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How A Coffee Tasting Flight Changed Josh's Life (and could change yours)

How A Coffee Tasting Flight Changed Josh's Life (and could change yours)
Throughout the years, we've had about a dozen people reach out to say that Angels' Cup has changed their life. I can't imagine a greater compliment. Our mission has never been about coffee, our mission is to help subscribers develop a sharper sense of taste. That's a personal journey. In this episode we meet Josh Puckett, who's early experience with a Cupping Flight from Angels' Cup inspired him to become a coffee q-grader. Josh reached out to enquire about sending us samples from the brand new coffee shop he's roasting coffee for, Peach Coffee in John's Creek Georgia. We've since received samples and they're spectacular. Here are some quotes from the interview.
It was the first time I ever tried coffee blind. I never tried anything like that. And just the whole experience of trying this coffee and just seeing what I can get from it was just an intoxicating experience. To be able to try and translate that and wrestle with what I'm feeling about the coffee. It was just really cool to be able to talk together and connect in such a different way.
I tend to prefer the slow route because I love just the investment you kinda get to have in the community. I think, you know, whenever you have that 1st customer that comes in and you just get to build that relationship with them and just kinda have that intentionality of like, maybe you don't know that much about them in the first six months they come in but then the conversation you have that they have some kids or grandkids, just the slow process of getting to know someone over hundreds of 120 or 60 second experiences is a cool way to put down roots for a coffee shop.
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Looking to become a barista? Nail your first barista job interview, with advice from 3 hiring managers at top NYC coffee shops!

Looking to become a barista? Nail your first barista job interview, with advice from 3 hiring managers at top NYC coffee shops!
Interviewing for that first barista job? Want to be a better barista? Responsible for hiring baristas for your coffee shop? This podcast is for you. In this episode, we are talking to three people who are experts on how to get hired, and what will get you fired from your first barista job. Our guests for this episode include: We're talking all about how to get a job as a barista, how to perform your job as a barista, what to expect on your first day of work and where the career path might lead. If you've ever been interested in becoming a barista, this should be a valuable resource for you and also if you've ever had to interview baristas, we hope you find this podcast helpful. It's also an interesting look into how the coffee industry works and what makes great coffee possible. Some of our favorite quotes from this podcast episode include:
It's our job really, I think more than anything to be hearing what people are saying and let them speak to us and sort of be vessels for that without forcing anything upon them. -Matthew McShane
It's kinda a mix. It all depends, so we'll hire if someone has really great experience and they interview well and we vibe, then we'll hire them. But, I also do like hiring someone who has no experience but has a passion for coffee because I can't force someone to be passional at all about coffee, but I can train everything else. So, it's a balancing act between the two. -Ashley Gardner
There's definitely room for growth in coffee. I think you just have to tough it out a little bit...I think everyone gets restless and you want to stop being a barista and do something else because you wanna grow but like, I want to tell a lot of people to just chill. Being a barista is pretty great. -Mike Jones
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Meet K Keener: The Most Interesting Woman in the World

Meet K Keener: The Most Interesting Woman in the World
This episode's guest K Keener is a schoolteacher by day, Cabaret performer by night. Or maybe marathon runner. Or no, maybe a graffiti artist. No no, she's definitely doing some blind coffee tastings to set the mood for the coffee shop walking tour she's hosting in SoHo this weekend. You see, what makes K extraordinary is that every year of her life is devoted to setting an audacious goal in some new field of interest. Fortunately for us, three year ago K devoted herself to learning everything she could about coffee, and that's when she found us at Angels' Cup. Part of the magic of K is that she's not only a gifted learner, but also a gifted educator, and she's fearless when it comes to teaching the things she has only just learned herself. Her mission in coffee is to expose people to specialty coffee as For more K Keener:
We have these sommeliers of coffee, who rather than leading coffee tours and coffee tastings and going by restaurant tables and discussing differences of wine and writing in ways that people can read about the great things about wine, they just kind of stayed out and talked amongst themselves. So that's what happening in coffee. We have really great coffee people who are largely just talking amongst themselves and no one understands that this beautiful cup of coffee is not the same thing as their Dunkin' Donuts coffee.
The genius sense that the things we love and goals that we pursue take us to these very strange practices that people have no idea of the behind the scenes of trying to master something.
Food photography a lot better than coffee. So when I think about the wine industry, a lot of that education in terms of wine is happening at the local shop level. It is encouraging people to taste wines. Have conversations about wines, visit wineries. And we really have not had that open door, "let me teach you about this thing that we think is wonderful" kind of outreach in coffee.
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