Red Ink Coffee

The Better Coffee: On Friendship

Friendship does not require us to love everyone in coffee. It asks us to understand one another’s situation—and to act together.

THE PLACES — OPEN CALL

Three years of consultation, new business connections, and cooperative support for the moments when working alone stops being enough. Through the Coffee People initiative, three applicants can join The Places for free and put that network to work from day one.

THE BETTER COFFEE OFFICE — OPEN CALL

Try your hand at coordinating an international coffee cooperative. We’re looking for partners ready to work together to improve the conditions of coffee people. Help shape The Better Coffee from the inside.

Someone Decided This Should Exist in Arabic

Twenty Ways to See Coffee Better now exists in Arabic because Salman Alsubaihi decided to make it happen.

Coffee People: Put Something Behind the Words

Twenty-seven coffee people are putting their voices and reach behind three others. Three coffee people facing real problems will receive access to The Places at no cost. You can help make that happen.

What Coffee People Are Telling Us

Across 27 conversations, coffee people describe the problems they face, what they want to change, and what keeps returning: cooperation, solidarity, shared knowledge, and the need for structures that make collective action possible.

Coffee People

Coffee People: Chris So

Chris So, beverage consultant, coach, judge, and educator, United Kingdom. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

Coffee People

Coffee People: Spencer Turer

Spencer Turer, Head of Quality Assurance at Pan American Coffee, Edison, New Jersey. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

Coffee People

Coffee People: Milo

Milad "Milo" Chaharlangi, barista and community manager at Another Cotton Lab, Düsseldorf. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

After Better Means: Enough Is Enough

Krzysztof Blinkiewicz summarizes the Better Means series, its twenty values, and what they ask of coffee people now.

Twenty Ways to See Coffee Better: The Book Is Out

The Better Means series is now available as a free illustrated book, together with its final essay, “After Better Means: Enough Is Enough.”

better

Better Means: The Harm We Don't See

This is a pacifist endeavour. But pacifism starts long before war.

better

Better Means: Name the Power Over You

We like to think we're in charge of our own lives. This isn't an essay about determinism. It's about one simple question: who is actually running your work in coffee — today, right here, right now?

Coffee People

Coffee People: Daniele Ricci

Daniele Ricci, freelance barista, trainer and consultant. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

Coffee People

Coffee People: Tasmin Grant

Tasmin Grant, Managing Editor, Perfect Daily Grind. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

Coffee People

Coffee People: Jairo Ramírez

Jairo Ramírez, Authorized SCA Trainer and Q Grader, coffee processing and quality consultant. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

better

Better Means: The Planet Doesn't Negotiate

Coffee grows in the ground. That sounds obvious — until you start thinking about what we're doing to that ground.

Coffee People

Coffee People: Mario Roberto Fernandez Alduenda

Mario Roberto Fernandez Alduenda, Technical VP at the Specialty Coffee Association, on standards, shade-grown coffee, and the aging of coffee farmers. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

Better Means: Redefine Coffee Competitions

People are capable of working together on the basis of equality, trust, and coordination — without hierarchy, without domination. The coffee market teaches us something else entirely, every single day: compete on every front.

Coffee People

Coffee People: Gideon Thembo

Gideon Thembo, barista and promoter of Rwenzori origin, Western Uganda. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

Signals

The Better Coffee Office — Open Call

The Better Coffee Office is opening to new members: a paid, remote-first role for coffee people ready to lead, build, and share responsibility across the system. Applications close August 5.

Coffee People

Coffee People: Bryan Serwatka

Bryan Serwatka, On-Trade Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Minor Figures. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

Better Means: Take What Is Yours

The system doesn't break coffee people by accident. It does it methodically, generation after generation, and calls it the market.

Coffee People

Coffee People: Hossain Dalaoawar

Hossain Dalaoawar, barista and baker from Bangladesh. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

Better Means: Help Others. Help Yourself

"I'll help you." When's the last time you heard that — and didn't immediately wonder what they wanted in return?