I thought I'd do a little recap of what I've been up to in January! It's important to me that I take my time with things and don't burn out at any point, but it does seem like taking my time will be the cause of my eventual downfall.
Planning
I studied Journalism, and then Public Relations at uni and there's always been a part of me that has loved writing and wanted to be a writer. One of my goals for this year is to write something that gets onto a coffee publication! So I've been scaffolding stories so I can fill in the blanks when I get around to actually interviewing and speaking to the people I want to. I'm not here to pretend full time life doesn't take a toll on my own creative output - I find it hard to keep up with what I want to do versus what I feel like I can do. Approaching writing this way helps me feel like my energy is actually going somewhere when it might not seem so to other people. This may sound a bit strange but it helps me stay motivated and on track.
So what have I got planned? An interview with a burgeoning Australian coffee celebrity, a harrowing cafe opening (and the first WCACSD!), a dental plan, city coffee guides, and a big piece of original research about a topic I call "Coffee Literacy" and maybe an event in June??? Whew!!!!
Learning
One thing I'm very proud of is the steps I've taken to start learning more. Some of the things on my list were learning about colonialism in the coffee world, gentrification, water compositions and coffee history. I picked up two coffee related books this month - Water For Coffee and Coffee: A Global History and I've been taking as many notes as I possibly can. Water For Coffee takes me back to my high school physics days in its density and 'me-not-understandingness', while at the same time breaking down everything I took for granted in the major ingredient in coffee. I'm hoping to share what I learn and my own takeaways, as well as how I apply such things to working in a Sydney cafe, but in the meantime there are plenty of things you can read if you want to learn more.
Coffee: A History is an excellent read if you're a barista like me too! What I love about it is the why it gives you. There are so many things about altitude and soil composition I knew but didn't actually understand. If you want some super accessible facts, this is your book. I'm particularly excited to get to the history of how coffee spread and how colonialism affected Western coffee culture in the later chapters! Expect these facts to be shared across my Instagram over the rest of the month of February.
I've been keeping my ears to the ground of books about marketing and hospitality as well. The next book in the pile is a journal Rene Redzepi wrote over a year, looking at creativity, challenges and staying inspired in a very very draining industry. In an industry where so much professional growth is capped it can be hard to see value in keeping up high levels of output into a business that isn't yours, so I'm excited to see what one of the worlds finest has to say about staying in the game. It's also inspired me to start writing a small journal of my own!
Logo!!
I had my first consultation with a designer to come up with a James Perry Coffee logo and I am seriously so chuffed. Not only did I get to learn a new set of skills in workshopping design stuff with an artist I got a terrific final product! Who wants a mug? Who wants a t-shirt??? Who wants stickers???
More Lists
I've put a new tab up on the top of my page! It's called Coffee Wishlist and it's basically a combination of all the roasters I want to try. I love getting to travel and try different roast styles, I find looking at international interpretations of coffee fundamental to training your palate and teaching yourself about how different people approach coffee. Got any faves? Let me know! Maybe there will be a Coffee Wishlist Cupping event soon!
New Guides
I've taken down my colloquial guides I wrote for my friends because I figured I'd just rather write new ones. Given how much time I've spent at a computer in the past 12 months (not as much as I'd like to) these will probably be up gradually. But my Instagram features all places I've loved and want people to visit so if you're stuck, you know where to find the goods in the meantime!
Back to Manual
I've been slowly making more manual brew coffee again, I've got some new theories, recipies, goals, time, energy, hypotheses and a whole new attitude to making coffee in 2019. Yahoo!!!
And that's it! I have so much energy to do all this stuff it's keeping me up at night!! Thanks for reading hope you all are taking time to reflect and learn and grow thanks for reading Jimmy xx