We talk to Sharing Tables’ Kaie Bird about the coffee scene and community building in Tel Aviv, Israel.
BY KATRINA YENTCH
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Photos courtesy of Kaie Bird
If you’ve ever been curious about what the coffee scene is like in Tel Aviv, Israel, you should ask Kaie Bird all about it. The native Texan has been living in Tel Aviv for the last several years and is largely responsible for creating its coffee community.
Kaie’s coffee career officially began in Tel Aviv when she started as a barista there, and she has since continued her time in the industry building community-focused events and organizations. Kaie hosted the first Barista Jam in Tel Aviv in 2016 and the first Israel AeroPress Championship in 2018 through Sharing Tables and 3 Brewing, organizations that connect members of the coffee industry in the city through various events. We spoke with Kaie about her time in the Tel Aviv coffee world and how she further plans to build and diversify the scene there.
Katrina Yentch: You’re originally from Texas—out of the places you visited, what was it about Tel Aviv that convinced you to move there?
Kaie Bird: I will forever claim that I brought “y’all” to Tel Aviv, at least it’s proliferated on social media. Israelis don’t say y’all. For me, Tel Aviv is also temporary, albeit a bit longer temporary. My partner is toward the end of his Ph.D. work, so in my downtime here the last few years, I’ve had time to observe what’s going on locally in coffee. I quickly noticed that there wasn’t much movement to bring the community together or to have one—it wasn’t anyone’s priority. So, I made it mine.
Building up that new, strong foundation for community here through events and education, that’s the work that has been really worthwhile for me in the past five years. It’s something creative that I could mold with the values I saw lacking in the local industry, to show the new generation of baristas coming up—many who would one day be café owners themselves—that another way of “doing coffee” here was possible, and preferable.
What’s the biggest accomplishment you’ve made yourself/with 3 Brewing? Something like a personal goal you set for yourself that you achieved.
One of my proudest endeavors was bringing the 2018 World Barista Champ Agnieszka Rojewska to Israel through the 3 Brewing project. In the months before she won WBC, I remember going over a list of potential ACT trainers we had to choose from to invite to Israel, and for some reason I kept nudging everyone back to Aga. We later all agreed and reached out to her about coming to Israel for training in late February, and by April secured the plans for her to visit us for a week in August. Then, she wins WBC in Amsterdam and it becomes an even bigger deal to host her here. We, 3 Brewing, were brand new to the scene, with the odds stacked against us and with little budget and resources to work with. Yet somehow we were able to bring her to Israel and give our community access to learning from her through the events and trainings she participated in. Nothing like that has happened in our local community. It doesn’t happen … well, it didn’t happen. We made it happen. It was so empowering for our community. That work still makes me beam with pride.
What is your favorite part about Tel Aviv’s coffee scene? Any cafés we should check out?
What excites me about this scene now is all the emerging barista talent coming up, hopefully soon becoming the new leadership charging the scene forward. It also seems like now more and more baristas are taking the lead themselves and doing events on their own, which is really rewarding to see happening. They are building on the new foundation and I couldn’t be more proud.
Any other projects coming up in the future?
I’m an ideas person, so there is always something brewing. But I’ll share that the work I’ve done to bring some attention to the few women in coffee here is something that I hope to continue in some shape in the future and has brought me a lot of pride seeing them gain empowerment through these events.
