Welcome to Podcast Week on Sprudge! The Sprudge Podcast Network is the coffee world’s largest, first, and frankly best audio hub dedicated to original podcast content. Throughout this week you are invited to explore the wide world of podcasts on Sprudge, available now streaming wherever podcasts are found, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitchr, Podbay, and more.
To kick things off here on Podcast Week, we’re diving deep into focus on Umeko Motoyoshi’s extraordinary podcast series, A Better Table. On this show, Motoyoshi explores sustainability in coffee in many forms—from disability access to coffee producer rights at origin to labor organizing in the modern coffee workforce and so much more.
Guests so far on ABT include Chris McAuley, Cydni Patterson, Nick Castellano, Will Frith, Laetitia Mukandahiro, Emily Haddad, Adam JacksonBey, Kim Elena Ionescu, Alice Wong, Latasha Barr Lewis, Camden Myer, and Madeleine Longoria Garcia. Season One of A Better Table was made possible with support from Seattle Coffee Gear, Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands.
Looking back through the run so far of A Better Table, there’s just so much to love. Choosing favorites is impossible—but below find a few outstanding moments from the show, worthy of your further exploration.
Laetitia Mukandahiro
In this episode of A Better Table, host Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Laetitia Mukandahiro. Mukandahiro is a renowned coffee professional in Kigali, Rwanda. She is an accomplished cupper, a licensed Q Grader, a member of the Sprudge Twenty inaugural class, and she has judged Cup of Excellence multiple times. She has worked in many areas throughout the coffee value stream, and now runs her own company Ikawa House. In this episode, Mukandahiro shares the experience of women in Rwandan coffee production.
Will Frith
In this episode of A Better Table, host Umeko Motoyoshi interviews international specialty coffee professional Will Frith. Frith, a US Coffee Champions circuit veteran, runs Building Coffee in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and is a member of the Sprudge Twenty inaugural class. A Better Table explores the many definitions of the word sustainability and in its sixth episode, Motoyoshi discusses supply chain sustainability with Frith as it applies to the coffee species not often seen on specialty coffee menus: Robusta. Motoyoshi and Frith explore its sustainable impact for coffee growers in Vietnam and around the world.
Emily Haddad
In the fourth episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Emily Haddad. Haddad is an acupuncture student, barista, and works as a key organizer in the Tartine Union. Tartine Bakery originally opened in 2002 in San Francisco’s Mission District. In February of 2020, Tartine was operating five retail storefronts in the Bay Area, three in LA and four in Seoul, Korea. That same month, over 140 employees declared their intention to unionize to management. Earlier this year, Motoyoshi sat down with Emily Haddad and had a conversation about the efforts to unionize.
Explore every episode of A Better Table right here on our podcast series hub.
A Better Table 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.
Check out all of the Sprudge Podcast Networks show here. A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear, Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands. Interested in sponsoring a Sprudge podcast? Get in touch!
