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Coffee People: Put Something Behind the Words

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

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: Chris So

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: Spencer Turer

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: Milo

Coffee People: Milo

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

Illustration by qmkn.

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

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.”

Two weathered hands cupping a latte with latte art. The hands show signs of work and wear. The coffee looks perfect. The person behind it remains unseen.

Better Means: The Harm We Don't See

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

A burlap sack stamped with the word SPECIALTY fills the foreground in sharp focus. In the background, a blurred figure of a worker bends over their work, unnamed and secondary to the label.

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: Daniele Ricci

Coffee People: Daniele Ricci

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

Coffee People: Tasmin Grant

Coffee People: Tasmin Grant

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

Coffee People: Jairo Ramírez

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.

An elderly farmer holds a cupped handful of dry soil, his weathered hands filling the frame.

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: Mario Roberto Fernandez Alduenda

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.

Two people sitting across from each other at a checkered table, each holding a cup of coffee, seen from above.

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: Gideon Thembo

Coffee People: Gideon Thembo

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

The Better Coffee Office — Open Call

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: Bryan Serwatka

Coffee People: Bryan Serwatka

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

A close-up of a weathered hand holding a few green coffee beans against a metal grid background.

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: Hossain Dalaoawar

Coffee People: Hossain Dalaoawar

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

Three pairs of hands held out at the same level, each cupping a small handful of red coffee cherries. The hands belong to different people — no one above, no one below.

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?

Coffee People: Radek Kolombo

Coffee People: Radek Kolombo

Radek Kolombo, green coffee buyer and roastery manager at Nordbeans, Liberec, Czech Republic. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

Coffee People: Salman Alsubaihi

Coffee People: Salman Alsubaihi

Salman Alsubaihi, Director of Coffee Quality & Operations, Saudi Arabia. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

Coffee People: Fahed Almaghrbi

Coffee People: Fahed Almaghrbi

Fahed Almaghrbi, agricultural engineer and founder of Yemen-at-Coffee, Yemen. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.

Coffee People: Tasos Delichristos

Coffee People: Tasos Delichristos

Tasos Delichristos, founder of The Underdog Coffee Roasters, Athens, Greece. Four questions — everything the industry rarely stops to hear.