Annabel Townsend - It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Ten Years of Misadventures in Coffee

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

Ten Years of Misadventures in Coffee

A Memoir

Annabel Townsend

Pottersfield Press, Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada

Copyright 2018 Annabel Townsend

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used or stored in any form or by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or by any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any requests for photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems shall be directed in writing to the publisher or to Access Copyright, The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (www.AccessCopyright.ca). This also applies to classroom use.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Townsend, Annabel, 1983-, author

It seemed like a good idea at the time : ten years of misadventures in coffee : a memoir / Annabel Townsend.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-988286-50-1 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-988286-51-8 (EPUB)

1. Townsend, Annabel, 1983-. 2. Women coffee industry employees--Biography.

3. Coffee industry--Employees--Biography. I. Title.

HD9199.C32T68 2018 338.17373092 C2018-903409-2

C2018-903410-6

Cover design: Gail LeBlanc

eBook: tikaebooks.com

Pottersfield Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities. We also acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Province of Nova Scotia which has assisted us to develop and promote our creative industries for the benefit of all Nova Scotians.

Pottersfield Press

248 Leslie Road

East Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, Canada, B2Z 1T4

Website: www.PottersfieldPress.com

To order, phone 1-800-NIMBUS9 (1-800-646-2879) www.nimbus.ca

Printed in Canada

Pottersfield Press is committed to preserving the environment and the appropriate harvesting of trees and has printed this book on Forest Stewardship Council certified paper.

To Carl,
without whom little of this would have been possible, and none would have been worth it.

And to our Beastlings,
Miranda and Theia,
who have provided so many fun plot twists along the way.

Contents

Preface

1 Why Coffee?

2 Caff Nero: An Academic Perspective

3 Nicaragua

4 Costa Rica

5 Serving Coffee from the Backside of an Ape

6 A Proper Job?

7 Whats in a Name?

8 Life in the Caf

9 Plotting My Escape

10 Difficult Decisions

11 Canadian Coffee, or How Not To Do It

12 Haunted by Tofu

13 Major Backwards Career Move Fail

14 Impatience

15 Wheelie Good Coffee

16 Leaning on Customer Experience

17 Four Walls and a Roof

18 Finding Happiness at the Bottom of a Coffee Cup

19 How to Hire Friends

20 Losing Faith and Gaining a Saviour

21 The Big Mistakes

22 The End

Epilogue

Preface

Good things happen over good coffee. Or, in our case, pizza.

The first time I ever had a full conversation with Matt beyond Hi, Im Matt, I work on the seventh floor. Oh yeah, youre the new guy. Hello! was at an impromptu pizza party at our office in a huge insurance company in Regina, Saskatchewan. Although we never worked together directly, our two departments shared a boss. One Thursday in September July 2014, the boss decided to buy us all pizza, for reasons forgotten in the mists of time. He then introduced me to Matt as the person who has a Ph.D. in coffee.

That introduction set up the usual flurry of questions that I have come to expect over the years:

How do you get a Ph.D. in coffee?

Um, well, actually its in Geography, but I wrote my thesis about the coffee industry.

Cool! Like, about Fair Trade and stuff?

Sort of, yeah, but more about ideas of quality.

So what is good quality coffee then?

Er, well, thats still a personal preference thing. What do you like?

Oh, I just drink it black. How come youre working here then? Dont you want to open a coffee shop somewhere?

The answer to that last one was always the hardest, especially in front of my boss. It would have been obvious to most of my colleagues already that I had no interest in insurance, and I was only working there for the sole purpose of saving up for my next caf business, although I imagined that would be several years away yet. I had never expressed that directly, but neither did I make many attempts to hide it. Little did my boss know at the time that his friendly introductions would lead to me quitting my job within a year of that pizza party, to begin my adventure with Matt that would become Dr. Coffees Caf.

* * *

This is not a success story.

During our opening party for Dr. Coffees Caf, as I dared to finally relax a little and show off our new space to my friends, I suddenly appreciated for the first time what a bizarre set of circumstances had let up to this moment. Marianne, my loud-mouthed friend and fellow immigrant to Canada, elbowed me sharply, raising her voice over the sounds of other conversations and the whir of the brand-new coffee grinder.

Oi, Bel, whos the boy band in the corner?

I looked at her blankly until she pointed out who she was referring to. I had somehow forgotten that none of them had met my new business partner, Matt, before. He was sitting on the other side of the caf with a group of his friends, all impeccably dressed, professional twenty-somethings. Most of them had their phones out and Matts slim blonde girlfriend was snapping photographs with a camera bigger than her head. Matt posed confidently with a latte that I had taught him to brew just a few hours earlier. I looked back at Marianne and the others. Our coffee cups now had wine in them. There were smears of chocolate and cookie crumbs on the table, open packets of wet-wipes in front of us, two strollers parked nearby, and several oversized diaper bags peeked out from under our feet. Our rowdy collection of offspring were already climbing on the sofas behind us. Yet, despite our obvious differences, here we were: opening night.

I realize I am far removed from those glamorous people to watch magazine articles about young entre-preneurs, ambitious women, or hip millennials embracing the artisan or tech revolution. I have read dozens of entrepreneurial books about how anyone can do it, seen thousands of inspirational memes about believing in myself, acting on my dreams, and reaching for the stars. And I did and still do. I just havent really got anywhere yet.

Business biographies are written about successful companies and by inspirational leaders. But what happens when you take the leap, seize the day, and then discover it really isnt as easy as all that? So few of those books, and certainly none of those memes, ever tell you about things going wrong. About the disasters, the mistakes, and the impossible decisions youre faced with; the arseholes you have to deal with, the stupid risks you have to take or how hard you have to make yourself work for so little reward.

This is not a success story. But it is certainly an adventure.

Why Coffee?

I have a headache. I moan to Carl, my husband, about this, but he is not impressed. I dont believe such a thing exists, he says. This is because I have a caffeine headache, or rather, a lack-of-caffeine headache. I didnt sleep particularly well last night, and this morning I had to get up unhealthily early for me, rush round trying to pack lunch boxes and find lost shoes and stop the baby hurtling down the stairs nose-first, and then leg it all the way across town wearing high heels in an effort to look presentable and professional for a business breakfast meeting. I was still late, and I did not get time to make coffee. My body cannot cope with this.