Best Coffee in Honolulu – The Curb Kaimuki

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This story is updating—come back for more news as it breaks. 

Breaking via SCA this morning, the international organization has reached an agreement with Dubai World Trade Center to move the 2018 World Brewers Cup, World Cup Tasters Championship and World Coffee Roasting Championship events from Dubai in September 2018. This comes as part of a new agreement with DWTC and GulfHost, Dubai’s annual food and beverage trade show, to bring SCA educational and awards programming to the region as part of an annual partnership with GulfHost beginning in 2020.

A new site for the 2018 events is forthcoming from the SCA. Here’s the exact language on 2018 events changes from today’s SCA press release:

Here’s the complete text from today’s press release:

Sprudge Media Network has reached out to representatives of the Speciality Coffee Association for comment and will update this story as quotes come in.

This story is developing…

Update #1 12:05 PM PST

To learn more about today’s decision, Sprudge co-founder Zachary Carlsen spoke by phone from London with SCA Director of Communications Vicente Partida.  “We’ve been talking to our partners for some time and we’ve wanted to come to an agreement that was mutually beneficial and good for the community,” explains Partida. On the call with Partida, we learned that the grassroots community reaction to the Dubai decision and initial deferred candidacy announcement played a significant role in today’s decision to move the competitions out of Dubai. “Quite a lot I would say, because from the very beginning we were hearing from members and people in our community—not just the United States and Europe, but the Middle East and North Africa as well,” Partida told Sprudge.

Partida credits the months of work that the volunteers of the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) Task Force and Deferred Candidacy Policy (DCP) Ad Hoc Committee put in to address the decision to host world competitions in Dubai. Partida tells Sprudge they listened to “LGBTQ members about where we were holding events, compulsory events, like the coffee championships—quite a lot of input from our community has gone into this.”

“I would of course also credit the hard work of the Events Site Criteria ad hoc committee and our partners at the Dubai World Trade Center who have been incredibly gracious throughout this whole process,” says Partida. “They, just like everyone on staff and in our volunteer leadership groups, wanted to make sure that the SCA could continue supporting the local coffee community in the MENA region at GulfHost. We look forward to strengthening our partnership with them.”

Update #2 2:45 PM PST

For additional comment, Sprudge Media Network with Liz S. Dean, an active coffee professional whose work includes roles at the The Wing, the Barista Guild of America, and on multiple committees at the Speciality Coffee Association. (Dean is also a Sprudge Media Network editorial advisory board member.) “Last week I was in Raeliehg to part of a meeting of advisory councils for the SCA, including the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force,” Dean tells Sprudge. “It was really interesting to see how this work happened, and how these conversations have become so necessary. Talking to the folks on the SCA event council, it was clear that what had transpired from the initial decision to host these events in Dubai was not okay. People get that this is not okay, and that people can’t just make these decisions without thought about the impact. I find this really, really encouraging.”

“Everyone I’ve talked to and interacted with have understood the gravity of this,” Dean continues. “That’s what’s been great about this work. The announcement today has shown that a there are a lot of people who get that this needs to change, and we need to make up for missteps.

From my perspective I thought the Dubai decision was set and done, so I’m excited to see that today’s message isn’t just, “we’ll do better in the future”—it acknowledges that these are things we need to talk about here and now, but also that there are actions we can take as well to change things. It’s proof that there are no excuses for inaction.”

We’ll continue to update this post as more information becomes available. 

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Source: Coffee News

In today’s edition of Is This A Thing I Should Think Is Cool?, 7-Eleven has announced the release of Fizzics, their new line of sparkling cold brew. But that’s not what is questionably cool (sparkling cold brew is objectively cool. Don’t @ me), it’s the can in which it is served. According to an article in The Takeout, cans of Fizzics Sparkling Cold Brew Coffee are self-chilling. Cool?

According to The Takeout’s Kate Bernot—who called me out by name in her Stircle article, not that I even care or am holding a grudge or whatever—the cans for the new ready-to-drink coffee beverage were developed by The Joseph Company International, whose previous attempt at a self-chilling can got squashed after the refrigerant used “caused concerns over its potential to speed global warming,” which sounds like some sort of Faustian equal exchange. “Sure, we can chill your drink, but it’s gonna heat up the planet. Bet you’re happy you have the now-cold drink, huh?”

But now, some 25 years in the making, the self-chilling can comes without worries of ripping a new hole in the ozone layer. To chill the 8.4 ounce can, one simply has to turn a knob at the bottom of the can, which then releases CO2 into the beverage and is said to cool the drink by 30 degrees over the course of a minute and a half. Is it cool yet?

Fizzics Sparkling Cold Brew Coffee is currently being rolled out to 15 7-Eleven stores in the L.A. area, but as the article notes, given that they spent a quarter century and god knows how much money developing the self-chilling can (solving a problem that didn’t really exist), “expect… a much wider rollout in the future.”

So the question remains: should I think the self-chilling can is cool? I feel like maybe I should, but I kinda don’t. But a new question has arisen thanks to this now-two-sided now-feud with my now-nemesis Kate Bernot: is a self-chilling can cooler than the Stircle? Now that’s a dilly of a pickle.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

*top image via The Joseph Company International

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Source: Coffee News

Welcome to episode 53 of the Coffee Sprudgecast! For this week’s episode we talk about our annual reader survey (take it here!), discuss our Build-Outs of Summer series (submit your build-out here!), fight over the Laurel/Yanni nonsense, and Robyn Brems reads the news.

The episode also includes the very special “Build-Outs of Summer” theme song composed by musician Jay Stevens.

Build-Outs of Summer: Five Elephant Coffee In Chengdu, China

Check out The Coffee Sprudgecast on iTunes or download the episode here. The Coffee Sprudgecast is sponsored KitchenAid craft coffee equipment, Swiss Water Decaf, Hario, and Urnex Brands.

Sign up now as a subscriber to the Coffee Sprudgecast and never miss an episode.

Listen, subscribe and review The Coffee Sprudgecast on iTunes.

Download the episode here. Thanks for listening!

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Source: Coffee News

About 7,000 people call Cazenovia, New York home including Sam Bender and Kelsey Ball, founders of Peaks Coffee Company. Peaks Coffee Co. opened in the Summer of 2015 and last October debuted a fresh new look for their coffee offerings. They worked with designer Lottie Caiella to give the branding an Upstate New York camp vibe. We talked to Sam Bender to learn more.

Tell us a bit about Peaks Coffee Co.

Our company was founded in July 2015 between myself (Sam Bender) and Kelsey Ball (my now wife as of this past fall). Both Kelsey and I suffer from anxiety and depression. It was so challenging for Kelsey in her senior year of high school, that she had to be placed on homebound learning. One day when her mental health was at an all-time low, her dad told her a phrase we’d both come to lean on; that life is about enjoying the peaks and enduring the valleys.

Having been shaped by both our peaks and valleys, our goal of this company began as a desire to create a place where people of any and all backgrounds can enjoy a great cup of coffee with a friend.

We wanted to fill a hole in the market with roasting as well. Over the past few years we have started working with a roasting consultant, and establishing partner producers in Colombia through Campesino Specialty Coffee. Our goal is to source seasonally and roast fresh.

When did the coffee package design debut?

We spent roughly a year (from concept to execution) working towards our rebranding. We launched our rebrand on our second birthday, October 3rd, 2017.

Who designed the package?
 
Our rebrand was done by our good friend and self-taught graphic designer, Lottie Caiella (@thecaiellas). She is based out of Upstate herself and in spending time in both Washington state as well as LA, she is as equally passionate about delicious coffee as we are. She’s been known to infuse most of her designs with a classic Upstate NY feel; pine trees and the like, and as our passions have always been in alignment she was a logical choice to help us translate our vision for the rebrand into something truly us.

What coffee information do you share on the package? 

You can find the basics (our logo and information specific to each coffee) as well as our standard brew recipe and our mantra across each box (with no shortage of pine trees too, of course). We do our best to customize our labels to match each coffee’s vibe (color-wise), and they display the tasting notes, origin, producer, process, varietal, and altitude of each coffee. To keep things fun, we continued our branding on the inside of the box which is a sweet little surprise when folks crack the box open after they’ve taken it home.

What’s the motivation behind that?

By nature (excuse the pun) we are a product of Upstate, NY— therefore we inherently have a somewhat camp-y vibe. However, we are still working every day to advocate for our product and industry in this part of the country as a legitimate product. When we rebranded, we wanted our product to evoke our modern camp vibes while representing quality and care.

What are some of the improvements made in the packaging?

When we started out, we were a tiny roasting company. This meant we were hand stamping all of our bags and could afford to do so. We used brown Biotrē bags, stamped, and printed our labels in house. We were small enough to do a few packages and distribute them around town.

Our old packaging was relatively fragile and did a poor job communicating who we are as a company or perhaps more importantly, what sort of flavors and experiences lied inside. Not only did we overhaul the visual components, but we wanted our new package to withstand being tossed into your backpack for a drive up to Maine.

As we transitioned into becoming primarily a wholesale business, we needed to streamline our production. We now use custom professionally printed boxes and labels.

We wanted to create a product for consumer and business alike that when they looked at a package from Peaks, they knew what our aesthetic and mission was right away without having to be in our shop.

Why are aesthetics in coffee packaging so important?

Since prioritizing communicating our brand via our packaging, we’ve seen across the board an overwhelmingly positive response from customers both in our shop as well as at stockists’ businesses. We always felt like aesthetics were important to us, but have truly learned a great deal in what that actually looks like in this year since rebranding. If we neglect putting as much care into the visual representation of our product as we do in actually sourcing and roasting amazing coffee, we’ve failed to do a complete job.

Where is the box manufactured?

The box is currently printed by The Mid-York Press in Sherburne, NY. All of the board comes from GP Mills in Baton Rouge.

For package nerds, what type of package is it?

The boxes are on .018 SBS (Solid Bleached Sulphate). They are PEFC, SFI, FSC certified. These cartons were coated with a Matte Coating which provided the flat finish and the textured surface.  The carton was printed on our Xerox Igen 150 using Matte Dry Ink which is FDA approved for consumable goods.

Is the package recyclable/compostable?

The packaging is 100% recyclable.

Where is it currently available?

Our packaging is currently available at our retail location in Cazenovia and around the Syracuse region with our partners. Soleil Cafe (@soleil_cafe) and Flour and Salt Bakery (@flourandsalt) are two well known retailers in the local area. We also work with multi-roasters out of state and they will pick up some cases to sell. You can also buy online at www.peakscoffeeco.com.

Zachary Carlsen is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Zachary Carlsen on Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News

If you want to live forever, or at least as close to forever as possible, you may want to make coffee a good part of your daily ritual. Or at least that was my takeaway from the Dallas Morning News’ recent profile of Richard Overton, the oldest living American, turning the ripe old age of 112 last week.

Overton, also the oldest living U.S. veteran who actually served in World War II, was born in 1906, which the DMN notes was a year before Oklahoma officially became a state, or as we Texans call it, the better times (which reminds me of some old Texas wisdom: why doesn’t Texas float away into the Gulf of Mexico? Because Oklahoma sucks). When not meeting former presidents, athletes, and celebrities, the Austin resident spends most of his day sitting on his porch, waving at cars and taking photos with strangers who want to meet a living legend.

So what is the key to Overton’s long life? I’m no nutritionist but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it is his rather strict diet. According to the article, Overton starts the day with something sweet, like pancakes, waffles, or cinnamon rolls and multiple cups of coffee “with three spoonfuls of sugar and a plastic straw.” He enjoys peach cobbler and ice cream and can be found throughout the day sipping on either a Dr. Pepper or whiskey and Cokes—his favorite drink—while smoking one of his daily 12 Tampa Sweet Perfecto cigars. It is truly a life well lived.

And listen, I consider myself a healthy person: I limit my alcohol consumption, I exercise, I have a primarily plant-based diet. Until now, I had no idea why I did all those things. “Blah blah blah health,” sure. But after hearing Overton’s story, I realize that I’m living this way so that I can make it to the age where I can drink coffee and booze, eat sweets, and smoke cigars all day, and instead of everyone condescending to me about my health, they will just be like, “good for you” and write some nice newspaper articles about me.

I don’t know exactly what that age is—70? 80? 90?—but I know I want to make it there, and thanks to my 112-year-old role model and icon Richard Overton, I know exactly what I’m going to do when I get there.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

*top image via the Dallas Morning News

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Source: Coffee News

This story begins in Buenavista, the tiniest town in Colombia’s smallest state of Quindío. Here, some of the country’s best-regarded coffees are grown. Here, also, is Café San Alberto, a cafe founded in 2007 that sits atop a mountain, overlooking sprawling farms, where coffee is drunk from wine glasses and baristas and cuppers are like artists.

The cafe is connected to Hacienda San Alberto, whose operation has been overseen by the same family for three generations. The commitment to the farm is paying off—this year, one of their coffees fetched the highest price in the National Quality Competition, which was held by Colombia’s national coffee growers federation.

Juan Pablo and Gustavo Villota, brothers and the newest generation overseeing San Alberto’s operations, were in France touring vineyards when they had the idea to try translating the experience of drinking wine in the country to their own 40-hectare coffee estate in Colombia. With the Buenavista cafe, they appear to have succeeded. A trail of coffee trees leads up to a terrace, where depending on the time of day, guests can take in foggy mornings or overlook a seemingly endless expanse of green mountainsides.

The Villotas have cafes in Cartagena and the Gold Museum in addition to their Buenavista space, with a forthcoming cafe in Bogota. But the experience of drinking coffee at the farm itself remains singular. They offer multiple tours of San Alberto’s coffees, including a so-called “Coffee Baptism,” which purports to educate guests in the “magic behind the most award-winning Colombian coffee.”

Of course, there isn’t any actual magic behind what makes San Alberto’s coffee so remarkable. Instead, there are years of commitment to quality and experimentation. Experiencing it on the same estate where it’s grown is a bonus. 

Lucía Hernández is a freelance journalist based in Colombia. This is Lucía Hernández’s first article for Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News

Retro video games have officially made a full-blown comeback. Nintendo has re-released NES and SNES “Classic Edition” game consoles, Rampage was inexplicably made into a movie somehow, and Pixels, woof. And the retro gaming craze is hitting the coffee shop with Coffee Crisis, a Double Dragon-style brawler. It’s like coffee shop Battle Toads but not frustratingly impossible.

As reported by TNW, Coffee Crisis is the creation of Megacat Studios and follows the baristas of Black Forge Coffee, an actual coffee shop in Pittsburgh—the same shop we reported about last year with the controversial punch cards—as they battle aliens trying to take over the Steel City, presumably for its main natural resources: math rock and Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. But the Smurglians—the name of the race of baddies—didn’t know what was in store for them when they landed in the backyard of Black Forge baristas Nick and Ashley, who use unique “punches, combos, suplexes, and special attacks” to pummel the Smurglians through five levels of side-scrolling glory.

Each level is hand-drawn and draws inspiration from “city scenes across Pittsburgh,” including “landmarks from across the metropolis like the PNC baseball park and the Duquesne Incline railroad.” True to Black Forge’s occult chic form, the game’s soundtrack features “energetic metal” from local band Greywalker.

Coffee Crisis is available for Mac, Windows, or Linux on Steam for a paltry $5.99. Or if you’ve been pulled in by the undertow of the retro gaming wave, a cartridge version fully playable on the Sega Genesis and “other non-emulation hardware consoles” is available via the game’s website for $40.

There are certainly worse ways to spend $5.99.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

*all media via Megacat Studios

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Source: Coffee News

It’s here! A complete video presentation of Black Coffee, the new event series from creative director Michelle Johnson (The Chocolate Barista), is now available via Sprudge Media Network on YouTube.

For the first Black Coffee event, we’re presenting a video presentation of the show, live and uncut, with all the big moments, ideas, walk-on music, and laughter presented in their full glory. Not everyone could be there, but now’s your chance to listen, learn, and relive an incredible evening at the Clinton Street Theater in SE Portland.

Outside the theater. Photo by Shaunté Glover.

Hosted by Michelle Johnson, Ian Williams (Deadstock Coffee), and Gio Fillari (Coffee Feed PDX), this event centered the voices and experiences of Black coffee professionals and enthusiasts alike. Guests included D’Onna Stubblefield (Counter Culture Coffee), Ezra Baker (Share Coffee Roasters), Zael Ogwaro (Never Coffee), Adam JacksonBey (The Potter’s House), and Cameron Heath (Revelator Coffee Company), with a live DJ performance by |Fritzwa|.

Photo by Shaunté Glover.

Backstage. Photo by Shaunté Glover.

Black Coffee PDX was made possible by La Marzocco USA, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Oatly, NXT LVL, and The Ace Hotel Portland, with ticket sales benefitting Sankofa Collective and Brown Girl Rise.

Thanks so much to everyone who joined us that evening at Clinton Street Theater for a sold out show, and to supporters and allies worldwide who have shared and helped amplify Black Coffee PDX. If you haven’t yet it’s not too late! Info on the next event coming soon, stay tuned!

The post Watch The Black Coffee PDX Video Now appeared first on Sprudge.

Source: Coffee News

Yes Plz, the new coffee subscription service from coffee subscription service veterans Tony “Tonx” Konecny and Sumi Ali, is now live and Kickstarting. After starting out as a vehicle to sell approachable $1 cups of coffee and Roy Choi’s LocoL, Konecny and Ali have retooled Yes Plz and are bringing it to the not-just-LA-based public at large.

According to their Kickstarter campaign, Yes Plz only serves one coffee, The Mix, “an ever-evolving no-holds-barred, no-corners-cut blend of the best sourced beans, roasted with care, and delivered fresh to your door.” As with the coffee at LocoL, the goal of Yes Plz is to “reach a broader audience beyond the exclusionary, validation-seeking culinary burlesque that characterizes a lot of today’s high-end coffee bars.”

The Mix is based on “the simultaneously heretical-sounding yet obvious-seeming idea that there’s almost no single origin coffee that couldn’t be made even better with a judicious bit of blending,” a piping hot take printed on the backs of their prototype bags sent out to “friends and beta testers” that had people sounding off on the Sprudge Instagram. This March 26th release of The Mix was a blend of Guatemala Rio Dorado, Colombia Los Rosales, and a Maragogype from Nicaragua La Montanita.

The Mix is slated to retail for $15 a bag, with Kickstarter pledges starting as low as $20, which will earn you the debut release of The Mix, expected to be on your door in July. Pledges of $30, $45, $90, and $180 or more will net you two, three, six, and 12 12oz bags of The Mix, respectively, sent at predetermined intervals.

Not even through its first day, the Yes Plz Kickstarter has already acquired over $13,000 of its $40,000 goal, so smart money is on the campaign being fully funded. For more information on Yes Plz or to donate, visit their Kickstarter page.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

*top image via Yes Plz

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Source: Coffee News

Being pregnant is considered, by many, to be a time of joy and a time to celebrate. But for the women on the front lines of the coffee industry, making and tasting coffee amidst that pregnancy glow can make for some brutal challenges. From changing taste buds to extra-sensitivity to smells, the work that goes into making a great brew can be not just difficult but also risky for pregnant coffee professionals.

In 2014, the Center for Science in the Public Interest released an article which cites a meta-study by the European Journal of Epidemiology suggesting that women who consumed even 100 milligrams of caffeine a day had a 14 percent higher risk of miscarriage and a 19 percent higher risk of stillbirth, while current World Health Organization guidelines suggest pregnant women restrict caffeine intake to less than 300mg per day. The implications are eye-opening, yet many coffee professionals helping to make and produce coffee throughout North America have worked through the potential risks, finding ways to keep making great tasting coffee.

Throughout pregnancy, senses kick into overdrive, with hormones dictating the way certain items taste or smell. The changes can happen, intensifying almost overnight, with certain foods or specific beverages becoming either smellier or tastier. “Changes in hormones, like estrogen, during the first trimester can cause the sudden change in sensitivity to odors and flavors. It may also be [because] your blood volume increases in pregnancy so anything moving from your blood to your brain and olfactory centers hits it harder and faster,” explains Abbey Sharp, a registered dietitian who writes on the site Abbey’s Kitchen. With smell making up half of what helps us taste, it’s no wonder that baristas, trainers, and coffee roasters may face unique challenges day-in and day-out.

Beyond a woman’s own recreational coffee consumption, professional tasks like cupping, tasting, or dialing in different coffees can all pose added challenges during pregnancy. “My sense of smell was stronger so I could pick up on tasting notes easier,” explains Breanne Kerzee, a cafe manager with Intelligentsia Coffee in New York. But sometimes the increased sensory perception can be a little too much. “I really hated the taste of espresso [while pregnant], which typically was a drink I would crave,” said Kerzee. “It became very difficult for me to be 100 percent happy with my espresso dials and I’d normally get another barista to check it.”

“Coffee became a smell that actually made me feel sick, so working became a little challenging,” shares Andrea Allen, co-owner of Onyx Coffee Lab in Arkansas. Throughout her pregnancy, Allen had to ask others for help—from moving equipment to double-checking the quality control of her shots.

While pregnant with her second child, Jen Apodaca, Director of Roasting at Royal Coffee in Oakland, says she started to taste menthol in many of the coffees she cupped—a flavor note she had to train herself to ignore. “During my second trimester, I took the Q grader course, which proved to be challenging,” says Apodaca. “It was difficult to identify the outlying cup in triangulations when all of the cups finished with acid reflux. I was also more sensitive to flavors and I had to really concentrate to find my reliable sensory memory cues. I felt like Professor X in Cerebro.”

For many pregnant coffee professionals, finding workarounds to make their professional lives manageable is paramount. The myriad physiological and physical changes that a woman’s body undergoes during the months of pregnancy can affect everything from the subtleties of tasting and dialing in to practical occupational issues like increased bathroom breaks, more frequent meals and hydration, and a need to limit time on one’s feet.

Laila Ghambari, former Director of Coffee at Cherry Street Coffee House and now Director of Education & Training for Stumptown Coffee, found herself training and coaching folks to take part in a barista competition during her pregnancy. While she says she wasn’t very strict about the various dietary restrictions that pregnant women face, she did find that it affected how she could work. “The main concern I had throughout my pregnancy was having too much caffeine,” Ghambari says. “During competition, it was very easy to get over-caffeinated, so I had to watch myself. I would notice I was getting lightheaded due to too much caffeine and becoming dehydrated.”

Ultimately, the biggest challenges for those working in the industry come from the physical changes that can happen to one’s body during pregnancy. Changes in one’s blood chemistry can cause fluids to shift, which can trigger edema, the cause of swelling throughout pregnancy. For many baristas, working an eight- to 10-hour shift can be written off as a typical workday. But research has shown that being on your feet for long periods may reduce a baby’s growth rate and increase the chances of preterm delivery.

“Before I was pregnant, I would work until the work was done, but I had to stop doing that, I was tired,” says Allen. “To be honest, I just pushed through and rested when I needed to,” she says. Allen credits her staff (and husband) with being supportive and helpful, stepping in when Allen couldn’t complete tasks she typically felt up to and providing her the comfort and space to take care of her ever-changing body.

Apodaca experienced a variety of physical changes that impacted her daily work. “Besides feeling absolutely awful with morning sickness and acid reflux, my feet were swollen and I easily knocked things over with my belly,” she says. “Reducing how much I could lift was also a nightmare. I had to make more time to sit and rest between tasks.”

Working in coffee while pregnant is difficult but not impossible, but the post-partum period is no picnic either. As American professionals in any trade know, the United States is one of only two countries in the world—the other being Papua New Guinea—that doesn’t grant paid leave to new mothers. In the United States, The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires most companies to allow their employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid family leave time after the birth of their child. However, this time off is still not guaranteed, as the FMLA also includes specific exceptions to release a business from the obligation of allowing unpaid time off, including size of the company, the time of employment, or level of wages. For a small coffee shop, accommodating such a long period of time off, and being able to return an employee to her prior position, may be a logistical and financial hardship that dissuades the company from protecting the employee.

“We did not have a maternity leave policy so it was something we just had to figure out,” explains Ghambari of her parental time off. During her employment at Cherry Street Coffee House, the business was accommodating and encouraging providing her with two months maternity leave—but Ghambari also had the benefit of working in a company run by her family, like Onyx’s Allen. (Ali Ghambari, Laila’s father, opened the first Cherry Street in the late 90.) Though there can be a flip side to being one of the bosses as well—the combination of desire and necessity to return to work right away.

“I went back to work with River in a sling after one day of being home. I did it because I was bored and I wasn’t doing much,” says Allen. “I kept my workload light and didn’t really come back full force until she was around four months old.”

Apodaca relates, “With Borden, my first, I was off for six weeks and could not afford to be away from work. It was the holiday rush and I would work six days a week. I remember roasting on Sundays to get a head start on the week. I have wonderful memories of roasting coffee in the snow, with a babe at my breast,” she says.

But for others, the return to the working world may not be as picturesque. As well, more women are leaving the service industry to find jobs that are more flexible and accommodating to them, both before and after giving birth. So what can be done? The biggest question that owners can ask themselves is how can they and how will they support their female staff who are making the choices to become pregnant. From being flexible and supportive through pregnancy to following up with paid time off, benefits, and child care funding, women need support in more ways than one.

“Having a newborn at home was much harder than being pregnant, at least for me,” says Allen. Finding the time to sleep, pump, get a newborn out to daycare, and then head to work and do a good job can all be exhausting. More cafes should work alongside their pregnant baristas, trainers, and roasters to find solutions for the future. Those new babies are the next generation of coffee, after all.

Amanda Scriver (@amascriver) is a freelance journalist based in Toronto. Read more Amanda Scriver on Sprudge.

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Source: Coffee News