whatever music you want. Smell however you smell. Have zero conversations with zero human beings. It’s designed for disengagement.

I stared into one of its cameras, in vain, and mouthed the words “go around”. But it did not. Manned vehicles joined the queue. It was a real mess. I was too far away from Mercado to call for help. Not a single pedestrian in sight. It was me, this Waymo, and this never-ending line of cars that probably thought I was a total idiot.

So, as any idiot might do, I threw the car into neutral, released the handbrake, and leapt out just as the truck was beginning to roll backwards, catching the weight of him with two outstretched hands, pushing with every muscle in my body as he barreled into me, pinning me against the Waymo. I may have screamed, but the steel never touched the aluminum. The Waymo gave one sharp honk as I heaved the truck up the incline and onto solid ground.

I looked back at the driverless vehicle, wondering if some voice on a loudspeaker might call the cops or something. Maybe I’d get a text from the government. Certainly I was at fault here, but how much would it cost? Has this ever happened before? Was there any evidence of an accident whatsoever? I waited for the Waymo’s next move and the Waymo simply… turned left.

Once I was a few yards ahead of the stop sign, a man got out of his car and offered to help. He pushed as I steered into the bike lane. I thanked him quickly, barely even got a look at his face because I was so rattled by the whole thing, turned the key, and miraculously, hilariously, he turned over first try.

A lot of people have been asking me what I’m going to do with my kei truck. The truth is I’m not 100% sure. Right now, my only plan is to figure out why it’s not starting up reliably and fix that. I plan to transfer the title to my name and save up some money for a decent paint job. Then I plan to drive it to your house for our private espresso lesson ;-)

Stay tuned for more kei truck tales from Barista Friend! In the meantime, here’s where to find me IRL this month:

• Every Wednesday at noon - free cupping at Barrett’s Coffee

• Home Espresso 101 - Saturday, February 7 at 9 a.m. - sold out!

• Latte Art 101 - Saturday, February 7 at 11:30 a.m. - sold out!

• 4-Week Barista Bootcamp - Sundays at 3 p.m. - sign up

• ACC’s Latte Art Throwdown - Thursday, February 19 at Once Over Coffee

• Sensory Development Workshop - Friday, February 20 at 9 a.m. - sign up

• Latte Art 101 - Friday, February 20 at 1 p.m. - sign up

• Austin Coffee Tasting - Sunday, February 22 at 10 a.m. - sign up

• Barista Friend in San Antonio - Feb 23/24 - stay tuned for more info!!

As always, my calendar is up to date for private lessons, industry training, and corporate events. Thanks for the support! May you be safe, inspired, and caffeinated.

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All in all, it was a really good year for the project I call Barista Friend.

In 2025, I taught 165 coffee classes to an estimated 482 different students in Texas. I spent a lot of my time working with the team at Barrett’s Coffee training baristas and wholesale partners. Beyond that, I planned a matcha competition for Spirit Tea in Charlotte and traveled to El Paso for a consulting project. I emceed nine latte art competitions, served as head judge for the AeroPress Championships, and taught a class at SCA Expo in Houston. I held a year-long Coffee Sustainability Fellowship with The Chain Collaborative, completed three levels of the SCA Coffee Sustainability Program, pulled a few barista shifts to keep my skills sharp, and made my first Barista Friend zine!

I can’t say thank you enough for signing up for my classes, recommending me to your friends and colleagues, and supporting local coffee businesses in Austin! It brings me so much joy to share my passion for coffee and see others fall in love with it, too.

For the person I sometimes refer to as Barista Friend (myself, Miranda), 2025 was a bit of a doozy. I feel like odd-numbered years are always like this for me. It’s a transition time, full of hard choices and difficult lessons. Let’s start with the good: I turned 30, ran my third full marathon, saw my little sister pick out her wedding dress, went on tour, played the biggest show I’ve ever played with my band. Very sick!!!

Despite all this cool stuff, I struggled a lot with my mental health. I don’t want to turn this newsletter into a therapy dump, but I do think it’s worth mentioning that behind the scenes, I was freaking out a lot of the time. I tempered it with exercise, meditation, therapy, eating healthy, but anxiety and depression often got the best of me this year.

I think it’s fair to say we live in a world that lends itself to poor mental health, yeah? But I also think it’s super important, at least for me, not to identify with those darker feelings. Yes, I feel anxious, but I’m not a permanently anxious person. Yes, I feel overwhelmed, but I’m not a permanently overwhelmed person, even if I might feel that way in the moment. I don’t know. We’re all just trying our best!!!

Anyway, here’s more fun stuff: my top fives in five realms for 2025. I hope you are all finding time to rest, reset, and reflect on the year you’ve had, barista friends. Here’s to another year of coffee, music, movement, and friendship <3

Top Five Moments

1. Valentine’s Day Show at Radio/EAST - I played many shows this year, but this little one stands out. We played as a four-piece: me and my boyfriend, Caro and her boyfriend. It was a Fleetwood-Mac-kinda double-date and it was the most fun I’d had on stage in a long time.

2. My 30th Birthday Party - Despite getting bit by a dog then experiencing a severe allergic reaction to an antibiotic just a week prior, my big 30th birthday at Amity’s was… well, a moment to remember, haha.

3. The Silver Chasen - Planned and hosted a matcha competition for a company I adore (Spirit Tea) in a city I’d never been to (Charlotte, NC)! Lots of lessons, lots of joy, sooo much matcha. SO grateful for this opportunity!

4. Floating the River - Okay, I’m maybe the last person in Austin to have done this, but this year my boyfriend and I floated the San Marcos River and it was abso-LUTELY worth the hype.

5. The Baltimore Marathon - The hardest race of my life, but I finished with my brother and my dad in my hometown. I will remember this forever!!!

Top Five Lessons Learned

1. Stay hydrated - Dehydration put me out several times this year. Drink water! Drink sooooo much water!!!

2. Choose based on process - This year was full of hard decisions. But instead of making them, I decided to say yes to everything. Lesson learned! From here on out, I hope to choose projects based on the process instead of the (real or imagined) outcome. How will it feel to work on this? Who will I become if I spend my time this way?

3. Practice self compassion daily - I need to be nice to me

4. Listen to your body - I’m always trying to think my way out of things when the answer lives in my body. Slow down, breathe, and listen to your heart! You already have everything you need!!

5. When in doubt, no big deal, just ask more questions - Doubt was a constant shadow this year. I was so afraid of making the “wrong” choice. I felt supremely stuck. In retrospect, that was an invitation to ask myself deeper questions.

Top Five Albums

1. Nested in Tangles by Hannah Frances - Gorgeous voice, haunting melodies, weird and lovely arrangements

2. Better Dreaming by Tune-Yards - Optimistic protest music you can dance to

3. Getting Killed by Geese - I’m like everyone else, I loved this album lol

4. Double Infinity by Big Thief - The best band wrote an album of modern spirituals and I’m totally about it

5. Caveman Wakes Up by Friendship - I love Dan Wriggins! He’s a brilliant lyricist with a great sense of humor.

Top Five Books/Films (sorry I’m combining, I needed it to be 5x5)

1. Marty Supreme - Literally waited to send this newsletter so I could see this and Y’ALL. Yeah. One of the best sports movies of all time. Table tennis is a sport!!!

2. The American Southwest - Saw this stunning documentary about the Colorado River at AFS and I was so inspired I started writing a children’s book about beavers

3. Dwelling by Emily Hunt Kivel - Wild and wonderful debut novel by a local writer who is just as lovely as you’d imagine

4. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler - Almost too-real climate science fiction written in 1992, set in 2024 California

5. Hamnet - I’m a sucker! I cried my eyes out and I loved it. Lovely story, amazing acting from VERY hot couple Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal

Top Five Cups of Coffee

1. Habtamu Fikadu Washed Ethiopia by Figure 8 - My friend Sam brewed this coffee for me on a V60 at a coffee party I had at my house a few weeks ago. Sam is not a coffee professional, but this coffee + his heart and soul knocked my socks off.

2. Santa Isabel Natural El Salvador by Barrett’s - This coffee has been a friend to me since I started working with Barrett’s earlier this year. Consistently rich and chocolately, with the right amount of fruity sweetness. Recommended as espresso, pulled by one of many talented and humble Barrett’s baristas.

3. Melao Washed Pink Bourbon Colombia by Black Fox Coffee - Specifically served to me on stage in three blind cups during the final round of the Aeropress Championships in Austin. I count this as one cup.

4. Washed Colombia Espresso at 4LW in Chicago - A perfectly dialed espresso at 2 p.m. I stood at a high top and drank it slow. Hell yeah.

5. Moss’ Winning Oat Milk Cortado at the Epoch TNT - I didn’t know oat milk cortado could be this good. Perfectly steamed milk by the local TNT champion made me rethink my own skills… Beautiful.

6. Honorable mention (not coffee): Drinking tea with the Spirit Tea crew around the kitchen island at our Airbnb in Charlotte, NC. This was another level of caffeination and sensory pleasure. I was flying.

I picked up a shift today at the Sightseer cafe. It was a rocky start to an otherwise super chill Monday. I was 10 minutes late (couldn’t figure out what to wear, it’s winter now in Austin and I’m confused), I accidentally set off the alarm, and I forgot my lunch. Nobody’s perfect. Not even Barista Friend.

But Sightseer is awesome. They’re an all-female roasting company with a tiny cafe on South First. If you’re not paying attention, you might miss it; look for the neon green eyeball and park behind Sugar Mama’s. Walk inside to find a cleverly disguised coffee cart, decked with GS3 and a Mahlkonig E65s GbW, filled to the brim with an espresso blend called “Hellacious”. The shelves are stocked with beans grown by female producers, roasted to perfection by my friends Sara and Kimberly. Order the smoked maple latte. Order it for here.

I love working barista shifts, but I usually don’t have the time. Most of my days are spent training, consulting, and completing miscellaneous admin tasks. But when the opportunity comes around to fill-in at one of my favorite shops in town (Barrett’s, Peaches, Sightseer), I’m all over it, as long as I’m available. It keeps me sharp. It keeps me humble. You’re never too good to take out the trash, clean the drains, sticker the cups, etc, etc.

Anyway, the holidays are upon us and I have a few fun things to share:

1. I made some hand-painted gift cards! And I only have ONE LEFT! Treat the coffee lover in your life to the gift of a private coffee class (and a one-of-a-kind piece of art!). $200 while supplies last (use code SHOPSMALL25 on the website or DM @baristafriend on Instagram).

2. I’m offering 33% off industry training for Small Business Saturday (and, what the hell, the rest of this week). Barista training is the gift that keeps on giving. Don’t wait until the time is right. Book it now! You’ll be glad you did. Code is SMALLBIZRULES.

3. By popular demand, I’ve added one more Latte Art 101 class before the end of the year. Join me at Rising Tide on Friday, December 19 at 1 p.m. and pour a perfect heart by Christmas morning! It will be so cute.

4. In case you missed it, I host a FREE coffee tasting every Wednesday at noon at Barrett’s Coffee on N Lamar. Come try their latest roasts and talk shop with me. Super casual, no registration required.

5. Finally, I’m filling in at Peaches Coffee on Hamilton Pool Rd on December 22 and 23! Come by and say hello. It’s worth the drive.

Alright y’all. Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday! I don’t know about you, but donating to a good cause gives me so much inspiration and positive energy. It’s an honor to be part of something greater than yourself, don’t ya think?

Here are a few causes that matter to me that could use your support:

• The Chain Collaborative — Co-creating opportunities for community-led development in coffee growing countries. I’ve worked closely with TCC for the last year and helped put together their annual holiday auction. Go bid on some great coffee gifts!

• Good Work Austin — Providing support, education, and resources to all businesses and their employees through nurturing diverse and welcoming workplace. Purchase a holiday coffee box ($55) to support! Put together by a few great coffee friends of mine.

• HAAM — Providing healthcare and resources to Austin’s music community. I am SO grateful to receive financial assistance from HAAM. Seriously don’t know what I would do without this incredible organization.

• KUT/KUTX — Austin’s local NPR station is something I often take for granted. Not today! Become a sustaining member of the Austin music experience and support ad-free, human-curated radio.

• Austin Coffee Collective — A group of dedicated baristas, roasters, trainers, etc working to create educational and networking opportunities for Central Texas coffee people. Become a member!

• RAICES — Offering legal and social services to immigrant communities in Central Texas. Their work is more important than ever. Donate here.

Finally, a big shoutout to all the folks who trusted me with barista training in November: Barrett’s Coffee, Double Trouble, Neon Belly, Lau Lau, Royal Blue Grocery, Odd Roots, and Glia’s Coffee in El Paso!

Happy holidays, everyone! May you be safe, healthy, and caffeinated!

- Miranda (aka Barista Friend)

I finally have a moment to breathe, so I figured I’d give y’all a little update.

First, coffee: I woke up on Monday morning and weighed 30 grams of Arbegona Natural, roasted by Superthing. I’ve loved this coffee before and I love it again—like a small plate of overripe strawberries and a single foil-wrapped milk chocolate. It’s almost too sweet for 7 a.m.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of trying this coffee again at Klerje Coffee on E 6th, roasted by Archetype out of Omaha. On Hario Switch, it was floral and delicate and not quite as sweet. Come to find out, it was actually the washed version of this smallholder lot. Fun!!!!!

A few days ago, when I was riding my bike to a barista training, I saw a guy on the street yelling and shaking his head at his blue and white thermos. As I got closer, I heard him exclaim, “DAMN, this coffee is good!” He gave a little laugh as I whizzed by, then called out after me, “Have a good day, ma’am… and **** THE HATERS!”

I think he’s onto something.

Earlier this month, I ran the Baltimore Marathon with my dad and my little brother. Yes, the whole thing! We all finished the race, but it was freaking hard. It was my dad’s first, my brother’s second, and my third marathon. I ended up at the finish line after 4 hours and 48 minutes of running, first of my kin with a rickety knee, tear-stained cheeks, and my throat slicked with salt water and Gu gel.

I am reaching an age (30) where I’m feeling, for the first time, that life is not always going to be this good. I feel like I need to really milk it for all its worth — run a marathon with my dad while he’s still healthy, fly to Florida on a Tuesday to run 20 miles with my brother and fly home 24 hours later, spend a whole day writing a song just because I can, just because I have a quiet, safe, home, and enough money to pay my rent, and I’m healthy, and it might not always be that way.

This weekend was the Austin Coffee Festival! As always, it was a real treat to see so many coffee friends in one place. Memorable tastes include a kumquat co-ferment from Superthing, a natural Yirgacheffe on ‘spro from Barrett’s, a little shot of golden milk from Kimbala, and a fruity little Indonesian coffee from Creature. Congrats to DJ for taking home the ‘W’ at the latte art throwdown (is anyone surprised?). After two days on the mic as emcee, I am once again inspired to start a career in stand up comedy. Maybe.

In other news, I’m SO PUMPED to share I have completed my first-ever Barista Friend Zine! I’m handing these out IRL — partly because I think that’s punk AF to stay offline and partly because I’m a little embarrassed at the quality of my drawings. Nevertheless, if you want one, lemme know. I can mail it to ya.

Ok, let’s see, we talked about coffee, the marathon, the festival, the zine… What else is there? I’m offering some higher-level espresso and latte art classes next month. These are designed for the curious home barista, but I also think industry people would benefit. Public classes are 50% off always for industry folks. Message me for the code!

OH! Last thing — I went on a truly terrible interview a few weeks ago, but I’m going to save those dirty details for the paid subscribers (love y’all).

Much love to Austin Canine Rehab for coming in for a private coffee tasting! Thank you to Siete, Lau Lau, Whichcraft, Barrett’s, Royal Blue Grocery, Tradecraft, Sightseer, Nick, Matt, Alicia, and Charan for your trust with barista training. Lucky to be doing what I do in a city that I love!

Upcoming classes

• NEW: Free weekly cuppings at Barrett’s, Wednesdays at noon!

• Espresso 201 - Sunday, November 16 at 9 a.m. - 2 spots left!

• Latte Art 201 - Sunday, November 16 at noon - 4 spots left!

• Espresso 101 - Saturday, December 13 at 9 a.m. - 2 spots left!

• Latte Art 101 - Saturday, December 13 at 11:30 a.m. - 1 spot left!

• 4-Week Barista Bootcamp - starts January 6 - 2 spots left!

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Happy Monday to those of you who did not labor yesterday. And happy weekend (I hope) to those of you who did! Me, well, I’m always somewhere between working and not working.

We had some friends over for dinner last night. Super cute. Very adult. My boyfriend made tofu and green beans in the wok, and as a sweet treat, I dressed one scoop of vanilla gelato and one scoop of raspberry sorbet with a drizzle of honey and a pinch of flaky sea salt (also… I just invested in one of those ice cream scoopers with the thingy that slices out the perfect scoop and WOW!!!).

Anyway, at the end of the night, we brought up the age-old discussion of “everything is either soup, salad, or sandwich”. (Hot dog? Sandwich. Don’t waste my time.) We came to the conclusion that everything on this earth eventually turns (returns?) to soup. Ashes to ashes, soup to soup.

I listened to a coffee podcast this morning that made me feel many different emotions – grief, despair, relief, hope. It was a newer episode of Chris Deferio’s Keys to the Shop with Kosta Kallivrousis about “Digital Natives” (aka Gen Z) and the future of specialty coffee shops.

In it, the two go deep into the differences between Millennial and Gen Z coffee drinking habits. Kosta describes ethics as the motivating aesthetic for Millennials: cut out the middleman, focus on craftsmanship, do the right thing. James Hoffman is the proxy. For Gen Z, on the other hand, their motivating aesthetic is visual. The primary purpose of a brand, to them, is to entertain. Enter Emma Chamberlain.

Take a trip down the infinite scroll of #coffeeshop and you’ll start to see this in action: colorful layered drinks with thick clouds of cold foam, rounded plastic cups held by manicured hands, brand-specific memes, and so, so many reels. This is something I’ve noticed first-hand IRL in Austin. It seems like a new coffee shop opens every single day, each with their own unique brand of eye-candy iced latte. And why shouldn’t they? Coffee is supposed to be FUN! These drinks bring in customers. They drive engagement online. They pay the bills.

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Luckily, I was born in 1995, which means I am neither Millennial nor Gen Z, and I have no firm allegiances to either side but contain both at all times. I contain multitudes.

The Millennial in me is grieving; she’s appalled, not only by the influx of sugar-milk but the hundreds of thousands of plastic cups that must be piling up in Austin’s recycling bins (are they recyclable? I don’t think they are!!!). More people should care about coffee, she laments. Our industry is going to hell in a handbasket. How are we supposed to create a more equitable supply chain if the customers don’t care? Doesn’t anyone have any taste buds left?? This co-ferment tastes like vomit, and why won’t anybody make me a pour over???

But the Gen Z in me? She’s just getting started. She’s up for the challenge, albeit a little overstimmy. She has 472 saved reels (for inspiration!) that she will never revisit. She views the signature drink as the land of infinite possibilities. Now she’s mumbling incoherently – spirulina whipped honey thermal shock ube pistachio milk. She adds these and more to her Notes app, which she then categorizes into her Notion and promptly forgets. The coffee shop is her playground, and the internet is her rocket ship, fully equipped with a strong sense of self, an AI assistant, and a bottle of Fronk's milk.

1 + 1 = soup.

I go to work in an existential haze – what’s the meaning of all this? Where do I, “Barista Friend”, fit in? I had a dream a few months ago that I was working a barista shift at Fleet Webberville, except it was floating on a barge in the ocean, and I watched as all these elder baristas jumped off, one after the other, saying “we’re doomed” and leaving me to deal with the morning rush, alone. Is that a sign? Or just anxiety?

Kosta and Chris discuss coffee raves, which is exactly what it sounds like: DJs and strobe lights, but it’s 8 a.m. on a Saturday, and instead of molly, we’re sucking strawberry matcha lattes through biodegradable straws.

“It grabs onto this value of friction,” says Kosta. “These two things feel incoherent, and they’re not supposed to go together, and we’re going to put them together and see what happens.”

The Millennial in me is in a five-alarm cringe. But Gen Z Miranda recognizes a prompt: name five things that have nothing to do with coffee shops! Honky tonk! Duck breeding! Moon landing! Bearded dragon! Elf on the shelf!!!

“The third place is dead,” says Kosta. Third place. It’s not work, it’s not home. It’s the coffee shop, but if you work there, it actually is work, and actually it’s more comfortable than home, because you live a block away from I-35 with three roommates who don’t know how to do dishes. “It’s transforming into an event space instead of this, like, daily routine.”

Back in my hometown, a few blocks from Main St., there stands a 24-hour smoke shop where my third place used to be. Come to think of it, every place I’ve ever loved has become a 24-hour smoke shop. It is the year 2075. You can’t get a decent cup of coffee anywhere, and even if you could, it would cost $30. Most people gave up. Some have resorted to using a blend of chicory, mesquite, and caffeine pills. It actually pulls a pretty decent shot if you can find enough water, and in 16-ounces of acorn milk with enough panela, you can hardly taste the difference.

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That’s the grief and despair bit. Now, onto some hope and relief!

Chris, Kosta, and experts agree that coffee is addictive, which means it’s highly unlikely that people will altogether stop drinking coffee. That’s a big win for coffee. Now humor me and imagine this, for some hope:

2075. Cafes are booming. Most of them sell a shit ton of signature drinks. They start to realize that they can use pretty much any coffee in those drinks. So that frees them up to purchase lower-scoring coffees, coffees that maybe don’t have the most complexity or acidity in the world, but are still very good and most importantly, sustainably sourced. These coffees are not necessarily cheaper; their value lies in their sustainability (economic, social, and environmental). Producers have a more stable income, roasters know they’ll receive consistent coffees year after year, and customers will get a really solid coffee for drip or espresso, because the producer still produces fine coffees and the roaster knows what they're doing.

To the passive millennial scroller, it may start to look like your favorite roaster stopped caring about their values. All they post about is cold foam 😩. But behind the scenes, around the cupping table, passionate, kind-hearted people are having deep conversations about what to buy and why to buy it. These conversations rarely end up on social media because, honestly, who has the attention span?

I can only hope that soon we’ll collectively realize that social media is nothing more than a tool and the internet is an ever-expanding forest of bullshit and trash, so it’s better to just focus on your real-life community and your company. What small thing can you do today that will move the needle in the direction of the future you want for your children?

I hope to see more passionate, kind-hearted people hosting well-attended coffee classes, experiences, and events. We are slowly but surely educating the public, and with Gen Z’s content creation skills, more and more people understand that coffee is the seed of a fruit, a fruit that is very challenging and risky to produce. Coffee is a luxury good, regardless of its cup score. And coffee is sooo yummy when you add Earl Grey syrup and oat milk!

In whatever future, I imagine there will remain a few roasters who buy co-ferments and competition-level coffees, but for the most part, those coffees stay on competition stages and in the hands of the wealthy few who can afford them. Many of these coffees may actually stay in the countries where they were produced to be consumed in cafes. That’d be cool and is already happening.

The high-end specialty coffee shop we know today will become a “highly sensorial” human experience, as Kosta puts it. The vibes are immaculate, the coffee is curated and dialed, and the hospitality is unparalleled. These places will be expensive and rare, and the workers will make well above minimum wage.

I don’t know how feasible all this is, and maybe the Gen Z in me is a bit naive. But I have to believe it starts with imagining a better future, right? I know my own mind is changing about what good coffee is and why. I’m riding this wave with thousands of coffee professionals around the world, I know it. I am so grateful for people like Chris and Kosta and all the other older coffee professionals who don’t let themselves get jaded. They keep learning, keep pushing, keep having conversations to keep themselves out of the soup. I think that’s the secret. What do you think?

Upcoming classes

• Austin Coffee Tasting - Sunday, September 21 at 10 a.m.

• Home Espresso 101 - Sunday, October 4 at 9 a.m.

• Latte Art 101 - Sunday, October 4 at 11 a.m.

• Home Espresso 201 - Saturday, October 11 at 10 a.m.

• Latte Art 201 - Saturday, October 11 at 1 p.m.

Continued media

• On Brazil Tarriffs with Algrano (live panel, next Monday at 2pm CT)

• Cheap Coffee by Karl Weinhold (book)

• Specialty drink inspiration with Morgan Drinks Coffee (website)

• Why is regenerative coffee farming the future? Tim Wendleboe (podcast)

• Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler (fiction)

I’m still on break for the next few weeks, but I just wanted to drop in to say tour was a huge success! No flat tires, no car break-ins, lots of great bands, decent pay, and new friends... What more could you ask for?

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Here’s a list of all the places we went for coffee on tour, plus what I got and what I thought of it. Jack is the drummer/boyfriend. Caro is the lead guitar player. Enjoy :)

Denton, TX

• Where we went: Triptych Coffee + Co

• What I got: espresso (Ghost Rider by Proud Mary), iced golden milk

• What I thought: Super sweet people, beautifully streamlined cart workflow, perfectly dialed espresso from Proud Mary! Jack loved the cold brew. I felt like the golden milk was a little too milky, but maybe I should’ve gotten it hot?

Oklahoma City, OK

• Where we went: Katie + Colin’s house

• What I got: flat white with whole milk (Kenya by Prodigal Coffee) + dutch baby

• What I thought: When I spotted a Niche Zero in our host’s kitchen in OKC, I knew we were in good company. Home barista Colin walked me through his extensive puck prep routine and even let me make myself a flat white on his Rocket machine (which his wife, Katie, said was unheard of!). We brewed a Kenyan coffee roasted by Scott Rao’s Prodigal Coffee. I think it was this one, but I could be wrong. It was bright and a little sharp, but nice in milk. Also Colin made us the most delicious dutch baby I’ve ever had!!!

Tulsa, OK

• Where we went: Coracle Coffee

• What I got: drip coffee, croissant, + box of instant

• What I thought: The owner of Coracle, Tyler Duncan, is a mentor and friend of mine. We met in Austin in 2020, he had just started what would turn out to be a pretty successful instant coffee business. He’d be the first to tell you he never wanted to open a cafe, but one thing led to another and Coracle Coffee was born (and lucky enough, where we played our show in Tulsa!). Tyler gave us the grand tour of the factory and sent us home with a box of instant coffee he produced for Verve (which saved my life on long drives). I stopped in the next morning for a drip coffee (delicious, though I forget the origin) and a plain croissant (flaky perfection). Jack said the breakfast burrito was the best he’s ever had.

Kansas City, MO

• Where we went: Oddly Correct

• What I got: espresso

• What I thought: Really interesting layout with a visible roasting operation and very healthy plants. Fun merch selection. Good service, good espresso. It’s super obvious that Oddly Correct is a value-driven business, from their reusable to-go containers to their commitment to paying employees a living wage. Inspiring!!!

Des Moines, IA

• Where I went: Horizon Line Coffee

• What I got: espresso, sparkling iced tea + scone

• What I thought: This was my first solo adventure on tour; a 4-mile run through hilly, corn-sweatin’ Des Moines, ending at Horizon Line. Minimal aesthetic paired with well-kept plants. Zero-waste program with reusable containers (seeing a pattern? Who will be the first to do it in Austin, I wonder??). The baristas were friendly, fashionable, and making themselves matchas. The sparkling iced tea was refreshing and light. The espresso was okay; a little thin and on the sour side. I didn’t end up finishing it.

• Where I went: Northern Vessel

• What I got: drip coffee (Onyx Coffee Lab)

• What I thought: Stopped in around 7:30 a.m. on a Tuesday. The coffee was really good and served in my favorite cups (Huskee), but the clientele was mostly finance bros and the music was weird lo-fi hip hop beats that made me feel like I was in a simulation. Everything was matte black and light wood, natural lighting. Not my vibe, but I could see how other people might like it.

Minneapolis, MN

• Where we went: Dogwood Coffee (St Paul)

• What I got: espresso, hard boiled egg + oatmeal

• What I thought: This cafe was bustlin’ on a Thursday morning! Felt like a real community spot. The barista was very sweet and I was very excited to see hard boiled eggs in the cold case (am I a sociopath??). Good espresso. Caro got a decaf cortado with some nice latte art. I was also super glad to see oatmeal on the menu, and reminded me of the days when Flitch in Austin had oatmeal. Why aren’t more cafes doing this? It’s so easy and so nice to have a healthy alternative to pastry…

Milwaukee, WI

• Where we went: Canary Coffee Bar

• What I got: drip coffee (Sweet Bloom)

• What I thought: Our lovely host (and coffee friend) Lex works here, so we had to visit before heading out of town. Canary is on the first floor of a downtown building and parking was a little tricky. It was our barista’s last day before moving to NYC (classic). I got a drip coffee (Sweet Bloom), which was solid. I wish we had more time in Milwaukee — there were a few other stops I wanted to visit but didn’t get the chance to. Next time!

Grand Rapids, MI

• Where we went: Madcap Coffee (Fulton St.)

• What I got: Burundi pour over

• What I thought: This location was pretty packed on a Sunday morning. I got a Burundi pour over, which was made on some kind of automatic machine with a Kalita Wave (I could be wrong about the brewer, just trying to go from memory here). It was delicate and floral. Caro and I sat at the bar and made nice conversation with our barista. We got our drinks to-go and walked around a giant flea market next door (definitely a highlight of our trip).

Chicago, IL

• Where I went: 4LW (Logan Square)

• What I got: single-origin espresso (washed Colombia)

• What I thought: I already raved about this experience on my IG story, but for those of you that missed it, this was easily my favorite spot. Really thoughtful and unique design, authentic service, and great espresso. I was nervous to go for a washed Colombian geisha because so often they end up thin and sour on ’spro, but this was dialed. Thank you, 4LW :)

• Where I went: Coffee Lab + Roastery

• What I got: iced matcha (Kodemari by Spirit) with soy milk

• What I thought: Really just stopped in for a place to charge my computer and sit for an hour before the show. Had to indulge in some Spirit matcha! It was on the stronger side, but delicious. Didn’t give me an option for here/to go, and I felt bad about wasting the plastic cup.

• Where we went: Loba Pastry + Coffee

• What I got: flat white with whole milk (Little Waves) + Emmie

• What I thought: A little hole-in-the-wall with an amazing pastry case! I went for the GF option, something like a French canelé. Super tasty. We had to head out pretty early to get to Nashville at a reasonable hour, so we took our drinks to-go. Good flat white. Caro got a Rooibos tea. It was also nice to see my coffee friend Asia!

Louisville, KY

• Where we went: Sunergos Coffee (Willis)

• What I got: espresso

• What I thought: This spot felt a little more old-school, with comfy couches and mustard yellow walls and Big Train chai. The espresso was not as dark as I expected; smooth and balanced, served with a spoon. Lots of families.

Nashville, TN

• Where we went: Crema Coffee Roasters (Hermitage Ave)

• What I got: single-origin cortado with whole milk (washed Ethiopia) + oatmeal

• What I thought: Another amazing zero-waste cafe! I immediately recognized our barista, Wes, from the barista competition circuit and was excited to order a single-origin cortado. It came in a funny, tall/narrow ceramic but was delicious nonetheless — floral, candy-sweet. They also had a beautiful training lab at this location, which made me nostalgic for my Greater Goods days… Most folks were working on their computers.

• Where we went: Matryoshka Coffee

• What I got: drip coffee + espresso (Hometown by Sweet Bloom), iced chai with whole milk + pastry

• What I thought: I’ve been following this cafe online for years, and I was super stoked to finally visit IRL. The location is kinda strange (tucked into an apartment complex) but the interior design is freakin’ fabulous. Colorful, fun, and not taking itself too seriously. I had to ask for a spoon with the espresso, but it was good. From Sweet Bloom (crushing the wholesale game from coast to coast). Something about this place made me want an iced chai, and I couldn’t have been more right about that. The baristas were super fun and real. As we sat down, a gaggle of girls in Lululemon walked in to order a round of iced signature drinks to go.

I want to end by acknowledging the fact that owning and operating a coffee shop is hard work!!! I, by no means, expect perfection when I walk into a new cafe; I try my best to lead with curiosity and openness. A great cafe experience is a magic trick made of many interweaving, controllable and uncontrollable factors.

It is a great privilege to go out for coffee and feel safe, comfortable, and cared for. Thank you to all the workers, both seen and unseen, that made these experiences possible.

Till next time,

- Miranda

I’m going on tour this Friday with my band, Other Vessels. We’re playing eight cities in two weeks — Denton, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids (ish), Chicago, and Nashville. If you or someone you know lives in those cities, please share the show info!! Here is a script you can copy and paste:

Hey [friend name]! I took a latte art class with this girl in Austin and her band is playing a show in [your city]. You should totally go! She’s super cute and hilarious and talented. You might fall in love…

Too much?

Eh, whatever. It’s go time, baby! I gotta promote these shows!!! 😂

I’m not gonna lie, hitting pause on all things “Barista Friend” to focus on my music feels a little bit… scary? irresponsible? I wish I could say it was pure bliss to drop everything and live my “best rock star life” but I feel so much pressure to keep my business busy! The idea of slowing down to pursue art is, at once, a dream and a nightmare! Such is American life in 2025!!!

Then again, taking a break from making coffee to go on tour is kind of a rite of passage. If you’ve ever gone out for coffee, there’s probably a 1 in 5 chance you were served by a local (or touring!) musician. Being a barista is kind of the perfect gig, provided you can find a shop that’ll let you leave for extended periods of time and still have a job when you get back. Shoutout to the real ones in Austin who get it — Barrett’s, Flitch, Creature, Radio, Houndstooth, Paperboy, Figure 8, Spokesman, Epoch… Ok, literally as I’m typing this list I’m realizing almost every coffee shop in Austin is cool with you leaving for tour. Damn. How lucky I am to live in this amazing city!!!

Even luckier for me, I’m my own boss these days, so I can take off as much as I want. Except I can’t, because there’s this little voice telling me I’m being irresponsible. Grrrrrr!!!!! When will I finally get out of my own way!!!!

Ah well. There’s no such thing as a true pause on Barista Friend. As a passionate individual, I am inextricably linked to my work. Two of our shows are at coffee shops. We’re staying with three different coffee friends along the route. I have a running list of cafes to visit, and my tote bag is already packed with an Aeropress, a scale, some Spirit Tea, and a bag of Sightseer to brew at any truck stop with a hot water tap. You can take the girl out of the cafe, but ya can’t take the cafe out of the girl!

After tour, I’ll be spending some long-overdue time with my family back in Maryland. That means I’ll be out of office for a whole MONTH! I’m so, so grateful to be able to do this and take some time to reset, recalibrate, and refine my goals (coffee, music, and running) for the rest of the year.

Barista Friend classes and appointments will resume in September and my calendar is up-to-date. Get in while ya can, folks! Thank you as always to my incredible students and clients, who keep me busy and inspired. Y’all are what makes this whole thing worthwhile.

See you in September! But I’m sure I’ll have something to say before then…

Miranda

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A few days ago, I sent you a (pretty earnest) newsletter about taking a break from caffeine. As soon as I sent it, I regretted not giving more actionable, educational information. This is what this newsletter is for, after all, but I got lost in the sauce of my personal narrative. Main character moment. Sorry y’all.

Anyway, I’m here today to tell you I am blissfully transitioning into my next phase — HALF CAFF.

For those of you who don’t know, “half caff” means half-caffeine. Yep, it’s a thing. It actually used to give me major anxiety when someone would order it at the cafe, because I couldn’t get a straight answer from my manager on the right way to do it.

In my honest opinion (which is what you’re here for, right?), the correct way to pull a half caff shot of espresso in a cafe where you have at least two grinders (one for regular, one for decaf) is this:

1. Pull a double shot of regular espresso using the splitters

2. Pull a double shot of decaf espresso using the splitters

3. Add a single shot of each to the drink of choice

4. Voila. Half calf 🐄

You might be thinking — Miranda, what do we do with the other shots? Well, you hope somebody else has the same idea within the next ten minutes, or you taste and QC both espressos because you care.

What you don’t do is grind 9 grams of each coffee into the same portafilter. Because if you’re a good barista, you will have dialed in each coffee to it’s own unique recipe. The grind sizes will be different, which will surely cause channeling, which will taste astringent and “off” even if the specs are decent (18-36-30s, anyone?).

What you also don’t do is put less coffee in the portafilter to pull a single shot. Gosh, I see this SO often with my clients — the portafilter basket is a certain size (usually 17g, 18g, or 21g), and you must put the correct amount of coffee in there. If you are underfilling or overfilling your portafilter, channeling is 100% happening!!!

So yes, half caff espresso is actually incredibly inconvenient for the barista and maybe a little bit wasteful. But it’s one solution to the problem of ‘I want half the caffeine but all the flavor,’ which is exactly how I’ve been feeling this week.

Coffee is an AMAZING FLAVOR!!! I love the taste and smell of coffee. Always have, always will. I’m not willing to give it up, but I’m also not willing to be bouncing off the freaking walls and clenching my jaw and succumbing to my anxiety the way I have been.

So haff caff it is. The soupy middle. A liminal space. A period of transition. And you know what they say — that’s where the magic happens.

There is, of course, an abundance of alternatives to this process. Some coffee roasting companies make half caff blends, which is perfect for my home barista friends who are committed to the half caff lifestyle. I recommend Madcap’s Fraction.

If you’re more of a go-out-and-get-coffee type, you could order a single-shot flat white, which will probably be a similar flavor profile to a double-shot latte in a smaller drink. You can also totally jump ship and start drinking tea, which almost always has less caffeine.

My Half Caff Pour-Over Recipe

Truth be told, I very rarely drink espresso at home. I’m in the habit of a daily pour-over; it’s the first thing I do when I roll out of bed in the morning.

Before I tell you my recipe, let us take a moment to acknowledge all the hard work that goes into decaffeinating a coffee. These coffees often travel far and wide, undergo a very stressful processing method, and are NOT always treated with integrity in the roaster and behind the bar. If you do one thing this week, please RESPECT YOUR DECAF. Dial it in. Get it right! You can do it!!!

I know I literally just told you not to grind two different coffees into the same portafilter, but with pour-over it’s different. A little more forgiving, at least I like to think so. I’m also using a single-dose grinder, meaning I’m weighing out each individual dose and grinding per cup. This is opposed to a hopper, where you’d pour the entire bag of coffee into the grinder and keep it there.

This recipe checks all the boxes of my first sip, which is to say, it’s GOOD ENOUGH, sustainably sourced, and expertly roasted by friends. Basically I’m making my own half caff blend per cup:

The decaf: EA Decaf de Cana (Colombia) by Night Swim Coffee Roasters

The regular: Clever Neyra Chinini (Peru) by Superthing Coffee Roasters

1. Heat a kettle of filtered water to 200F

2. Measure 8g of each coffee, whole bean

3. Grind on a medium setting (‘16’ on a Baratza Virtuoso)

4. Add a cone paper filter to a small Origami dripper and rinse

5. Dump that rinse water cuz you love yourself!!!

6. Add ground coffee to the filter

7. Carefully pour 100g of water into the bed of grinds in a concentric circle

8. At 30s, pour very slowly up to 250g in a concentric circle

9. Pour yourself a glass of water and drink the whole thing

10. Make some toast

11. Serve your half caff coffee at the perfect temperature and enjoy :)

Other Recommendations

Here are some non-coffee things that caught my attention this week to explore!

1. Rebecca Solnit on The Shakespeare and Company podcast — If you think the world is ending and there’s nothing you can do about it, please listen to this conversation with author and activist Rebecca Solnit

2. Local Valley by José González — I recently revisited this 2021 album and it really hit the spot. I’ve been experimenting with a drum machine, looking to his playful arrangements for inspiration.

3. Texas Stream Team — I’m looking for ways to get involved with environmental protection in my own backyard, and came across this citizen science project in San Marcos. Really looking forward to taking their water quality training in the next month or so!

How do YOU do half caff? Comment below :)

Chaos is a golden thread that runs through many a coffee shop. It seems we (myself included) have a little trouble focusing, resist the monotony of systemization, and tend to make decisions on a whim rather than deducing logic from cold hard facts.

I love this about us! We’re spunky! But I can’t help but wonder how over-caffeination might be messing with our web.

Which brings me to my next point: I’ve been taking a break from drinking coffee (GASP!). It’s true. A series of strange medical events plus a strict preparation diet for a meditation retreat got me drinking nothin’ but water, herbal tea, and the occasional green juice.

Maybe it’s bad for business for me to say this, but I feel awesome. Taking a break every now and again is so, so important for my process, whether it’s music, writing, coffee, podcasting, running, you name it. I need to sit on the sidelines for a quarter to see the whole game before I jump right back in.

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Today I write to you from the sidelines, more or less. It’s the slowest week I’ve had all year and I can feel myself slowly returning to awe.

When I think of a perfectly dialed espresso, I see a magic trick that took years to complete. Not only by the barista, but by the pickers and the producers and the workers at the mill, the exporters and the roasters and the equipment manufacturers.

I am reminded of this poem by Mark Nepo:

Under the Temple 

The temple hanging over the water is

anchored on pillars that nameless workers

placed in the mud long ago. So never forget

that the mud and the hands of those workers

are part of the temple, too. What frames the

sacred is just as sacred. The dirt that packs

the plant is the beginning of beauty. And

those who haul the piano on stage are the

beginning of music. And those who are

stuck, though they dream of soaring,

are the ancestors of our wings.

We spin this web together, you know what I mean?

Here in Austin, there seems to be a new coffee shop opening up every day, and many of the owners have little to no experience working behind an espresso machine. They come from other industries with rose-colored glasses, eager to do something more creative, social, and hands-on. They might be attracted to good profit margins, accessibility, or the perceived "chill lifestyle” it might afford them.

What comes next is often a series of disillusionments: turns out making coffee is harder than it looks, equipment is expensive, city permits take longer than you think, not to mention all the challenges involved in hiring and managing a staff of young people, and the inevitable over-caffeination. Coffee is not easy. It only looks easy because the people doing a good job of it have spent years perfecting their craft.

Last night was the second week of my 4-week Barista Bootcamp. We had two hours to cover espresso, and we barely skimmed the surface. I had my students pull shots to a given recipe, focusing on each individual motion like a meditation — remove the portafilter, flush the group head, wipe the drip tray, dry the portafilter, tare it out, dose the coffee, check the weight, distribute the bed, level tamp, wipe the wings and spouts, insert and immediately brew, check your specs.

Each student got about five turns at it, but they probably needed more like 500. This is not their fault; it’s just the name of the game. Barista skills take practice, like learning an instrument or playing a sport.

It’s not gonna happen over night, but it will be a lot easier if you have a good foundation to support you through the process. That’s all I’m trying to give to my community as it expands at a lightning speed: good seeds and a reverence for the process.

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If you’re reading this and you’re interested in starting a coffee shop someday, my best advice is to please take the time to learn the trade! I know you wanna jump in and be the boss and do the thing, but it’s so important for the future of this industry that you not only understand, but hold a deep respect for the community that you are joining and all the people who came before you to make specialty coffee possible.

If you’re reading this and you are an experienced barista, three years or more, don’t you dare sell yourself short! Do you hear me? Your lived experience is SO valuable!

If you need help navigating a job opportunity, please think of me as your badass older sister. I’m all ears and I wanna see you thrive and I don’t wanna see you get stepped on because I know that can happen. We’re all stressed, we’re all strapped for cash, but please take a deep breath and ride this wave with me. This web is chaotic, but you don’t need to get swept up in the chaos.

I’m trying my best to do what I can to move the industry in the direction I think is most equitable for people and our planet, and I’m not perfect. Buuuut I am off caffeine right now and I’m feeling pretty good about it. If you’re overwhelmed, maybe try to lay off for a few days and see how you feel :)

I wanna give a little shout out to Lau Lau, a work-in-progress by an Austin service industry veteran. Hannah Foy is raising money to open her coffee shop this summer, which aims “to become an Austin institution grounded in equitable care and fair labor—proof that commercial success and social responsibility can flourish together.” If you wanna invest in a cool project right here in our community, invest in Hannah!

That’s all for now. Thanks for your patience, I know it’s been a while since I last sent a newsletter. Hoping to keep up with this a bit more this summer. And bring back the podcast… It’s on the list.

Be kind, stay silly, and take it easy, y’all!

— Miranda

It’s Monday morning of the biggest week in specialty coffee in North America… In case you haven’t heard, SCA Expo has officially landed in Houston! It’ll be my fourth year attending the trade show, but the first time it’s been driving distance. I’m super excited to road trip with my pals from the Austin Coffee Collective, catch up with old friends, and see what’s brewing in the latest coffee technology.

I always leave Expo feeling inspired, and I hope this year is no different. Between tariffs, the rising price of green coffee, and a global matcha shortage, the timing couldn’t be more perfect to get a bunch of industry leaders in the same room. Let’s get creative! Let’s get optimistic! Let’s make sure we drink lots of water and wear sensible footwear 🙂

Here’s what I’ve got planned — including a very special solo musical performance in Houston! Because when things feel overwhelmingly hard and confusing, nothing cuts straight to the heart like a song.

All this and a gazillion more things are happening, but I hope we run into each other this week! And if it’s your first time attending Expo, keep scrolling for my tips and tricks on how to make it count.

Tuesday

• Finca Santa Cruz cupping at Mercado Sin Nombre, 10 a.m. (ATX)

• Earth Day with Desnudo and Boggy Creek Farm, 5 p.m. - sold out (ATX)

• Breaking New Grounds party at Rising Tide Roast Collab, 7-9:30 p.m. (ATX)

Wednesday

• Cupping with The Coffee Quest at Rising Tide Roast Collab, 11 a.m. (ATX)

Thursday

• Strategies to Endure (And Thrive) In a Volatile Market with Caravela Coffee at Doshi House, 10:30 a.m.

• Welcome to Houston (a Party and Throwdown) at Brass Tacks, 6 p.m. - I’m MC-ing this event with the one and only Joshua Chipley!

Friday

• Expanding Your Olfactory Library (lecture), Room 361ABC, 9 a.m.

• Brewing with Barrett’s Coffee at the Airscape booth (#516), 11 a.m.

• Songs with Miranda Haney, Sergio Trevino, and Bev Buchanan at Wonky Power Green Room, $15, 8 p.m.

Saturday

• The Ropes: Barista Skills for Total Beginners Workshop, 9 a.m. - I am teaching this and there are only 3 spots left!

• From Coffee Sources to Coffee Voices: Empowering Industry-Wide Knowledge Creation in Specialty Coffee (lecture), Room 352DEF, 1 p.m.

Advice for First Timers

Attending Expo is an amazing experience for any coffee professional. There’s so much to learn, explore, and DO!!! Here’s my advice for how to enjoy yourself and keep it somewhat sane:

1. Drink water, drink water, drink water! Don’t forget your reusable water bottle!

2. Say hello to your heroes! You’re gonna see a lot of familiar faces just walking around. If you see someone who made a coffee, machine, video, course, podcast, etc, that impacted your relationship with coffee, introduce yourself! This is a place where talking to strangers is not only allowed, but encouraged.

3. Lean on your curiosity! If you’re overwhelmed and you don’t know what to talk about, ask a question. Can you show me how this works? Who is this for? How did you get into this? are all great starters.

4. Prepare to be humbled. Maybe it’s just me, but my first year at Expo was an extremely humbling experience. I was amazed to see not one, not two, but several attendees with “Coffee Educator” on their badge. We all had the same job and we faced the same challenges, which is awesome because now you have a larger community. But it’s also shocking, especially if you’re 25 and you think no one in the world understands what you’re going through ;)

5. You don’t have to do everything. Every lecture sounds interesting! Every booth has free stuff! Every party looks like so much fun! I feel you. But don’t feel like you have to do everything; it’s okay if you have to take a break and rest. Do what you need to do to be the best you 🙂

6. Dress to impress. If you’re into fashion, the trade show floor can be a very fun prompt! I’m a big fan of the jumpsuit, but I’d recommend wearing anything that makes you feel confident, comfortable, and not-too-sweaty. Oh, and definitely make sure you wear the right shoes!

7. Go your own way! My first year at expo, I stayed glued to my employer’s hip the entire time. I wish I would have split off at least once to explore the floor and make connections. It was really hard for me to be my authentic self in front of my boss, especially at 25. If this is you, be brave! You probably won’t work at the same place forever, and this is the place to make connections for your future.

8. Have fun, don’t go crazy. At the end of the day, please remember you’re here for your job. I am all for having a good time and letting loose, but I would probably advise against getting totally wasted. I dunno. Maybe you’re into that. Just take care of yourself, okay? We all wanna see you thrive!

What about y’all? I know I have some Expo veterans on the subscriber list. What advice would you give to your younger self? Take care this week, friends. I’ll see you out there!

It was August of 2015, my first semester back at college after studying abroad. My parents were recently divorced and my own relationship was hanging on by a thread. My boyfriend and I decided to study abroad at the same time but in different countries; I went to Spain and he went to Estonia.

Both programs were pretty new for our university, and therefore pretty unorganized, so when we signed up we assumed we’d be gone for the same amount of time. Turns out, my program ran from January to March and his ran from February to late-June, affording us a six-month long-distance relationship at 20 years old.

I was so stubborn. We almost broke up, and maybe we should’ve, but I wanted to prove something — that relationships can last? That two people can be independent and also in love? That I could endure the suffering of the constant fear that he was cheating on me with some beautiful Lithuanian girl? I don’t know.

What I do know is that summer, I did what I always do when I’m feeling lonely and overwhelmed, which is get really busy. I worked three different jobs. I also decided it’d be a good idea to adopt and raise a puppy, and also write songs and book some gigs, and of course, keep my long-distance relationship alive on top of all that.

When I got back to school, I knew I’d need at least one job to keep myself busy and make enough money to pay rent (which was $350 a month, if you can believe it). I was on a roll with playing shows, so I needed a morning job. I wanted a job that felt creative and grounded, but also gave me the freedom to do all the other things I like to do and was already committed to doing, like my college radio show, ultimate frisbee, the tv station, and my coursework.

And that’s how I landed my first barista job, almost a decade ago.

In the last ten years, my confidence has waxed and waned. That relationship ended and I moved to Austin. I think I know exactly who I am and what I want, and then someone offers me something else and I see it as the extended hand of the universe inviting me on another side quest. Coffee has offered me so much: a paycheck, a clear career path, a community, opportunities to travel and learn and teach. It inspires me like crazy, and I have so many coffee ideas that I don’t know what to do with. I am so lucky!

But at the same time, there’s another part of me that feels abandoned. This is the part that makes the podcast, writes the songs, has two unfinished novels in her Google Drive.

“There’s no money in that,” is the limiting belief that keeps me stuck. And so I take an opportunity that comes with a price tag, and I’m glad because finally I can pay my bills, but I’m sad because I’ve given up things that gave my life meaning.

Look, I’m not where I thought I’d be at 30. I’m frustrated that I still make a lot of the same mistakes I made when I was younger. I’m busier than I’ve ever been, and I can’t help but thinking part of that is that I’m actually lonely and overwhelmed. Another part of that is I have the hardest time saying no, and I know I’m alone in that.

Sometimes I feel like a fish circling the same bait over and over, refusing to accept the fact that it’s attached to a hook. When will I finally swim the other direction and trust that something else will be there to feed me? When will I finally accept who I am and be that without fear? Isn’t that what we’re all called to do?

So to bring it all back to coffee, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m still figuring things out. I can’t do everything. I have to pick a few things and do them well, but I just can’t decide what those things are yet. I think that’s okay. I think that’s part of it. The constant realignment, the reinvention. I am an artist, so I will never be quite sure, but that’s the beauty of me.

That’s how I ended up starting Barista Friend in the first place — as a way to maintain my freedom, invest in my own ideas, and explore an alternative path for my fellow creative baristas who don’t come from money. I’m trying to see if this works and honestly, I still don’t know. Thank you for your patience. Sorry I keep getting distracted.

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This week I’m drinking a Colombian coffee roasted by New Math in Chicago, IL. It’s a lot from the Colombian-based producer group Unblended, which provides training and guaranteed lot purchases to young coffee farmers. Here’s how I’m brewing it:

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This morning, I botched it. I followed my intuition and boiled some tap water in my gooseneck kettle, thinking maybe somehow I could evaporate all the bad stuff and be left with more or less perfect water for brewing. This isn’t totally false; boiling water does evaporate volatile compounds like chlorine and some dissolved gasses. But it’s definitely not perfect.

That, of course, is a hard way to wake up in the morning. Confronting your own imperfections, or in my case laziness, or maybe it’s more like overwhelm, too many things happening at once, not enough time to do the little things like put this tomato plant in the ground or make water.

For those of you who are wondering what the heck I’m talking about, coffee is 98% water. The quality of that water is going to make a big difference in the quality of your brew. The general consensus is the water should be free from any odors, chemicals, or chlorine. It should have a total hardness between 50-175 ppm and an alkalinity between 40-75 ppm. The pH should be around 7, neutral, but that doesn’t matter so much as the total hardness and alkalinity.

An expert brewer might go to great lengths to achieve these parameters — water chemistry is an essential touch point in any World Brewers Cup routine. I like to think that adjusting water chemistry is like adding shading to a 2-dimensional drawing; your coffee will still taste like coffee without it, but there is way more potential for depth, clarity, and complexity. In the cafe, water quality is crucial for providing a consistent taste experience for your guests, as well as keeping your equipment in top-notch shape. Too many minerals in your water, and scale will start to buildup. Not enough, and you might see some corrosion.

When I teach my brewing students about water quality, I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a small part of me that thinks it’s a bit ridiculous. Do we really expect the average person to go out and buy water specifically for brewing coffee? Or worse, install an R/O system in their home and design the perfect balance of minerals to add to the water for their unique taste preferences? There are some parts of the world that have no access to clean drinking water at all, and here we are in the Global North fighting in the comments about whether magnesium or calcium is more effective for improving extraction.

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This is where specialty coffee starts to feel stale, out of touch, irresponsible. But rather than draw a line in the sand between us and them, the yuppies and the average joes, perhaps I could try and see our world as an interconnected ecosystem where all things have a right place? What does that look like?

When we brew a cup of coffee to the nth degree, we respect the plant and all the humans that played a role in the supply chain. Imagine the land where this coffee was grown was abundant and lush. The farmer took great care to grow, harvest, and process the cherries. The intermediaries treated the producers with respect and curiosity. They paid a fair price for the coffee, at best starting or strengthening a relationship with this farmer or group of farmers, then went through great lengths to transport the harvest from a remote area of Mexico to the nearest port city. The workers at the port cities took care with the containers, and the coffee arrived in perfect condition and on time to its destination.

Later, a roaster used their artful discernment to unlock an optimal profile for this specific coffee, accentuating its acidity and developing a full and syrupy body. I purchased the freshest bag of roasted coffee I can find, let it rest for 7 days, and made a single-cup pour-over using a scale, a recipe, my whole attention, and yes, TAP WaTeR!!!! I’m skipping steps, but you get the gist.

A few months ago, a woman in a private class asked me an interesting question that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. “Why do you think people get so into coffee?” she asked. “It’s not like it’s essential or anything like that. Why do we care so much about frivolous things?” (”while others are suffering,” was the context I silently provided).

I guess when it all boils down (ha), we care because of whatever meaning we assign to it... For me, it’s connectedness, both to my community and the earth, plus the opportunity to experiment and learn, and for pure fun, and joy.

I cannot let the suffering of the world stop me from experiencing joy. And I cannot let my joy stop me from acknowledging the suffering of the world and doing what I can to ease it in my community. And also, maybe you need to hear this, it is no one’s sole responsibility to solve all the world’s problems.

I must, at the end of the day, forgive myself for brewing with tap water and fill up my gallon jugs for tomorrow.

Here’s a quote I stole from Rob Brezny’s Astrology Newsletter, of which I am an avid reader (shocker, I know, the barista believes in astrology):

“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.” —L.R. Knost

What do you think? Is water chemistry a total waste of time, or a celebration of life on earth? Something else? Would love to hear from you in the comments or anonymously via my advice column. Thanks for reading my diary!!!

PS - Taurus sun, Libra moon, Aquarius rising, if you’re curious ;)

We had a full house of 45 attendees, ranging from baristas to business owners to curious customers. We talked about each panelists’ unique journey, lessons learned along the way, mentors, and equity in the workplace.

At the end of the discussion, one audience member asked an earnest, albeit common question: “How can we transform the role of the barista into a sustainable career pathway? What do we need to do to increase the respect and reward for our craft?”

Here in Austin, if I had to guess, the average barista gets paid around $11-12 an hour, plus tips. For someone working 30-35 hours a week (in reality, very few), a bi-weekly paycheck might be as little as $900 in the slow season or as much as $1900 for a busy cafe with a kitchen. Any more than that, for an hourly worker, is pretty much unheard of.

If you work in the industry, I hope this isn’t the first time you’re hearing this. Back in 2019, a slew of “radical” wage transparency surveys circulated in Philadelphia, Seattle, and other major cities, sparking conversation and inspiring workers movements and collectives to take action. There have been several more surveys since.

“Who in town is doing a good job of taking care of their workers?” another audience member asked. The room fell silent. “If I knew, maybe I’d still be a barista,” said one of the panelists. A few others nodded in agreement. Then, without raising their hand, someone in the front row shouted “what would an ideal situation look like?”

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I’ve been thinking about this question for the last week and I want to briefly jot some thoughts here. This is first draft kinda stuff, just some ideas, but I’d love to continue this conversation.

Please join me in the comments, open to all subscribers:

1. What is a living wage in Austin, TX?

   1. I would like to see a world in which every worker can afford to live alone if they so choose (~$1300), pay bills (~$300), buy groceries (~$500), take care of a pet ($100, excluding any vet bills), have a little fun (~$200), and put $100 toward savings or debt. That puts us at $2500/month minimum.

   2. I would also like to see a world in which every worker can afford to survive by working 35 hours/week or less, which means the hourly rate for a barista would have to be around $18-19/hr, including tips.

   3. Keep in mind this is a living wage, not a thriving wage. If a worker has large debts, supports a family, prefers the finer things in life, etc, etc, this is probably not gonna cut it.

2. Responsibility of the owners

   1. As a cafe owner, I think it’s your responsibility to set reasonable expectations for your employees straight out of the gate. It’s also your responsibility (with help from colleagues and mentors) to keep your business financially healthy so you can pay people.

   2. During the interview, you should probably tell your prospective employee:

      1. How much they’re going to be paid and why*

      2. If and how they can get paid more (events, raises, upselling, etc)

      3. Any benefits of the job (shift meals, healthcare, PTO, etc)

   3. *I truly believe that the best way to create an equitable workplace is to be transparent. If you pay experienced baristas more, make it known. If your tip pool fluctuates wildly with the seasons, say that! Your workers deserve that knowledge so they can make good decisions for themselves (and maybe help you grow your business, if they feel so inclined).

   4. If you don’t feel comfortable being transparent about the financial health of your business, perhaps that’s cause for getting some professional help. Invest in a good consultant and turn that ship around! It’s not too late and your employees need you!!

3. Diversifying income streams (for baristas)

   1. If you want to make more money as a barista and you are hitting the ceiling at your job, it may be time to take your fate into your own hands. I love you and this might be hard to hear, but it’s not your employer’s sole responsibility to make you financially stable.

   2. There are lots of ways to make extra money as a barista. Here are some that I’ve seen:

      1. Catering gigs — Creature, Luna, and others are always looking for talented baristas to pick up shifts. Most of this is 1099 work, so they don’t take taxes out. You will have to pay back taxes on these gigs, but don’t let that stop you. It’s really not that terrible if you plan for it.

      2. Photo and video shoots for brands — I can’t tell you how many times I see casting calls come through my DMs for brands that need a barista to pour latte art. In a city like Austin, these gigs are always popping up. It’s usually something like $150-300/day.

      3. Teach private lessons to your favorite customers — This is my favorite way to make extra cash as a barista! More and more customers have home espresso machines in their houses. Be a friend and teach them how to do it like a pro.

      4. Funnel your energy into your creative practice — If you’re a barista, I’m willing to bet you’re also some kind of artist. Perhaps your frustration at your paychecks could be funneled into some art that you could sell. I feel like “start an Etsy shop” is trite advice, but worth mentioning.

4. Perks

   1. We’ve already kinda discussed this, but as a cafe owner, what perks can you afford to offer your employees?

      1. There are the obvious ones, like healthcare, PTO, dental/vision, etc. This is a challenge for smaller businesses, but there are solutions out there. Odeko just started offering simple healthcare plans, for example. As an Austin musician, my healthcare is subsidized by HAAM. If you have musicians on staff, that might be a resource you can share with them. Just some ideas.

      2. But there’s also some less-traditional perks that I think employers fail to advertise to potential talent:

         1. Educational opportunities — how many of your baristas want to open their own cafe some day? They are looking to you for guidance. That is a perk of the job, the ability to learn how the business works.

         2. Menu development — open the doors to creativity and feature your baristas’ recipes on the menu

         3. Neighborhood discounts — when you work for us, you get free drinks at the bar next door

         4. Internal promotions — what are the opportunities for growth within the company?

         5. Clear values and expectations 🙂

   2. As a barista, think about what perks this job affords you and choose wisely:

      1. Commute — TBH I’m okay with being paid a little less if it means I can walk or bike to work

      2. Hours — For a coffee person, I hate waking up early. Bonus points if an open shift starts after 7 a.m.

      3. Good coffee — Do you actually like the coffee you’re serving!?

      4. Culture — Do you like the people you work with and around? Do they inspire you? Do you love the music they play, the art they hang on the walls? Does it make you a better person to work here?

5. When the company wins, we all win

   1. SO IMPORTANT. I’m going to shoutout my friends at Creature Coffee, who do this so well. If they meet or exceed their event goals for the month, everyone who worked that period gets a small bonus.

   2. If you start making more money as a business, you need to pay the people who made that possible. Maybe it was your big idea, but it was the workers on the register, the production team that packed the bags, the farmers who experimented with that processing method, who made it possible. They deserve to be rewarded.

6. Donations, investments, equity, etc

   1. I don’t know a lot about this, but I wonder if any of y’all do? How do you see private investments working in the coffee space? Would it be possible to subsidize sales with donations or investments from wealthy customers to help pay rent, increase wages, or provide more benefits? Would wealthy donors ever be interested in that?

   2. I’m just thinking out loud here but I’m pretty sure there’s a ceiling to how much money you can make as a cafe. Maybe that’s a limiting belief? I know certain things help — selling roasted coffee, having a food program, low or non-existent rent, alcohol…

7. Worker-owned cooperatives

   1. The more I think about this stuff, the more I feel inspired to start a worker-owned coffee shop in Austin. Why doesn’t that exist yet? Is it possible to do that and make money and maintain the highest quality? This might be a pipe dream and not for me, but someone’s gotta try!!!

PS — Who do you think does a good job of creating an equitable workplace in Austin, TX? Would love your thoughts on this.

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More resources to explore:

• “What Happened When I Instituted Wage Transparency at My Coffeeshop” by Ashley Rodriguez (Boss Barista) - Ashley is the go-to person if you want to know more about workers rights in coffee, imo.

• 2023 Coffee Wage Survey by Go Fund Bean (now defunct) by Ashley Rodriguez

• The Pour Over - awesome online journal by Fionn Pooler

• The Worker-Owned Coffee Cooperatives in Baltimore by Fionn Pooler

Last week my partner and I went on a date there. We took turns pulling DVDs off the shelf like it was 2005, asking “have you seen this?” and gawking at the pure radiance of a young Reese Witherspoon. In the end, we landed on Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and invested in a year-long membership for $99.

Like all things in my world, this comes back to coffee.

Because as I searched the shelves for something to catch my eye, I noticed I was actually having fun. Fun! Something I’d never once experienced while scrolling through Netflix. Perhaps, I thought — and maybe this is crazy — but perhaps making something more convenient doesn’t always make it better! How ‘bout that?!

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Coffee is a modern convenience. Wherever you go, you’re never too far from a cafe, coffee pot, or Keurig machine. But take a wider perspective (or work in the industry) and you’ll soon discover that the process of growing, harvesting, processing, exporting, and roasting coffee is actually incredibly inconvenient.

The people afforded the luxury of convenience are largely blissfully unaware, and why shouldn’t they be? Surely our rotting brains can’t hold all of that information at once? Can I sit on my computer and write my newsletter while also acknowledging the hundreds, if not thousands of hands (underpaid, overworked) that played a role in creating the guts of my desktop? And what about the desk, the notebook, the pens? I can’t afford to slow down like that! There’s simply too much to do and not enough time!!!!

This feeling might be all-too familiar for you, reader. I know it is for me. But let’s try a different perspective on a Monday morning, eh?

What if slowing down is actually a form of resistance to a system that profits off the back of cheap labor? Woah. Spicy. Okay — now what if it only really takes 30 seconds to acknowledge the energetic density of everything around us, and those 30 seconds could transform our days from a banal slog to a marvelous wonder? ChatGPT could never.

If we, as humans, only ever do what is efficient and convenient and profitable, we will rob ourselves of the very essence of humanity. What if we’re meant to wait in line and get distracted and go the long way and get lost and lose track of time? It’s all good! It’s all part of it! Why should we feel guilty? Why should we be punished?

Of course, I make this argument from a place of privilege. I’m not in survival mode, though my nervous system might beg to differ. I have no children, no pets. I am safe and loved. I don’t have a lot of money, but I usually have enough to pay my bills. I recognize the fact that many people around the world are struggling to make ends meet, and convenience gets kids on the bus and puts food on the table.

But if you’re one of the lucky ones that have a few minutes today, I’d like to encourage you to consider which everyday conveniences you’ve grown accustomed to, and whether or not those conveniences are enriching your life. Coffee-related or otherwise.

I go to the video store because it feels good. It slows my busy mind and makes me feel like life is worth living. It’s the same reason I take 15 minutes to make a pour-over every morning and why I love Henry Smith’s screen printing, Hemlock’s DIY tours, Lindy’s elaborate makeup designs, and Felt Out’s layered electronic music.

“Because it feels good,” is an awesome human reason. And in a world that’s becoming increasingly artificial and automated, it’s on us to be as human as humanly possible.

I hope you feel inspired to do something inconvenient this week and enjoy it.

Upcoming events:

• Careers in Coffee - Monday, February 24 (today) at 6 p.m. at Carpenter Hotel - a panel discussion with five local coffee pros who paved their own paths in the industry outside of cafe management. Free to attend. I’m moderating the discussion!

• Coffee Brewing Workshop - Saturday, March 1 at 10 a.m. at Barrett’s Coffee - explore the world of manual brewing using locally-roasted coffees! $75 per person, $37.50 for service industry workers (use code BF-BFF13).

• Home Espresso Workshop - Sunday, March 23 at 9 a.m. at Barrett’s Coffee - learn the ins and outs of that beautiful home espresso machine with an expert barista. $75 per person.

• Other Vessels at Wonky Power Green Room- Friday, April 25 in Houston, TX - I’m going to expo AND I’m playing a show! Do something non-coffee-related and enjoy some local songwriters. Gonna be a nice evening. Block off your cal.

• The Ropes: Barista Skills for Total Beginners - Saturday, April 26 at 9 a.m. at SCA Expo in Houston, TX - Join me for this 3-hour crash course in barista skills at Expo! $252 per person. Register with your pass.

Stuff I enjoyed this week:

• Boona Boona’s Ethiopia Mullugeta Muntasha, part of a sample pack of coffees from black-owned roasting companies curated by Portrait Coffee. Brewed on Origami and fruity as all get out.

• Spirit Tea’s 2003 Formosa Eight Immortals oolong at Medici Springdale. This tea was soooo beautiful. I only wish the barista served it alongside the tea leaves so I could smell them (and request a second, third steep). Instead I got it in a 16oz paper cup. Meh. Still good.

• I started reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and I’m hooked. It’s been a while since I’ve been this engrossed in a novel. It’s juicyyyyy.

• On Wednesday, I performed solo at Empire as part of a RAICES benefit by Howdy Gals. It’s also been a while since I played on stage by myself, but I enjoyed it :)

• Training baristas at Barrett’s Coffee, Klerje Coffee, Royal Blue Grocery, and Gina’s. Thank you for your trust! <3

It is my great honor to welcome Jake Ames of Good Looks to the Barista Friend podcast! Jake and I recorded this conversation back in December and it took me a hot minute to edit it (holidays, January, life, etc) but I gotta say, it’s a doozy. Jake has been through a lot in his life and still somehow maintains an outlook on life that is positive, adventurous, and rooted in community. It’s inspiring. Give it a listen wherever you listen to podcasts!

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You’ll also hear me answer my first Dear Barista Friend letter!!! Thank you to Espresso Dreaming for your heartfelt question about opening your own coffee trailer. If you have a coffee question that’s keeping you up at night, drop me a line. I’d love to give you my two cents.

In other news, I am super excited to moderate a Careers in Coffee panel with the Austin Coffee Collective on Monday, February 24 at 6 p.m. at Carpenter Hotel. We put together an awesome group of coffee pros who forged their own paths in the industry. I can’t wait to ask them all the questions I wish I would’ve had the answers to five years ago… Please join us and RSVP here. It’s free!

February is Black History Month and I’m looking forward to tasting some delicious coffees from Portrait Coffee’s Black is Beautiful box. It’s a curated sample pack of beans from black-led roasting companies in the U.S. but it’s more than just coffee. Portrait put it best: “it’s a celebration of community, heritage, and the incredible contributions of Black roasters to the coffee industry.”

As an educator, I’m constantly searching for ways to expand my knowledge and challenge myself. That’s why I’m humbled to share that I’ve just begun a year-long Coffee Sustainability Fellowship with The Chain Collaborative! TCC is a nonprofit organization that invests in local leaders in coffee-growing regions to implement community-led projects.

In this program, I’ll be working closely with the TCC team and incubator participants and learn how to engage in development in the coffee sector from an anti-top down and anti-colonial perspective. The timing couldn’t be more perfect for an opportunity like this, and I am so grateful for the chance to learn from this group of experienced professionals. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more about this in the coming months, but in the meantime, please go read this article about philanthropy in Africa. I can’t stop thinking about it.

Finally, just wanna give a little shoutout to everyone who came to the ATX Brew Crew’s Fancy Coffee for Average Joes class last weekend! I had so much fun teaching this and hope to host another real soon. Thank you also to Barrett’s Coffee, Royal Blue Grocery, Klerje Coffee, and San Gines for trusting me with barista training this month. Y’all are keeping me nice and busy!

Upcoming Classes:

• Mon. February 24, 6 p.m. - ACC Careers in Coffee Panel at Carpenter Hotel

• Sat. March 1, 10 a.m. - Coffee Brewing Workshop

• Sun. March 23, 9 a.m. - Home Espresso Workshop - 2 spots left

• Sun. March 23, 11 a.m. - Home Latte Art Workshop - sold out!

• Sat. April 26, 9 a.m. - Barista Crash Course at SCA Expo (Houston)

Private classes available upon request! Learn more here.