A Better Table Podcast

In this episode of A Better Table, host Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Jackie Nguyen, founder of Cafe Cà Phê. Cafe Cà Phê is Kansas City's first Vietnamese coffee shop serving coffee grown in Vietnam in a variety of innovative specialty drinks.

Before owning her own business, Nguyen got her start in show business. "I ended up booking the tour of How the Grinch Stole Christmas," Nguyen tells Motoyoshi. "That was my first big professional Broadway job. After that, I saved up some money and I was like, I'm moving to New York and I'm going to try and pursue this dream of musical theater. Right up until the pandemic hit, I was an actor in New York."

Find out how Nguyen left acting in New York to living in Kansas City with a full-time job, a full-time corporate job, and a seat on the board of Parks and Recreation on the new episode of A Better Table.

This season of A Better Table is sponsored by Chobani.

In this episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Arielle Rebekah, the founder of Trans and Caffeinated. Trans and Caffeinated is a blog, an Instagram page, and a podcast dedicated to uplifting the "trans and queer community and also to educate cis folks about trans and queer issues." A Better Table is sponsored by Chobani.

Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Mikey Rinaldo, the founder of New Math Coffee. New Math Coffee is a Chicago-based roaster that highlights coffee from Asian coffee producers all around the world, including diasporic Asian producers. Motoyoshi finds out about Rinaldo's start in coffee, and what lead them to open a roasting company. A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear and Chobani.

Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Carmel Laurino. Laurino is the founder of Kalsada Coffee, a Manila-based company that processes, exports, and imports specialty coffee from the Philippines. Laurino talks about how the company got started and its work with Philippine specialty coffee and Kalsada's sustainability innovations.

A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gearand Chobani.

Umeko Motoyoshi speaks to Bianka Alloyn And Sabreen Naimah, co-founders and owners of Cute Coffee in Oakland. Cute Coffee is a team of two and the pair do all their own marketing, packing, roasting, sourcing, and importing. They work exclusively with women coffee producers in countries all over the world.

Motoyoshi interviews the founders and finds out how they got started in coffee, how Cute Coffee got off the ground, and how they've grown their small business during the pandemic.

In this episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Gary Lambert, founder of Bright Land Coffee in Philadelphia. Gary has been featured in a couple of different contexts on Sprudge over the last year, including for his brand's outstanding cold brew packaging design and as part of our nationwide Black-owned coffee company feature, but there's another layer to the story that hasn't really been told yet—Lambert started the company as a dream following a cancer diagnosis.

Learn about Lambert's life before coffee, the growth of Bright Land Coffee in the last two years, Bright Land's work with transparency in green sourcing, the wonders of CBD and coffee, and so much more.

This episode of A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear and Chobani.

Bartholomew Jones is a co-founder of Cxffeeblack based in Memphis, Tennesee. Cxffeeblack is a multimedia operation promoting the Black history—and present—of coffee. Cxffeeblack spreads this message through music, apparel, a podcast, and roasted coffee. Jones joins Motoyoshi to talk about the Cxffeeblack story and a new project: the Anti-Gentrification Coffee Club.

This episode of A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear and Chobani.

Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Madeleine Longoria Garcia, a co-owner of Pacific Coffee Research. PCR is a Specialty Coffee Association Premier Training Campus, quality analysis & cupping lab, roastery, and Hawai'i coffee education center in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

Season One of A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear, Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands.

Host Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Chris McCauley and Cydni Patterson of Getchusomegear. Chris McAuley's Getchusomegear is built around the mission of "hookin' up marginalized coffee pros and business owners with free coffee gear" but has quickly become much more. They just recently announced an incredible slate of charitable grant recipients, and are actively working to make the coffee world a better and more equitable place in real, tangible ways. Read our 2020 profile of Chris McAuley here.

Cydni Patterson is a coffee professional and barista competitor based out of Durham, North Carolina, and is the host of Cascara on the Sprudge Podcast Network. In each episode of Cascara, Patterson takes listeners to a different city and talks to locals about what makes their coffee community unique to find out, as she puts it, "what's really brewing in coffee scenes around the world." It's the perfect way to scratch your travel itch during COVID times—a trip around the world in a cup of coffee, with Cydni Patterson as your guide.

Support Getchusomegear this giving season by donating directly to mutual aid organizations that support them, including FoodNotBombs919, DurhamFreeLunch, and GoFundBean. Getchu is also actively seeking coffee equipment donations, and in particular, is looking for coffee scales.

This episode is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear, Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands.

In the latest episode of A Better Table, host Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Latasha Barr Lewis and Camden Myer of Cam's Coffee. Cam's Coffee is a Black family-owned business founded by Cam, who is 12 years old. Cam has a Traumatic Brain Injury and he is focused on creating diverse, supportive employment for disabled people. His mom, Latasha is an educator and the company's COO.

A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear, Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex.