LAUREL CARMICHAEL

I, Laurel, (they/them, Deutsch: keine) originally hail from the countryside of Aotearoa, New Zealand and have been working with coffee for nearly 10 years. At Vote, I am in charge of green-coffee buying and anything spreadsheet-related, but as a small team we share many of the daily tasks and try to learn from each others’ expertise.

Outside of work, I occasionally choose music at parties (aka DJ) and I love to run, swim and ride my bike. Time with my friends, partner and rambunctious cat is also very important to me.

I began working at what remains one of my favourite coffee shops in the world. Like many people, I came to coffee through a very unexpected path. I was beginning to write my Masters thesis in history, and I wanted to analyse the differences between the perceived vs actual impacts of Fair Trade coffee certifications. As part of the research, I thought it would be good to work in the industry. I was lucky to be hired at Coffee Supreme’s flagship cafe in Wellington. Ultimately, I changed my case study to a different topic entirely, but I continued working at Customs while studying, and the rest… is history.

Working in a small roastery is a chance to develop skills from sensory analysis to communication to problem-solving. Green buying and roasting require you to constantly interrogate and revise your own work: “could this roast be sweeter?” “Are we doing our best to be responsible and reliable partners to producers?” No roastery is perfect and I am cautious of those who make claims that they are truly sustainable. The industry is still fundamentally structured around (post)-colonialism, consumption and inequity. We have our core moral values, and then listen, self-reflect and adapt to honour those the best we can.

*Photo by: Adrien Denis-Pasquier https://www.instagram.com/mr_w_cat/