In our December 2024 + January 2025 issue, we feature Kansas City, Mo.’s Jackie Nguyen! Also included are articles on health care in coffee-producing countries, good team vibes, tech talk, “One on One“ with Al Lui, and much more!
BY SARAH ALLEN
BARISTA MAGAZINE
Welcome to the December 2024 + January 2025 issue of Barista Magazine!
You can subscribe through our online store to receive a print copy of the magazine or read it for free with our digital edition here.
Cover Feature: Jackie Nguyen
Until the pandemic, Jackie Nguyen worked steadily as an actress in New York City and was a regular in traveling Broadway productions. Her life, just like everyone’s, was upturned with the lockdown, and she moved on a whim to Kansas City, Mo., where she found herself among the 2.6% of K.C. residents who identify as Asian. Rather than dwell on the stark lack of diversity, however, Jackie saw an opportunity: She immediately sought ways to lift up her fellow members of the Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community in Kansas City and raise visibility for everyone.
She has accomplished this in two primary ways: 1) Since opening a few years ago, Jackie’s coffee shop, Café Cà Phê, the city’s first Vietnamese coffeehouse, has become one of K.C.’s most beloved spots to meet friends and enjoy exceptional coffee. “Kansas City embraced me from day one. Immediately. No questions, no doubts, all support,“ she says. And 2) Jackie founded the city’s AANHPI Heritage Festival, which celebrates and promotes the local culture. It has grown so successful that Jackie had to move it to a city stadium in 2024 because it was drawing such a phenomenal crowd.
Read the inspiring, heartfelt, funny, and exciting story of Jackie and her place in Kansas City’s coffee community in the new issue!
’Health Matters: The Key to Building Resilient Coffee Communities’
There are many ways to support coffee farmers and their families—paying better prices for their products, for one thing—but what of their health care? Dr. Caroline Cormier meticulously researched the agencies and organizations that provide health services in Central America and East Africa for this article, profiling such nonprofits as Grounds for Health, which works globally to provide cervical cancer screenings in rural coffee communities; the Democratic Republic of Congo-based Rebuild Women’s Hope Cooperative, which not only provides its women members with health-care services but seeks to empower them through social engagement and efforts to dispel traditional labor practices; and the Ankole Coffee Producers Cooperative Union in Uganda, which partnered with Berlin-based social enterprise Elucid in 2022 to improve health-care access for small-scale farmers. Learn more in Dr. Cormier’s exhaustive report.
’Little Treat Culture + Specialty Coffee’
The nonalcoholic beverage trend and little treat culture create an opening for specialty-coffee retailers. We talk with several coffee companies who are doing big business with special, nonalcoholic coffee cocktails presented with the same majesty as sophisticated cocktails, which are all the rage with Gen-Z in their continuing interest in healthy “little treat“ culture.
’One on One with Al Liu’
Al Liu’s newest position in the specialty coffee industry is guiding the next installment of longtime industry event Let’s Talk Coffee, and he got there through a fairly unique and extraordinary trajectory in the specialty-coffee industry. He worked for a roaster, then an importer, then a roaster again, and now he’s with the importing company Sustainable Harvest directing its annual coffee event. We chat with Al about his perspective on misunderstandings between roasters and importers, what attendees to the Let’s Talk Coffee in Peru in September 2025 can expect, and much more.
And Much More Inside
Also in the December 2024 + January 2025 issue: “The Knockbox,“ where longtime coffee professional, former U.S. Barista Champion, and retailing expert Laila Ghambari writes about building a strong team culture; “Foam,“ where we look at 3D printing using coffee; “Tech Talk,“ which tackles your equipment questions; our “Field Reports“ visiting Lisbon, Portugal, and Lima, Peru; and much, much more.
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