A Better Table Podcast With Slothee Coffee Founder Jessica Lui

Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Vancouver, BC-based Slothee Coffee founder Jessica Lui on the latest episode of A Better Table. Lui specializes in a form of latte art known as etching (when tools are used after milk is poured to draw and/or sculpt) and creates incredible works of colorful art. With Slothee Coffee, Lui teaches latte art classes, organizes coffee service pop-ups, and works as a photographer and content-creator.

latte art print by jess lui in a frame. latte art has written text on it "you're my fav human bean" with two beans colored brown and a red heart. art drawn (or etched) on white milk foam with a border of coffee around it. mug handle on left side. — Art print from Slothee Coffee’s Etsy store.

Slothee Coffee’s web store offers tees, coasters, art prints, stickers, co-branded Umeshiso products, and cute vessels. The Slothee Coffee Etsy store offers even more stickers, art prints, and ephemera—and Lui even commissions custom work online. For the latest, check out the Slothee Coffee Instagram @slothee.coffee.

In this episode, Lui talks about working as a barista over a decade ago, leaving coffee to work in a corporate environment, and starting Slothee Coffee in 2019 as a way to reconnect with the specialty coffee community. A part of that connection is collaboration, like Slothee Coffee’s recent collaboration with Atlanta’s Tanbrown Coffee for Asian Heritage Month, creating a sticker-pack bundled with a anaerobic washed process coffee from Thailand ($30 CAD).

“The coffee community, it’s shown me a side of humanity that was lost in all those years in a corporate office,” Lui tells Motoyoshi. This episode is especially inspiring, hopeful, and encouraging to anyone who may feel stuck or lost in their current situation.

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Listen below for the whole interview with Jessica Lui and Umeko Motoyoshi.

A Better Table is a podcast on the Sprudge Media Network. Host Umeko Motoyoshi talks to guests and discusses social, economic, and environmental sustainability. “Sustainability means a lot of different things, but here are my guiding questions, the questions I want to explore,” explains Motoyoshi. “What sustains communities? What sustains relationships? What sustains your heart?”

A Better Table is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series.

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Transcript available here.

This episode is available now via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or load it up on your favorite podcast platform using this RSS link. Subscribe, like, rate, and review A Better Table on Apple Podcasts.

Be sure to check out past episodes including interviews with Bianka Alloyn And Sabreen Naimah, Chris McAuley, Cydni Patterson, Nick Castellano, Will Frith, Laetitia Mukandahiro, Emily Haddad, Adam JacksonBey, Kim Elena Ionescu, Alice Wong, Latasha Barr Lewis, Madeleine Longoria Garcia, and Camden Myer.