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S2E4: Meet Morgan Eckroth, your friendly internet barista
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In our latest episode, we had a chance to talk to Morgan Eckroth, the friendly internet barista, the newest 2022 US Barista Champion known by over 7 million combined followers as @morgandrinkscoffee on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
The barista competition represents an elevated version of what baristas do in their day-to-day work.
“Competitions allow for a lot of innovation and attention to aspects of coffee that are up-and-coming, and by showing these exciting and expensive things on the stage, it opens them up to a wider audience. In the years following, we generally start to see more adoption of these things, so in that way, the barista stage is important because it’s the most high level of what we do,” Morgan says.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:04
Speaker
Hey there, welcome to the Amnaud Barista podcast, I'm your host Miki, and today we have the most friendly Internet Barista, and she's the 2022 US Barista champion, and she has about 7 million followers across the social media. But before we introduce our guest today, please allow me to introduce the sponsor for this episode.
Sponsorship and Coffee Innovations
00:00:27
Speaker
This episode is sponsored by Amnot Barista. As you may know that we have been working on a very very cool project. It's called Momentum. And Momentum is the world's first coffee menu grinder with two bar sets that you can adjust individually. Momentum helps you grind faster and better. A beautiful cup of coffee made of all the benefits of two-step grinding without the hustle and expanded flavor profile that will change the way you brew coffee forever.
Career Balance: Barista and Content Creator
00:00:58
Speaker
So now we have our co-host Vasilia from Grey's and the person behind Morgan drinks coffee, Morgan Eckroth. Hi Morgan, thank you for joining us today. First, congratulations on becoming the 2022 US Barista Champion. How are you feeling today?
00:01:17
Speaker
It's still very, very surreal. It's one of those things that I don't think will set in for a while and kind of feel real. I'm still very much like kind of coming down from the post-competition, even just post-convention, you know, like rush that comes with it. But all that being said, it is an honor, and it's one I don't take lightly, so it's very exciting. Must feel like in a dream. Very much so.
00:01:47
Speaker
So we know you are the most friendly internet barista and you have 7 million followers across the social media and you're huge on TikTok and you are growing fast on YouTube as well. So the first question is, are you still a barista?
00:02:03
Speaker
I am. Yes. I, uh, I still work, um, like 20, 25 hours a week, um, as a barista, um, behind the bar. It's something I love doing. Um, and even more so it just being a, it's, it's a part of my content. Yes. But when I decided to do content full time, I made the really intentional choice of like being a barista independent of anything else I do is something I love. Uh, and I wanted to continue that for as long as I could. I'm curious how you started your coffee journey.
00:02:30
Speaker
I started, I believe it's coming up around four and a half, five years now. I got my first barista job when I was 18. I believe it was around June or early spring of 2017. I was a freshman in college at the time. This is pretty fast. You started a few years ago.
00:02:52
Speaker
Was that like a part-time job to get you through coffee, or did you imagine back then what was going to happen? Kind of. I had an inkling that I was really into coffee. It was, in a way, a part-time job for college, but it was something I knew I was passionate about.
00:03:10
Speaker
My college degree actually is in marketing. And so while I was doing that degree alongside working as a barista, my kind of end goal was to hopefully work in digital marketing within either a coffee company or a coffee adjacent company. So I wasn't sure if being a barista, that specific role was what I wanted to do forever. But I knew I wanted it to be in coffee because I knew I had this passion from being a barista.
00:03:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's really cool. I'm interested to know how you use your digital growth in your studies. I mean, were your professors or peers aware of what was going on?
Education and Content Integration
00:03:46
Speaker
They became aware for sure. It was definitely something that I was like, I was like a little embarrassed by it at first, honestly, cause it was, you know, a lot of my early growth was on TikTok. And at the time this was back in like, you know, in mid 2019, very early 2020. So TikTok hadn't really had like mainstream adoption. It was like very much this like kind of silly app. And I was like, yeah, I like do internet things, but it's on TikToks, you know, nevermind.
00:04:14
Speaker
But eventually, you know, especially as TikTok started to pick up and I branched into YouTube, it kind of became unavoidable. And I had to kind of face everyone and was like, yes, I'm like, I do I do internet videos now. But no, everyone is actually really supportive. I actually turned
00:04:33
Speaker
I actually turned my original YouTube growth into a capstone project for my degree. I had to do a capstone around the time that the pandemic started. And so a lot of the more traditional capstone projects like either internships or research projects or all those traditional things were kind of off the table because of COVID. And so I came to my advisor and I proposed, hey, I have this platform I've kind of built over here. I would love to explore
00:05:03
Speaker
growing my platform on this separate channel, I think I can utilize a lot of the skills I've gained in my classes and through my degree. If I was able to turn this into a very trackable, reportable project, would building a brand on YouTube be an appropriate capstone? And they, for some reason, said yes. And so through
Embracing Social Media Growth
00:05:22
Speaker
that, everyone became a lot more aware, for sure. So I guess the next question is, did you get a good grade?
00:05:31
Speaker
I got full marks. I was shocked. It was interesting. My end goal for it was I had three months. And I said, I think at the end of three months, I can have 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. That was the end goal. And I was totally unattainable. I was like, I am shooting for the stars here. But in conjunction with the timing of the pandemic, I just had so much time to focus on it.
00:05:58
Speaker
it happened. So my teacher was like, great, check that off. You can graduate. Go ahead. Amazing. Let's just say that I still don't have a TikTok account. I didn't know what it was before the pandemic. So then during the pandemic, one of my friends from Ireland, she kept sending me those little videos of you because we were both working as baristas back in Dublin. So they you really know, you know, they really resonated with us.
00:06:22
Speaker
And I couldn't see her because I was back here in Greece. So it was like a way to connect and it really entertained us. Yeah, it was really nice.
00:06:32
Speaker
Oh, that's good to hear. Really good to hear. Yeah, that was a TikTok and already and I didn't realize this till afterwards in my world, like TikTok already seemed to be pretty popular, like pre pandemic. But I didn't realize until you know, kind of even recently how much that that early 2020 time period was when it like skyrocketed.
00:06:54
Speaker
and gains a lot of notoriety. So it's really cool to hear that my videos were being shared during that time. It was so rough for hospitality. Very, very tricky. Talking about TikTok, you have 5.5 million followers. That is a lot. Can you tell us where they are from, who they are, and how much do you know about
Audience and Content Strategy
00:07:15
Speaker
them?
00:07:15
Speaker
Yeah, so I do have some demographic info. My audience actually used to be very split. I used to have very much two different audiences. I had what I like to call my short form audience, so that's going to be like TikTok very much so, things like Instagram Reels, like that sort of content.
00:07:35
Speaker
And then I also had what I called my long form audience, which is very much like the 20 minute like YouTube video audience. And so my my short form audience was and still is primarily female, it is. I believe the split is around like 7030 right now, which is a
00:07:53
Speaker
a pretty big split, but that's, that's where it's sitting at. And it's, it's younger. It's that 18 to like 25 age range. Um, now for a long time, my YouTube audience was totally separate. It was primarily male. It was like a 60 40 split towards like a male demographic. Um, and it was like 25 to 34. So that next age bracket for sure. Um, and that was kind of tricky because I kind of had to make two different types of content.
00:08:17
Speaker
for two very different audiences, because the way we speak to those two age ranges just kind of differs inherently.
00:08:26
Speaker
But thankfully, over the course of the last like, especially year and a half of just really solidifying the type of content that I make, it's kind of mellowed into the middle. So my audience is now kind of like 60, 40 across all platforms, like female to male. And it really does sit in that like 18 to like 25 age range is my like primary demographic. And it's really interesting because a
00:08:54
Speaker
I say this a lot to people, but I don't think of myself as making content for coffee people. I think of myself as making content for people kind of like outside of specialty coffee is kind of like a bridge in you like kind of like a stepping stone to like, you know, get to whatever next level.
00:09:11
Speaker
With that and with the way I approach how I speak about coffee, a very, very large majority of my audience is nowhere near the specialty coffee industry, which is super fun because it's such a cool opportunity to be that stepping stone of, let me show you this weird little world that I really love and is super cool and maybe you'll like it too.
00:09:33
Speaker
As I said, many of your audience, they are not especially coffee people. So when you're becoming the latest birthday champion and your followers must understand there's a whole new world right there. What is the response from your fans?
Understanding Barista Competitions
00:09:49
Speaker
It's very cool. There's a lot of surprise and interest because barista competitions are strange. They definitely are. It's a very niche, very, very highly detailed, very highly skilled competition.
00:10:06
Speaker
that is just kind of hard to explain to people. You watch as kind of like a person outside of coffee, you watch these competitions and you're like, okay, so there are these judges that are scouring every portion of what they're doing. They're giving all these explanations of flavors and you're like, it's just coffee. How can it taste like that? It's very hard to conceptualize.
00:10:28
Speaker
My goal going into this, because I knew I wanted to compete this year, something I've done in the past and something I really wanted to do. But I was like, this is a great opportunity to potentially start to lift some of those curtains around all this very high level competition stuff. Because it makes sense once you understand the competition. But it's just laying that groundwork that's not really there in a super approachable way.
00:10:56
Speaker
So I started two months ago at the very beginning of my prep, really just like diving into the topics of what I was doing with the goal that I would hopefully have people watching the actual routine that day of. And I wanted anyone watching to be able to have a good foundation of understanding. And so because I set up that expectation very early on with explaining what the competition was, I think the
00:11:24
Speaker
the actual day of and weekend of routines went a lot better because there were people watching who two and a half months ago had no idea what a barista competition was. But then, you know, last week got to watch it and at least like understood like, Oh, those are the tech judges and like, Oh, they're explaining like flavor notes in the coffee. It's not actually, you know, like, you know, there's not like blueberries in the coffee and all this stuff. So it went really, really well. And there was a,
00:11:50
Speaker
I think a really strong connection and audience reaction with my followers because everyone kind of like it was a journey that all of us went on for two months like I kind of just dragged everyone along with me. I think this is really cool. Yeah, it's very cool way to spread awareness and I'm glad you chose to do that.
00:12:08
Speaker
You've built this community around you to spread awareness about specialty coffee and to show them what's going down in championships. I don't know, I think it's very important. We actually have a question from my friend Gabriel from Berlin. He wanted to know if you think there's a gap between specialty coffee professionals and consumers and how to bridge that gap. Because sometimes we
00:12:32
Speaker
As professionals, we may dive deep into detail and forget that the other person doesn't know what we're talking about or doesn't want to be overwhelmed with so much information and sees coffee as just a drink to get through the day. So what do you think about that?
00:12:50
Speaker
Absolutely. That gap definitely exists. I think we're a lot more aware of it and a lot better at addressing it nowadays, which is awesome. I talked about it a little bit in my routine, but even in the past two years, since the pandemic, there has been such a steep increase in the amount of accessible information about specialty coffee online, either through
00:13:13
Speaker
companies like expanding their education programs or just online content creators taking it upon themselves to explain it. And I think that's amazing. Like that is the coolest thing ever. But that being said, there is still kind of this a little bit of this gap of like as specialty coffee professionals. Most of us understand that we should be paying more for coffee. Absolutely. We should be bringing value to the industry. We want this industry to grow. And there are many, many like systemic problems within this industry.
00:13:42
Speaker
that we want to address however getting like kind of your average consumer to that point is really really tricky because they have none of the context that we do and you can't
00:13:52
Speaker
when communicating these sort of issues or like goals, you can't like just jump into it because you're gonna overwhelm people. They have no expectation or context. It's just, it's tricky. And so in my world at least, the way I've kind of navigated this is a lot by humor because like, you know, you kind of start with what I do most of, which is like the barista sketches and they're silly and they're fun and they're like ridiculous most of the time, but they are,
00:14:21
Speaker
for the most part, pretty relatable to a lot of people because you either see yourself in that customer service like barista role or you can identify with like the customer role. And that's really important because it starts to build that foundation of like trust and connection between me as someone who like has all this, you know, like a supposed knowledge about coffee and like someone who might not. And it's kind of like you start holding hands and then you like take them to kind of like the next level where you're like, okay, so we've talked about like barista stuff. Let's talk about like,
00:14:51
Speaker
brewing a little bit. And by then you've started to lay that foundation. And then it's like, okay, we've talked about brewing, let's talk about why coffee tastes how it does. And so it's this trade off of slowly stacking bricks of trust until eventually that consumer will have the same layer of knowledge that you do. So it's a long process.
00:15:10
Speaker
And it takes time. And I think that's something that's kind of hard to justify investing because it's money, time, and labor. But in the end of the day, I think it's totally worth it. I think you'll know when it happens. Yeah, it's meeting people where they are. And it's remembering that very few people have the same industry context that we do. So how do we get them to that same point that we're at?
00:15:35
Speaker
So which stage do you think you are right now in order to reach that step, the ultimate goal, to help people understand coffee, to help the coffee industry?
00:15:44
Speaker
Such a tricky. It's the million dollar question right now. Um, this, uh, I, uh, I've definitely been taking the last, the last week to kind of sit back, um, and evaluate what my next steps are because genuinely this competition, I knew no matter what the results were, we're going to be, it was going to be like a pretty big stage in my life because
00:16:06
Speaker
opening up the competition to kind of like a new level of transparency just with behind the scenes stuff was really important to me. And I would I was hoping you know, it was always my hope that it would have some sort of impact did not expect to win. So that's very cool cherry on top for sure. But now I'm definitely sitting here.
00:16:22
Speaker
and have been for the last week kind of wondering it's like okay well where do we go next you know we've we've we've lifted a veil over competition which is amazing and i hope that continues to happen because that will embolden new competitors that allows more understanding um of these these levels and coffee that we really appreciate it does all this cool stuff
00:16:45
Speaker
But I kind of I did that challenge and now it's time to figure out what the next challenge is. And so that's something I don't really have an answer for just yet. But it's something I'm definitely thinking about because I don't view my work in coffee to ever have like an end point. I don't even have like a final goal. It's just continuing forward and continuing to find challenges and addressing them. So right now I'm actively searching for the next challenge.
00:17:09
Speaker
Actually, some professionals from the coffee community have been asking about your financial investment in this competition.
Challenges of Competing
00:17:17
Speaker
I think it is a particularly interesting question for all these people who are thinking about competing, but are not sure what budget they might need. They don't have a big team behind them.
00:17:29
Speaker
Do you think it is challenging aspect of taking part in the competition? Absolutely. That is honestly like, that is one of the things that I grapple with a lot with competition is that specifically like the barista competition is extremely like it has an extremely high monetary investment. I was privileged enough to work very closely with Onyx coffee lab on my routine. They
00:17:54
Speaker
essentially sponsored the coffee I was using, which is a huge thing. The coffees that are presented on the barista stage are, for the most part, some of the top coffees you can get in the world. And they come with that price point. And they are beautiful, wonderful, incredible coffees to present. But that being said, it is so inaccessible to your average person or your average barista, which sucks. I hate that part about competition, even though I love what I'm serving.
00:18:23
Speaker
With that being said, the coffee investment is definitely one of the largest ones, but even more so than that, there was so much gear that I had to buy this year just to compete. I'm just trying to think about ballpark numbers. I think I invested personally, probably
00:18:42
Speaker
I between like, like probably around like $500 just in gear and wares and stuff just to use for the competition. And that's not factoring in travel expenses or hotels or like any of this stuff. That's just raw like product I need. So it's super tricky. And that's kind of one of the one of my goals in the future with competition is that as we continue to kind of peel back these layers around it, we can find ways to make it more accessible and already out there, there are
00:19:10
Speaker
a couple groups that are doing fantastic things in that sphere. Glitter Cat has done an amazing job over the past couple years of really like making coaching and resources for competition very accessible to Bruce does their entire team is fantastic.
00:19:25
Speaker
There's a nonprofit called Get You Some Gear that does an amazing job of working to provide high quality coffee gear to marginalized professionals who don't have as much access to it. And so seeing things like that pop up really makes me happy. But at the same time, this barista competition, as cool as it is, is inaccessible.
00:19:45
Speaker
for the most part and that sucks and that's continuing forward. One of my goals is that even if I'm not competing, I want to make it as easy as possible for others to compete. Do you think that happens because using expensive coffee gives a competitive edge to participants?
00:20:01
Speaker
Absolutely i mean i i was actually reading something about this and there's always kind of the there's there's an ongoing debate around borista competition of that it's a little silly because it definitely doesn't represent your average coffee experience cuz i mean the coffees the judges are tasting are not copies that are gonna be served in like.
00:20:20
Speaker
Many cafes if any the the the level of hospitality you're providing as a competitor is like not the level that we give out in cafes it's it's a very there's a divide here, but I I tend to land on the side of Of what we see on the barista competition stage is never going to be what we do in cafes and that is just the nature of the competition because it is like kind of a
00:20:46
Speaker
I don't want to call it like the pinnacle because that I think puts too much weight on it, but it's an elevated version of what we do in our day to day. And I think through that, I think it allows for a lot of innovation and attention to aspects of coffee that are up and coming.
00:21:03
Speaker
Like on the competition stage we often see really really expensive new varietals we see experimental processing we see all these things that are new and exciting and expensive right now but by showing them on the competition stage it opens them up to a wider audience and you then.
00:21:20
Speaker
you know, in the years following, generally start to see more adoption of these things. So I think in that way, the barista stage is very, very important. But I think it's important with the context that it is in no way what we do in our everyday. It is like it is like the most high level of what we do. Absolutely. I actually have some questions here about your collaboration with Onyx Coffee.
Partnerships and Innovation
00:21:42
Speaker
Like, how did it come about? And what was your experience in working together with Andrea Allen? Oh, yeah. No, for sure. It was actually, it was kind of birthed out of, like, perfect coincidence. So I have known some of the folks at Onyx just, you know, through the internet, passively passing, you know, in the industry for a while. Always looked up to them.
00:22:08
Speaker
I tell this story sometimes I when I was like a very young competitor like my very first time I think I was at Nationals and I had just finished competing I found out I wasn't going through and that was like okay I was like alright I was coming down from all of that and I'm packing up all my gear and I like look over and like Andrea Allen's like over
00:22:25
Speaker
over at a table like working on her gear. And I like had this moment where I was like, oh my gosh, this is someone I've like watched all their routines for the past three years. Like I was like starstruck. And so I like, I was like definitely just crying and I like ran over and I was like, hello, like it's so you don't know me. It's really nice to meet you. Like you're awesome. You're amazing. Great job today. Goodbye. And I like ran away again, which is really funny. That was my first time ever like meeting her in person.
00:22:49
Speaker
So I've just, I've looked up to a lot of people at Onyx for a while. But anyways, so two months ago when I found out I was competing, I had no plan. I had no roaster. I had nothing. And so I was there kind of being like, oh no, I have to like, I have to pull this together really quickly.
00:23:07
Speaker
And it just so happened that Lance Hedrick, who works wholesale and education over at Onyx, happened to be in Portland, where I live, for a work trip. And he was like, hey, I'm in Portland. Would love to grab a coffee. I'm going to swing by one of your shifts. And I was like, cool, sweet. We can meet in person. So he came by, and he was like, I saw you were competing. What's your, just curious, what are you doing this year? And I was like, yeah, I have no idea.
00:23:34
Speaker
And he was like, it was like literally the, it was like peak of Saturday rush. Like I was handing him a coffee over the bar and he was like, do you want to work with Onyx? And I was like, let's talk about this. So we ended up grabbing a coffee the next day and kind of sitting down and talking for like two hours. And we came to this realization that a lot of my goals this year of kind of bringing more transparency and awareness to
00:24:00
Speaker
barista competition very much aligned with a lot of Onyx's foundations and like core pillars along with the fact that they didn't have a competitor in the running this year. And so they were, you know, they were looking if they could put their coffees on stage. Like that was something they wanted to do. And more so than that, Lance and I realized that we're both really into this and we both very much like wanted to work together as like coach and competitor. So we decided we were going to do it like that day.
00:24:28
Speaker
And so it was a whirlwind, two months of like working remotely with the Onyx team. We had so many late night calls, like hashing out everything. I had a very brief like two-day trip to Arkansas to do like a little bit of hands-on training. But beyond that, it was literally like we were just, we were just hustling until that very last day. And every second of it was amazing. Their team is fantastic. I've come out of the competition season with a lot of really, really amazing friendships that I'm so grateful to have.
00:24:57
Speaker
And even more beyond that, I came out of it with even more passion for coffee because they are a group of passionate people doing really cool things. And it was really, it was an honor to be able to be a part of that for a bit. And it's amazing how these things can just happen, isn't it?
00:25:14
Speaker
just like that you meet so many coffee people and they just have this passion and it gives you energy. Seriously. Yeah, it felt like I'd like a fire lit under me. I think that's one of my favorite parts about being part of the coffee community is that I get to meet people like that. And actually, this brings me over to my next question.
Theatrical Elements in Competitions
00:25:33
Speaker
Which is from a former colleague of mine, Megan, and she's from Ireland, and she's asking why you chose the Barista Championship over Brewers Cup. Yeah, absolutely. So I actually, I've never competed in Brewers, and maybe someday I will venture into that, although I have to say that is, that competition is honestly a lot more scary to me than Barista is.
00:25:55
Speaker
A lot of what drew me to barista is kind of the the performance like theatrical aspect of it. I've growing up I was always kind of in some aspect of performing arts. I did like theater and like, you know, dance and like all that sort of stuff. And so the fact that you get to put together like a 15 minute like
00:26:14
Speaker
you know, very scripted story, essentially, while performing was really interesting to me, along with the fact that the skill sets within the barista competition being that, you know, dialing in and like milk and, you know, developing a signature drink, those were all things I already kind of had some knowledge in as a barista.
00:26:31
Speaker
So it just it's the competition that was the most interesting to me. I think Brewers is so intimidating to me because it is it is a lot more technical and a lot more like almost like I get scientific is the word I sometimes use about it. It is a it's a it's a scary competition. So I might I might approach it one day when I feel like I have the skill set to do it. But it's one that I'm like, I don't think I don't think I'm ready for it. You know, like
00:26:57
Speaker
I'll come to that in a little bit, but it's it's a different skill set for sure. So it's like you can be good at barista and not good at brewers or vice versa. And, you know, it's just kind of you find the one that fits your best. It seems you're pretty busy all the time. I have a question here from Max from Singapore, and he's asking, you're
Balancing Busy Life
00:27:16
Speaker
doing a lot of things. You're competing on a stage. You have a fast growing YouTube channel manifest and you also work as a person. How is it possible you manage everything?
00:27:26
Speaker
And it seems... Lots of coffee. No, it's a good question. I like being busy, I will say that. I get really bored if I'm not doing stuff. I like having projects and goals. And I don't really like sitting still for better or for worse, you know?
00:27:47
Speaker
It leads to me being kind of grumpy and tired at home sometimes, which I continually apologize to my partner for. But genuinely, I have the honor of being able to do as a career a lot of things that I love.
00:28:02
Speaker
And I just I like pouring my heart into them. So it's it's a lot of time management of like, okay, these days are my barista days. And then these days are my like, Morgan drinks, coffee days. And then I somehow I somehow wove competition into that don't really know how I did that. But it's just kind of a constant learning curve of like being my own boss and then going, Okay, you need to take breaks, you need to say no to some things, which is hard for me, but I'm slowly getting better at it as I continue to progress.
00:28:31
Speaker
I'm sure it gives you the opportunity to be a little more picky. It's a bummer because I want to say yes to everything all the time. But sometimes I look at my schedule and I'm like, I don't physically know how I can do this other thing. And that's always a bummer. But sometimes it's just a matter of putting it on the back burner and saying, well, I'll come back to this in six months when my schedule clears. So I try to allow as much room for that as possible. Right. So I actually read that you love to write fiction. I do.
00:29:00
Speaker
Would you like to give us a glimpse into that side of you and what inspires you to write? Yeah, I've always loved writing. I think that's also why I love doing barista because a huge component of that is putting your script together.
00:29:15
Speaker
It is the part that takes the longest. It is a lot of writing and editing and revising, but it's super fun. I grew up doing a lot of reading. I didn't watch very much television or anything like that growing up. It was all like going to the library three times a week.
00:29:30
Speaker
So I have always had a love of books and kind of hand in hand with that writing. And it's that's always kind of been I call it my hobby. Writing is kind of the one thing I don't really I don't it's not monetized. It's not posted online. It's kind of one of those few things that I've like kept to myself so far, which is
00:29:48
Speaker
one of those things that also helps me kind of decompress and like do as much as I do is because I have this like side hobby that has nothing to do with coffee, which is great. I think everyone should have a hobby that has nothing to do with coffee. But yeah, so I love writing fiction, fantasy and sci-fi are like my preferred genres for like everything, both reading and writing. And I've been working on some like manuscripts for a while now in my quote unquote free time.
00:30:15
Speaker
And it's one of those things that maybe they will be published someday. Maybe they will just stay with me as kind of fun projects. But I don't know. They might come to fruition one day. But right now, at this point in my life, it's kind of like a weird, vulnerable part of me of sharing my writing. So I just haven't done it yet. So getting over that hump of being like, OK, people need to read this if you want it to go anywhere is something that I'm still coming to terms with.
00:30:43
Speaker
I'm really scared about being bad at things, I think. Yeah, it's a leap of faith. I mean, you can just maybe show it to the ones that are closest to you first and then get their feedback, see what they think. Have you tried that? I have not yet. I haven't even trusted my partner with it. He's always like, what are you writing? And I'm like, no, don't look.
00:31:04
Speaker
You know, when you're ready, you'll know when you're ready, we'll come to you. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Or yeah, well, maybe not, you know, it doesn't have to be a big thing. Maybe it's just something for you to decompress or just to do during your free time. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The quotation marks. Yeah, you can see that, right?
00:31:27
Speaker
Yeah, we want to know what kind of person are you behind social media, like in real life, how your friends see you? Who's Morgan? Good question. Social media, there will...
00:31:44
Speaker
The creators that people look up to on social media, there will always be some level of filtering. I think that just inherently happens. Even for those creators who make their livelihood off of sharing all of themselves, there is still the added context that what you see online has gone through. Layers of editing has gone through someone choosing to upload and then press that post button. There is a lot of markers in place to kind of guard parts of someone's self.
00:32:13
Speaker
And so with that context, you know, I'm a I try to be as I like to think I'm genuine online, who I present myself as online is like who I am in person. Like it's a it's a it's a portion of myself to be sure it's not all of me, but I I'm a
00:32:31
Speaker
pretty passionate like really energetic usually hyperactive like person who cares a lot about coffee and cares a lot about hospitality and that's that's very genuinely like who i am and or at least who i who i try to be in my everyday behavior as well as like sharing that online.
00:32:50
Speaker
But i would yeah you know i'm a i think i'm a lot to be around sometimes i'm pretty pretty talkative and pretty verbose but i also i also care a lot about a lot of things and i like seeing those things doing well so i think that's that's a lot of who i am as a person.
00:33:06
Speaker
Do you have crazy fans going to coffee shop to meet you and then ask for a signature drink? Something like that? You know, I do have a fair amount of people who will come into my work and it is, you know, it's still very surreal to me.
00:33:22
Speaker
To have a like cuz cuz what i do i just view it as a job you know i know i'm a content creator and there's a certain level of like kind of influence and stuff that comes with it but i but for me it's like my job is making videos my job is engaging with the community and it's it's it is that it's a job. But it's not that to other people you know other people view it as you know.
00:33:43
Speaker
whatever they see it as. And to work in a job where people feel connected enough or emboldened enough by what you do to want to come say hello to you and to thank you for what you do is like an honor. It is the coolest thing in the world.
00:33:59
Speaker
And it's something that still always surprises me. I'm like, I just make my silly videos. I'm like, I'm so glad you love them. That is awesome. So it is truly a pleasure to meet people who engage with what I do. And it's so much fun every single time. It always kind of surprises me. I had this one experience once.
00:34:18
Speaker
where i was just working a shift and this really lovely family came in and they ordered like everything was like normal and sat down i just walked up to deliver their drinks and the dad was like we have to tell you something funny he was like. My daughter and i we just realized we watch you for different reasons he was like she watches you on tiktok and i watch you on youtube and neither of us have.
00:34:39
Speaker
any idea that the other like enjoyed your content so we just want to say like thank you and like you know all this stuff and that was like that's something that stuck with me because that was like the coolest experience of my life I was like it is it is so mind-blowing that that this is my job and I get to like interact with people like this like it is it is very very cool and if if sharing my passion allows them to grow theirs like that's always the goal
00:35:04
Speaker
Would you say that you're as passionate about coffee as you are for digital content creation? Or do you view one of them more as a job rather than the other? Or is it like a mix? You definitely seem very passionate about both.
Blending Digital and Coffee Careers
00:35:17
Speaker
It's kind of a mix.
00:35:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's honestly, they go very hand in hand. I've always kind of viewed my career as like two, and kind of myself too, in two very distinct parts. There is the part of me that is a content creator slash influencer. And that is very tapped into like, you know, the digital world. And you know, I do things that like influencers do. So that's like a portion of my life.
00:35:46
Speaker
But then there is the part of me that is a coffee professional and that works in the industry and that is a barista and is tapped into industry conversations. And for a long time, those two components existed very separately, both in the groups of people I interacted with and in how I presented my content. More and more so this year, and especially with competition, those two have meshed together, which is fun and scary and exciting all at the same time.
00:36:15
Speaker
So I would say I'm genuinely pretty equally passionate about both portions, those things. And they've only now just started to really feel like they've become one, which is a very cool thing. And I'm curious to see how that influences like what I do going forward, because it probably will, but I just don't know what that looks like yet.
00:36:33
Speaker
Right, so what does your day-to-day look like now? I mean, I know you have the worlds coming up in a couple of months. Oh, gosh. It's like a couple months. Yeah, it's like September. Ah, yes. Yes, you're doing it in Melbourne. You're not doing it in Milan. Yeah, you're right. Yes. Thankfully, I thought at first it was the one in Milan, and I was like, we have no time again. I was like, I have to quit everything. So when I found out it was September, I was like, poof.
00:36:59
Speaker
So have you ever been to Australia? I actually have. I went to Sydney with my family when I was, I think, about 15. So I don't remember a ton of it. But we had a really lovely time. So I'm excited to go visit Melbourne now. I have a question here. As a barista, what is the worst complaint you have heard from a customer? Worst complaint? Ooh.
00:37:22
Speaker
I feel like I have been through the ringer as a barista. I've had everything that could have happened to me probably happened to me. This wasn't a complaint necessarily, but I think probably the worst thing that's ever happened at my job is I got maced once at work. It was very, very early on in the pandemic.
00:37:45
Speaker
We had a, we just had, we had a couple like pandemic, like COVID policies in place. And we had someone getting very, very angry about one of those policies. And it was like wrong time, wrong day, wrong person. And they like sprayed mace into the entire front of like the shop.
00:38:02
Speaker
So that was that was a unique experience. But I think that's that's the one that stands out the most to me. I don't think anything nothing else like really bothers me anymore. Like it's very like, kind of rolls off the shoulder. Like I always think I'm like, whenever customers have like a bad day or like a complaint that comes out to me, I'm like, okay, it's probably not me. They're probably having a really bad day. That sucks for them. I'm not going to take it personally.
00:38:24
Speaker
Yeah, but it's pretty amazing. It's dangerous. It does. That one went a little bit too far. It feels it feels personal in the moment. You know, they're like, Oh, they're angry at me. But that's usually not true. Very rarely is that true. Usually, they're just angry. And you happen to be in front of them in that moment. Right. So we actually have some fun questions for you. Okay, yes. Yes or no?
00:38:47
Speaker
you have gotten internally frustrated with a customer for adding milk or sugar in their filter coffee that you just wait for them. No, actually, that is one of those few things that actually doesn't bother me. I'm like, here's your here's your gesha, enjoy it however you want.
Exploring Coffee Flavors
00:39:05
Speaker
That's for some reason, for some reason, that one's never gotten to me. That's cool.
00:39:10
Speaker
That one always gets to me for some reason. Yeah, I remember I would look at my colleague and feel like, damn it. You're like, dang it. Okay, so let's just say you could just take one brewer with you to a deserted island. Which one would you choose?
00:39:31
Speaker
Okay, this is a little bit controversial, and I know that. I would probably take a French press with me because of how versatile it is. You can do a batch brew scenario in there. You can use it for cold brew. You can froth milk in it if you have also access to milk. That's kind of my... You can do anything with a French press, and if I need versatility, that's the way I'm going.
00:39:57
Speaker
You have pretended to perceive flavor notes and aroma while all you could taste was coffee.
00:40:06
Speaker
Yes, constantly, every day. Sometimes you just start saying things. You're like, oh, it's like this roasted strawberry with a creme brulee on top. And I'm like, I don't know what that tastes like.
00:40:26
Speaker
You know, I think, I truly believe so much, there's a really funny phrase that kind of like floats around that like Umeko from Umeshiso like put out on stickers. I love this sticker, but it says, flavor notes are opinions. And while it's not always true, I think to some extent, you know, sometimes you'll hear these flavor notes and you're like, no way, no way.
00:40:52
Speaker
Yeah, I sometimes read the flavor notes on the package and thinking, okay, I haven't tried the actual thing. Nevermind perceiving its flavor in the coffee. Yeah, yeah. Like, what is that? Like, that's a berry I've never eaten. Oh, I was gonna say I have absolutely been guilty of making up things on the cupping table, like for sure. Do you think sometimes coffee people can be a little bit snobbish? Is that something you've experienced?
00:41:19
Speaker
I mean, it's tricky. It's tricky because I think a lot of what, let's just say your average non-specialty coffee consumer perceives as snobbish is just an expression of a lot of coffee knowledge. We think of, we're talking about flavor notes. You'll sometimes hear people toss out these very, very hyper-specific flavor notes.
00:41:42
Speaker
And if you have trained your palate, the thing is you will probably be able to taste those. And so in that way, they are correct. And what they are saying is not snobbish. But if you don't have the experience of understanding how to utilize your palate in that way, or perhaps understand what we mean when we say flavor notes, because it's not like the coffee literally tastes like blackcurrant. It's akin to wine. It's like all these undertones that you've taste.
00:42:12
Speaker
I think if you don't have the knowledge of what those flavor notes are or how to find them in a drink, I think that can be perceived as snobbish. And I think that's the tricky part of that gap we're trying to bridge where it's like, OK,
00:42:28
Speaker
These things are real. These flavors are real. This knowledge is valuable and we're not doing it just to be extra. But then it's like, how do we explain the value of all these like very high tier things we're doing to someone who literally just wants like a cup of coffee, which is completely fair. But it's a very different perception of coffee. And it's finding the middle ground between those two.
00:42:54
Speaker
So talking about flavors, what is the strangest flavor note you ever tasted before? I think the ones that always throw me are the really savory coffees. I remember this was very early on in my barista career. It was one of the first, I believe it was a Kenyan coffee that we had. And it had tomato on the tasting notes. And that blew my mind. I was like, no way.
00:43:23
Speaker
In my in my head at the time coffee was something that is usually sweet like you add sugar cream do it and it's a sweet drink and so I was looking at it and I'm like that makes no sense so I tried it and it was a more savory kind of like herbaceous coffee and it did have that kind of like kind of like that bright like tomato acidity.
00:43:40
Speaker
to it and that like completely that that was one of those moments where I was like oh coffee is a lot more than I thought it was because off the bat my my gut instinct was to be like you I don't want to drink that but I drink it and I was like oh this is wonderful and delicious and complex but I think that was one of those strange moments where I was like I kind of had to recontextualize how I thought about coffee you always remember the first one
00:44:04
Speaker
Actually, my first very memorable coffee is from Kenya and natural roasted and have the same tomato soup flavor completely changed my mind. Yeah, seriously. And it's totally different. And it was just fascinating because it was one of those first times too where I read a flavor note and then I tasted the coffee and I was able to taste that flavor. So that was a very cool moment as well. Actually, I've been told that tomato flavor in coffee is not a good thing.
00:44:33
Speaker
It's never happened to me though so i can't say i think i think it depends i think i think it depends i think i think in certain coffee that can be really well balanced but i think sometimes you do get those really savory coffees we're like this probably wasn't supposed to be savory like my first one moment i think it was a coffee from what the mallard and. From nomad coffee roasters in spain.
00:44:55
Speaker
I was at a coffee shop in Athens doing some work and I stumbled upon a public cupping. And this was the first time I tasted coffee and all I could taste was strawberries. Didn't taste coffee at all. And that's the moment that I was like mind blown. That's amazing. Yeah, it really stuck with me. You know, it really makes you think how coffee is actually the seed of a fruit, essentially. Yes.
00:45:21
Speaker
So I have some questions here about your YouTube channel regarding the content.
Future Content Directions
00:45:25
Speaker
Do you see there's any content you will create more in the future, like more gears related or specialty coffee related since you are the new champion?
00:45:37
Speaker
Yeah, Maya, you know, we're kind of right now I'm in actually the active process of kind of mapping out what the next year of content looks like. My goal is to like be able to dive more into kind of like education based topics, you know, I do
00:45:53
Speaker
I do a lot of gear and silly espresso machines and stuff like reviews because that's what does well. It's fun to click on. It's really fun to watch those. Throughout those sorts of videos, I do my best to sprinkle in as much information, valuable information as I can.
00:46:10
Speaker
But the end goal is always to be able to present that information as straightforward as possible. So my hope is to kind of develop a way that I can dive more into topics rather than machines. I guess that's kind of my overarching goal moving forward.
00:46:27
Speaker
So do you have any plans to visit origin yeah we actually i think there's a we have a couple trips on the the docket for this year just with planning for worlds and some other stuff that's going on i've actually never i've never been to origin before and i i've always wanted to it's a
00:46:47
Speaker
something that's been kind of a goal for a while. But I have kind of also been very careful about like, I want to do it for kind of like, quote unquote, the right reasons. I don't want to go just for like, you know, tourism or to say I've done it or for like, just to make videos about it, like for any of those things. I want to go because I have, you know, foster like relationships with the farmers I'm going to be visiting. I want to go because
00:47:14
Speaker
if I can bring additional value to what they're doing. It's been kind of like a, I've had to kind of talk to myself and go, why do I want to go? And so this year with Worlds and with us really needing to hone in the routine and we're gonna reevaluate what coffees we're using and all this stuff, that's been a really good starting place of being like, okay, we have a reason and a purpose here that I think is really valuable and important. I think this is a valid reason. I think we like this reason more.
00:47:44
Speaker
I'm looking forward to seeing if it happens over the next couple of months. Me too. Definitely me too.
00:47:51
Speaker
I have one question just from myself. I'm really curious about your YouTube intro, how this is super smooth sliding in into the camera. How's that happening? How did you get this idea and what shoes you're wearing?
Unique Intros and Sustainability of Barista Work
00:48:06
Speaker
Yeah, so always socks. So I don't know how that that came to be honestly, just out of like,
00:48:17
Speaker
It just like happened. You know, I think I slid on screen for like one or two videos and I think I did them like back to back and people are like, oh, you slide on screen now at the beginning. And I was like, okay, I guess I do. Um, but, uh, no, we've got, I thankfully leading into my kitchen, I've kind of a, kind of a long hallway. Um, and so I always start on one end and it's like this running, like, you know, and then you hope you don't fall.
00:48:42
Speaker
And there have been a couple times where I have fallen and I leave those in and people are like, oh, you're faking the falls. And I'm like, no. I was like, this is embarrassing. I am not faking this. So it just kind of happened. And then there's, I always say hello there at the beginning of every single YouTube video nowadays. And that is so silly. It's just a Star Wars reference. It's like Obi-Wan Kenobi when he jumps down in Revenge of the Sith.
00:49:09
Speaker
Uh, he like just looks at General Grievous and he goes, hello there. And it's kind of become a meme. And that's literally the only reason why I say it. Like, like, I wish I had like a deeper reason, but I was like, this will be funny. Yeah, it is a signature note.
00:49:23
Speaker
So yes or no? Okay, okay. Okay, good, good. Have you secretly made decaf coffee for a customer who makes your life difficult? No, actually, this is what I am like a I'm like a ride or die like person against this. I there was this there was this
00:49:41
Speaker
Kind of a trend on tiktok for a while where everyone was joking about like decafing their customers and i was like no i was like we don't do that i was like if you're mad at them you tell them you're mad at them i was like do not decaf them no i have a i have i have i have genuinely never messed out with the customers drink i am i'm very very much against that i think you get into like very dangerous territory if you start down that path
00:50:06
Speaker
And we may talk about it, but we don't do it. Yes. I'm like, it's a funny joke. But I was like, if you are seriously unintentional, mistakes will always happen. I will admit that I have definitely accidentally given a customer dairy and had to chase them down and be like, don't drink that. Stuff like that happens naturally. But I think once you start intentionally messing with people's drinks, I'm like, OK, you need to reevaluate if you want to do this job.
00:50:32
Speaker
As the biggest barista blogger in real life, you're still working as a barista. Do you think you can work as a barista for a longer term? How many years do you think you're going to continue? It's tricky. That is something I think about a lot, especially nowadays with kind of
00:50:56
Speaker
Being a priest is hard. I think that's something a lot of people don't realize how hard it is. It is a very, very labor intensive job. It is emotionally draining. It's a tough customer service job. And as much as I love doing it, it's one of those things where I'm like, I don't know if this is sustainable for me to do forever.
00:51:16
Speaker
especially with the fact that it is an hourly job so i know. Kind of the something that kind of not limits me but does kind of constrain me is the fact that i have schedule shift seek each week that i need to be at and so things like travel or larger projects or anything like that is sometimes difficult for me to approach because i'm like okay but i have like three shifts a week like i can't ignore those.
00:51:40
Speaker
So those reasons are probably going to be the main factors of why I eventually step out of it. I would love to be a barista as long as possible. Going forward, my amount of time spent as a barista will probably diminish just out of necessity of allotting my time to other stuff and other projects. But I can at least tell you for now, it's not something I plan on
00:52:02
Speaker
fully stepping away from anytime soon. I see myself, at least for the next one to two years, at minimum, having some hand and still working on the floor. That's something I very much want to continue doing. That's great. We need you in the coffee community. I love doing it. While we're on this, I'm wondering what's the current situation with working as a barista in the United States?
00:52:27
Speaker
I mean, does it differ much from state to state? Yeah. I've also noticed that there's like a lot of initiatives with unionization happening right now, like the one at Starbucks. It is very exciting to see the kind of collective push there is nowadays for better wage equality and transparency and just increased wages across Bina Barista because
00:52:51
Speaker
for so long I think and it's changing now which is great which is awesome but for a very long time kind of working as a barista was very much like oh it's like what the high school students do or like the college students do and it's like you get minimum wage and that's it and then you move out of it and you go do your career but the thing is you can be a barista as a career which is an awesome thing and it's it's a highly skilled career because you have
00:53:15
Speaker
so much hard knowledge, like hard skills that you need to develop. And then you have all these soft skills of customer service that you also need to develop. And that in and of itself is like, that's a degree, just gaining those things. Yeah, seriously.
00:53:30
Speaker
It is super exciting to see kind of a big recent push, especially kind of in the Starbucks space of baristas understanding their value and their worth and then pushing to actually get what they're valued at. So that is super exciting to me. But that being said, it is still, in my opinion, frequently an underpaid job. It is still an overworked job. And there is still so much that needs to be done.
00:53:54
Speaker
to continue elevating it as a profession because there are some of the most passionate and skilled people I have ever met in my life are baristas and it makes me really sad when they feel like they can't do what they love to do as a career simply because
00:54:11
Speaker
people don't value them enough to pay them what they're worth. It's tricky. Especially here in the US, it goes state by state because we have our federal minimum wage, but then state by state, there's also varying levels of minimum wage. You can have a barista in a state, let's say, I don't know specifically, but in middle America,
00:54:33
Speaker
that's making like $8 an hour. Then you can have a barista on like a coastline that's making like $16 an hour. And obviously there's differences in cost of living and stuff, but there's this huge wide discrepancy in how much baristas are paid. And that adds to all these struggles of like how much we value people at and how much we value their role. So it's very tricky, but I will say there does seem to be this ongoing push to
00:55:00
Speaker
to validate the value that baristas bring to the supply chain, which is great. It's awesome. And I hope that continues that way. In terms of support, it seems that your team at the cafe in Portland has been really supportive of you competing. Yeah, I really lucked out to find to find myself at a really, really wonderful
00:55:20
Speaker
Cafe and I work with an awesome team like. I get to it's really it's really cool to say that I get to go into my job every day and I get to work with some of my best friends like not a lot of people get to say that and so I feel very honored to be able to be alongside the baristas and like kind of the management team I'm with cuz they're rad they're super cool people.
00:55:41
Speaker
Yeah, being a burst is a hard job, like you said, and based on your personal experience, you understand the struggle of being a burst and especially a good burst, right? You don't change the coffee into decaf just because you're not happy.
00:55:56
Speaker
It's going to be a difficult journey for many baristas, not just in the US, but in Europe and other developing countries in Asia as well. I am not a barista. We are here to give a voice to baristas. I want to know your tips for barista who is still working every day at a coffee shop.
00:56:19
Speaker
What do you want to say to those baristas who want to stay in the coffee community, not because of the money, but for their passion? How do you want to motivate them? I would say, I mean, I think the main thing I would say to anyone working in coffee that wants to continue working in coffee is have confidence in your skills. I think very frequently, and I remember this,
00:56:45
Speaker
pre-internet, pre-anything. I remember when I very first started, I felt very under qualified in my job at many points in my career because I was looking up at everyone else being like, oh, they can taste so much better than I can, or they're so much better at customer service, or they're all these things. And that led to me being like, oh, maybe I shouldn't be here. Maybe I'm not good at this. And I was like, maybe I should not be a barista. And that's not true. A lot of it is that these people are very confident in their skills.
00:57:11
Speaker
and that that honestly benefits them and it makes their skills that much greater. But I would say go in as a barista, go into situations with confidence, have trust in your abilities, even if it seems really scary. Because at the end of the day, like no one's got no one else is going to have as much confidence in you if you aren't reflecting that in yourself. And it's really hard to get to that point. And it takes a lot of practice. But I think
00:57:36
Speaker
If this is something you are pursuing as a career, being able to trust yourself is invaluable, absolutely. Thank you for that. Do you like challenges? I do love a good challenge. I like being a problem solver, so I like being presented with challenges that I can somehow figure out how to iron out. That is an interest of mine for sure. I feel like this is a great way to end this podcast.
00:58:05
Speaker
The advice you gave to the baristas worldwide is very valuable and it's been great to talk to you. I find your journey very inspiring and I should say mostly because you seem to be a very transparent person and you stand behind your values and that's very important right now in the inner industry.
00:58:21
Speaker
So yeah, it's been definitely a privilege to talk to you today. Thank you. This event has been a lot of fun. Thanks for tuning in to this I'm Not A Barista episode. Subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram at I Am Not A Barista for more empowering vibes and true coffee stories that connect you with coffee lovers around the world.