Confessions Of A Barista

This week I decided to keep on theme with influencer successes in the coffee industry. At the peak of its era, Vine was the place for comedic content and my most frequented app during the years of 2014-2016. Zane and Heath, a friend duo living in Florida at the time, made the top spot on the comedy page on the daily with their six-second sketches. A Vine of theirs that went viral and sticks with me even years later, is this short sketch that will make you question why you chuckled. The Vine is considered one of the best, and would later become the inspiration for Kramoda Coffee.  After Vine shut down in 2016, Zane and Heath made the move to YouTube, where they created long-form vlog content. Similar to Emma Chamberlain from last week's post , Zane and Heath had a segment in their vlogs called “Coffee Talk”. They would stop in the middle of their errands and visit a small Vietnamese coffee shop, where over time they were able to befriend the owners and they became characters in th...

WHO IS EMMA CHAMBERLAIN? If you were around comedy-vlog YouTube in 2017-2018, you will recognize the name, Emma Chamberlain . Chamberlain quickly gained popularity on her YouTube because of her friendly personality and quick wit. Each video of Chamberlain’s felt like I was on errands with a friend - a very funny one at that. Included in those daily activities of Chamberlain’s vlogs were her coffee runs. One of Chamberlain’s main characteristics that she frequently mentioned was her addiction to caffeine, often sharing with her viewers her favorite recipes in her videos. My point is that Emma Chamberlain may be the reason I have become addicted to coffee and I’m not mad about it.  ABOUT CHAMBERLAIN COFFEE In December 2019, Chamberlain, very fitting to her brand, announced the launch of her very own coffee company: Chamberlain Coffee . In an interview , Chamberlain said, “My love for coffee started when I was maybe 10. I used to go to coffee shops with my mom and get, literally, a la...

  He Used to Be Angry Working in a major city with a large homeless population, I often find myself interacting with those who have no place to call home. Pete was not the kindest man when he first started coming in but I never took it personally - it's hard to be nice when you're tired, cold, and hungry. He always wore a faded green jacket, ripped blue jeans, and dragged a large cart full of his stuff behind him.  "Large Pike with five raw sugar and cream," he'd say bluntly before I had the chance to ask him how he was doing that day.  My most memorable interaction of those early days with Pete was when he asked me about the pandemic.  "I have no way to read the news, I don't know what's going on. When can I sit in here again?"  I let him know what information I had, but after he left, my heart ached with the realization that so many don't have any access to resources about the current state of the world.  One night, after I realized he'...