💕 Help My Friend Umeko 💕

And support the future of their company, Umeshiso!

Hi friends. We still have one more week (and one more article from the archives coming) of hiatus, but my friend Umeko just launched a GoFundMe, and they need your help.

I wouldn’t do a direct plea like this for most people, but I’m a different, better, more compassionate person because of Umeko. Umeko runs a small coffee gear company called Umeshiso where they sell rainbow cupping spoons. What’s a rainbow cupping spoon, you ask?

Umeko started making rainbow cupping spoons as a freebie for friends and as a reminder of belonging. As they write on their GoFundMe, “Umeshiso spoons are an intentional visual reminder that everyone is welcome to the table. I’d bring these spoons to coffee tastings to remind myself that I belonged, and it turned out that others resonated with the intention and drive behind the spoons.”

You should really read the rest of Umeko’s story on GoFundMe because they’re just an absolutely incredible person.

Now, after expanding beyond spoons to offer tons of amazing coffee gear, Umeko is asking for help to fund the launch of rainbow forks and knives

I end up talking about a lot of bad things and bummer topics in this newsletter, but Umeko reminds me that we have the power to change things, even in small ways. Umeko inspires me to think about this newsletter differently, to always give things away and find ways to extend kindness. The inspiration for keeping this newsletter as free for folks as possible was inspired by their sliding scale—they sell everything on their website at different tiers to make things accessible for all.

I’ve interviewed Umeko a handful of times: twice on the podcast, in a two-part series when I was the online editor at Barista Magazine, and a slew of times for quotes and one-off stories (most recently I interviewed them for my article in Taste about tasting notes) and every time, I learn something new.

If you believe in people, if you believe in small businesses that are attempting to grow and move forward with transparency and kindness at their core, please consider supporting this new phase for Umeko and Umeshiso.

As promised, we’ll have one more story from the archives coming Thursday, and a brand-new article next week. It will be about quiet quitting. Yes, this discourse did make my blood boil. More soon.