Tiny Sidecar: A Coffee Podcast
Tiny Sidecar is a women-focused coffee podcast celebrating the voices, stories, and passions of the coffee world. From farmers to roasters to baristas and beyond, each episode takes you on a playful, empowering ride through the industry’s vibrant community. Hosted by Cait Rifkin, Tiny Sidecar shares candid conversations, inspiring journeys, and the occasional sidecar detour. Hop in, we’re brewing something amazing.
Tiny Sidecar: A Coffee Podcast
Sidecar Sessions: Kat Melheim, Coffee People Zine
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Kat Melheim is the creator of Coffee People Zine, an independent publication built around the art, stories, and creativity of people working in coffee.
In this episode, Kat and Cait talk about where Coffee People came from, building something outside the traditional rules of the coffee industry, and what it takes to keep an independent creative project going. They get into making space for other people’s voices, the importance of creativity and play, and what can happen when you stop waiting for permission and just make the thing you want to exist.
It’s a conversation about coffee, art, community, and creating something that feels entirely your own.
Thanks for listening to Tiny Sidecar.
If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend or leave a quick review. We'll see you here next Tuesday!
You can always reach me at howdy@tinysidecar.com or over on Instagram @tinysidecar
Hi, hello and howdy, and welcome back to Tiny Sidecar. I'm Kate, your host in Sidegar Sidekick, and today I'm hanging out with Kat Melham, the human behind Coffee People Zine. Coffee People is creative, personal, thoughtful, and really just a place for coffee people to be people. So today we're talking about the zine, where it came from, what Kat has learned from making it, and what happens when you give coffee people a blank page and ask, so what do you want to say? We are literally days away from the release of this year's Coffee People Zine, so the timing could not be more perfect. So why don't you grab your favorite cup of coffee and let's get right into it, shall we? Thank you so much for being on today. I'm so excited to talk about the zine. Will you give us just like a short background if someone hasn't heard of Coffee People before, uh, what Coffee People is?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Uh Coffee People Zine is a celebration of the creativity of the coffee community. So basically, it's an art journal for people who work in and around coffee. I kind of think of it as like a bunch of blank pages that I open up to anyone who wants to contribute and then people fill it up. That's yeah. And it's also a physical publication. I made that decision from early on because I really think we spend so much time on our phones. I started Coffee People Zine in 2018, uh, and it's more true now than it was then. We spend so much time on our phones and interacting with screens uh that I really wanted something to kind of bring people away from the the intangible online world and bring them into the kind of here and now physical world. So yeah, it's a bunch of art and creativity by people in coffee.
SPEAKER_00Are you always surprised about what people will submit to you when the submissions come in?
SPEAKER_01Oh my goodness. Yes. There's like every time that I kind of like close submissions and start sorting through them, there's at least three to five times that I cry because either the work is so like beautiful or surprising. Uh, a number of times that I laugh because things are just like people are funny.
SPEAKER_00Obviously, like there has been in the past, like, this is how you show up as a coffee professional. This is what baristas look like. This is how roasters look, this is how they talk, this is how they move, that's how you get um credibility. Maybe I always think of like the Instagram post of like when you walk into a cafe and your baristas don't have tattoos or like their hair isn't crazy or whatever it might be, like, and you leave because they don't know anything about coffee. Do you feel like coffee people is a way for people to show up more as themselves and maybe less judgment for how they want to be or who they are?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I mean, part of the origin story, I guess, of coffee people zine was that in 2018, 2017, really 2016, 17, um, I was really involved in the barista scene where I lived in Denver. I was a barista at the time. And I would go to all of the local throwdowns and all of the local coffee events, and it was like the same few people over and over and over winning. And to no one's surprise, it was always like cis straight white men who were winning over and over and over. And nothing against cis straight white men. There are a lot of great ones out there, but I just kept looking around and seeing other people with such varying talents. Like my friend was a photographer who had an art show like the next week, or you know, another fellow barista was a gigging musician, and they had a call like a show coming up uh, you know, in a couple weeks. And I just yeah, I just kept looking around and being like this small section, the small segment of coffee people that we celebrate is really such a small representation of the wide depth and breadth of talent and passion and creativity that we have in this industry. And yet we only really put a few people who are really good at one very particular thing on a pedestal. What would happen if we looked at everybody else and didn't judge everyone by the same rubric of who can pour the most squiggly milk into a cup? And and judge it, like, and and not, yeah, not judge people by that, but invite everyone to bring what they want to share, what they're good at, what their rubric for, you know, hobby, passion, success looks like. Um, and yeah, that's really where the idea of coffee people zine came from. I just wanted to be like, you know, it wasn't like down with latte art throwdowns. It was like, okay, that exists over there, but I want to live in a world that's a little bit more dynamic and a little bit more diverse in terms of what we see as celebratory. So I created the zine to kind of yeah, open that space.
SPEAKER_00You know, what I think is really cool about it is coffee. I mean, yes, there's the squiggly milk art, which I think is what we should call it, like the squiggly line. However, you just said it, I think that's the perfect way to describe what we're doing. Um, but I mean, so many people are drawn to coffee because it's so creative and it's so beautiful. Like the reason why I think we all love the latte art is because like a little piece of art in front of you, like it's literally called art. So I have to imagine that the breath of artists that are in the coffee industry, like they gotta be everywhere, right? Like there's gotta just be so many creative people in our industry. And I kind of feel like it's different than other industries.
SPEAKER_01No, I totally, I totally agree. And I think that there's there's something about coffee that attracts a certain, like, I don't know, certain type of brain, a certain type of creative brain. Um, because you can also take it in so many different ways. You can create signature drinks, you can create roasting profiles, which some people, you know, think of as more scientific and analytical, but it also is a way to tweak and adjust to create new things. And uh yeah, I think that coffee uniquely attracts people with brains that want to try and create. And then also jobs in coffee, in particular, barista jobs, I would say, allow for a life that allows you to pursue creative endeavors outside of your job. Um, because a lot of barista jobs are, you know, early morning shifts. So you have the whole rest of your evening to do whatever you want, whether you're a musician and you want to play shows in the night or you know, you're an artist and you have the rest of your day to make art? Um, it really allows you a life that is really flexible to pursue art artistic endeavors, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Knowing that there are so many creative people in the coffee industry, was there a moment for you that you also recognized that you were a creative person? Were you creative before coffee, I guess? Or was it also being surrounded by all of these creative people that you're like, oh yeah, actually I do like doing art and I want to try this and I want to be playful because you are very playful and creative with how you think of things?
SPEAKER_01Thank you. I would say this is a really complicated question and topic for me because I have struggled my whole adult life, I will say, with calling myself an artist. Because I feel like there have and I I don't hold other people to the same standard that I hold myself. Uh, because I'm like, yeah, everybody's an artist, duh. But for some reason I have this like mental block that I try to work through to call myself an artist. Um, but yeah, I mean, I've always been creative. When I was a really little kid, like I would make stories, I would draw all the time. Um, and I've kind of continued to have some sort of creative outlet throughout my life, whether or not I considered myself an artist by doing that form of art. Um, I feel like identity and behavior are, you know, two separate, two separate things. Um, but I am working on calling myself an artist. And I do consider myself now an artist because I have been doing a lot of art lately. I've been doing a lot of different creative things. Um and, you know, honestly, so I started founded The Zine in 2018, and the last issue I published was at the end of 2024. I took 2025 off. And because uh yeah, and that allowed me to really focus on doing my own art for a long time while I was publishing the zine. I really I saw my creative expression more in curating the zine, and I and I kind of didn't do as much of my own artwork. I still did some painting here and there. Um, but within the last year of not publishing the zine, I've been able to really kind of open up my own creative juices, I guess, uh, and explore, explore a bunch of things with that extra time that I had been putting into the zine that now I've been able to put into my own artwork, which has been really fun and really eye-opening and and really, I don't know, re like reinforcing to me the importance of art making.
SPEAKER_00I feel like I've been trying to be more creative this last year. And before that, I like I used to paint, I used to draw a lot, and then got away from it. Just life got busy. And coming back to it, I it just like the way your brain starts to think about things. I think you get creative in problem solving and other things as well, just because you're kind of looking at these blank pages or whatever it might be and having to develop something. And I think your brain starts to fire differently because you're doing it.
SPEAKER_01Love what you said about like being playful because I feel like that is what really allows, like what set that sets the stage for creativity. I feel like for many years, I and I think a lot of people with you know, hustle culture and side hustles and like this make something of yourself and like everything constantly being online, everything constantly being pushed on social media, it has uh taken us away from the idea of creating for the sake of creating and not for a product to be shown or an item to be displayed or a video to be created to shown to people. And I've had to, I've I've like intentionally forced myself to make things that I don't show to other people. The chaff paper is is not one of them because obviously I've been making videos about that one, but that's just because I started it by my, I started it just doing it by myself because I was curious about it. Um, and then I got to a point where I was like, oh, this is so fun. I want to share it with other people.
SPEAKER_00I mean, we have to talk about the coffee paper.
SPEAKER_01The the chaff paper, I've so I've been a roaster for many years. And as you know, when you roast, there's just like bunches and bunches and buckets of chaff that build up. So I've always wondered, and it's a papery substance, we literally describe it as a papery byproduct of coffee roasting. And so I've wondered for so many years what would happen if you tried to actually make paper from the coffee chaff. And I finally got almost like fed up with myself of procrastinating it for so many years, and was like, I need to stop questioning this, I need to stop wondering what happens and just do it and see. Uh and yeah, it's been a really fun, a fun exploration into really like nothing in particular, because I'm, you know, the goal, the goal, the hope is that sometime I'll get uh a piece of paper that I can actually like write on. I haven't yet achieved that because I've you know things go wrong. But it yeah, it does engage different creative mechanisms in your brain of like problem solving, observation. I think that's another thing that we uh with the like social media, digital age, being on screens all the time, we're not really good at observing and engaging with like or interacting with what's like really just in front of us and paying really close attention. Um, so it's allowed me to to do that and to be creative, to really create new things. I think you need to be truly present with what you're what you're interacting with.
SPEAKER_00How do you think you balance? Like, obviously, a big part of your career is Roaster Cat. And so, how do you balance this idea of like, I have to post and I have to stay relevant on that platform? But I also do want to have this side of me that is like it's a handheld zine. It's physical. I get to just be here with this, or I can keep my art to myself when it I love that you were like, I did start it by myself, but then it was so fun that I was like, I have to share this. Like, I think that's just such different energy than like I have to do this project, so I can take a video, so I can show people. Like it's a very different side of you, I guess. Like, how do you balance those two sides when a lot of your job is being in front of people?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a really great question. And honestly, I don't know how I how I do it. I it's a lot of internal struggle, I'll say, uh, because I do I have this like desire sometimes to just totally unplug and just do art all the time and not ever be on online. But then I also have such a rich, like such a rich, I will say community of people. I know the community is often overused, but I have a rich community of people online that I couldn't connect with in the same way if I didn't have the roaster cat profile, uh, if I wasn't on there pretty frequently. And I really value the interactions that I have on social media. So I don't know if that really answers the question. I'll say like I I feel like social media and particularly my roaster cat Instagram is like a means to a different end than my like creative expression and zine stuff. Really, both of them are driven by a desire to connect with other people and to have deep, rich relationship with other people. And they just it just happens in different ways via Roaster Cat online and in person. I really I've actually been thinking a lot lately about how we need more in-person things for roasters. Like we just we need more in-person events and get-togethers, even if it's not a full, you know, weekend-long roast summit, but we need to we need to be together more frequently in person. Um, and then through the zine, it's just a different way to connect uh over a different, yeah, different mechanisms for connection and human relationship.
SPEAKER_00I do feel like both of the different platforms are serving something that feels genuine, like they're meant to build relationships or show visibility to something. I mean, Roaster Cat, when you first came on my Instagram, you were one of the first female presenting roasters that I had really seen in that light. And as a female roaster, I was like, oh my God. And it was something that I was so hungry for. I was like so sick of hearing just dudes tell me about the dude experience. Where are the ladies? Where are my girls? And so I feel like both are showing something and showing representation in different ways. And I think as long as they both feel intentional, then maybe it's serving you in a way that's like, oh no, it still feels genuine. Like I think if you were having to do stuff, at least it sounds like if you were having to do stuff, you're like, that's not me, then it probably would be like really conflicting to you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, totally. And I mean, I started Roaster Cat, actually started it in 2017 before I even started the zine. And at that time I I started it and called it Roaster's Apprentice rather than roaster cat. Uh, but then I realized after a couple of years that apprentice is a really difficult word to spell. So when you're trying to tell people your handle and you're trying to like try to say roaster's apprentice, it's long and hard to spell. So I changed it to roaster cat in like 2021. Um, but yeah, when I first started that account, I was really posting, like I was really lucky to go to some like roaster education conferences and roast summit and uh to get my roast um I think it's it was the intermediate roast level certification or whatever. Um, and I was really lucky to be attending different educational events, and I realized, you know, a lot of other people weren't in those rooms with me. Again, a lot it was primarily dominated by men. So I'm straight men, again, lovely fellows. Um, but I didn't see a lot of a lot of yeah, a lot of other representation. And I was like, well, if other people aren't getting into these rooms, but I can get into these rooms, then I want to start sharing the things that I'm learning in these rooms so that other people can have access to this information as well. So I started like my first couple of posts were literally I would take a picture of a presenter at like uh at a conference, and then I'd be like writing my notes in the uh like in the text overlay over the top of it, and then posting that. Um and yeah, I just kind of kept posting little by little. I also posted a lot of like roaster cleaning stuff early on because I love roaster cleaning, the before and afters, the chemical reactions of the oils breaking down. It's so nice. Um, and then I started working at black and white in uh here in Raleigh in 2021, late 2021, and I was exposed to so many new varieties, new processing methods uh that I started posting like even more and more. And it just kind of like took off from there. So from the beginning, my intention was to share things with other people and connect with other roasters over cool stuff I was learning. Um, I never made that account to like, you know, be an influencer. Um, I it would be a disservice, I feel like it would be like lying not to call myself an influencer and how like I I get it. Um, but I yeah, I never did it to like in order to make my content pop off. Um and I told myself from the beginning, especially when it started gaining a little more traction in 2021 and 2022, like I'm not going to continue posting if it becomes a burden, if it becomes a struggle or like a a slog, I'll say. Um and as my follower count has like increased, there definitely have been times where I was like it like the the pressure to continue posting and as you said, like stay relevant definitely is there. But I've been very clear with myself that that isn't the kind of like determining factor of whether I post or not. Um, because I know that a lot of creators, like content creators, burn out. A lot of content creators start hating what they do. And I don't want to to hate making little videos for the internet because I think it's super fun. Um it's gotten me, it's really, it's opened the world to me in ways that I can't even like couldn't even even comprehend it. Um and so yeah, I maintain kind of like a I don't know, a gratitude for it and a respect for it that I don't like overinvest myself into it. Sometimes I toe the line, I'm not gonna lie. Sometimes I'm like, ugh, I haven't posted, I have to make something. Um, but I found ways to kind of reignite my excitement for it rather than just push through and then start to resent it.
SPEAKER_00Is there a particular area in the coffee industry that you feel most like yourself or a role that you've been in that you were able to be like your most authentic self?
SPEAKER_01I feel like I'm mostly I feel like I'm many selves depending on the the situation and they're all different like authentic versions of me. Like I feel a different part of my brain activated when I'm working on the zine or while when I'm at a let's say zine release party, but it still feels like me. I'm at a and then another part of my brain is on when I'm you know on stage teaching about roasting, but that also feels very much like me. Probably though, like I'll I'll walk it back and say that probably the most like myself air quotes that I've ever really been in coffee is when I just worked at a local coffee shop and was serving my regulars because the relationships that you build with regulars, I think are I mean, they're they could be years long, and it's a different a different way of of being yourself with someone that you see two, three, five times a week.
SPEAKER_00They almost like become your friends in a way. Oh, truly. You know.
SPEAKER_01I've found housemates from like my regulars. I've uh I've like babysat for my regulars' kids, I've I've found friends from from regulars, you know. Yeah, you just uh it's a wide, wide variety.
SPEAKER_00So I know that you talked about stepping away from the zine, giving yourself more time to be creative in your own right. What was something that in the last, like how long have you known that you were gonna bring the zine back? And what was something that was like, yeah, I do want to bring it back. This is, I want to make space for that again.
SPEAKER_01I always knew that I wanted to keep the door open in case that I had the kind of mental capacity and bandwidth to bring the scene back. And I decided to bring it back towards the beginning of this year. I started really like kind of wrestling with the idea of okay, I've I went an entire year, I went 2025 without publishing an issue of Coffee People Zine. Can I go another year without publishing an issue of Coffee People Zine? And I just kind of like had this, I don't know, gnawing at my heart that was like, no, I can't, I can't go another year without it. Uh and yeah, it because the zine, I uh when I closed, when I made the decision to put it on permanent pause, I felt like the world maybe didn't need it anymore. Because as I said, one of the reasons that I founded the zine was to open blank pages for people to share their art, their creativity. That was 2018. Instagram was still definitely a thing, but it was not what it is now. YouTube, same thing. Those platforms, and you know, now there's a billion other social media platforms as well, um, and different ways that people are sharing their art, are sharing their creativity. And so at the end of 2024, I was like, I don't think that the world needs the zine anymore to share creativity. We can do it in other ways. And then throughout last year, I just found myself missing the particular connection that the zine creates between the viewer, in this case myself, and the artist. Even if I'm not standing face to face with them, even if I'm not seeing their work on like you know, in in person, I'm seeing well, I'm seeing it in physical form, I'm seeing it on the pages of the zine. And I just kept missing that ability to connect with people in that way. And then I started wondering, well, if I miss it, maybe other people miss it too. I also will say that I have worried for many years that if I didn't publish, so when I first founded the zine, I published four issues a year. So it was like a quarterly or seasonal thing. I published it on the first day of each season. Then after a while, I went to three issues a year because four was just like a constant churn. And I and three issues still then felt like a lot. Um, so but I had a fear that if I went down to two issues or one issue a year, that people would like forget about it, that it wouldn't be frequent enough, and nobody would like care about it anymore. But as I continued to care about it, and I talked with other people that I knew who either had been featured in it or shops that carried it or people that subscribed to the zine, like people still cared about it and missed it. So that fear of mine kind of dissipated over the last year. And I was like, okay, I might as well try and bring it back. And if it flops, then I can be like, well, yep, it lived its life, it's over and done with. Um, but I wanted to give it, I wanted to try rather than just assume. Um, I mean, kind of like this chaff paper stuff. I'm like, uh, I spend so much time thinking and wondering, will it work? Will it not work? Well, try it. And if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't, you have your answer. So yeah, similar with this, I was like, okay, if after, I mean, by the time I release it, the official release date is September 20th. So it'll almost be two years, like two years date-wise from the the last issue. If after these 22 months everybody forgets about it and nobody wants to submit and nobody wants to purchase it, great. It lived its life. But what I found is I've had more submissions than like I've had the most submissions that I've ever had since like 2022 or something. I think since 2021, like since like COVID times when everyone was, you know, still kind of home and churning in their house and trying to find ways to relieve their stress and emotions. Um, so yeah, I think it seems like the time is the time is right again. Um, I also think that like there are things that we were talking about in 2016, 17, 18 that led up to me starting the zine in terms of social justice, in terms of racial justice, in terms of gender equity, in terms of uh sexuality, that we're that we we thought we were close to we thought we were close to uh solving, I would say. Uh we we thought we were moving the needle forward. And then in the last two years, I'll say, uh I feel like we've as a country, especially like in in the US in particular, which is where we live, uh we have backslid on a lot of the progress we had made um in like yeah, since 2018, 19, 21, 2, 3, uh, four. So yeah, so then that that's the other thing. I'm like, I thought that we were like past some of this bullshit about being bigoted, but I guess not. And the zine is here to open space and push things forward and advocate for people who are not always at the front of the conversation and give pages to anyone who wants to have them. Um and so yeah, I think kind of in that, I don't know, not necessarily directly political, but everything is political uh sense like we need we need that space open back up. We need to revisit these these issues. And why not bring yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_00I do think there's like two different ways that you could go after that. Is like one, I think it's really interesting to talk about what the zine is for you because there are some parallels for me with tiny sidecar, like the way that I have grown as a human just by talking, like sitting down and having these conversations. And I feel so lucky to be like, hey, I want to ask you this. Like in the moment, having that. Tiny sidecar means so much to me because of it. Where I'm like, man, I'm a better roaster, but I'm a better human. I feel like a community is building, more women are getting to know each other, not feeling as alone, maybe. Um, so I feel like there is a unique perspective in the fact that you do get to see all of the submissions and all of the art. And maybe it's a good reminder for you as well. Like, there are really creative people all over the place. And like they want something that I want too. Like they want to build this magazine with me. They want spaces where like you can show your weirdest side if you want to, and it's totally fine if you're just sitting at home, I don't know, making monsters all the time. Good for you. Like, show people. Like, so I feel like there's that side of it. And then I think the other side is just like totally what you're saying. I think there's a reason why so many people are leaning back into nostalgia right now. Like, we're so fed up with the news and what's happening today that we weren't expecting because yesterday was so bad. And it's like, please just give me something, give me a comfort. And so I feel like both sides of what you were just talking about are really interesting because they're both so relevant. Like, yes, please bring the zine back because we need some joy. And how does that joy show up for you?
SPEAKER_01So I read The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, and he's like a super creative, very much in like the music side of things. Um, but one of the things that he said in this book, it's a little bit like woo-woo spiritual sometimes, but one of the things he said that really struck me is that sometimes there is like an idea that needs to be manifested. There is a thing that whatever, like in the ether that needs to be in the world. And if that idea occurs to you, you should do it. You you should, it's like you are kind of tasked with bringing it into light. If you choose not to, that's fine. That idea, that thing, that is gonna go to somebody else, and then they might bring it to the world. Um, and so I feel like for me, the zine is a lot like that, where I kind of it it serves me in a way that also like, I don't know, I feel a lot of other people needing the same thing as I need, which is kind of a beautiful thing, like a beautiful feeling of connection with a bunch of other people that I don't even know who they are. But I'm like, yeah, we we all need this. We all need an ability to just show who we are and share what we want about ourselves from our brains with no, you know, algorithm deciding who gets to see it and who doesn't. Um so yeah, I don't that doesn't really exactly answer your question. But that's okay.
SPEAKER_00But that's okay. I think it's both. I have heard that before. And I there's like almost this part where it's like, oh, but then I better do it now. Otherwise, someone else is going to do it. Um, but at the same time, I'm like, it's kind of nice to know if I don't do it. Someone else probably is going to, and it's still going to exist, you know?
SPEAKER_01Well, and that's kind of that's another thing that I thought our reason that I wanted to pause the publication of the zine is I was like, you know, I don't have to feel that the weight of the creative coffee world is on my shoulders, and I'm the sole, you know, I'm the only person who can bring this space. Like that's egotistical, like crazy. And and I don't believe that. Um, but so so that's part of why I wanted to pause it and be like, okay, like other people can create things, and other people do create a lot of things. I mean, I even I think your podcast not talking about only the particulars of coffee roasting, or only like you open a space that allows people to share who they are and be who they are. Like, that's another iteration of this. And there's a lot of other projects, a lot of other people who are doing similar things, either on local levels with like local competitions, or um, yeah. So I think it's just kind of fun to see who else is opening space and creating new things and um in in their own different ways.
SPEAKER_00It's cool to see what people are coming up with, and like people are cool. People are great brains. Yeah, what I've learned today is people are cool, they're doing cool things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, like we said before, like there is I think there's a a creative brain that kind of gravitates toward coffee. Um, and then also people have just kind of like the the impetus to start it. Like people just do stuff and and don't wait for permission. Like we just try, we just start stuff. Yeah. That's great. It's so cool.
SPEAKER_00I think it's again like a specific kind of person's like, well, why not? I mean, what's gonna happen? You know, like there's just like so. I mean, I feel like there's two sides of the story, and there's either the person that's like, this is how you have to show up, like maybe not to like rig on anyone, but like maybe the older coffee bro, for instance, like this is who you have to be, this is what you do, this is how you talk, like nothing can change. And there's the other person in the coffee industry, and maybe I'm just surrounding myself with these women, but they're always like, But why? Like, why do we have to keep doing it that way? Like, it doesn't make any sense. Like, why don't we try something different? And I love those people because it's just like an immediate, like, yeah, you're right. Like, this industry was built in such a bad way. Why are we still doing the stuff that like doesn't make sense for everyone? Like, why aren't we just switching it up a little bit, changing it up a little bit? And they're so like, I feel lucky that these are the people that are my peers in the coffee industry. Like, absolutely, you're right. Why not? Why not do something different?
SPEAKER_01For sure. And that's kind of again going back to like the the initial impetus for the zine, is I was like, okay, this like some parts of this coffee industry exist over here in this way, and there are very particular rules, there's a very particular structure. A lot of people look a very particular way, and that's not what I want to be in. So I'm gonna go over here and just kind of do the other thing. And like, I mean, it's kind of like a uh, you know, be the change you wish to see in the world in like a very non-spiritual way. Like create the thing you want to see in the world, and probably the other people who vibe with that will find you if if you're like genuine, if you're true about that, because that's attractive to other people who are interested in that kind of stuff. So yeah, I think the the coffee industry is full of uh very established ways of doing things, and we can choose not to participate in those to some extent and create something that's more true to us that that vibes more with who we want to be.
SPEAKER_00What would you say um to someone that's starting out in the coffee industry? What advice would you give them based on your knowledge and what you've learned over the years?
SPEAKER_01I would say stay curious and kind of fuck around and find out if I can swear. So for Roaster Cat, I have a like a little phrase that I that I repeat, which is try things, taste things, question everything. And I feel like I've developed that over years and years and years in the coffee industry, but it's so applicable to so many different realms of not just coffee, but life. Like try things. If you have a question, if you're wondering what you know, what will happen if try it and see what happens. Taste things, obviously, with coffee, that's like taste a bunch of coffees. If you're a roaster and you're wondering, you know, what happens if I roast for eight minutes versus 15 minutes, try them both and taste them both, see what the results are. So I think try things is like actively engage with with what is going on. Taste things is kind of like assess, analyze and and uh like find ways to interpret what's happening and then question everything. If you've been told something, question it. Don't like throw it out completely, but question it. Question why is it why is it that way? And then maybe try something else. Try it, taste it and question it again. Um rinse and repeat. Yeah, exactly. Just keep going, keep trying, tasting and questioning over and over and over. Um, I think that that with within the coffee industry, with life in general, that keeps things fun and interesting. I know, I mean, the coffee industry the coffee industry is so full of different avenues that you can pursue. If you want to be a lifer in the coffee industry, it's so easy because you can do such a huge range of jobs and explore so many different parts of the world and existence. Uh, so if you really want to be in it, you can find a way. And you, you know, also you don't have to. I'd probably also tell a new beginner in coffee in coffee like you don't have to make this all your entire life. You can, you can just dabble, you can just get really like you can just think get to a find the perfect pour over recipe for you and call it a day.
SPEAKER_00Like that's okay as well. I feel like so many of us forget though. Like, you're like, can you do that? Can you back out when you come into coffee? I don't know. It captures you. It really does. It truly does. I mean, and I don't like I don't want to leave. It's fun here. It's really fun here. This question I didn't prep you for at all. And I thought about it as you were talking. What's the one question you wish that someone would ask you?
SPEAKER_01I'll answer the question. Maybe this is going to be anticlimactic because I feel like this podcast has been a lot of it. I feel like, especially since my since Roaster Cat Instagram has become more and more like farther reaching, less and less of like my time and attention has had gone to the zine. And and less and less people, fewer and fewer people knew that I had the zine. And I felt like I almost had to like bifurcate myself. And like before you asked, you know, how do I balance these two aspects of myself with the creative and the physical with the more education, knowledge driven, and the digital. And I feel like yeah, the the I don't know, I feel like I somehow got this expectation, or I put this expectation on myself that one of Them had to be more important than the other. I had to feed one more than the other. Um, and so yeah, I've kind of like let the zine. I mean, and then I didn't publish a zine for a year, so I kind of let that take like the back burner um and was let let it kind of wither away a little bit. And with bringing it back, I feel like I didn't really know how to talk about it again because it's been so long since I talked about it. And also when I started it in 2018, I had you know a feature in Barista magazine and I was on podcasts about the zine and da-da-da. But in the last six years, I've only talked about Roaster Cat. Like nobody's asked me about Coffee People Zine. So I feel like this interview is honestly really all of the questions that I wish people would ask me now, uh, because it's things that I haven't shared in a really long time, and my relationship with this project has changed dramatically since eight years ago when I started it. And especially in the last 20 months since I hadn't published it.
SPEAKER_00And wild that 2018 is eight years ago. I was just like, my brain immediately is like, that's not right. It's not eight years. Yeah, I'm like, that can't be right. Do I telkat? I don't know. It's crazy. That's crazy. It's exciting that it's coming back in that sense of like you revisiting something that you started eight years ago, and then life happened, and now you're able to come back to it and see it through fresh eyes and see it through where you are in your life now. I think that's also really cool about art. It's like what I made eight years ago, I might not have ever made right now, but I've changed as a person. I get to experience things differently. Um I yes, I think that's a great answer to the question. It's just bringing back more zine into your life, into your Yeah, more zine.
SPEAKER_01I mean, and also as you said too, like people are, you know, into nostalgia these days. I've seen people talking about zines in the last year and a half. Like they nobody knew what a zine was when I started copy people eight years ago. And now everybody knows what a zine is. Yeah, and I love it. I'm so happy.
SPEAKER_00More zines, more print publications. My friend the other day was like, should we make a zine? And I was Yeah, you should. Yeah, should we do that?
SPEAKER_01Yes, and anything can be a zine, literally. You could fold a piece of paper and doodle on it. It's a zine. Anything can be a zine, more zines, more zines all around, more zines 2028. Let's go.
SPEAKER_00Let's go. Is there anything that we haven't talked about yet that you are hoping that we can talk about today?
SPEAKER_01I'll just reiterate that Coffee People Zine Issue 26 comes out on uh September 20th. And you can if yeah, so I'll just take this moment to reiterate to let you know ever again that uh the zine will be published on September 20th. That's the official zine release date. So you can pre-order now at coffeepeople.org. You can also find the link at Instagram at uh the handle is Coffee People Zine, Z-I-N-E, like magazine. Um, and we're also gonna have a zine release party, which is gonna be super fun. I love hosting zine release parties, it's so much fun. Um the first like two, yeah, 2018 and 2019, every single zine we ha hosted a different party. And it's just like it's just a fun way to get together that isn't just you know another latte art throwdown, though again, respect to latte art. Um but it's a fun way to gather as coffee people, coffee industry, coffee community, uh, without the same pressure. So yeah, but that will be in Minneapolis on September 20th. It'll be the last day. Uh, September 20th is a Sunday, so it's the last day of the level up barista uh training camp. If you want to come to that as well, if anybody out here wants to spend a weekend in Minneapolis learning from some of the best of the best in the industry. Um, you can find information about that on also on Instagram at Raise the Bar. Um, they're the organization that is putting on the level up conference, uh, which is yeah, this year is the second year they're putting on this level up conference. Uh, I will be there and then we'll have the party, the zine release party on the last day of that event.
SPEAKER_00So it's gonna be a great time. Such a cool event. Talk about like other people doing cool things in the industry. Like, so cool. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01More education, more people connecting, more in-person stuff. I'm all about it.
SPEAKER_00All of it, all of the above. Um, thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for chatting with me and telling me about the zine and just you. It's been so fun.
SPEAKER_01No, thank you. Maybe hopefully someday we'll get to sit out at your shop and have a conversation. Oh my gosh. Could you American do that? We could do that in person. True. We will do that in person.
SPEAKER_00Again, thank you so much, Kat, for coming on and spending some time with us. I am so grateful to have been able to share this last hour with her. She's really cool. And just as much as I want you to support the wonderful people in your life that are doing cool things, make sure to support Coffee People Zine and Kat as well. Incredible human. And raise the bar. Support them as well. If you don't know about them, go ahead and give them a follow. Um, I always think it's important. If you see someone doing something cool, make sure that they know it. Um, we all need that little extra cheerleading, right? So, again, so grateful to have you here. And we'll talk real soon. I actually have to go and pack for level up right now. Life light goes out tomorrow. Couldn't be more excited. I hope to see you there. Okay, bye, friends.
