In our December 2024 + January 2025 challenge, we characteristic Kansas Metropolis, Mo.’s Jackie Nguyen! Additionally included are articles on well being care in coffee-producing international locations, good crew vibes, tech discuss, “One on One“ with Al Lui, and rather more!
BY SARAH ALLEN
BARISTA MAGAZINE
Welcome to the December 2024 + January 2025 challenge of Barista Journal!
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Cowl Characteristic: Jackie Nguyen
Till the pandemic, Jackie Nguyen labored steadily as an actress in New York Metropolis and was a daily in touring Broadway productions. Her life, identical to everybody’s, was upturned with the lockdown, and he or she moved on a whim to Kansas Metropolis, Mo., the place she discovered herself among the many 2.6% of Okay.C. residents who establish as Asian. Moderately than dwell on the stark lack of range, nevertheless, Jackie noticed a possibility: She instantly sought methods to elevate up her fellow members of the Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) neighborhood in Kansas Metropolis and lift visibility for everybody.
She has completed this in two main methods: 1) Since opening just a few years in the past, Jackie’s espresso store, Café Cà Phê, town’s first Vietnamese coffeehouse, has turn out to be one in all Okay.C.’s most beloved spots to satisfy pals and luxuriate in distinctive espresso. “Kansas Metropolis embraced me from day one. Instantly. No questions, no doubts, all help,“ she says. And a pair of) Jackie based town’s AANHPI Heritage Pageant, which celebrates and promotes the native tradition. It has grown so profitable that Jackie needed to transfer it to a metropolis stadium in 2024 as a result of it was drawing such an outstanding crowd.
Learn the inspiring, heartfelt, humorous, and thrilling story of Jackie and her place in Kansas Metropolis’s espresso neighborhood within the new challenge!
’Well being Issues: The Key to Constructing Resilient Espresso Communities’
There are a lot of methods to help espresso farmers and their households—paying higher costs for his or her merchandise, for one factor—however what of their well being care? Dr. Caroline Cormier meticulously researched the businesses and organizations that present well being providers in Central America and East Africa for this text, profiling such nonprofits as Grounds for Well being, which works globally to offer cervical most cancers screenings in rural espresso communities; the Democratic Republic of Congo-based Rebuild Ladies’s Hope Cooperative, which not solely supplies its ladies members with health-care providers however seeks to empower them by means of social engagement and efforts to dispel conventional labor practices; and the Ankole Espresso Producers Cooperative Union in Uganda, which partnered with Berlin-based social enterprise Elucid in 2022 to enhance health-care entry for small-scale farmers. Study extra in Dr. Cormier’s exhaustive report.
’Little Deal with Tradition + Specialty Espresso’
The nonalcoholic beverage pattern and little deal with tradition create a gap for specialty-coffee retailers. We discuss with a number of espresso firms who’re doing large enterprise with particular, nonalcoholic espresso cocktails introduced with the identical majesty as subtle cocktails, that are all the fashion with Gen-Z of their persevering with curiosity in wholesome “little deal with“ tradition.
’One on One with Al Liu’
Al Liu’s latest place within the specialty espresso business is guiding the following installment of longtime business occasion Let’s Discuss Espresso, and he received there by means of a reasonably distinctive and extraordinary trajectory within the specialty-coffee business. He labored for a roaster, then an importer, then a roaster once more, and now he’s with the importing firm Sustainable Harvest directing its annual espresso occasion. We chat with Al about his perspective on misunderstandings between roasters and importers, what attendees to the Let’s Discuss Espresso in Peru in September 2025 can count on, and rather more.
And A lot Extra Inside
Additionally within the December 2024 + January 2025 challenge: “The Knockbox,“ the place longtime espresso skilled, former U.S. Barista Champion, and retailing knowledgeable Laila Ghambari writes about constructing a robust crew tradition; “Foam,“ the place we take a look at 3D printing utilizing espresso; “Tech Discuss,“ which tackles your gear questions; our “Subject Reviews“ visiting Lisbon, Portugal, and Lima, Peru; and far, rather more.
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