A Better Table Podcast

In this episode, Motoyoshi interviews 2022 United States Cup Tasters Champion Julien Langevin (he/them) from Coffee By Design in Portland, Maine. Langevin goes on to compete in the World Cup Tasters Championship this week in Milan.

In this episode of A Better Table, host Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Glitter Cat Barista Director of Positive Outcomes Eric Grimm. "Glitter Cat is probably best known for their coffee competitions, which are accessible and free, created to spotlight marginalized, hospitality professionals, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, disabled and persons of marginalized gender," explains Motoyoshi. In this episode, we learn more about Glitter Cat's initiatives beyond coffee competitions, and Eric Grimm talks about the Human Resources program they've helped build. This episode of A Better Table is sponsored by Acaia.

In this episode of A Better Table, host Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Jackie Nguyen, founder of Cafe Cà Phê. Cafe Cà Phê is Kansas City’s first Vietnamese coffee shop serving coffee grown in Vietnam in a variety of innovative specialty drinks. Before owning her own business, Nguyen got her start in show business. “I ended up booking the tour of How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” Nguyen tells Motoyoshi. “That was my first big professional Broadway job. After that, I saved up some money and I was like, I’m moving to New York and I’m going to try and pursue this dream of musical theater. Right up until the pandemic hit, I was an actor in New York.” Find out how Nguyen left acting in New York to living in Kansas City with a full-time job, a full-time corporate job, and a seat on the board of Parks and Recreation on the new episode of A Better Table. This season of A Better Table is sponsored by Chobani.

In this episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Arielle Rebekah, the founder of Trans and Caffeinated. Trans and Caffeinated is a blog, an Instagram page, and a podcast dedicated to uplifting the "trans and queer community and also to educate cis folks about trans and queer issues." A Better Table is sponsored by Chobani.

Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Mikey Rinaldo, the founder of New Math Coffee. New Math Coffee is a Chicago-based roaster that highlights coffee from Asian coffee producers all around the world, including diasporic Asian producers. Motoyoshi finds out about Rinaldo's start in coffee, and what lead them to open a roasting company. A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear and Chobani.

Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Carmel Laurino. Laurino is the founder of Kalsada Coffee, a Manila-based company that processes, exports, and imports specialty coffee from the Philippines. Laurino talks about how the company got started and its work with Philippine specialty coffee and Kalsada's sustainability innovations. A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gearand Chobani.

Umeko Motoyoshi speaks to Bianka Alloyn And Sabreen Naimah, co-founders and owners of Cute Coffee in Oakland. Cute Coffee is a team of two and the pair do all their own marketing, packing, roasting, sourcing, and importing. They work exclusively with women coffee producers in countries all over the world. Motoyoshi interviews the founders and finds out how they got started in coffee, how Cute Coffee got off the ground, and how they've grown their small business during the pandemic.  

In this episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Gary Lambert, founder of Bright Land Coffee in Philadelphia. Gary has been featured in a couple of different contexts on Sprudge over the last year, including for his brand's outstanding cold brew packaging design and as part of our nationwide Black-owned coffee company feature, but there's another layer to the story that hasn't really been told yet—Lambert started the company as a dream following a cancer diagnosis. Learn about Lambert's life before coffee, the growth of Bright Land Coffee in the last two years, Bright Land's work with transparency in green sourcing, the wonders of CBD and coffee, and so much more. This episode of A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear and Chobani.

Bartholomew Jones is a co-founder of Cxffeeblack based in Memphis, Tennesee. Cxffeeblack is a multimedia operation promoting the Black history—and present—of coffee. Cxffeeblack spreads this message through music, apparel, a podcast, and roasted coffee. Jones joins Motoyoshi to talk about the Cxffeeblack story and a new project: the Anti-Gentrification Coffee Club. This episode of A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear and Chobani.

Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Madeleine Longoria Garcia, a co-owner of Pacific Coffee Research. PCR is a Specialty Coffee Association Premier Training Campus, quality analysis & cupping lab, roastery, and Hawai’i coffee education center in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Season One of A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear, Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands.

Host Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Chris McCauley and Cydni Patterson of Getchusomegear. Chris McAuley's Getchusomegear is built around the mission of “hookin’ up marginalized coffee pros and business owners with free coffee gear” but has quickly become much more. They just recently announced an incredible slate of charitable grant recipients, and are actively working to make the coffee world a better and more equitable place in real, tangible ways. Read our 2020 profile of Chris McAuley here.  Cydni Patterson is a coffee professional and barista competitor based out of Durham, North Carolina, and is the host of Cascara on the Sprudge Podcast Network. In each episode of Cascara, Patterson takes listeners to a different city and talks to locals about what makes their coffee community unique to find out, as she puts it, “what's really brewing in coffee scenes around the world.” It's the perfect way to scratch your travel itch during COVID times—a trip around the world in a cup of coffee, with Cydni Patterson as your guide.  Support Getchusomegear this giving season by donating directly to mutual aid organizations that support them, including FoodNotBombs919, DurhamFreeLunch, and GoFundBean. Getchu is also actively seeking coffee equipment donations, and in particular, is looking for coffee scales. This episode is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear, Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands.

In the latest episode of A Better Table, host Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Latasha Barr Lewis and Camden Myer of Cam's Coffee. Cam's Coffee is a Black family-owned business founded by Cam, who is 12 years old. Cam has a Traumatic Brain Injury and he is focused on creating diverse, supportive employment for disabled people. His mom, Latasha is an educator and the company's COO. A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear, Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex.

Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Will Frith of building.coffee about the coffee species Robusta. A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear, Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex.

In the fourth episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Laetitia Mukandahiro. Mukandahiro is a renowned coffee professional in Kigali, Rwanda. She is an accomplished cupper, a licensed Q Grader, and she has judged Cup of Excellence multiple times. She has worked in many areas throughout the coffee value stream, and now she runs her own company Ikawa House. In this episode, Mukandahiro shares the experience of women in Rwandan coffee production. Season One of A Better Table is sponsored by Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands. Full transcript available here.

In the fourth episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Emily Haddad. Haddad is an acupuncture student, barista, and works as a key organizer in the Tartine Union. Tartine Bakery originally opened in 2002 in San Francisco's Mission District. In February of 2020, Tartine was operating five retail storefronts in the Bay Area, three in LA and four in Seoul, Korea. That same month, over 140 employees declared their intention to unionize to management. Earlier this year, Motoyoshi sat down with Emily Haddad and had a conversation about the efforts to unionize. Season One of A Better Table is sponsored by Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands.

In the third episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Adam JacksonBey. JacksonBey is the founder of GoFundBean, a nonprofit organization that supports, uplifts, and protects the hourly coffee professional. Motoyoshi and JacksonBey discuss workplace and career sustainability for baristas and the important work GoFundBean is doing to make that possible. Season One of A Better Table is sponsored by Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands.

In the second episode of A Better Table, host Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Kim Elena Ionescu, the Chief Sustainability and Knowledge Development Officer at Specialty Coffee Association. Ionescu and Motoyoshi dive deep into an issue impacting coffee farmers all over the world: labor shortages. This is a complex, multi-faceted topic and it makes for an absolutely compelling listen. Even if you’ve never encountered these issues before, settle in with the show and you will come away asking questions and pondering the bigger picture. Presented by Baratza, Urnex, and Oatly. Transcript available here.

A Better Table on the Sprudge Podcast Network is hosted by Sprudgie Award-winning journalist, author and community organizer Umeko Motoyoshi. This show is a journalistic deep dive into the topics that matter in today’s coffee world, from disability access to coffee producer rights at origin to labor organizing in the modern coffee workforce, and much, much more. Motoyoshi’s fearless journalism isn’t afraid to ask big questions: who is coffee for, what ways can we challenge existing systems, and how do we come together to create a better table for all. In the first episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews disability rights activist and author Alice Wong (Disability Visibility). Alice Wong is an award-winning disability awareness activist, consultant, and media producer based in San Francisco, and was appointed to the National Council on Disability by President Obama. In 2015, Wong made history as the first person to visit The White House via a telepresence robot. The Disability Visibility Project has collected over one hundred and forty oral histories in collaboration with the nonprofit organization StoryCorps.  While this interview was recorded before the COVID-19 crisis disrupted cafes across the country, the topic of accessibility remains as relevant as ever; cafes are slowly starting to reopen under new restrictions, and it's important to consider the access barriers of new protocols. Our pursuit of a "new normal" for cafe operations in the coming months and years must hold space for every person, a notion for which Alice Wong is a powerful advocate. Full transcript available here. This episode of A Better Table is sponsored by Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands. 

Julien Langevin is the 2022 US Cup Tasters Champion, founder of the Tomato Coffee Class, and an outspoken advocate for mental health and trans rights. In this episode, Langevin discusses the recovery process after a mental health episode, and the stigma around mental health. Help Julien with Emergency Recovery and Expenses GoFundMe Podcast transcript available here. A Better Table is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series.

Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Vancouver, BC-based Slothee Coffee founder Jessica Lui on the latest episode of A Better Table. Lui specializes in a form of latte art known as etching (when tools are used after milk is poured to draw and/or sculpt) and creates incredible works of colorful art. With Slothee Coffee, Lui teaches latte art classes, organizes coffee service pop-ups, and works as a photographer and content-creator. This episode is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series.