To think that this year has run by in the blink of an eye. One moment, we were sending out our first newsletters about the MOMENTEM hand grinder, and now, MOMENTEM is live on Indiegogo and nearly ready to be mass-produced and shipped. Not so long ago, we launched our podcasts, and now our audio library has gone beyond podcasts, now including audio stories.

2022 has made us explore new territories, try new ideas, and discover new things about the coffee industry. As we look further into the new year, it is necessary that we take some time to look back and reflect on all our achievements throughout the year.

This is I’M NOT A BARISTA’s 2022, wrapped!

MOMENTEM™

The world’s first dual-burr multistep hand grinder is now live on Indiegogo. After months of careful planning and preparation, it launched on the 2nd of August, 2022, with a funding goal of $20,000, and with the support of all our backers, we were able to raise over $50,000 in funding. The MOMENTEM hand grinder is a dual-burr multistep hand grinder that will revolutionize your coffee experience.

MOMENTEM™ is a call to action for the manual grinding industry to realize the potential of coffee engineering innovation. We can achieve so much more than modest improvements in burr technology and share these incredible innovations with coffee lovers everywhere.

Introducing, Audio Stories!

We’ve taken coffee stories to another level. During a content writers’ meeting this year, the idea for a shorter, more summarized voice recording of coffee stories was born. Listeners can proceed to our website to read the full coffee story, even after listening to a 2- to 3-minute summarized version of the story. Our first audio story was released in June, recorded by Emma Niro, one of our content writers, about Fausto Russo.

Thanks to our incredible content writing team, we wrote an additional 51 storiesthis year, ranging from baristas to inventors to champions to YouTubers, artists, athletes, and even our own content writer, Nathierah Fredericks.

IMNAB’s Podcast lives!

Although we took a little hiatus, our podcasts are still alive and kicking. As was mentioned before, our audio library now includes audio stories, meaning our number of podcasts this year was reduced to 11 episodes compared to last year’s 19 episodes. This is still exciting news because it means that we will have a lot of podcast episodes to publish alongside other audio stories. Don’t you just love the flexibility in the coffee industry?

 

Campaigns

With the success of the Brewing Guide on Kickstarter in 2021, we continued receiving orders for more of them this year until our stock ran out. We are grateful to everyone who supported this project by giving their own recipes and sharing them with others to get the full-on coffee experience. We have new plans for the brewing guide in 2023. More on that later.

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2022, we took a look at the coffee stories of the strong and inspiring women featured by I’M NOT A BARISTA. The SHE IS A BARISTA campaign included the stories of Regina Begum, Shayli Moslli, Neda Mirzadeh, and many more. It highlighted their achievements, including their journeys to where they are now, but also the adversities they faced as women in the coffee industry.

After taking a very short new-years break, the #BrewingGame returned to complete half of our 48-day challenge, where recipes were shared daily on our Instagram page with the coffee community to help level up our coffee game. Prizes were also sponsored by Kafein Kultur & Orkun Üstel, August Roastery & Ken Braz, and 3rd Generation Roastery & Ronaldo Hurtado.

What says Easter more than the #LatteEgg Challenge? We asked latte artists, professionals, and non-professionals from all over the world to create their most beautiful latte art of an Easter egg to win a T-shirt with their design printed on it, courtesy of I’M NOT A BARISTA. If you participated, we’re sure you had a great time.

Coffee Wristbands and Donations

What a successful year it has been for the Coffee Wristbands Charity Program! For those of you unfamiliar with this program, this is the charity program’s goal: “every wristband purchased enacts a positive impact on the lives of those in the local coffee community.”

Some examples of our success are thanks to our friends Tanty Hartono and Rivo Trie Septiadiguna, who used their $250 from the Coffee Wristbands to obtain essential tools for cherry pickers and to purchase five kilograms of rice for each of the twenty people in Rivo’s area in Indonesia.

Another example is Pack Sompetch Katisomsakul, who raised $750 to buy new Geisha and Java plants for farming communities in Thailand.

Other Donations

We have also received and been given generous donations throughout 2022. For instance, we at I’M NOT A BARISTA were able to raise money for Mbonisi Bamala, a barista from South Africa. We provided aid with Aeropress after Mbonisi lost all of his coffee brewing apparatus when he relocated. Our friends at MoreFlavour even gifted him a hand grinder.

On the other hand, Nükhet Çubukçular—a Turkish designer, coffee roaster, and barista—donated some of her work profits to us as a “thank you” for a time that we donated money to her to help her get through a difficult time in her life.

 

MICE & WoC Milan

I’M NOT A BARISTA also had the pleasure of attending MICE and WoC Milan! At WoC Milan, we had our very own volunteer, Tigger, attend and interact with many people from all over while handing out coffee wristbands.

At MICE (the Melbourne International Coffee Expo), we were able to sell more wristbands, with the proceeds going to coffee people in need. Thanks to AREMDE, who lent us some space in their section in order to raise funds to aid a female coffee organization in Mexico via the new wristband design, which portrays female empowerment in the coffee industry. We would like to thank Olgun Kasikçi—art director and illustrator—for the beautiful design on the wristbands.

Thank you all for your love and support toward I’M NOT A BARISTA throughout this year. Now let’s ring in the new year and hope for many more, as something’s always brewing at I’M NOT A BARISTA, and we have exciting plans ahead for 2023.

 

Firstly, all of our Coffee Wristbands donations will be given to the Adelitas Cooperative. The Adiletas Cooperative is an organization from Tenango de Doria, Mexico. The organization is run by a group of female farmers who have been growing and producing coffee beans to provide for their families.

The community in Tenango de Doria relies heavily on the profits made from the coffee beans. So I’M NOT A BARISTA will be donating $500 USD, which will go towards helping the organization, as well as their families, with anything they may need.

Then, with regards to MOMENTEM, we have completed the final testing and pilot production, and we will be mass-producing MOMENTEM and completing the Indiegogo shipping. MOMENTEM will soon be delivered to your door, so keep an eye out in 2023!

 

Thirdly, remember our Brewing Guide Project from 2021? In 2023, we will launch a Japanese version of the Brewing Guide on Makuake. Makuake makes innovative creations from Japan available worldwide.

On the topic of international endeavors, I’M NOT A BARISTA also plans to join Xiaohongshu, also simply known as “RED.” RED is one of China’s newest and fastest-growing social media platforms. It differs from other social media platforms in that it focuses on products, shopping, and lifestyle.

Another intention we have for 2023 is to finish editing the draft for 101 Coffee Stories and have it ready for publishing within the new year. If you’re looking to add another coffee table book to your collection, you’ll soon be able to pre-order 101 Coffee Stories and help those in the coffee community.

Finally, in 2023, we hope to rack up the air miles and travel more with our volunteers from all over the world. We also aspire to sell more wristbands and help more people than ever before.

Since the year is coming to an end, we’d like to say a huge thank you to our interns, volunteers, followers, and supporters who have helped us during 2022. I’M NOT A BARISTA would truly not be where it is today without each and every one of you, so thank you!

Our goal for 2023 is the same as it’s always been—making a real impact in the coffee community on a worldwide scale. With each passing year, we hope to make an even bigger impact than the year before. So stay tuned; we have updates coming soon!

We, at I’M NOT A BARISTA, wish you all a Happy New Year!