✨ We’re thrilled to welcome Amaris Gutierrez-Ray to the Women-Powered Coffee Summit 2025! As VP of Coffee at Joe Coffee Company in New York City, Amaris leads with a passion for stories, culture, and community in coffee. She is the founder of the Women in Coffee Project and co-founder of TWICE (Team Women in Coffee Exchange), working to create more equitable and inclusive spaces across the industry. ✨ At the Summit, Amaris will lead the Pre-WPCS Roasting Masterclass, sharing her expertise and love for coffee with hands-on guidance and inspiration. 📍 October 2–4 | Chiapas — we are officially sold out! 💖 ✨ ¡Nos emociona dar la bienvenida a Amaris Gutierrez-Ray a la Cumbre Mujeres en Café 2025! Como VP de Café en Joe Coffee Company en Nueva York, Amaris lidera con pasión por las historias, la cultura y la comunidad en el café. Es fundadora del Women in Coffee Project y cofundadora de TWICE (Team Women in Coffee Exchange), trabajando para crear espacios más equitativos e inclusivos en la industria. ✨ En la Cumbre, Amaris dirigirá el Pre-WPCS Roasting Masterclass, compartiendo su experiencia y amor por el café con orientación práctica e inspiración. 📍 2–4 de octubre | Chiapas — ¡estamos oficialmente agotadxs! 💖

The peace is out there, tiny moments, take them when they come.

It is a hard book to recommend, but so compelling there isn't an alternative: Chain-Gang All-Stars should be required reading for every human alive on this planet today. We should be required to discuss it, hold space for our complex feelings that arise from it, affirm the ways it opens our eyes to bewilderingly deep social problems as if they were gritty sand dollars and prickly urchins in receeding tide pools. We must turn them over in our hands. This book is call and response, asks what is humanity, where life is precious, and answers: life is precious. I can't say it will be a book for you. It is triggering, and there is violence. But it is beautiful, sobering, clear. If you need a way to throw off the numbness and darkness of our days and the administration of the next 4 years, this book is a tonic. Thank you, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah @king_nk !

This photo was taken almost exactly 4 years ago by @gigaherb while I was elbow-deep in the Jacob's tubing underneath our S35, and for some reason today I got hit with a vivid memory of us discussing how much the Loring vacuum hose reminded us of that creepy hazmat tunnel in ET, one of the first movies that MOVED ME and my young heart. I won't say this is a metaphor for loving & caring for spirits so different from our own, but what would we do if we really believed we, like anyone who almost cried watching ET at a tender age, were capable of caring for spirits so different from our own?

Today is the 78th birthday of the funniest, charmingest, silliest, sweetest abuelita. She's the one who taught me to love poetry and even though she also taught me to forget the old men who went before us and make our own paths, today I'm thinking about Rubén Darío in her honor and the reminder that we need a mantra to take into the next year of our lives: ✨No dejes apagar el entusiasmo✨

Eleane Mierisch ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 The first person to agree to do an interview for the Women in Coffee Project, the first person who showed me how to contain multitudes and not compromise any aspect of her passion. Eleane didn't need to tell anyone that gender is a superpower, but she did show me that women everywhere have that power anyway. Watching, talking, and working with her, I learned how to flush beans between samples while grinding (something I think about every time I cup) and, more importantly, to celebrate all the joy and love we find in the work we do. Gracias, Eleane.

In the US launch of Lucia Bawot's incredible book WE BELONG / PERTENECEMOS last Saturday, Lucia shared how the book shaped her own journey of "belonging," how her many layers of identity & heritage opened up. Her honesty both shook & fueled me at the same time. Women aren't often applauded for sharing their interior voices or for talking through how we can be both anything & everything in the same breath. I have been following Lucia's career for a few years now, so I was expecting a powerhouse of a woman. Since meeting her, I have been mulling over how to describe *exactly* how Lucia in real life exceeded even those high expectations. One way to describe an aspect of it: shortly after the official event ended, we spoke together in little groups to marvel at the energy in the room. Event host Nigel Price of Drip Coffee, also visibly impacted by what had been discussed, received a compliment about the space we were standing in. He humbly responded he couldn't take credit for the beautiful coffee bar or esthetic. "But," I countered, "YOU made this house a home. You brought the spirit, the spark that led to this safe space." That's what it is, if I could put my finger on it. Lucia did the same thing with WE BELONG. In the book, she mentions the women she interviewed would ask why she wanted to interview them. I can answer to say it's to make this house a home -- not in the maternal, gender-coded way -- in order for this spark of humanity to be seen for its power, not its vulnerability. It's to make this industry a community, to show this spirit has soul. This book speaks to any woman or person & every woman or person. It brought back memories for me of touching lipstick on my great-aunt Mamacita's dresser in Managua; watching her cook gallo pinto, fried cheese, & tortillas for us kids; seeing her run the house (while Papacito listened to baseball on the radio); & letting her kind words sink in when I was deep in grief as a preteen. Women contain multitudes. Unlocking these memories is only part of the gift Lucia's book holds for me. I'm grateful it exists in this world to continue giving & giving & giving to others.

Thanks to the reminder from @leet_ha , I re-read “Allegiance to Gratitude” this morning. This is a beautiful chapter in “Braiding Sweetgrass,” a book I’ve seen in many places of honor this month in bookstores around the city — likely because it’s also Native American Heritage Month. I read this book just over a year ago, on Lee’s recommendation, when I didn’t know there was such a thing as NAHM, on the edge of finishing my personal journey with the Q that mirrored itself in my personal journey to find my place in the agricultural industry I call home. There really isn’t any way to describe how powerful it is without being trite or precious, but I don’t think Robin would mind. She advocates for the precious, for us to tap into that inner part of ourselves that is capable of sentimentality and affection, and extend that great gift of feeling, the gift unique to humanity, to the world we inhabit and everything in it. This essay is beautiful. It’s equal parts political, personal, therapeutic, admonishing, encouraging, and refreshing. Reading it is a way to honor the indigenous people who respected this world before any of us, and find out what to do with that for yourself. (If you’d like the link to the essay, you can DM me or google “Allegiance to Gratitude pdf.”) - “The Thanksgiving Address reminds us that duties and gifts are two sides of the same coin. Eagles were given the gift of far sight, so it is their duty to watch over us. Rain fulfills its duty as it falls, because it was given the gift of sustaining life. What is the duty of humans? If gifts and responsibilities are one, then asking ‘What is our responsibility?’ is the same as asking ‘What is our gift?’ It is said that only humans have the capacity for gratitude. This is among our gifts.” #robinwallkimmerer #braidingsweetgrass #allegiancetothanksgiving

We’ve been bursting with excitement to share this news: in a few short weeks we are throwing A PARTY. A party for us, by us - chingonxs in coffee! CHINGONXS IN COFFEE is a party to celebrate coming together and working hard. “Chingona” means "badass woman" in Spanish, and this party aims to celebrate all our inner strengths. Chingonxs are fierce, have powerful work ethics, advocate for others, prioritize local + global communities, and create spaces where everyone can find equity and respect. It's hard work - we deserve a drink! 🙃 After attending the industry day at New York Coffee Festival, or after a very long 2022, come celebrate with us and take a minute to appreciate your passion, your drive, and what makes you YOU! 💫Vos sos invincible, mujer.💫 This party will have: 💓Drinks 💕Tasty Latinx snacks 💗Una rifita / a little raffle 💖Música 💞An endless cycle of mutual affirmation & admiration Fiesta is co-hosted by the lovelies @tildeathnyc in Bushwick. Fri 10/7 from 7-11pm, 603 Hart St. $10 through the link in our bio or at the door. This is the first in-person event we’ve planned since the pandemic! You don’t want to miss it! Gracias to @danieblobwalter for making our sick flier! #fiesta #party #chingona #chingonxs #chingonxsincoffee #womenincoffee #womenincoffeeproject

I’m excited to be attending the first ever Womxn-POWERed Coffee Summit hosted by @beanvoyagecoffee and the US Embassy in Costa Rica the next few days. The Summit looks to create lasting bonds between women producers, roasters, and coffee professionals. Learn more about the event: /wpcs I’ll be representing @womenincoffeeproject and I couldn’t be more honored and humbled to participate in the first of what I hope will be many, many Summits to highlight gender equity in the coffee industry.

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“Forgive me / for not knowing” #timothyliu