It’s that time of the year again, a time where we pause and reflect on 2021 for I’M NOT A BARISTA by looking at all of our achievements over the course of the year.

In 2021, we not only launched a successful Kickstarter project with our Brewing Guide Card Deck, but we also reached out to more baristas and provided them with financial assistance. Furthermore, we reached out to more people through our social media campaigns #brewinggame and #tipabarista.

But we never rest. From creating our very own Amazon US store to launching our podcast, we have been working towards creating a more engaging and connected coffee community by shining a light on the stories of incredible coffee people. So let’s have a look at what happened in 2021.

The Brewing Guide Card Deck Project

The Brewing Guide is a compilation of tested recipes for all of us to level up our coffee experience. These recipes are created by coffee champions, experts, and really good home brewers from around the world. After all, everyone deserves good coffee. It represents our mission to unite coffee lovers around the world, help baristas show their incredible skills and support the great work they do.

What started as a simple idea to share some tips for making amazing coffee at home has grown into something much greater. We’re now here to represent the people behind every single cup of coffee and the connections we make along the way. This isn’t just a recipe book of sorts, but the opportunity to connect with people around the world who have insights of their own into brewing that can help you improve your own lifestyle.

Our Brewing Guide Card Deck had an excellent first day on Kickstarter. We met our goal within 24 hours thanks to all the supporters who helped us raise more than $8,000. The first round of funding allowed us to sell about 1,000 decks.

From the very beginning, our aim was to donate the profits to baristas in need. This is a constant goal that never changes, and everything we do revolves around it. Baristas are part of our daily routine. We see them at our favorite coffee shop or bakery, and they are always there with a smile on their faces.

It’s easy to forget that not all baristas have an easy time running their operations. They are often underpaid, experience unnecessary stress, and are often stretched too thin to provide for themselves or their families. It’s important to remember the people behind the coffee drinks we love so much.

After the immediate success of our Kickstarter project, we knew we would be able to give back to them and we were truly so humbled to see how many people backed our Brewing Guide Card Deck Project. After Kickstarter, our campaign to Indiegogo lasted until December 1st 2021. We had 600 backers in total and sold about 1,000 decks. Thank you!

Campaigns

#tipabarista

In a natural continuation of the success of the Brewing Guide Card Deck Project, we launched the #tipabarista campaign. The #tipabarista campaign is a global project with an international reach. We created this campaign in order to raise awareness about the importance of baristas and show our appreciation for their hard work.

Through this campaign, it is our aim to help baristas who are struggling financially. We do this by donating $100 each week to baristas who could benefit from the financial help that we gathered through fundraising. We also give the opportunity to coffee lovers to donate any amount they wish as this campaign is an excellent opportunity for people to demonstrate their gratitude towards the baristas at their favorite coffee shops.

#brewinggame

In 2020, we created #BrewAtHome, a global social campaign aimed to bring us together and to bring back value to those in our community that needed help. Inspired by our past campaign and by the success of our Brewing Guide Card Deck Project, we created the Brewing Game in 2021.

The Brewing Game is a 48-Day Brewing Guide Challenge, which represents a digital version of The Brewing Guide. The game started in early November and continued all the way until December 11th. During this time, our team posted a digital recipe and an average of 30 people from all over the world joined the game by following the daily recipe. This campaign was dedicated to strengthening the sense of community among people by exploring coffee together. It also aimed to give baristas an opportunity to share their knowledge and passion for coffee with the rest of the community.

The first part of the #brewinggame was a big success and we have really enjoyed watching all of you taking part. The second part of the game will continue in 2022 and we are already super excited about it!

Other Projects

Together with our team of interns and volunteers, we have also been working on other projects:

• We launched our own podcast in March of this year, with 19 episodes so far. We’ve interviewed different coffee people from around the world, touching on topics that range from their background in coffee to their experience within the industry to this day.
• We started our very own Amazon US store to give shoppers the opportunity to buy many of our bestselling products and help our cause.
• We helped raise awareness for barista Geison Paschoal’s bike accident and provide financial support for his recovery by making a $100 donation to his family.
• We helped Betty Wee from Singapore build his website and new branded roaster http://ohbeautifulstain.com/
• We helped Robert Mckeon Aloe with this coffee book project on Kickstarter,
• This year also saw the end of our 2021 internship, but not the end of this amazing experience. We worked with 32 international students, coming from Italy, Spain, the US, Russia, the UK, Greece, Scotland and more. Together, we worked on the brewing guide project and shared many inspiring coffee stories.
  
  

  I’M NOT A BARISTA interns

• We have plans to launch our next internship round soon because working with these students has truly been such a positive experience.
• Soon, we will also be launching our MOMENTEM grinder project. Our goal is to build the world’s first real two-burr grinder, fuel the manual grinding industry, and make big strides towards updating ergonomics in manual grinding for everyone.
• We also wish to bring something new to the coffee world that is not only sustainable from a production standpoint, but also from a design and functionality standpoint as well.
• A Look Ahead at 2022

As you can already tell, we never stop. A creative and fun 2022 lies ahead and we have already made some plans:

• 

  MOMENTEM grinder

  We will be launching the MOMENTEM grinder campaign on Indiegogo in Spring 2022.

• We’ll reopen our internship program again in Spring 2022.
• We aim to provide some paid content writer positions to produce high-quality articles for our community.
• We will continue the second part of the #brewinggame.
• We will keep striving to remain the #1 platform for all coffee lovers and baristas through our projects and campaigns.
• The year is now coming to an end and we would like to give a BIG THANK YOU to the interns, volunteers, businesses, followers, and supporters who helped us over the course of 2021. You have made this year a fantastic success.

We promise that we will continue to be committed to keeping the global coffee community engaged and connected. Keep your eyes on our website and social media for more exciting updates coming soon!

We wish you all a Happy New Year!